Wine Country Wedding Vacation Spending
Last month, we spent a long weekend in Sonoma and Napa wine country to attend a friend’s wedding. It was such a fun and relaxing weekend, and the landscape was stunning. The wedding itself was GORGEOUS and a total blast! We also have enough wine to last us ages!
Lodging: $180 for two nights
We used Airbnb for our first time and had a wonderful experience. I’m SO glad we didn’t pay $500 for lodging at the wedding hotel. There was very little time spent by anyone at the lodging, the rooms weren’t exceptionally nice, and it was no problem getting to/from the wedding and after party.
Our Airbnb house was SO cute. We had a nice room, a tiny balcony, and I even went for a short run in the nearby state park. It was such a lovely crisp morning, something we haven’t felt in SoCal in a long time!
Wine Tastings: $50
If you think these should be free, I totally agree! However, we were with friends who picked places that had fees. They also didn’t waive them if you bought wine. We went with the flow and paid for two $15 tastings the first day, then split a $20 tasting the second day. They were all free the 3rd day when we were on our own. The first place had a free tasting because we had a Visa Signature card. This is one of the first time I’ve benefited from that, save for electronics warranties and car rental insurance.
Wine: $328
So, woah! We intentionally spent the money we “saved” by not staying in the hotel on wine. Priorities!!! We may have went overboard… but this was for 7 bottles of really nice red wine, which will last us. We’ll be saving this for quite some time and haven’t drank any yet.
Flights: Free, via miles
We did lose the miles, which would have an equivalent value of approximately $240.
Car Rental: $60
We used Hotwire to get a cheap rate on a Friday – Monday rental.
Car Parking: $36
I parked in a lot near the airport for convenience. I went into work directly from the airport Monday morning.
Food/Drinks at restaurants for two: $225
We ate at Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen ($32), The Girl and the Fig ($66), and Farmstead ($62). We also stopped at a wine bar in Sonoma ($40) and split a bottle 3. Of these, Farmstead was the most outstanding, partly due to the choice of food. Back in the SF area, we had pizza and salad ($25) on Sunday night.
Sounds like a lot of fun! We’ve been wanting to go to the wineries around here, but haven’t done so yet.
That sounds like an amazing setting for a wedding!!! I love your idea to spend the hotel money you saved on wine
I loved Napa Valley when i was there. I was, I was a little annoyed they charged for wine tastings but it is a gorgeous area!
Fun! I’ve always wanted to do a winery tour.
We tried Sonoma for the first time a few months ago but … as usual, I didn’t write down any names so I’ve completely forgotten the places we stopped at. (We didn’t pick them.) They were good, though, and free! Let me know if you’re planning to come back any time and I’ll ask around for some names though.
Ah! Jacuzzi. That’s one.