Best Places to Visit in Calistoga

One of the most relaxed and still relatively rural places in the Napa Valley has long been Calistoga. At the top of this narrow valley, the charming town has long been a refuge for long weekends, wine tasting and mud baths (both traditional and cutting edge).

It is only a half an hour drive north of the swanky town of St. Helena and is now home to hot spot restaurants and hotels like Solage, which has a beautiful terrace for outdoor dining. The incredibly walkable town is home to a number of other great restaurants.

Bosko's Trattoria

Bosko’s was one of my favorites for its big booths and solid pizza (think of it layered with tons of sausage and meatballs). The restaurant has been around for more than three decades and was once a deli and it is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Calistoga Inn Restaurant & Brewery

The Calistoga Inn Restaurant & Brewery has an open and airy feel to its main dining rooms. Salads, such as persimmon and endive, are delicious. This is also a spot for artisanal beer that has been in operation for three decades. All the beers are either served at the brewery or to-go in large-format bottles.

The MoonAcre Spa

This town used to just be home to down-home mud bath experiences where you soaked in a tub and rinsed off. Now it features multiple modern, and fun, spas where couples can slather each other in mud and then chat for an hour in adjoining tubs outfitted with fancy bath salts and rubber duckies.

The MoonAcre Spa is totally new and very fabulous. You can lie out and let the mud dry or steam it off in the co-ed steam room or lay out on the, sometimes chilly, poolside deck. They offer different types of mud for the face and the rest of your body and the downtime in the soaking tubs is key to the experience. If you want something more classic and old school, try Dr. Wilkinson’s Hot Springs Resort, which has been there for decades.

Who doesn't love a rubber duckie?

Wineries Abound

Calistoga is also a great place to visit some of the Napa Valley’s lesser-known wineries. Picayune, run by French native Claire Ducrocq Weinkauf, is a charming tasting room and store in downtown Calistoga. She stocks it with shawls she brought back from Uruguay and a mix of jewelry and housewares.

Ducrocq Weinkauf had worked in South America before coming to the States, where she met American winemaker Paul Hobbs, who hired her to work at Viña Cobos in Mendoza, Argentina. She makes a selection of low-alcohol, French-inspired wines. Some of my favorites were the Hay Penny 2016 Rosé, which is primarily Syrah with some Grenache and a touch of Barbera for color. I also loved the 2015 Pinot Noir.

Clos Pegase, right outside of the town of Calistoga, is a stunner for its art and architecture as well as the wine. Its soaring columns are striking and its 2015 Merlot Mitsuko’s Vineyard, is delicious. Merlot has an unmerited bad reputation but this one has loads of lush red fruit and a long finish.

Vicente Arroyo is another local winery, close to downtown, that features primarily Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignons. Nearby Sterling features a gondola ride up to the winery and Castello di Amorosa has its own moat (as well as faux torture chamber as scary as the one in the Tower of London).

Nature is magnificent around Calistoga.

The center of town is full of cute hotels. If you want to stay further in the country, the Triple S Ranch has luxury cabins in the woods and there’s even camping at Bothe-Napa Valley State Park.