Napa For Kids

Napa for Kids: California wine country vacation offers special treats for the entire family

When I tell people we went to Napa Valley for a family vacation this summer, people look at me in surprise and ask, “With the kids?” Yes, with the kids. We spent five glorious, sun-filled days in northern California with a 9-, 7- and 2-year-old in tow.

We enjoyed world-class wines, ate at fine restaurants, visited a geyser and picnicked our way through Napa Valley. Though we had to make some concessions for our napping toddler, there was plenty to do, and the whole family enjoyed it. Here’s how we did it.

Pre-travel preparation

Don’t spring any kind of trip on your kids. Get travel books and watch travel shows about the region you’re going to visit. We like the DK Eyewitness Guidebooks, like Top 10: California Wine Country. If you’re also going to San Francisco while in the area, get San Francisco and Northern California.

Anticipation is a key factor in having a happy trip. We love to watch our kids’ faces light up when what they read comes to life. For example, they were so excited to see bunches of grapes dangling heavily on vines when we visited Vincent Arroyo Winery.

Because the staff was so happy to see children interested in their craft, they gave us a private tour of the vineyard, explained the winemaking process and even took us into the barrel room where they siphoned port directly from a barrel.

Make your restaurant and wine-tasting reservations. Napa Valley gets busy, so it’s worth it to do some legwork before the trip and get your bookings in place — especially if you have young kids who may not be able to wait patiently. Napa Tourist Guide was invaluable.

Sign up for a Priority Wine Pass, which gets you complimentary wine tastings or 2-for-1 tasting deals, wine club discounts, and priority service. This also helped plan out which vineyards we wanted to visit, like Hall Wines in Saint Helena, owned by Dallas-based Hall Financial Group founder Craig Hall and his wife, Kathryn.

We received a complimentary tasting and spent some time just perusing the grounds to admire the modern sculptures and artwork. The kids loved Little Bunny Foo Foo and the camel looking through the eye of the needle. Use coupon code “LOCALWALLY” (a money-saving tip from Napa Tourist Guide), and pay $45 for the card instead of $125.

Search coupon sites like Groupon or Living Social to see if they have discounted tickets for things to do in the area, like hot air ballooning. We got heavily discounted tickets to see Old Faithful Geyser in Calistoga.

Learn the rules of bocce ball. Tons of vineyards have bocce onsite, as do many restaurants. We visited Solbar at Solage Calistoga, and what a pleasure it was to sit outside sampling sparkling wines while kids played. No one batted an eyelid when the kids, covered in sand, sat at the table to dine.

Where to stay

Calistoga sits on the northern tip of Napa Valley. At just 2.5 square miles, we chose to stay at this tiny, bohemian town known for its hot springs, natural beauty and laid-back feel. Finding hotel accommodation to fit a family of five can be a challenge.

We found a great deal through Jetsetter and stayed at Sunburst Calistoga. The hotel offered suites, a geo-thermal heated pool and microwave facilities for warming up milk for baby. It’s a quaint, quiet property with midcentury modern touches, and downtown Calistoga is only a short walk away.

What to do

We split our days into segments, so there was time to be active and sightsee as well as picnic at wineries.

Old Faithful Geyser of California. Old Faithful, in Calistoga, lives up to its name, spouting out hot water every hour. There’s a small petting zoo with Tennessee fainting goats, geology museum, bocce, picnic tables and lots of room for kids to run around while waiting for the geyser to wake up. Because this is wine country, you can bring your own bottle. There are wine glasses and an opener at the front desk.

Petrified Forest. Also in Calistoga, the Petrified Forest is a treat for nature enthusiasts and science-loving kids, who can learn about the process of petrification and how these majestic redwoods turned into stone. It’s really quite mind-bending to touch wood that is 3 million years old only to find that it’s actually cold stone fossil.

Chateau Montelena Winery. This winery put Napa Valley Chardonnay on the map in 1976 a the historical Judgment of Paris wine competition. The chateau resembles an English Gothic castle gatehouse, and the beautiful grounds are worth a visit, especially for the beautiful lake with swans and ducks. Book ahead for a private vineyard tour.

Where to go for picnic supplies

For all your picnicking needs, you must go to Oakville Grocery. We bought a little of everything from this highly curated selection of products from farmers, artisans and purveyors in the Napa and Sonoma valleys. We gorged on olives, local cheeses, freshly made salmon, salads, spicy fried chicken and artisan bread.

For those heading up to a Sonoma winery to picnic, we recommend the Epicurean Connection. It’s right in the heart of Sonoma Plaza, with a gorgeous park and playground for the kids. As a bonus, the owners make their own cheese and wholesale only at Kendall Jackson winery and French Laundry.

We bought our picnic stash before visiting Larson Family Winery (free tasting with the Priority Wine pass), which is just 10 minutes away from Sonoma Plaza. Larson has picnic tables, ride-on toys for toddlers and bocce ball — but call ahead to book a table.

Thomas Keller’s Bouchon is another great place to stock up on French pastries, croissants and coffee for a brunch picnic. This is one way to try some of Keller’s world-renowned cuisine without having to book a table at the hard-to-get-into French Laundry.

Kid-friendly restaurants

Barolo in Calistoga at Mount View Hotel in downtown Calistoga features southern Italian food with a contemporary and seasonal flair. We couldn’t get enough of the homemade pastas, especially the lamb Bolognese, and the hand-spun pizzas.

In Yountville, Bistro Jeanty serves country French cuisine. We enjoyed escargot, braised pork shoulder, steak frites and duck with lentils. The service, like the food, was hearty and warm.

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A version of this story originally was published on Itty Bitty Foodies.

Larson Family Winery is a prime spot for a Napa Valley picnic.

Photo courtesy of Itty Bitty Foodies

Larson Family Winery is a prime spot for a Napa Valley picnic.

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Preservation efforts

South Texas mission makes list of America’s most endangered historic places

Facebook/Friends of the Ruidosa Church

El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus in Ruidosa, Texas is considered an endangered place.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A historic South Texas mission joins the Stonewall National Monument, the President's House Site, and the Women's Rights National Historic Park among 11 sites on this year's annual list of the most endangered historic places in the United States compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The 2026 list, announced Wednesday, May 20, marks America's 250th anniversary with the foundational principle that everyone is created equal as the theme, said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the nonprofit organization. The 11 sites offer examples of how, over time, Americans have fought against injustice and for equality, she said.

“We wanted to think about those ideas, especially this notion that all human beings are created equal and find places, sometimes unsung places ... that not all Americans routinely think about," Quillen told The Associated Press.

The sites are spread across the United States — from New York and California on the East and West Coasts, to Alabama and Texas in the South, to Michigan in the Midwest and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah in the Rocky Mountain West.

At least three of the sites — Stonewall, the El Corazon church in Texas, and President's House in Philadelphia — have been endangered by Trump administration actions.

“We want to save these places," Quillen said, “not just because the bricks and mortar is important but because the stories these places hold are important."

For the first time since the list debuted in 1988, each site on the 2026 list will receive a one-time $25,000 grant to help highlight their connections to the principle that all people are created equal and address the threats they face.

The 11 sites are:

Ruidosa, Texas: El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus
The more than century-old adobe church served as a refuge and place of worship for Mexican and Mexican American farming communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande River. Vacant since the 1950s, the structure has benefited from continued restoration provided by the nonprofit Friends of the Ruidosa Church but remains threatened by proposed construction of a U.S. border wall that could come within a few hundred yards of the property. (The nonprofit has posted an official statement and more information about the border wall here.) Ruidosa is in far west Texas, roughly 35 miles northwest of Presidio and 46 miles southwest of Marfa, near the rugged Chinati Mountains.

A historic photograph of El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus.Facebook/Friends of the Ruidosa Church

Montgomery, Alabama: Ben Moore Hotel
The hotel was a refuge for Black people living under laws that enforced racial separation in the South. Prolonged vacancy has caused structural deterioration and the historic Centennial Hill neighborhood surrounding it faces pressure from development. The hotel housed key players from the Civil Rights Movement, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy. The Conservation Fund announced in November that it would help preserve the hotel.

Modoc County, California: Tule Lake Segregation Center
Initially known as the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, it was set up as a camp but later became a segregation center where Japanese Americans who were thought to be disloyal to the United States were imprisoned. The site is now a national monument managed by the National Park Service. Only 37 acres of the 1,100-acre site is protected. Most of it is at risk of permanent alteration from a proposed nearby construction project.

California: Angel Island Immigration Station
It was the largest immigration port on the West Coast between 1910 and 1940, particularly for immigrants from Asia and the Pacific. Hundreds of thousands were processed, detained and/or interrogated there because of their race. The station currently is threatened by physical, environmental, political and economic factors. Additional funding is needed for structural repairs and programming to increase awareness.

Somerset, Massachusetts: Swansea Friends Meeting House
Recognized as the oldest surviving Quaker meeting house in the state, it was built in 1701 to serve as a refuge by a congregation fleeing religious persecution and looking for a safe place to worship. The building has been closed for years and needs significant rehabilitation.

Michigan: Detroit Association of Women's Clubs
Founded in 1921, the association was one of the first Black organizations in Detroit to own their headquarters building, which was purchased in 1941. But the building has been closed since 2024, when water pipes burst and damaged the interior. Money is needed to help the association reopen the building.

New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah: Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape
The landscape is an ancestral homeland sustained for over a millennium by the Pueblo and Hopi people, but is threatened by changes to federal land policy that could open up significant portions to oil and gas development. Permanent protections and tribal consultation are needed to protect its cultural integrity.

Seneca Falls, New York: Women's Rights National Historical Park
The park tells the story of the first Women's Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, in July 1848. It faces a deferred maintenance backlog of over $10 million. Additional funding and support are needed to help preserve the park as a place to teach visitors about the history of women's rights.

New York: Stonewall National Monument
The first and only U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history was the subject of administration actions that saw the rainbow Pride flag removed from its flagpole earlier this year before it was restored. The National Park Service had removed the flag in February, citing federal guidance that limited the agency to displaying only the American, Interior Department and POW/MIA flags. But the administration reversed course in April as it agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by advocacy and historic preservation groups that sought to block the flag's removal at the Manhattan site.

After Trump returned to office, he ended diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and many references to transgender people were excised from the Stonewall monument’s website and materials. The Republican administration similarly has put national parks, museums and landmarks under a messaging microscope, aiming to remove or alter materials that it says are “divisive or partisan” or “inappropriately disparage Americans.”

Philadelphia: The President's House Site
The administration abruptly removed exhibits on the lives of nine people enslaved at the site in the 1790s under George Washington, the first U.S. president, who lived there when Philadelphia served as the nation's capital. The exhibits were taken down as part of a broad effort by the administration to remove from federal properties information it deems “disparaging” to Americans. The issue is currently the subject of litigation between the city and federal government.

Heath Springs, South Carolina: Hanging Rock Revolutionary War Battlefield
The Battle of Hanging Rock was a key battle in the Southern Campaigns of the Revolutionary War and is considered a Patriot victory that helped boost morale and ultimately weaken British control in South Carolina. Only portions of the core battlefield are protected and open to the public, with the area anticipating population growth and increasing development pressures.