(It was) wonderful! We recommend to anyone who wants to go to Napa
Jim G.
Yelp.com
The plan? A relaxing roll from Napa to St. Helena while enjoying a wonderful lunch. The Napa Valley Wine Train is the solution. As the guy who is usually driving people around the Napa Valley, it is great to sit at a fine dining table and not worry about the traffic on Hwy 29. I selected the Gourmet Lunch and was pleased with the food quality and presentation. The service was great! Following the turn-about in St Helena, the southward roll was in a lounge car for desert and coffee. I can easily recommend the wine train and will enjoy it again in the future.
@MikeandJaclyn
Twitter Comment-(6/11/11)
Thank you for such a great memory!! The ride was soothing, the wine perfect & the lamb was delicious!
@NCrystean
Twitter Comment-(6/6/11)
My family and I had a wonderful time! Thank you for a memorable experience!!
@KitchenJuJu
Twitter Comment-(6/1/11)
Enjoyed a phenomenal lunch aboard Napa Wine Train. Wonderful food (better than the Paris dinner cruises) and top-notch service
Guest
WineTrain - Survey (7/30)
First, Mike, the emcee who introduced the group to wines before the trip, was absolutely outstanding. He was funny, educational and accommodating. On the train, in the wine tasting room, he was knowledgable, and generous with the wine pour. Gerald was our server, or as we liked to call him, "Honey." We and our two friends, one of whom is a chef, all agreed that Gerald was the consummate professional. He gave us tourist sight info as we passed various wineries. Even though my husband didn't remember ordering his salad because he thought he ordered soup, Gerald, with no questions asked just replace the salad with soup. He was utterly charming, friendly and most of all, he acted as though he liked us. More than that, Chef McDonald came to our table and spoke to us about the food and some of the local restaurants. He was 5-Star all the way. We all had such low expectations about the food, that we were stunned when our lunch tasted better than our dinner at Mustard's the night before. Thank you Chef.
Ciara
WineTrain - Contact
Thank you for creating the most wonderful adventure for us. It was my birthday and I will tell all my friends and family that this was my best birthday ever. Please tell the Chef how much I loved the food, especially knowing that he chose food that was responsibly raised with no hormones or antibiotics. This was the main reason I chose this experience. He is a very special Chef and I loved the Salmon and Kale dish. The sauce was EXQUISITE! His consciousness with food deserves to be honored. Thank you again...
DrRocketMan
TripAdvisor.com
Mixed reviews on this site had me worried having already booked our tickets for the gourmet evening dinner at a cost of $100 each. However I needn’t have been concerned as we had one of the greatest nights out of our holiday so far. It’s all a matter of perspective, priorities and your own requirements for a great night out… so let me try to provide a reasoned view of both our experience and some earlier reviews. Is the Wine Train good value for money? This depends on your outlook… the food was certainly of a superior standard but several previous reviewers make a direct relation between the ticket price and the food alone (wine costs extra). In my opinion this is wrong. My suggestion here would be to try to place a value on the rest of the experience as well… I enjoy riding on trains but I wouldn’t call myself an enthusiast however there is something extra special about riding a vintage train past the vineyards of Napa Valley. The train itself is straight out of Hercule Poirot and has been restored to a superb standard! I’d have happily paid $40 for the train ride as a standalone attraction. All of a sudden that leaves $60 for an amazing four course meal. Now the food was of a very high standard but even to me this would only just represent reasonable value given the wine costs extra. However the overall experience is far more than the sum of the component parts. The full service was excellent and the staff were well disciplined, dressed in Polar Express style uniforms (unfortunately they didn’t break into dance while delivering hot chocolate… but you always had the feeling they might!). If you can appreciate the extra value that the location and train journey adds, are in excellent company and add a little alcohol into the mix, then like me you should be in for an awesome treat. Is the Wine Train any better than driving up the highway to St Helena yourself? We did both and found that there was no comparison… so suggest you don’t try to make one. Driving was fun and we stopped as we pleased to look around the towns or buy fruit from the roadside stalls… but the train was slower and allowed us to take in the environment, food and alcohol all at the same time! A priceless combination. In addition, the viewpoint from the train is considerably more elevated than that of a car. There are a few things you do need to be aware of before your trip to set your expectations accordingly and I can sympathise with some of the previous negative reviewers to whom some of this may have been a surprise. Your evening dinner meal will be split across two seatings in two different carriages. You will eat most of your meal later if you are seated second in the dining carriage. All this information is on the Wine Train website in considerable detail, read it, arrive at the station at the time stated and you should get your preference. Also the view out of the west side of the train is very slightly more picturesque than the east which looks across the highway. When you move from your first carriage to the second carriage they do assign you a seat on the opposite side of the train to be fair to everyone… but if the sun has set by this time there is a chance you could miss out. The whole experience is very very highly recommended by us as a thirty-something couple on holiday who love food, wine, great scenery and can appreciate the novel mode of transport. If your reading this then that’s great as your doing some research. Take a look at the information on Wine Train website and decide for yourself whether the ingredients are there to make this a great trip out for you. We loved it… what’s not to like?!
Margo C.
Yelp.com
We took my father on the Vista Dome for his 90th Birthday last week. He is now using a wheelchair and the staff accommodated his situation with grace and consideration. They allowed us to enter the train first and choose our table. We went on the lunch tour and I think it might get dark on the dinner tour which would preclude seeing the wonderful wineries. My father is French and has eaten at gourmet restaurants all over the world. The gourmet lunch we were served was excellent as was the wine we purchased. The service from start to finish was just as excellent. Also, I forgot my scarf and called days later. The staff had found it and they are mailing it back to my home address. I was delighted!
Sharon P.
Yelp.com
Wow!!! This was so awesome. The train is beautiful, go for the vista dome if you can but either way the train is amazing. Our food was outstanding, my husband said the beef tenderloin tasted like a filet, I had the delicious swordfish. Deserts were to die for. Yes the initial views on the way out of town are not great but the train makes up for it. A definite cool thing to do.
Lisa A.
Yelp.com
We had the Vintner's luncheon, and loved it!!! The train trip starts out in the downtown business district but quickly rolls into the vineyards and winerys of Napa. The food and wine pairing was devine. I would gladly recommend this to anyone interested in starting a trip to Napa. Nice for the first excursion of a long weekend.
Denise H.
Yelp.com
We went on the train for lunch with my husband's grandfather, and had a great time. The train is gorgeous. We had appetizers first, and decided to split a bottle of wine (since the cost of individual glasses for each of us approached the cost of a bottle). After appetizers and wine, we explored the train for a bit. I'll admit, navigating a moving train after the wine was TRICKY. The husband pointed out that if I wobbled no one would know if it was the train or the alcohol. :-) We did the wine tasting, and the pours were VERY generous! I ended up taking a glass with me to lunch. At the tasting we also chatted with other folks on the train, so it was a fun experience. Lunch was excellent. Each entree had a suggested wine pairing, but we had had enough wine by then. :-) Back at the station, we had a chance to buy the wines we had sampled (we did!) as well as these neat bubble wrap cases to help protect them in our suitcases on the flight home (none broke!). We also purchased 2 copies of the picture - one for us and one for the husband's grandfather (who loved it!). The salesperson was nice enough to include an extra print since we had to wait (so we got 3 pictures and 2 frames). Bonus!
Winetrain Customer
Email Survey
Very very difficult to find faults! I suppose the only "bad" thing was the construction going on around the station and the platform. That's not within your control, which I understand. Otherwise the whole experience was wonderful. The train was not completely full, which I imagine was also a benefit. Might have been crowded and difficult to move about if/when full. But we had a marvelous time and will absolutely come and do it again!
%20427-4124%20winetrain.com "Pin It")
@GabrielLima
Twitter Comment-(6/17/11)
(It was) wonderful! We recommend to anyone who wants to go to Napa
Jim G.
Yelp.com
The plan? A relaxing roll from Napa to St. Helena while enjoying a wonderful lunch. The Napa Valley Wine Train is the solution. As the guy who is usually driving people around the Napa Valley, it is great to sit at a fine dining table and not worry about the traffic on Hwy 29. I selected the Gourmet Lunch and was pleased with the food quality and presentation. The service was great! Following the turn-about in St Helena, the southward roll was in a lounge car for desert and coffee. I can easily recommend the wine train and will enjoy it again in the future.
@MikeandJaclyn
Twitter Comment-(6/11/11)
Thank you for such a great memory!! The ride was soothing, the wine perfect & the lamb was delicious!
@NCrystean
Twitter Comment-(6/6/11)
My family and I had a wonderful time! Thank you for a memorable experience!!
@KitchenJuJu
Twitter Comment-(6/1/11)
Enjoyed a phenomenal lunch aboard Napa Wine Train. Wonderful food (better than the Paris dinner cruises) and top-notch service
Guest
WineTrain - Survey (7/30)
First, Mike, the emcee who introduced the group to wines before the trip, was absolutely outstanding. He was funny, educational and accommodating. On the train, in the wine tasting room, he was knowledgable, and generous with the wine pour. Gerald was our server, or as we liked to call him, "Honey." We and our two friends, one of whom is a chef, all agreed that Gerald was the consummate professional. He gave us tourist sight info as we passed various wineries. Even though my husband didn't remember ordering his salad because he thought he ordered soup, Gerald, with no questions asked just replace the salad with soup. He was utterly charming, friendly and most of all, he acted as though he liked us. More than that, Chef McDonald came to our table and spoke to us about the food and some of the local restaurants. He was 5-Star all the way. We all had such low expectations about the food, that we were stunned when our lunch tasted better than our dinner at Mustard's the night before. Thank you Chef.
Ciara
WineTrain - Contact
Thank you for creating the most wonderful adventure for us. It was my birthday and I will tell all my friends and family that this was my best birthday ever. Please tell the Chef how much I loved the food, especially knowing that he chose food that was responsibly raised with no hormones or antibiotics. This was the main reason I chose this experience. He is a very special Chef and I loved the Salmon and Kale dish. The sauce was EXQUISITE! His consciousness with food deserves to be honored. Thank you again...
DrRocketMan
TripAdvisor.com
Mixed reviews on this site had me worried having already booked our tickets for the gourmet evening dinner at a cost of $100 each. However I needn’t have been concerned as we had one of the greatest nights out of our holiday so far. It’s all a matter of perspective, priorities and your own requirements for a great night out… so let me try to provide a reasoned view of both our experience and some earlier reviews. Is the Wine Train good value for money? This depends on your outlook… the food was certainly of a superior standard but several previous reviewers make a direct relation between the ticket price and the food alone (wine costs extra). In my opinion this is wrong. My suggestion here would be to try to place a value on the rest of the experience as well… I enjoy riding on trains but I wouldn’t call myself an enthusiast however there is something extra special about riding a vintage train past the vineyards of Napa Valley. The train itself is straight out of Hercule Poirot and has been restored to a superb standard! I’d have happily paid $40 for the train ride as a standalone attraction. All of a sudden that leaves $60 for an amazing four course meal. Now the food was of a very high standard but even to me this would only just represent reasonable value given the wine costs extra. However the overall experience is far more than the sum of the component parts. The full service was excellent and the staff were well disciplined, dressed in Polar Express style uniforms (unfortunately they didn’t break into dance while delivering hot chocolate… but you always had the feeling they might!). If you can appreciate the extra value that the location and train journey adds, are in excellent company and add a little alcohol into the mix, then like me you should be in for an awesome treat. Is the Wine Train any better than driving up the highway to St Helena yourself? We did both and found that there was no comparison… so suggest you don’t try to make one. Driving was fun and we stopped as we pleased to look around the towns or buy fruit from the roadside stalls… but the train was slower and allowed us to take in the environment, food and alcohol all at the same time! A priceless combination. In addition, the viewpoint from the train is considerably more elevated than that of a car. There are a few things you do need to be aware of before your trip to set your expectations accordingly and I can sympathise with some of the previous negative reviewers to whom some of this may have been a surprise. Your evening dinner meal will be split across two seatings in two different carriages. You will eat most of your meal later if you are seated second in the dining carriage. All this information is on the Wine Train website in considerable detail, read it, arrive at the station at the time stated and you should get your preference. Also the view out of the west side of the train is very slightly more picturesque than the east which looks across the highway. When you move from your first carriage to the second carriage they do assign you a seat on the opposite side of the train to be fair to everyone… but if the sun has set by this time there is a chance you could miss out. The whole experience is very very highly recommended by us as a thirty-something couple on holiday who love food, wine, great scenery and can appreciate the novel mode of transport. If your reading this then that’s great as your doing some research. Take a look at the information on Wine Train website and decide for yourself whether the ingredients are there to make this a great trip out for you. We loved it… what’s not to like?!
Margo C.
Yelp.com
We took my father on the Vista Dome for his 90th Birthday last week. He is now using a wheelchair and the staff accommodated his situation with grace and consideration. They allowed us to enter the train first and choose our table. We went on the lunch tour and I think it might get dark on the dinner tour which would preclude seeing the wonderful wineries. My father is French and has eaten at gourmet restaurants all over the world. The gourmet lunch we were served was excellent as was the wine we purchased. The service from start to finish was just as excellent. Also, I forgot my scarf and called days later. The staff had found it and they are mailing it back to my home address. I was delighted!
Sharon P.
Yelp.com
Wow!!! This was so awesome. The train is beautiful, go for the vista dome if you can but either way the train is amazing. Our food was outstanding, my husband said the beef tenderloin tasted like a filet, I had the delicious swordfish. Deserts were to die for. Yes the initial views on the way out of town are not great but the train makes up for it. A definite cool thing to do.
Lisa A.
Yelp.com
We had the Vintner's luncheon, and loved it!!! The train trip starts out in the downtown business district but quickly rolls into the vineyards and winerys of Napa. The food and wine pairing was devine. I would gladly recommend this to anyone interested in starting a trip to Napa. Nice for the first excursion of a long weekend.
Denise H.
Yelp.com
We went on the train for lunch with my husband's grandfather, and had a great time. The train is gorgeous. We had appetizers first, and decided to split a bottle of wine (since the cost of individual glasses for each of us approached the cost of a bottle). After appetizers and wine, we explored the train for a bit. I'll admit, navigating a moving train after the wine was TRICKY. The husband pointed out that if I wobbled no one would know if it was the train or the alcohol. :-) We did the wine tasting, and the pours were VERY generous! I ended up taking a glass with me to lunch. At the tasting we also chatted with other folks on the train, so it was a fun experience. Lunch was excellent. Each entree had a suggested wine pairing, but we had had enough wine by then. :-) Back at the station, we had a chance to buy the wines we had sampled (we did!) as well as these neat bubble wrap cases to help protect them in our suitcases on the flight home (none broke!). We also purchased 2 copies of the picture - one for us and one for the husband's grandfather (who loved it!). The salesperson was nice enough to include an extra print since we had to wait (so we got 3 pictures and 2 frames). Bonus!
Winetrain Customer
Email Survey
Very very difficult to find faults! I suppose the only "bad" thing was the construction going on around the station and the platform. That's not within your control, which I understand. Otherwise the whole experience was wonderful. The train was not completely full, which I imagine was also a benefit. Might have been crowded and difficult to move about if/when full. But we had a marvelous time and will absolutely come and do it again!