CULINARY GLOBE-TROTTING THROUGH THE SONOMA + NAPA VALLEYS
With a heavy concentration of Michelin-rated restaurants, plus farm-to-table and international dishes made with utmost care, the Napa and Sonoma valleys have all the ingredients for a flavor-packed escape — and we haven’t even mentioned the wine! You’ll only scratch the surface of Northern California’s culinary landscape on this three-day extravaganza, but it’ll be *chef’s kiss* good.
WRITER ALLISON VANCURA
FLOWERS VINEYARDS & WINERY
FRIDAY
Sonoma + Healdsburg
Morning
The historic 8-acre Sonoma Plaza was designed by Mariano Vallejo, a military leader and politician who was instrumental in helping California become a U.S. state. Today, it is the state’s largest plaza, filled with trees, gourmet shops, restaurants, tasting rooms, and stately buildings like the stone-clad City Hall and the Mission San Francisco Solano. Park and drink in your surroundings for an hour or two before lunch.
Afternoon
You’ve just arrived in Sonoma, but La Salette, a lively restaurant right in the square, will whisk you off to sunny Portugal. Tuck into steaming helpings of cod cakes and Portuguese fisherman’s stew, and sit on the outdoor patio for the full ambient effect. After lunch, head about an hour north to take in one of Sonoma Valley’s most glam cities, Healdsburg. You could devote your afternoon to its downtown tasting rooms and boutiques, but then you’d miss a chance to observe the area’s rippling topography. During a guided tasting amid the verdant gardens and redwoods at Flowers Vineyards & Winery, you’ll learn how the Sonoma Coast lends a distinct minerality to the vineyard’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Evening
Michelin-starred Barndiva inspires European-style romance in a rustic-minimalist setting. The barnlike events space, restaurant, and adjacent gardens spread out over a half-acre in the middle of Healdsburg. Plates large and small revolve around Sonoma’s seasonality and local purveyors, and garden-inspired cocktails nod to the property’s lush vegetation. One must-order app? Croquettes with Laura Chenel goat cheese, tomato jam, and lavender.
THE CHARTER OAK
SATURDAY
Calistoga + St. Helena
Morning
Rise and shine! A 30-minute drive southeast of Healdsburg near the Sonoma County line in Calistoga, the Petrified Forest is a fascinating place to commune with nature. Take a self-guided, 40-minute hike amid fossilized redwood trees that date back 3.4 million years. Or, if a spa day is more your speed, refresh your body for another day of exploration during a mud bath at Indian Springs in Calistoga. This famous (and famously healing) treatment consists of volcanic ash from the grounds and thermal mineral water from local geysers.
Afternoon
By now you’ve worked up an appetite, so head about 22 minutes south to The Charter Oak in St. Helena. Shared plates and a seasonal menu showcasing ingredients from its 3.5-acre culinary farm are a focus at this family-style spot from Christopher and Martina Kostow. After lunch, first-rate shopping awaits in historic downtown St. Helena. Browse giftables and paper goods at Pennyweight, clothing at elysewalker, garden tools and accessories at Acres Home & Garden, and more.
Evening
Chef Philip Tessier’s refined modern-American fare, top-notch cocktails, and a 10,000-bottle collection of Napa Valley wines — the largest in the world — draw patrons to PRESS restaurant, an expansive venue enveloped by neighboring vineyards along CA-29 in St. Helena. Its seasonal menu reflects Napa Valley’s bounty at any given time; in spring, prepare your palate for ingredients like peas, trumpet mushrooms, and mustard blossoms.
SCALA OSTERIA & BAR
SUNDAY
Yountville + Napa
Morning
Chef Thomas Keller has several outposts in Yountville — including The French Laundry and Ad Hoc + Addendum — and a breakfast of colorful macarons and espresso at his boulangerie-inspired Bouchon Bakery is a fine way to start your morning. You’ll also be tempted by luscious pain au chocolat, fruit-filled tarts, and flaky croissants, but be careful not to spoil your appetite: The Bacon + Wine Experience tasting at Priest Ranch Winery, just a 5-minute walk down Washington Street, is next on the agenda. This unique pairing includes a sampling of four cuts of pork belly and curated wines.
Afternoon
Pick up provisions like wildflower honey, Meyer lemon oil, bacon-onion jam, and cheese at Oakville Grocery, a hip roadside general store that dates back to 1881. You’re headed to a hands-on food or beverage class CIA at Coppia, next to Oxbow Public Market. (Book in advance — spots fill up fast!) Once class is dismissed, explore more of the market for wine-country souvenirs, or venture beyond its walls to pop into shops and tasting rooms along First Street. When your stomach is rumbling again, decadent, Southern Italian-inspired pastas like Ravioli al Limone (spinach, ricotta, and Parmesan-stuffed pasta in a lemon cream sauce) await at Scala Osteria & Bar, a stylish sister restaurant to Bistro Don Giovanni.
Evening
Shun — a Japanese word for experiencing seasonal food in its freshest state — is an integral part of the dining experience at Kenzo, an intimate 27-seat restaurant helmed by Kenzo and Natsuko Tsujimoto, partners in business and life. Seafood is flown in daily from their native Japan, then transformed into artistic platings that pair beautifully with sakes and wines from around the world — a fitting finale to your globe-trotting culinary journey.
FIND YOUR NEXT CHANGE OF SCENERY IN THESE CALIFORNIA AND ARIZONA NATIONAL PARKS
We could all use a little time to disconnect, and luckily, there’s a collection of parks in Arizona and California that can help us find a moment (or two) of zen. You just have to choose: Towering cacti or plunging waterfalls? Wildflower meadows or multihued deserts?
WRITER AUSTIN CANNON
Yosemite National Park
CALIFORNIA
Melting snow makes spring and early summer the ideal times to witness Yosemite National Park's awe-inspiring waterfalls. In Yosemite Valley, Yosemite Falls is one of the world’s tallest, sending water down 2,425 feet, while Sentinel Falls on the south end of the valley tumbles down rock faces for roughly 2,000 feet. Keep your eyes skyward as you head to the southern part of the park, where scores of giant sequoias reach immense heights in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.WHERE TO STAY:Fairfield Inn & Suites Oakhurst-Yosemite
Tahoe National Forest
CALIFORNIA
The rugged Sierra Nevada mountains provide a picturesque backdrop for Tahoe National Forest in northeast California. With over 100 hiking trails to choose from, be immersed in a forest of fir, aspen, and pine trees. (Keep an eye out for the sugar pines and their gargantuan pinecones!) Discover more flora in clearings like Loney Meadow, where an interpretive trail snakes past fawn lilies, violets, and other wildflowers that begin blooming in June.
WHERE TO STAY:Red Wolf Lakeside
Saguaro National Park
ARIZONA
Outside Tucson, Saguaro National Park is named for the nation’s largest species of cacti, the Sonoran Desert’s sky-scraping saguaro. These quintessential symbols of the American West — which can grow up to 50 feet tall and require a unique balance of heat and rainfall — exist only in this stretch of desert extending from central Arizona to Sonora, Mexico. You’ll see plenty at the Gates Pass overlook, the ideal spot to watch the sun descend beneath the mountains just east of the national park.
WHERE TO STAY:Club Wyndham Starr Pass Golf Suites
Petrified Forest National Park
ARIZONA
In the middle of Arizona’s Painted Desert, this park’s namesake are logs more than 200 million years old, transformed into rainbow-color deposits of quartz over the millennia. Get an up-close look at those fossils during a hike through the park, and budget time for a stop at Devil’s Playground. Its eroded towers of rock, colored in hues of blue, gray, and purple are a natural masterpiece.
WHERE TO STAY:Club Wyndham Bison Ranch or Club Wyndham Pinetop
Our planet is aglow with beauty. Many of its most novel features require venturing beyond the city or into the dark. The following natural experiences and destinations call to those with a sense of wonder and hunger for mystery.
WRITER TREE MEINCH
The viral photos barely scratch the surface. You have to glimpse the raw spectacle in person to grasp the many faces of the northern lights. In one moment, they’re pulsing like flashes of sleepy lightning. Then they might resemble a cosmic green blow torch scorching the blackness of space. Sometimes they display columns of light shooting out of the horizon, or they rain down shimmering ribbons and sheets of color when directly overhead. The key to a successful encounter is patience and persistence, while you hope for coronal mass ejections and ideal solar winds. When optimum conditions strike, your odds of spotting the show increase the farther north you go. Finnish Lapland has become a mecca for aurora hunters. Here, the heavenly display is visible nearly every other night between August and April in this remote northern terrain. To make it extra unforgettable and cozy, warm up in a laavu. These wilderness huts are often equipped with firewood; bring fire-starting essentials and roast Finnish sausages or marshmallows over an open flame while you wait for the lights to emerge.
WHERE TO STAY: Resorts in Finnish Lapland
LAPLAND, FINLAND
Northern Lights
With more than 2,000 documented structures, Arches National Park claims the densest concentration of natural stone arches in the world. They also happen to sprawl out under some of the darkest skies in the contiguous U.S. states. Plenty of short trails, such as Double Arch, The Windows, and Skyline Arch, lure road-trippers for mesmerizing pit stops and day trips. But the true reward captivates those who stay late under the glimmering canvas above. After dark, the namesake geological features throughout this landscape form massive picture frames for constellations, the moon, and other celestial bodies. Sunrise and sunset also paint the land in stunning tones of red, pink, and orange. Consider booking your visit around one of the ranger-led star parties or stargazing events announced on the Arches National Park website. Or gather some friends and chart your own after-dark adventure. Local tip: The farther north you drive in the park, the farther you get from Moab and the darker the skies become.
WHERE TO STAY:WorldMark Moab
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, UTAH
International Dark Sky Park
NORTHWEST OF OSOYOOS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
In the summer, hundreds of colorful pools near Osoyoos contain one of the world’s highest concentrations of Epsom salts, calcium, and other minerals. The watery craters form like colorful dimples on a golf ball as the lake water evaporates under intense heat. For hundreds of years, the Syilx Okanagan People has considered this a sacred site (called kɬlil̕xʷ) that many tribes visited for medicinal purposes. The Okanagan tribal chiefs explain that countless ceremonial cairns line the perimeter of the lake, some of them placed so long ago they have mostly sunk underground with only their tops remaining visible. Most visitors today can only marvel at the private site from a distance, parking on the side of Highway 3 northwest of Osoyoos.
WHERE TO STAY: The Delta Grand Okanagan Resort And Conference Centre
Spotted Lake
Step aside, sunshine. On Holbox Island and other beaches, sunny days can take a back seat to dark nights when it comes to ocean novelty. During moonless nights, shimmering magic often emerges for those who resist the urge to use artificial lights on a nighttime beach walk. Ocean bioluminescence is the other-worldly phenomenon when the sea lights up with blue and neon sparkles. The source: tiny bioluminescent plankton that glow like fireflies when disturbed. The crashing of waves or simply running your hand through the water can activate the organisms. In mass, the effect can resemble a sparkly snow globe. For a truly spectacular encounter, try swimming through bioluminescent water and take a peek below the surface with a mask or goggles. Some tourism destinations offer kayak tours through the waters where this magical plankton is known to congregate.
WHERE TO STAY: AI Hard Rock Hotel Cancun
HOLBOX ISLAND
Bioluminescent Plankton
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS, TENNESSEE
You’ve likely witnessed a crowd of fans coordinate the wave in a packed stadium. If you thought that was impressive, imagine a similar movement executed by hundreds of fireflies drifting through a wild mountainside forest. That’s how some viewers describe the seasonal dance of the synchronous fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains. Each year in early summer, the mating ritual of the Photinus carolinus firefly draws scores of tourists deep into the woods of Tennessee — the winners of thelimited lottery or attendees that tens of thousands enter yearly. For those who land a ticket, right around dusk, they hike until the first glimpse of a beloved bug flickering like the first star of the night. Then more and more join the pulse until an army synchronizes for a night of amorous connection. The attraction is part of a globally growing movement, now with some 1 million people traveling to select locations each year to participate in firefly tourism.
WHERE TO STAY:Bent Creek Golf Village, a Hilton Vacation Club
