Luxury Hotels - Best luxury hotels in Napa and Sonoma

I am having a hard time deciding which hotels to choose for a 2 night stay in Napa and 2 nights in Sonoma. I have been looking at the Milliken Creek Inn, Farmhouse Inn, Meadowwood and Poetry Inn. Any suggestions for someone with very high standards who wants everything to be perfect?
Thanks

I have stayed at Auberge du Soleil. Very good for an American resort. Much nicer than Meadowood. Don't know the others.

I would have chosen Auberge du Soleil when I was there last year if they accepted children (:( for me, might be perfect for you!). It has lovely views and is tucked away off the main roads (big plus in Napa IMO). If you want picturesque I found the scenery improved greatly once you got north of Yountville. Definitely try to get a table for lunch or dinner at The French Laundry! It is worth the effort required to secure a reservation.

Sonoma is drivable from Napa if you don't feel like changing hotels or can't find two that meet your requirements.

We've stayed at Hotel Healdsburg, Bardessono, Vintage Inn and Meadowood in the last couple years. We keep going back to Meadowood and just returned from a visit last weekend. It is a little bit rustic. Most rooms are amongst the trees and have gravel paths (and some stairs) to get to them. But the interiors are up to date and provide good amenities. The service is top notch.

I liked Bardessono as it is new, quite modern and in Yountville. But my wife found it a little cold and sterile. The floors are concrete and the rooms are a little spartan.

I agree with Baghoarder that the French Laundry is an excellent experience. Also highly recommend The Resturant at Meadowood. They just reopened and are better than ever. Both are pricey, but if you are into Fine Dining they are among the best.

I love the Farmhouse - restaurant is outstanding, spa is great, very low-key, the rooms/suites in the Barn are excellent (steam showers, indoor/outdoor fireplaces) and the concierges can arrange all kinds of activities/vineyard visits, etc. I highly recommend

+1 on the French Laundry. Decor is OK. Service is good. Tastes, textures and presentation of the food are exceptionally innovative. If you like eating something that both tastes really good and that you've never had before, this is a great place to go.

+1 on the French Laundry. Decor is OK. Service is good. Tastes, textures and presentation of the food are exceptionally innovative. If you like eating something that both tastes really good and that you've never had before, this is a great place to go.

I suppose I know what you mean about the decor. But I found it charming and I quite like the idea of it not being updated and allowed to age with dignity. We seemed to be a great novelty as Australians, which surprised me a little in a restaurant with such an international reputation.

We had a wonderful stay at the Auberge du Soleil. The rooms were gigantic and the views matched. Everything we ate there down to the butter was amazing. Nothing beats the breakfast views from the restaurant terrace. Really just a terrific experience literally from soup to nuts.

We have stayed at the Carneros Inn several times, great service, food, rooms and views. Highly recommend.

I've stayed at the Auberge several times and join in the recommendations. I did not enjoy my stay at Meadowood--the room was not to my taste and service was poor--but that was some time ago.

The French Laundry is a wonderful experience. I would also recommend Redd (also in Yountville) and Cyrus (in Healdsburg) for memorable meals. Napa Valley has numerous very good restaurants that are slightly less high end.

+1 on Carneros Inn. My wife and I stayed there for a week last summer and loved it. The concierge team was great -- they put together a full wine tasting itinerary for us (including reservations at wineries for tastings and tours) and obtained a dinner reservation for us at the French Laundry. The Carneros Inn also has a market on grounds that will make you picnic lunches.

Definitely recommend French Laundry. Also recommend Bottega in downtown Napa as well as getting breakfast or treats at Bouchon Bakery.

Auberge is the best. Particularly the 1 bedroom valley view suite. Lorraine or others on that level positioning. There are 4 I believe. Those are the best location for privacy and views. Also upper level is best. Really good restaurant, but also many others in area. Meadowood not as nice accomodation, but fabulous restaurant, and if have kids is the better choice.
Another great option is Poetry Inn. Gorgeous rooms and views, but no restaurant and not a full resort. They serve wonderful breakfast and will do snacks or a custom meal. Nice pool, and definately luxury rooms. Great location or going out to meals at terrific restaurants like Redd, French Laundrey, etc. a great choice, but very small so have to reserve in advance and not full facilities like Auberge.

Inspired by a Tablet Plus promotion to Carneros Inn (a welcome bottle of bubbly), I decided to book a night there last weekend. The property is beautiful, the spa services were great, and breakfast at their Hilltop restaurant was a highlight. However, the service left me very frustrated and spoiled what should have been a relaxing weekend in wine country. If I had a personal manager to deal with the details, then I would go back in a heartbeat. But having to look out for details left me very annoyed.

We started with confusion over what rates tablet made available and eventually I forwarded back to the hotel the confirmation email from Tablet. While working on this, despite parking where indicated outside reception, someone came in to demand my car keys in order to move my car... unfortunately not many people seem to drive manual in the US and I could hear as such from inside reception (it's tucked very far back in the property on a hill).

Given the check-in confusion, I pointed out that I would go to the spa first for our appointments and go to my room after the services, but the front desk insisted that I return the checkin package then as someone _must_ escort me to the room (why? they provided a map to the room, so is this just so someone can point out where the coffee maker is located? in the room it felt like someone was just expecting a tip for unnecessarily bringing me there). I sent my SO to the spa while I rushed to the room and back for no particular reason.

The room itself looked nice, but had annoyances. The bath/shower hot water is definitely not hot. We were unable to get it to a comfortable temperature. As a nice touch, the outdoors patio has a radiant heater pointed downward. Unfortunately, for my cottage, the heater was placed over a break in the patio and pointed at a pit instead of a location where the outdoor chairs could be arranged.

In the morning, we ate breakfast from 9:40 - 10:30 am at hilltop. This was a beautiful location, but after packing up and going to check out the breakfast charges had not posted. Now (four days later) I have still yet to receive a final folio despite being told to expect one that afternoon.

As mentioned above: it was all quite beautiful, but at the charged rates I would expect everything to run much smoother.

Definitely missing Hotel Les Mars in Healdsburg from this list. Absolutely luxurious beautiful hotel

I love Auberge du Soleil as others have said. Particularly the one bedroom valley view suites. It also has no children under 16 so a great getaway for an adult weekend. Nice pool, beautiful restaurant.

If with children I think Meadowood the best. The pool area can get very crowded during the summer as they sell memberships and many San Franciscans and local families belong. Technically there is an adult pool and children's but they are still crowded nonetheless. The high end restaurant is fabulous - I think better than French Laundrey. Some of the rooms rennovated and some not so worth asking as the older ones are old.

The other great place in napa valley is Poetry Inn. Only 5 rooms so not a resort but the rooms ( suites) are stunning with gorgeous views. They don't serve dinner but it is a very short drive to Yountville where you have some great restaurants. They do serve breakfast ( including room service), snacks, and of course wine and cheese. I think it is a very special place.

In Sonoma not much - Sonoma mission inn ( now a fairmont) is a bit run down IMO despite some renovations. Kenwood Inn is a nice smaller inn - probably the best choice, but not luxury like auberge, etc. still very nice.

I love healdsburg as I love Pinot noir and it is the home of top california Pinot noir. It is much more laid back and nothing IMO is a true luxury resort, but as was said previously probably the best choice in town is Les Mars, but I do find the pool kind of funky, and the rooms have nothing in the way of a view. Used to be connected to one of the best restaurants in the Bay Area, Cyprus, but that has closed due to a dispute with the hotel owners. Still lots of good restaurants in the area. I recommend one of the larger sized rooms at Les Mars as the smaller ones can be a bit cramped IMO.
I have stayed at Farmhouse Inn and was not crazy about it myself, but the larger suites were nice - the newer rooms in the back building. I liked these rooms but found the service to be lacking in my stay, but some people love it and it has a great restaurant, but is not located in town.

Solage in Calistoga, especially in warm weather... hands down our favorite place to stay up north, and we get up to the wine country a fair amount. No driving necessary, as each room has 2 bikes you can take into town for dinner.

Bardessono for me. Love the location.....your steps from French Laundry, Redd, and everything else in Yountville. Can't wait to return.

while probably a half step below others in the conversation above, we loved our stay at Solage Calistogo. We are a young couple and found the the atmosphere a but more contemporary than other resorts in Napa and the spa far exceeded our expectations. Further, the restaurant at Solage, SolBar, is one of the better restaurants we've eaten at.

We also enjoyed being in Calistoga, which we found to be a bit more quiet and remote (in a good way) with the town and some vineyards in walking distance from the hotel.

Let me know if anyone has any questions about this property!

Bardessono for me. Love the location.....your steps from French Laundry, Redd, and everything else in Yountville. Can't wait to return.

Unfortunately we were unimpressed with Bardessono. We have stayed twice (second time for a wedding, not by choice) and had mediocre experiences on both occasions.

Firstly I'll mention the positives - I agree the location is truly excellent, stumbling distance to French Laundry, Redd, Bottega, Bouchon etc. Secondly they easily secured us a Friday night reservation for French Laundry. Lastly the rooms are decently sized.

On the other hand

Service
Underwhelming. A few examples from our most recent stay:
-Our room was not ready upon our 4pm arrival (we had even advised that we would arrive at 2pm and were late, thankfully). We were told that the room was undergoing "final engineering checks". Really?
-There was urine (or at least what appeared to be urine) on the toilet seat in our room when we first entered after check-in and lifted the lid. No further comment necessary on this one.
-The hotel concierge was unable to schedule a babysitter for us with 2 months notice. I ended up using Yelp to find a local babysitter service and scheduling it myself.
-Our room was not serviced when we returned from being out for almost 2 hours in the mid-morning; it took 3 calls and over half an hour to finally have someone service our room so we could put our baby down for a nap.


Hard Product
The hard product is poor both in function and (IMO) in form. E.g.
-The shower in the room had an abysmally low flow (yes I know it's green. but when that starts to affect my experience to this degree I don't like it)
-A few bits and pieces fell apart in the room during our stay (e.g. a light switch surround dropped off when touched). Surprising given the detailed engineering checks that were apparently happening before our check-in...
-In the public areas, the wooden cladding on the building (which again I'm sure is terribly environmentally-friendly), is completely faded and just looks bad. Of course this is just my opinion; some people may like this aesthetic.

Food
We only used the restaurant at breakfast. The food was not terrible but rather unimaginative. Service was spotty, with one excellent, attentive waitress, and several others less so.