Great Western Road Trip: Travel Tips for Wine Country, California

California's Napa and Sonoma Valleys are widely celebrated as the crown of "New World" wineries. But navigating through the hundreds of wineries available can really take some work. Here are tips for getting the most out of Wine Country, California.

The first thing you need to know is that there is absolutely no way in the world to visit every winery in California's Wine Country. There's just too many. In the roughly 40-mile stretch of California's scenic Napa and Sonoma Valleys, there are literally hundreds, maybe even thousands, of vineyards and wineries. Most of them are easily accessed from several main roads, some are not. It is a stunningly beautiful area with a very pleasant and mild climate.

Another thing you have to realize is that wine-tasting (if done haphazardly and without a plan of action) can cost you a lot of money very quickly. I think the majority of business that takes place in Wine Country, California is geared towards the very wealthy locals or the wine connoisseurs who are willing to spend a fortune. There are very few completely free wine-tastings in Napa or Sonoma Valley, but with the right tips, you can have more than your share without spending much money at all.

The last thing to know before embarking on your tour of California's Wine Country is that you don't actually need to know much about wine. It's true that many of the other wine country tourists you encounter will know a lot about wine, but with one or two days in Wine Country, you'll learn more than enough to really savor your glass and impress your friends and family back home.

So the first thing to do is pick up a few wine country guides. You can check in the visitor centers in the cities of Napa or Sonoma and find maps with some, but not all, of the available wineries marked on them. These guides/maps will usually only highlight the wineries which advertise through them, but many of these same wineries are often some of the more popular and least expensive ones.