Introduction The Alila Napa Valley opened today. At category 7, it has a lot to live up to. TL;DR...worth the wait, and it lives up to its hype. Location The Alila Napa Valley is at the norhern end of St Helena, one of several charming towns in the nation's preeminent winemaking valley. It was formerly the Las Alcobas, a Marriott property, then overhauled to be the second Alila hotel in the USA. This is the cousin of the Andaz Napa, a more urban hotel in the Hyatt portfolio in downtown Napa. The city of Napa is the workhorse of the valley. It has its own charms and excels in the sheer number of food, drink, and entertainment options. St Helena, by contrast, is a small town where everything is on a one-mile stretch of Main St. The Andaz and the city are great for a more high-energy visit; the Alila is more of a retreat, and sits deeper in the valley itself so you'll get more convenient access to more towns and wineries. A lovely bridge makes a direct connection between the fitness center and the Beringer winery tasting room located next door to the Alila Room I booked a standard room using 30,000 WoH points per night. The hotel upgraded me in advance to a Vineyard View Suite, which is its premium suite. This is apparently the TSU-eligible suite category. In my case, though, there was no real competition because reservations opened just two weeks before the hotel did, so there wasn't time for many travelers to make plans for opening day. Your own upgrade mileage may vary.The suite is enormous at more than 1,400 square feet, with a ridiculously impressive and useful kinds of balcony space. Really, though, these balconies are more properly called decks given their size.The vineyard which the suite views is a Beringer reserve, and it is nestled right between the hotel and the hills, with sun all afternoon and then the sunset. On this extended balcony, there is a couch and a fire pit, plus a full-size outdoor dining table.My suite in the 200 building wrapped around so that I also enjoyed a view and the subline sound of a babbling brook (and a joyful and thankfully understated bird) that separates the Alila from the Beringer winery next door. The creek overlook balcony (just off the suite's bedroom) feature two sumptuously comfy large chairs. As a bonus, there is also an estate view with its own tub.If you're counting, yes, this is the same suite--views and distinct, expansive balconies in three different directions with ample on-deck amenties at each one. I used every one of the nooks, spaces, corners, and big and little places throughout the suite. With the common areas of the hotel not as accessible due to COVID, the diversity of places in the suite itself made for a breadth unique experiences reading, eating, working, contemplating, napping, and relaxing. For visitors from afar, even in Napa Valley not everyone eats "California cuisine" all or even most of the time. I heartily recomend the fried chicken at Ad Hoc down the road in Yountville (affiliated with the world-famous French Laundry restaurant a couple of blocks away). Bathroom The bathroom is big and beautiful, with an ample rain shower and a sleek tub (one of two). Toiletries are Davines MOMO--the same brand W Hotels switched to last year. Gym The fitness center is separate from the spa, and is open now. Accessible by keycard, it is open 24 hours a day.For a hotel of this intimate size, the fitness center is spectacular. You'll find nine treadmills and stationary cycles of two types (sorry, no Peloton), plus free weights including grip-friendly mini-barbells. Like most hotel gyms, though, there are no true barbells and this one doesn't offer serious resistance options for legs.Two traditional machines are available: chest press and overhead pulldown. There is an excellent cable machine, along with a panoply of bands, balls, and other equipment.Beyond the fully stocked regular gym is a studio for yoga, pilates, and related activities. There are no classes yet (not allowed under local COVID regulations), and the hotel is storing its guest bikes here. Northern California loves its fire pits. This one is right outside the gym, for your warm up or cool down pleasure. Remote Working The workspace in the suite is nearly perfect, but with two problems that complicate remote work.A desk extending across the nearly the length of the living room--more than sufficient to lay out my two computers, camera and lights for Zoom meetings, and other equipment. In-room lighting is flexibile enough for videoconferencing, but you also have a wide array of background choices and all kinds of natural light options.There aren't too many guests competing for bandwidth today as the hotel opens, but the wifi speeds here are solid. More than speedy enough for most business travelers, digital nomads, and others doing remote work.The television in the bedroom offers easy access to the HDMI port. For some inexplicable reason, however, the television in the living room (i.e. at the work desk) does not. It puts you on Alila lockdown--no direct connect from your phone or laptop (other than Bluetooth for music) for video conferencing and also no Chromecast or other solution. Bedroom = access to HDMILiving room/workspace...great if you work for Netflix or Pandora, otherwise forget about the screen You're limited to just two or three streaming entertainment options (forget about accessing your Disney+ or HBOMax accounts from the living room), and no options for work. I get that, pre-pandemic, hotels were obsessed with monetizing their data snooping on what entertainment I watch, but in a remote-work environment the lack of HDMI or Chromecast connectivity is a giant problem.A second word of warning. The 10-foot desk has access to exactly ONE power outlet. And in a design fail, the outlet lies behind the sliding door separating the living/working room from the bedroom. So If you plug something in, the door has to stay half-closed. If you need more than one outlet for your remote work setup, bring a strip/extender or other device of your own. Amenities Spa is currently closed due to COVID restrictions. The spa building ain't small, though, so you can probably expect some good stuff when it opens.The restaurant should have a limited menu. As of day one, no breakfast option yet.There's a pool at the vineyard side of the property. It is only 58 degrees here right now (which is basically the same as absolute zero to me as a Californian) with an occasional sprinkle, so I didn't test it out. Maybe tomorrow! Electric Vehicle Charging The Alila has three or four Tesla superchargers. Unfortunately, it offers no universal chargers for all the other brands of electric vehicles out there.The valet and I tried trickle-charging using an outdoor wall outlet, but these have been wired for "Christmas lights only" and don't produce regular electrial current.The closest J-1772 charger is on the other side of town. If you drive a non-Tesla EV, you might want to plan for a looooong lunch or dinner in town or pick wineries to visit that have a standard charger (many do). World of Hyatt Keep in mind that I'm here on day one of the Alila. They're still moving stuff around, turning on some switches, and figuring out what works best. Of course, early check-in just before noon was a breeze since they weren't waiting on any guests from the night before to check out.If this was a typical Globalist welcome gift here, I approve. I'd anticipated a bottle of wine (the standard welcome gift at the Andaz Napa and many other nearby hotels in this range ). But Kollar Chocolates are legit fancy and local. While I'm most definitely not a cookie guy, these bad boys totally won me over.Didn't get a welcome letter detailing WoH benefits, so I asked the guide about breakfast at the onsite restaurant, which is supposedly open with a limited menu. He said they're working on breakfast but there isn't one yet. Guess I'll find out at checkout how the property is handling the breakfast benefit.That said, the Globalist upgrade from a standard room to a corner Vineyard View Suite is awesome. I appreciate the experience of this particular suite much more than a COVID-era grab-and-go breakfast. It ain't even close, especially since there are great breakfast options to choose from a few blocks away in St Helena and even more in the nearby towns. Overall As someone who lives just an hour from the Napa Valley, I enjoy the area but I'm not easily wowed. When I stay in the area, I'm not running around to wineries all day, and I'm sober at least half the time. I'm here for a vibe, for a retreat where I can reflect and relax but also get work done off and on.The Alila Napa wowed me.Everything about the redesigned property is just authentically Californian (and not the Hollywood or Silicon Valley or Malibu Beach vibe). The aesthetic is clean, stunning but easy, beautiful but not distracting. Even the scent of the place is crisp, relaxing, and perfectly subtle. The team here is working hard to get the opening just right, while conveying calm, welcome, professionalism, adaptation, and optimism.I'm doing two things all the time here that I don't even notice: breathing deeply and smiling broadly. Plenty to do and enjoy at the hotel and in the surrounding towns. And countless micro-spots in my room and its balcony to just enjoy living. The hallmark of a superb retreat.That said, the Alila is a terrific choice for the 10-wineries in a day spree, too. Or as a base for a lot of road cycling. Or for organic, fresh gluttony. Or for just a night or a week of baths and fire pits. It is a hotel perfectly suited to its place.