Get a little pampered in between wine tours
Written: Jul 26 '09 (Updated Sep 29 '09)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Excellent location, nice rooms, comfortable beds and amenities.
Cons: No free wi-fi in rooms
The Bottom Line: Relaxed and enjoyed the food and the wine tasting. Had I been able to enjoy free internet in my room, I would have had a fantastic time.
|
|
|
| icio's Full Review: Marriott Napa Valley |
Napa Hotels in a nutshell. One has to start from the fact that Napa is an expensive destination and hotels are not different. For example, you could stay at the Auberge Du Soleil for about $1,000-1,500/night or you could stay at the Best Western (I stayed at the Best Western Stevenson Manor Inn in Calistoga in July 2008) and rooms were around $150-160/night. Friends of ours lodged at the Redwood Inn for about $100/night. And there are some B&B's in the area as well. So, when I compare what we paid for staying at the Marriott, i.e. $250/night and consider the decor and the quality we had, I found it adequate. I am not saying that it is cheap, but adequate for what you normally pay in this area.
Location - grade 8/10. The location is great. You are along Hwy 29 which is very convenient for all your explorations of the area and wine touring. From Hwy 29 it is very easy to reach the Silverado Trail where quite a few interesting wineries are located. And being in Napa, you are also in close proximity of a good choice of restaurants. But more on eating later. The proximity to Hwy 29, while convenient, could also be a turnoff since on weekends there is a lot of traffic. Of course, if your room faces the courtyard you would be shielded from it.
Lobby - grade 6/10. Overall it is nice and personnel is well-mannered and helpful. However, the fact that wine tours tend to congregate around it before leaving, causes it to become a noisy or chaotic spot. There is a nice small library and a fireplace. Given that I was there in late June-early July and the temperature outside was about 95F-100F, I did not understand why they kept the fireplace going, quite frankly. Romance and sweating do not go together in my vocabulary.
This is also the only place in the hotel where you have free wi-fi access and if the only armchairs available are those by the fireplace, you will do also some sauna while using your computer. Loose the fireplace... in Summer at least.
Room - grade 7/10. We had a room with two double beds because we planned on having a friend staying with us for a couple of nights. While I am not too fond of double beds, in general, these were quite comfortable. The closet space was more than adequate for our clothes and our luggage (3 suitcases). The room also had a small fridge for us to use and not the one filled with overpriced (and often useless items). The TV set had a flat 36 or 40 inch screen and there was a relatively decent choice of channels. The bathroom was a little small, but I was not planning to hold any meeting in it. The shower head worked properly, although not state of the art. Since you can easily have shower heads with rain effect or massage for less than $50 each, I wonder why hotels like the Marriott do not do a little effort to provide them. However, I noticed that either the vent did not work or was nonexistent. A little bit of a problem if one plans to use the bathroom for some toiletry after a shower as the mirror is all steamed and unless you open the door, you have to wipe it clean of the steam severl time to use it to shave or just to comb your hair. Hair dryer was provided as to be expected. Linens were in excellent condition. Working space was adequate (not planning to work, anyway!). The room had a safe, big enough to fit my 17 inch portable and other gadgets.
My only serious complaint is that there was no free wi-fi or free internet for that purpose in the room.
I do not give a sh*t: when you pay over $200/night, I do expect the internet connection to be free!!! True, you can have it in the lobby, but it is free only up to 1 hour and you cannot stay in the lobby in your underwear or working from your bed.
I would have gladly given an 8/10 to the room, but this free internet is a big turn off for me.
Restaurants - grade 6/10. There are two choices. The Harvest Cafe' and the Character's Bar & Grill. The Character's Bar is really more a place for casual dining, the Harvest Cafe' is not bad but, while the wine list is adequate, the menu was a little bit short of choices. Pay attention: I am not saying that I had bad meals, but that I had somewhat fewer options than I would have liked to. I must say that these two places tend to be a little bit "lonely" as most guests eat somewhere else and most might have endured a long day of wine tasting eating lots of munchies together with sipping wine. So, I recognize that it would be a losing proposition for a hotel to provide superb restaurants on site. Yet, given that this hotel is well equipped for conferences and meetings, I am not so sure that scaling up a little the restaurant scene would be such a bad idea after all.
Pool - grade 6/10. Quite frankly, normally, I would not give a rat's a@@ for a pool, unless it is an indoor olympic size pool and you can swim laps, but if you have kids it might be a little different as they are attracted to pools much more than adults. The pool area is not bad, although the pool is sort of small and not suitable for a swim. There are big umbrellas, but the shaded area is a little weak. We were there in days when temperatures approached or exceeded 100F and, trust me, shade is a good thing to have.
Spa - grade 7.5/10. It is available in an adjacent building. My wife is a spa person and she was happy with it. Plus, she was happy that her deep massage session was $30-$40 less than at other similar establishments. Of course, the spa per se did not look like those you find at a Four Seasons' hotel, but definitely not bad.
Amenities - grade 8/10. My wife and I stay at The Marriott several times a year (either for work or for leisure). Hence we are silver or gold members in their reward program. That entitled us to a little better room (say, facing the courtyard rather than the highway). We received special pass for a lounge room with free snacks, sodas, water, fruits and little more. Even better, we were entitled to a daily wine tasting that we gladly took advantage of when not busy on own personal wine tasting tours. I would not know if any guest is entitled to use these amenities. I would expect that the wine tasting is open to all guests, regardless of whether they are part of any reward program or not. The use of the lounge for snacks or sodas I am not so sure about it.
There is a self-service laundry on the premises and also a small newsstand. The only gift shop I saw was the one in the spa building.
Parking is free and space is adequate. You might not be able to park by the door to your room, but you will never be further away than 2-3 minutes walking. There are several doors all around which is good when you deal with suitcases or luggage in general.
Personnel - grade 8/10. Overall very friendly and attentive. On our last night, the air conditioning stopped working and we were moved to a new room and received also some gift for the trouble. Rooms were cleaned properly and beds were always in excellent order.
Things to do - grade 9/10 (if you are an adult); 2/10 (if you are a kid). This is absolutely no place for kids. Napa Valley in general is not. The main "thing" people come here for is wine tasting and eating well.
I was there to compete in the Napa Valley Inline Marathon, but I was definitely one of the about 200 tourists out of several thousands.
Wine tours can be a mass thing or an intimate experience depending on your knowledge and preparation. My wife and I always pick ahead of time the wineries to visit, keep it down to 1 or 2 per day and, mostly, choose those that allow visits by appointment only to avoid any rush or annoying crowds. Good restaurants are plenty. Of course the French Laundry is the crown jewel (very expensive and book at least 2 months ahead). Bouchon is the younger and somewhat less pretentious sister of the Laundry (still not cheap by any means and book a little ahead). The Culinary Institute of America (so you can tell your friends you eat at the CIA's restaurant!) offers good and creative food in an exciting setting at the Greystone Mansion. But ,pretty much, you don't need me to write down a list. Good food is easy to find and all within 30 minutes driving from the hotel.
I would suggest that you bring your bycicles as cycling along the Silverado Trail is a great experience and, perhaps, even more so at a family level. I would also encourage everyone to take part in the Napa Valley Inline Marathon (they offer a half marathon as well) also along the beautiful Silverado Trail. The trail is currently silk smooth and skating on such smooth pavement in the early morning, surrounded by vineyards, the hills and with air ballons in the air is quite a nice experience to take home. No need to be great skaters although you cannot be just a beginner as there are some downhill sections that might otherwise scare you. (I was more scared by the uphill sections, to tell the truth...)
Overall grade - 7.5/10.. I feel inclined to say that I had a good time and, it were not for the thing about the lack of free internet in the room, I would even go so far as to say that I had an incredibly good time. Hopefully the current recession will not force all of us to redefine completely our plans in the near future. But for now: thumbs up! ;-)
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
icio
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Location: Thousand Oaks, CA
Reviews written: 58
Trusted by: 6 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.