Russian River Weekend Wine Tasting & Gourmet Lunch
San Francisco, USA
Russian River Weekend Wine Tasting & Gourmet Lunch
Recommended by 94% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
San Francisco, USA
- 8 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
Overview
What's Included
Meeting and Pickup
Itinerary
Additional Info
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Featured review
kellywarren2486
Our driver, Brian, was excellent! He was funny, friendly and extremely knowledgeable about a variety of subjects. The only improvement I would make would be more time spent in Muir Woods. The park was very beautiful and I wanted to spend more time there. Other than that, I would highly recommend this tour! Well worth the money!
Reviews
4.7
based on 110 reviews
Amilaka S, Apr 2018
Great day! The woods are amazing and Sonoma is not to be missed. So nice to have a driver so you can sit back and just enjoy!
sheena.ellis, Mar 2018
Great tour with very knowledgeable guide Ben. Highly recommend,
Deborah V, Mar 2018
This was an excellent tour and well worth the money. Even though The started out rainy we were able to walk through the Muir Woods and see the beautiful trees. By the time we left the the sun broke iand it was a great ride to Sonoma. We fit in three Different style wineries in and had plenty of time to stroll through The town of Sonoma and have lunch. Brian our tour guide was excellent!! Very knowledgeable, friendly and could not do enough for us. He really caters to the needs of his guests!!
Denise H, Mar 2018
We enjoyed the entire trip with Brian, our energetic and thoughtful guide and able driver. He made the day run on time, was always thinking of ways to enrich our understanding of history, geography, economy, traffic, weather, plant and animal life, wine making, and took special efforts to give us vantage points we otherwise would miss. He really was exquisite. The trip into Muir Woods was sublime and peaceful, other-worldly. A must-see! We were given about 75 minutes to walk the wood-planked trails, and had just enough time to get to the highlights in the redwood forest. Wear sensible shoes! Then, off to wine country where we enjoyed private tastings with three fun experts at Cline, Homewood and Jacuzzi wineries. I bought specially-priced cased wine which will ship for free to my home. Amazing selections and prices. We also enjoyed time at each vineyard to enjoy the local ambience, had an hour and twenty minutes for lunch on our own with special tips from Brian which were superb. A free bonus wine tasting, chocolate tasting, cheese tasting, and ice cream tasting also happened during the lunch recess, thanks to Brian. Sonoma was pastoral, peaceful and sunny. We enjoyed a sunny day once we left the fog of morning in San Francisco. Brian tried with some driving heroics to get us a photo op of the Golden Gate above the fog line, but mother nature had the last say. He is an expert driver, brought us to some steep streets to view SF landmarks and treasures, and was a superb local ambassador, as well as a fun designated driver for our group of 12. A classy day all around, and a highlight of my time in SF.
Eric F, Mar 2018
Really great guide. He was so focused on our comfort. Loved all the wineries. Perfect day.
b.whittaker9, Feb 2018
Amazing tour! Our guide was awesome and informative.
rach, Feb 2018
My only complaint is that there was not enough time at Muir woods! Still a great experience, but I just wish there was more time so you could do a good full lap around the park. The wine tastings were all good. You essentially get introduced to 3 different levels of wine making/experiences. One is more of a start up company, another is your average level wine maker, and another is a big time producer. All the wine was good and the hosts/owners were knowledgeable and friendly with any questions.
Chrysanne E, Jan 2018
Pros:
Brian the tour guide was amazing, so knowledgable and gave us a great tour including around San Fran.
Comfortable bus ride
Small group
Good wine, great views
Convenient pick up and drop off - could get dropped off at someone else's stop if you wanted to explore a different area of SF
Cons:
Muir Woods - although the woods were interesting I don't think I would sign up to go to them if I could re-do this, skip this tour and do one just of Wine Country instead.
Muir Woods were much colder - 10-15 degrees - and it was a pretty small area to walk through.
Slow start to the day, hadn't done much by 1. Just one winery and the muir woods. Then we went for a cheese tasting that was just the dairy section of a grocery store. From there we were on our own for lunch.
We didn't go that far, 2 of the wineries were owned by the same company and were across the street from each other, would like to see more variety.
kellywarren2486, Jan 2018
Our driver, Brian, was excellent! He was funny, friendly and extremely knowledgeable about a variety of subjects. The only improvement I would make would be more time spent in Muir Woods. The park was very beautiful and I wanted to spend more time there. Other than that, I would highly recommend this tour! Well worth the money!
Hillary F, Jan 2018
Tour guide was energetic, highly knowledgeable regarding historical facts about the area, and went above and beyond to make sure we had a pleasant time. Muir woods was beautiful, but I could have stayed there for hours. The wine tasting was wonderful. We ended up buying tons of cheese, pear vinegar, and blood orange olive oil.
Catherine D, Jan 2018
I highly recommend this tour !! Amazing driver, dynamic, funny, always learning to us facts about every area we crossed.
Muir woods : love it ! maybe 30 min more would have been better.
Wineries we visited we amazing, beautiful and all different from each other. Great wine of course.
Sonoma was also great to visit, but 2 hours can be a lot, so 1h30 should be enough, adding the 30 min. to Muir Woods
Ondreya W, Dec 2017
Loved the Muir woods tour, but wouldn't do a wine tour in Sonoma again. There are three wine tours.The wine country tours gave very little information about the grapes of the region or the process of wine. If you like sweet wine, you won't like most of the wines as they are semi sweet or dry. The countryside of the region is beautiful and 2 of the vineyards are really nicely landscaped. We had 45 minutes to obtain lunch, and most of the stores are slow, and other tour buses are arriving all the time, so it gets very crowded. Order food as quickly as possible.
kjg681, Dec 2017
This was an excellent tour and I would highly recommend it to visitors the the area. In addition to being super friendly, our tour guide, Paul, was amazingly well-informed about local history, wildlife, plant life and the wine making process in general. A very informative trip. You start the day with almost two hours at Muir Woods, which is more than enough time. Then you visit a winery, the city of Sonoma and two more wineries. All were excellent stops and there was plenty of great wine to be had. A definite highlight of our trip to San Francisco.
Nancy P, Dec 2017
This was such a great tour - just what we were hoping for! Our tour guide Brian was friendly, knowledgeable, responsible, and excited for us. Muir Woods is beautiful - and the three wineries were the perfect number for one day. The van was comfortable and clean - highly recommend!
David G, Nov 2017
We enjoyed our tour enormously. We left on time, had a comfortable coach, and our guide was knowledgeable and a great presenter. We were very pleased with the entire day.
Ruth A F, Oct 2017
The trip to Muir Woods was great, but we did not get to wine country because of the terrible fires there.
Rosemary D, Oct 2017
Trip was great. Tour guide was very professional and knowledgeable, and made us feel very welcome. Muir Woods was beautiful, very peaceful first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, the wine tour portion of tour was canceled due to the wild fires in Sonoma and Napa valley. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and firemen affected by the fires. I hope the wine region will survive.
Abhishek, Sep 2017
This was a really amazing tour and we visited the Muir woods and three wineries in Sonomo County. The tour was a very small group of 14 people and we first went to Muir woods. The place was very calm, nice and one where you can connect with nature. There were multiple trails and it took us 1 hr to complete the mid sized one. The onsite gift shop is also good and had a nice collection. From there we went to wine tasting in Sonoma County and enjoyed the experience. We did get a chance to view the vineyards and taste the wonderful wine. We ended up taking couple of bottles and really enjoying them. The bus driver was very nice and knowledgeable. He was aware of all the facts and managed to answer most of our queries.
beryl h, Sep 2017
You get to see a lot in a few hours...Muir woods was spectacular and the wine tastings were fun. The driver, Richard, added a lot of information along the way. The unfortunate part is that you don't get to pick your bus mates...in my group everyone kept to themselves until after several tastings then the conversations started and the tour become more interesting.
Paula N, Sep 2017
We enjoyed our day. It worked out well to arrive at Muir Woods early and void the crowds. We were able to enjoy the serenity of the park. We had a good mix of wineries, one larger, one independent and one medium sized. The day was well organized and our driver/guide was very informative. We learned a lot along the way and he offered excellent suggestions at each stop.
Jane M, Sep 2017
Picked up from hotel around 8am for full day tour. Modern clean vehicle which accommodated 15 tourists. Driver gave a commentary during the day. Muir Woods stop was for approx an hour and driver kept everyone to time which meant we weren't waiting around afterwards. It was enjoyable but we've been to redwood forests before so nothing we hadn't seen previously. Then on to first vineyard for tasting and a wander around the stunning grounds. Stopped in Sonoma for lunch before visiting the last 2 vineyards. All vineyards were lovely locations and a separate tasting area had been set aside at each for the group so we avoided the crowds.
It was the highlight of our San Francisco trip.
Karla W, Sep 2017
Wonderful tour! Our guide, Brad was amazing...very informative, funny, personable and extremely accommodating. Highly recommended!
Donna L, Sep 2017
This trip was a great experience. our guide was entertaining and full of information. He went out of his way to make sure that everyone in the group was having a good time. Meir woods is well worth the visit. The three wineries we visited ranged from very small to moderate sized, with a variety of wine styles. There was even some olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting at one. This was our first wine tour and it definitely made us want to go again.
natalia.rodrife, Sep 2017
This tour was amazing! Our guide was excellent, he was very knowledgeable and amusing. We stopped to see the Golden Gate Bridge and walk through Muir Woods, which was really wonderful. After that, we visited three different wineries and had the opportunity to try a lot of different wines. We really enjoyed the Cline and the Jaccuzzi wineries. In the middle of the day we stopped at Sonoma plaza for lunch, which was an interesting place. This tour was a very good experience and I would highly recommend it.
Jeanette Lynn M, Sep 2017
Great tour guide....lovely man, great interest in showing us everything, Muir Woods is a beautiful spot. The wine tour was great with lovely people talking to us and we enjoyed tasting the wines.
Grazyna L, Aug 2017
The trip never happened for me because there was a mistake and I wasn't picked up from the hotel
Véronique T, Aug 2017
Very nice tour, which enables to combine 2 different experiences. It was a bit frustrating not to be able to spend more time in Muir Woods. Our guide was really nice and the wineries in Sonoma were great.
John K, Aug 2017
The Muir Woods were well worth seeing! The three wineries we were taken to probably are the closest ones available rather than the best. I appreciated the stop over at the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back to town for a picture. The driver was informative and knowledgeable with the city, however I felt a little rushed at all the stops. None-the-less, I would recommend this trip.
Peter R, Aug 2017
This was one of the best guided tours we have experienced for a good while. Pick up at hotel was on time. The bus was very comfortable and the guide / driver was first class being both knowledgeable and amusing. Muir woods was my first experience of seeing such huge trees and I was not disappointed. Walk through and you experience a great feeling of tranquility. We usually walk as opposed to amble and had plenty of time to take photographs and do the complete round trip following the long trail to bridge 4 and returning by the high path. We visited three wineries. The first and second were relatively small and informal. The third one was a bit larger with some nice grounds to walk round plus a largish gift shop. Sonoma was for us an interesting place reminding us of the small country towns in Australia. We stopped in one of the coffee shops located by the square and fell into a conversation with one of the locals who told us of a few places to look at including the hotel and the 'cheese factory'. This proved to have interesting memorabilia inside whilst recognising the contribution of tourists to the local economy was a little sad about the gentrification which had taken place. But his advice added to our enjoyment as we walked around the town which would not have been possible if we had spent time over a more substantial lunch.
On the way back, the driver took us up to look over the Golden Gate bridge. All in all, we both felt the tour was excellent and good value.
thomas g, Aug 2017
Overall excellent tour. Driver/guide was very good. Too short a time at Muir woods. Also, needed more time in Sonoma for lunch. Should cut out one winery tour. Tasting 16 wines was too much. Jacuzzi winery is a hobby for rich people. They pushed their lesser wines on the suckers. Cline person seemed bored with her job. Scenery was wonderful as was the company in the van.
Despite my criticisms, I recommend going on this tour. They pack in a lot in one fast-paced day.
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