My fiancée and I stayed at Four Seasons Napa Valley for 2 nights in late February of 2022. We were visiting Napa for a couple of nights with her parents and they stayed across the street at Solage, so we had the benefit of comparing the two properties. The Four Seasons had recently opened, so we were really looking forward to checking it out. Below are my impressions.

Check In

We arrived on a sunny February afternoon, but we actually drove past the property upon arrival due to a lack of signage. We were told that the municipality of Calistoga prevents signage from being posted on the road. We said “well Solage has signage?” They told us that Solage has been there a long time, so we just laughed it off and went on our way. The check in and arrival area is massive and very nice. All of the check in formalities went quickly and smoothly (the resort felt nearly empty when we stayed, so there were no other guests in sight upon arrival).

Room

We booked a Palisades Room which had a balcony overlooking a vineyard behind the property. We were in a room in building 2 which was very close to the restaurant, spa, and main welcome area. The bedroom was white with warm woods used throughout the room. The bathroom was a sharp contrast with black walls and gold fixtures. There was a walk in shower area with a speaking tub. There was an electronic shade that covered the window in the shower for privacy. The bed was extremely comfortable with very nice linens. There was a great mini bar area with snacks and beverages near the main entrance. Overall, the room felt clean and fresh which makes sense, as the hotel had opened just 3 months before our stay. We were satisfied with the room and enjoyed the modern, luxurious, yet warm vibe that the room created.

One knock on the room was that the balcony overlooked a public road that ran between the resort and the vineyards behind. This lack of privacy was slightly disappointing, given the caliber and expectations of a resort like this. The location of our room was fine given how empty the resort was. Being close to the pool, restaurant, and spa was great. I could see how being at the end of the property might feel a little more private due to just less foot traffic being in that area of the resort.

Something that was generally underwhelming about the resort as a whole was the overall sterile feel of the property. The Four Seasons brand has a fairly high standard of design and uniqueness amongst its portfolio from my experience, and the apartment style blocks of rooms really did not scream Napa Valley or luxury from the exterior. When I initially heard of this property being built years ago, I hope that free-standing cottages or villas would be the direction that the resort would go to provide privacy and an elevated experience similar to how Calistoga Ranch seemed to be constructed if I was looking at the pictures correctly. To me, the blocks of rooms just seemed bland and lacked a sense of place from my perspective. 

Service

We didn’t get a great opportunity to evaluate the overall service of the resort, as we didn’t really have too many requests for the staff. We did not have a chance to spend a day on property where we just spent time by the pool or at the spa, but instead we were out and about visiting wineries and then would return to the Four Seasons in the afternoon to rest up. On our second day at the resort, we hoped to get a late lunch at Campo at the pool, but due to the lack of guests and overcast weather (we were told) it closed early that day. The service in the restaurant for our breakfast was excellent. Service for dinner at Truss was solid, but not spectacularly warm or memorable. We did not do any spa treatments, so I can’t speak to the service at the spa. All in all the service was fine, but we did not really have all that much interaction with the staff and didn’t really need their help with coordinating our winery visits.

Dining

We had two breakfasts and one dinner at their restaurant Truss. We thoroughly enjoyed dinner on our first night. The marinated olives and grilled Caesar were both excellent to start. I don’t eat dairy, and they agreed to make a modification to one of the pizzas for me to be able to eat it.

Breakfasts were decent for us. The pastries and the seasonal fruit bowl were the standouts. The egg dishes were okay, if not underwhelming. I think part of this was just setting sky high expectations given the Four Seasons brand and the rate we were paying and the breakfast just was not as polished and elevated as we might have hoped.

We didn’t have another dinner or lunch on the property, so unfortunately I don’t have any other experiences with their dining to evaluate.
 

Location/Facilities

The resort is in Calistoga, CA directly across from the Auberge property, Solage. There is a working winery (Elusa) on the property. It has lovely views of the mountains in the distance. Overall, the piece of property is gorgeous and really is an awesome location. When visiting the Napa Valley region, I am of the impression that one has to first decide whether they want to stay in a resort style property with expensive grounds, or within one of the various villages. From there, one can choose which specific property suits them best. For this trip, we were doing some wine tastings with my fiancée’s parents near Calistoga, so the location worked well for us. After I left, my fiancée spent a couple of nights with her parents at Solage and they made the trek to Sonoma for additional wine tastings there. In summary, location is very subjective to one’s plans when visiting Napa Valley in my opinion, so where the FS is located will work for some, but maybe not so much for others.

As far as facilities, we did not have a chance to check out the spa unfortunately, so I cannot comment on the facilities there. The gym was clean, albeit small, but definitely can serve the purposes of guests looking to get a workout in between wine tastings. The pools and hot tubs are what the whole resort is centered around and these are both great in terms of size, but these too just felt very sterile in terms of the use of a lot of concrete. It felt like these facilities could really be anywhere. I’ll admit that perhaps once vegetation has a further chance to grow in that this could changes my impressions of the pool area, but I’m just offering my impressions and the feelings I had while I was on property.

Since it was February when we visited and it was in the 50’s, we used the hot tub twice and we were the only guests in the pool area, but nonetheless, we got good use out of it and enjoyed being able to warm up in there. In contrast, Solage’s pool area was much more lively (but not overly crowded) and felt much less sterile. I suppose I can attribute a lot of this to 2 factors, the first being that Solage had a higher occupancy rate and being in what appears to be an empty resort can give off a cold feeling. Secondly, Solage’s property is far more mature in terms of vegetation, as it’s been operating for at least 10 years as far as I understand.

Overall

We stayed just 2 nights at Four Seasons Napa Valley, and didn’t spend a ton of time on property. That being said, I don’t want to completely write the property off, as it is in a beautiful location and has very good facilities with hopefully a motivated management team to continually improve the resort. In all honesty, I was definitely underwhelmed by the property in terms of service, food, and overall design, especially given the price for a base room here (which has drastically increased since we stayed). I went in really wanting to have this be a home run, especially since we were there celebrating a special occasion. For future trips to Napa, I am interested to check out other properties (Auberge du Soleil, Stanly Ranch, Bardessono, even Montage Healdsburg, Farmhouse Inn, and SingleThread) while continuing to monitor the reviews of Four Seasons Napa Valley to see if there are any big improvements.