Travel with a Cocktail

Hope these tips – in no particular order – help you have the most enjoyable wine tasting trip ever!

1) Always schedule a Walmart or Target drive up

I always place an online pick up order the morning of our trip with a case of water, road snacks like pretzels, breakfast bars, and more. That way we don’t have to pack snacks and we can ensure we stay fed and hydrated. Also, I’ve gotten to the airport and realized that I’ve forgotten to pack something crucial and just added it to my order. Easy!

2) You can split tastings

We always forget this initially. Most wineries will have you pay for a tasting of 5-6 of their wines but the problem is, if you’re fitting 3-4 wineries into a day that is a ton of wine – to the point that you can’t even enjoy it anymore! What they don’t advertise is that you can totally split a tasting. They won’t always pour 2 separate glasses so make sure its with someone you don’t mind drinking after but you’ll get a few sips each, save money, and have less of a hangover tomorrow.

3) Pack a soft sided cooler

Back on the water front – I’ve had great success packing a collapsable soft sided cooler, then filling it with hotel ice and water bottles from our Walmart trip. This has saved us a ton of money and allowed us to rehydrate while we’re driving around in the car. On our trip to Paso Robles, we drank an entire case of water in 4 days!
The soft sided cooler also allows you to bring car snacks like cheese sticks and apple slices without having to worry about them getting to hot in the car.

4) Start furthest away from hotel

Especially in popular wine destinations like Napa and Paso, you want to plan the logistics of each day to start the furthest away from your hotel. Refer to my post here about using Google Maps to plan your next trip. Many people either don’t plan their stops and just pull over at the first winery they see or they just start their day closer and work their way out.
You want to do the opposite. This will give you more time at wineries because you’re waiting in the lot when the first opens and utilizing every minute of business hours to visit and it is much safer because if you feel like you’ve had to many, you can easily uber back to the hotel.
Also – especially in Napa country – there are some areas without service and you really want to navigate those stone cold sober.

5) Bring a wine suitcase

We received this wine suitcase as a gift and have never taken a trip without it since! On our All Inclusive trips, we bring it filled with wine. When headed to wine country, we fly out with it empty and fill it with the one-off bottles we like from wineries that we don’t like enough to ship a case home. We love not having the pressure to buy more than what we love and we’re saving on shipping costs.

Bonus Tip – hired drivers

We chose one day when the wineries we wanted to visit were way up north compared to our hotel and on windy roads and booked a driver. The one we booked used the rental car we were already paying for, which made this a lot more economical vs hiring a car service. Many of these companies will plan your itinerary for you (but of course I’m too type-A for that).
I loved that our driver kept us on schedule and he brought a cooler of waters too!
While its not a necessary expense – if its really far away, you’re worried about getting lost, or you just want to enjoy the day without thinking about it, this is a great option.