Napa Valley Wineries Tour Including Picnic Lunch

It’s not often that I write reviews, and I tend to only write them if our experiences were either very good or terrible. However, I felt compelled to write this particular review as we had an excellent experience with Napa Valley Wine Tour during our tour on November 13, and specifically, our tour guide Abe. We had a wonderful day touring Napa from start to finish. We greatly appreciated the direct pickup and drop-off to an and from our hotel, and felt that the day provided an ideal combination of being presented vineyard history, aesthetic atmosphere, and time for mingling with family and friends. We felt that the choice of vineyards was a fine selection of different ambiances from slightly more upscale to scenic and earthy. The convertible tour bus itself was comfortable and spacious with plenty of room to spread out and chargers for our phones. One of our favorite parts of the trip was riding through the beautiful vineyards of Napa with the top down on a warm, sunny day. I also saw Abe go out of his way to meet the needs of several other passengers with kindness and grace. Three of our fellow passengers were rebooked at the very last minute to Napa Valley Wine Tour from a different tour company that was not Viator. Consequently, there was a miscommunication from the other company about their needs for a vegetarian lunch. Napa Valley Wine Tour was unaware that they needed vegetarian lunches (specifically, tuna sandwiches) and had only provided enough turkey sandwiches for the number of passengers on the tour. The aforementioned passengers were extremely upset about the miscommunication, claiming that they had spoken to the (different) tour company several times in the past. Abe went out of his way during our tour to travel to a different restaurant altogether, obtain salads as vegetarian lunches for these passengers, and paid for them with his own money in order to meet their needs. When he returned and presented these passengers the salads, they complained that the salads were soggy and that they had actually wanted tuna sandwiches (again, this was not communicated in the original request, and this was no fault of Abe’s - they had no point specified previously that they wanted tuna sandwiches for lunch). During the third winery, these same passengers tried several of the wines that the third winery had to offer. This counted as a tasting, and the winery asked them to pay for the wines. The passengers refused, and again Abe ended up having to pay their wine tasting fees out of his own pocket. Finally, at the end of the tour, these very same passengers refused to leave a tip. In my opinion, none of the events that occurred during our tour had anything to do with Abe’s service or hospitality. He was gracious, kind, and considerate of his guests throughout the entire tour, routinely checking in with all the guests to make sure that our needs were met and we were enjoying ourselves, as well as making light conversation to keep us entertained. We had a wonderful experience and loved our family reunion in Napa Valley and our time with Abe, but I wanted to speak up on his behalf as another guest and someone who observed what was happening during our tour, and give my own version of the day’s events, also as an example of what a considerate and stand-up guy Abe is. I highly suggest this tour company and would recommend people who are interested in booking a tour with them to read reviews with a grain of salt, as most guests, I expect, like myself, are not interested in writing reviews unless they are extremely pleased or displeased with a service. What the spectrum of reviews associated with a service often fail to capture are those guests who are satisfied with the service but are not emotional/compelled enough by their experience to leave a review. I suggest to you (if you make to the end of this) to make your own value judgement and THOROUGHLY READ THE DESCRIPTION OF THE SERVICE AND COMMUNICATE YOUR NEEDS CLEARLY. I personally would highly recommend this wonderful, professional company and in particular, the tour guide Abe, who truly cares about the needs and happiness of his guests, for a fantastic day in Napa Valley.

Great combination of good wine, great views, and beautiful wineries. The bus roof retracted which was great since it was a beautiful day and it allowed us an opportunity to take our masks off. Our tour guide was nice not super interactive or funny but very professional and easy going. We had a Panera lunch and had about an hour at each winery. Would definitely do it again.

Great wineries, the funniest tour guide, and it lasted the perfect amount of time! We had a blast, would definitely go again.

This was listed as a "Napa Valley" wine tour. However, of the 3 places we went to, two of which were in Sonoma, down obscure dirt roads with wafts of manure coming from nearby pastures. The wineries were in obscure locations, with minimal attention to outdoor decor (many Napa wineries are stunning in their views, fountains, art, flowers, etc.). The wines were adequate at best, and we requested vegetarian lunches, but got none. The day before, we had to pay an extra $50 PER PERSON on top of the price, to "ensure the staff is adequate to serve us our tastings". This was unexpected, and didn't appear to be optional either. We would've had a much better time simply driving around in an Uber to the good Napa wineries. The driver was fun, but that's about it.

The Madonna vineyard was the only informative wine tour. Seems like all we did was have lunch at the second vineyard. Not much history was shared about it. The third, Robledo seemed very unprepared. Cold outside, and they did not have heaters on till after we got there. There was only a 2 minute history shared about the owners. Maybe it could have all been due to the rain, but seems they could all have been better prepared for the weather change, and have done an alternative to their normal routine

The trip started with our amazing driverAbe. He made our day one of the most fun experiences we’ve had. Madonna winery was amazing and so happy it was our first stop! The wine was amazing and we ended up joining their wine club. The staff at Madonna winery, Kiev Leung winery and Robles winery were all so welcoming and inviting and the wines were great! We met some amazing people along the way and had a blast! Thank you Abe for helping us all have such a fun experience!!! Will definitely recommend this tour!!

Abe was a wonderful driver! Had lots of fun and was very engaging! Visited 3 different wineries and had a great time. Would definitely go again!

We had an great time with frinds visiting three Napa Valley Wineries. Our driver, Abe, was really fun guide with great sense of humor. Lunch was good, winery choice was good too!

We were given an arrival window for pick up of 9:30-10:30. We received a call at 10:45 from the bus driver saying he would be there in 5 minutes. He finally showed up at 11:00. Since we left an hour late, he told is to rush at the first winery. We were excited to have our picnic lunch at the second winery and we’re very surprised when we were all handed a box from Panera consisting of a turkey sandwich, chips & a cookie. It wasn’t terrible but there were no choices. I expected a menu & an actual lunch. Overall, I felt that this tour was extremely overpriced for what we were provided.... especially since we had to pay separately for the tastings & the tour was an hour less than we had expected due to the driver being late.

I had an absolute blast! From the locations that included Asian-owned and Mexican-owned wineries, to the awesome catered lunch, it really couldn’t have gone better. Our tour guide was amazing too!