Since we were celebrating an upcoming anniversary during our trip to California, I decided to splurge on a stay at the Wine Country Inn (http://www.winecountryinn.com/) in St. Helena. I chose the inn because of what had I read about its comfort, ambience, customer service, and great location. It turned out the reputation was very well deserved.
In addition to the customer-focus of the people who worked there, the Inn provided the following:
- An extensive complimentary breakfast buffet. One can eat breakfast on the outdoor patio, in the indoor dining room, or take it to one’s room.
- Complimentary afternoon wine and appetizers
- A complimentary shuttle to local restaurants (7 days per week in season, and weekends only off season)
- Complimentary concierge service with lots of good advice about local sights and dining.
- Complimentary wi-fi service. This service never worked for us because the wi-fi signal was never strong enough to use in our room. I had to take my laptop to the main building to use the wi-fi. I was told that the service would soon be upgraded.
The rooms do not have televisions in order “to encourage romantic behavior.”
The inn has rooms in two separate buildings. It also has five separate luxury cottages.
The grounds were beautifully landscaped with lawns, flowers, and trees. The entrance was tastefully decorated with heaps of pumpkins and gourds in fall colors.
Walking Path on the Grounds
The Wine Country Inn has been owned and operated by the same family since it opend 36 years ago.
We received a very pleasant surprise at check-in. When I had made our reservations a month and a half earlier, I had reserved room 11, which had a queen-size bed and a balcony with view of the vineyards. However, when we checked in, they said they would give us a free upgrade as an anniversary present if we were interested. They knew it was our anniversary because when I had made the reservation, they had asked if we were celebrating any special event.
The upgrade they offered was room 20, which was their most luxurious room, aside from their cottages. It had a king-size antique bed, fireplace, great vineyard views, and was very large and nicely furnished. It had a huge bathroom with heated tile floors, heated mirrors that don’t fog up, a huge jetted tub for two, walk-in shower for two, etc. Its normal cost was $120 more per night than room 11.
Two-Person Tub with a Vineyard View
A woman who worked at the front dest took us to the room to see if we wanted it. The room was wonderful and we accepted the offer.
I imagine the reason room 20 was available was that our stay was on Sunday and Monday nights, probably very slow nights.
I had originally tried to make the reservations for Friday night through Wednesday night. However, Saturday night was unavailable, so we spent Friday and Saturday night in Napa. I discovered that it's important to make reservations long in advance for weekends in October. I checked out several interesting places in St. Helena and Napa. Not one had a Saturday night vacancy.
The inn offers discounts for stays of 3 nights or longer. When I originally made the reservation, I had made it for 3 nights. However, I subsequently discovered that I had made a mistake because our flight reservation involved a red-eye return flight on the third night. Even though I cancelled the reservation for the third night, they still gave us a discount for the second night. The cost for the first night was $450.30 including tax. The cost for the second night was $382.75, including tax.
When we settled into our room, we were not only delighted with the room, but with the splendid views of vineyards and hills.
View from Our Room
Zoom Lens View from Our Room
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