We recently flew up to Napa with Alaska Airlines for BottleRock, where we listened to amazing music, ate delicious food, and duh, drank some good wine. Here are some of our favorite things from the trip!
2 Year Anniversary to Napa With Surf Air
We are always excited to fly. It may be the adventure of take-off, the views from the sky, or just the fact that you are soaring in a giant metal machine. Regardless, flying is our favorite. Lately, however, we have been having our share of flight delays, bad airport food, and really long security lines. If you’re a frequent traveler, you know how frustrating and utterly exhausting this can be.
Well frequent flyer friends, we’re here to share about an incredible airline that cuts out the bad parts of flying and will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. We’d like to compare it to the first time we flew Business Class… it ruined us. We loved it so much and now we struggle to fly anything but Business Class. That being said, meet Surf Air. Surf Air is the nation’s first all-you-can-fly private air travel club. Surf Air provides their members with a comfortable, efficient, and luxurious travel experience that saves valuable time in every trip. Surf Air currently serves 12 destinations in California, and they will be adding more locations in the near future!
We decided to try out Surf Air for our 2-year anniversary weekend in Napa. (Yes we’ll probably always be the Traveling Newlyweds. It’s a mentality!) We arrived at a private terminal at the Hawthorne Airport, to a complimentary valet service that took care of our car for the weekend and helped us bring our bags into the terminal. Yes. A complimentary valet service at the airport. The “spoil factor” is immediately very strong.
A friendly Surf Air concierge checked us in, which means greeted us with a smile and offered us a drink and snacks. No hassle with tickets or baggage, no security, no waiting! You sit in a comfortable lounge (with complimentary WiFi and refreshments), and when it’s time to go you walk outside and straight onto the plane. We arrived a little over an hour early, since Bobby is the person that likes to be at the airport extra early to be cautious. Well, with Surf Air, we were the only ones in the lounge for probably 45 minutes, because you don’t need to be there until 20 minutes before departure! What a dream!
When it was time to go, our pilots met us and walked us over to the plane. The Surf Air fleet is gorgeous. Their planes definitely stand out at the airport with their sleek paint jobs and beautiful branding. Once aboard, your seat is both an aisle and a window seat! The seat is a comfortable, black leather chair that we may have had a few naps in. Our pilots went through a quick introduction, showed us where the refreshments were located (very important), how to use the emergency bathroom (and by emergency we mean EMERGENCY.), and we were off!
Bobby was concerned he would get motion sickness from such a small plane, but this was not a problem at all. We couldn’t believe how smooth the take-off, flight, and landing was. And he was so fascinated by watching the pilots, he was pretty distracted the whole time!
The flight to Napa took about an hour and a half, and the views from our plane were incredible. We were legitimately bummed when we started our descent into Napa - we didn’t want our ride to end! We walked off the plane to see our rental car waiting for us, right there, on the runway. What!? Are you picking up how immensely spoiling and EASY this mode of transportation is? It took a total of 10 minutes from touch down to having our bags in our car! Oh, the joys of private jet travel!
Another wonderful Surf Air concierge was there to great us when we landed, and help us with our belongings. She even gave us winery recommendations and directions to our hotel. We can’t say enough about the Surf Air service! It really is five stars.
What really sealed the deal for us was on the day we were catching our flight home, since we now knew that we didn’t have to be at the airport until 20 minutes before our departure. This gave us another FULL DAY to explore Napa. We’re SO used to arriving at the airport 2 hours before a flight, this was a luxury we simply could not get over. A Surf Air highlight was when we were sitting at Gott’s Roadside at 2:30 eating an amazing burger and enjoying some wine with our flight taking off at 3:15 PM. If Bobby was honest, he would probably say he was sweating on the inside. But we made it with ease! Our TOTAL travel time to get home to Orange County from Napa took us less than 3 hours!
Surf Air is an incredible travel experience. Maybe it should be called “Spoil Air”? We are excited to fly with them again soon, and eager to hear when they expand to international travel… :)
Relaxation, Wine, and Napa Valley Beauty at the River Terrace Inn
Napa Valley. Surrounded by serene views and amazing wine, there isn't much better for a weekend getaway. The River Terrace Inn is a beautiful hotel right in the heart of Napa Valley. On your next trip, definitely consider this as your home base for all Napa Valley exploration. We loved it for the location, the rooms, and the amenities.
Location, location, location. If you are flying into Napa, like we did via Surf Air, then this hotel is a short drive from the airport. It is located in the southern part of Napa and is a wonderful gateway to all the local wineries. We enjoyed driving to different wineries all day and then having the River Terrace Inn welcoming us home. There are restaurants in walking distance (head to the Oxbow Market!), and some amazing food within the hotel too!
Part of our passion for travel comes down to our love for hotel rooms. Alli is obsessed with a comfy bed, Bobby loves a great shower, and we both drop our jaws over good views. The room at the River Terrace Inn is comfortable, spacious, and checked all of our boxes in terms of a great hotel room. We slept great, the shower was wonderful, and we were able to enjoy a few glasses of wine on our terrace overlooking the river (We figured the River Terrace Inn would have a terrace overlooking the river… they did not disappoint).
Lastly, the amenities. Everybody is well aware of all the amazing wine right at the fingertips of this hotel, but there are some nice touches that make the River Terrace Inn extra special. First, they have bikes that you can check out to ride around Napa. We were obsessed. Luckily, most of the wineries were just out of our range, otherwise we may have had the bikes all day every day as we rode from winery to winery. Next, they have fun games set out in the lobby for guests to enjoy. We enjoyed a few games of checkers each afternoon! Lastly, the have a wine hour nightly where guests can enjoy different wines for free! If the bikes and checkers did not sell you on this place, trust us on the wine hour (and beautiful river views) that this place is a must!
We had an amazing few nights at the River Terrace Inn, and we hope you give it a try in the near future. And send us an email about all your favorite wineries!
Three Reasons We Loved Having A Convertible in Wine Country
We recently were in Napa to celebrate our 2-year anniversary where we enjoyed yummy wine, good food, and beautiful views! We partnered with Hertz and were surprised with an amazing Mustang Convertible. While we may have not thought to rent this car on our own, we are convinced that a convertible is a must in wine country. Here are 3 reasons why…
1. The wind in your hair feels awesome. Especially after a wine tasting or two :) Unless you drive a convertible like this on a regular basis, having the wind blowing over you as you cruise along a highway is a great feeling. As long as the weather cooperates, it is way better than just having your windows down.
2. You can get from one place to another much faster (or at least it feels like you can). We are not encouraging any speeding, but the Mustang we had was fast. We zipped around Napa and probably could have explored 7+ wineries per day. Unfortunately for us, as we have gotten older we get sleepy after 2 wineries (HA!). So our Mustang was able to quickly get us from the wineries, to a nice nap, and then back out for dinner.
3. You can soak up all the sights. Napa Valley is a picturesque area that a convertible allows you to really soak in. We enjoyed driving up random dirt roads that led us to some amazing hilltop views. Whether we were sitting in the car or decided to go for a short walk, the beauty of the valley was all around us. From the driver’s perspective, you also don’t have a hard time checking your blindspot…
For three days we drove back and forth between Napa, Yountville, and Saint Helena. Driving our convertible was one of the highlights as the trip, especially since the weather was so incredible. There are not that many other details you need to know here other than that if the weather is right, you should rent a convertible from Hertz. You will NOT regret it. One last thing… if you are going to be tasting a lot of wine, maybe don’t rent a car at all? Enjoy all Napa has to offer, but definitely be smart to not wine taste and drive!
Happy wine tasting!