Chateau de Vie — Hotel in Napa Valley AVA

Picked the end of December for a drive down from Sacramento to Los Angeles along the west coast, on the beautiful, incomparable US Coastal Highway 1. This was along anticipated, 36-year dream plan to experience that coastline up close… Of course, the weather and our airline (Southwest) both conspired to screw things up royally !! It rained every day of our 10-day vacation except the last, and when we were to fly from Seattle to Sacramento, the airline industry had a meltdown, leaving us stranded at SeaTac at 5:30 in the morning. Well, we couldn’t give up, and rented a car and drove 17 hours through pelting rain to get to CA and assume our planned itinerary. Wouldn’t advise anyone to try this !!||Calistoga ! A small town nestled in the lush, green and verdant Napa Valley, crawling with grape vines and some of the greatest American winemakers, in the heart of the West Coast wine region. We were there in winter, and it was beautiful to the New York City eye... I can just imagine what summer does here.||The Chateau is set in a huge vineyard right off Route 128, and the views all around are gorgeous, by day. Due to the almost unending drive down from Seattle, we arrived too late in the night to see anything (it was actually a bit spooky as we turned towards the parking lot.) There was no one around (understandably, for the hour) and they had done the “we’ll leave the light on” for us, like Motel 6. Our key had been left in the lobby, so we crept quietly into the Villa to unwind and bed down, trying not to disturb any other guests.||The room, on the second floor, was a bit disappointing: it had just a bed, two bedside tables, a large chair, a folding luggage rack and a locked wardrobe that we could not use. No TV or clothes iron & ironing board, unless they were in the wardrobe that wouldn’t open – never found out. And there was no water or ice to be found, so I had to go poking around the dining room and kitchens on the main floor to find a couple of glasses so we could have some wine and de-stress. The bathroom, which was supposed to be private, was across the hall and had a sign on the door that said it was only to be used by us. I guess that’s “private”, somewhat..? There seemed to be two other rooms on the floor, and we don’t know how that works. The bath, however, was spacious, spotlessly clean, well equipped and very acceptably functional. ||We found coffee laid out in the hall outside our room in the morning, which was very nice, and were served a wonderful and scrumptious breakfast in the dining room. It included fruit, juices, coffee, breads and everything one can handle at the. And another couple to chat with as we ate. The hosts were very courteous, attentive and accommodating, asking after our preferences to tweak the offerings to our likes and provided a very enjoyable start to the day. ||The view of the mountains and vineyards from the second floor was just amazing, and serenely bucolic. Morning mists rising from the rows upon rows of grape trellises and wet, grassy fields everywhere, a quiet calm broken only by birdsong, and still heavily overcast skies as the rain took a break to allow us a few minutes to walk around the property before setting out on our way south.||Well worth the visit, though a bit pricey. We should have done this with more time to stay and enjoy their wine and property. And perhaps find the TV...

I’ll start by saying that, just as I did, you’ll probably be able to get a much better stay in Calistoga in another property for a fraction of the price. ||||Despite property descriptions and their website, I did not witness anything luxury about this place, apart from the diner. I was at the property for only a couple of hours but that was more than enough. ||||-Photos are a bit deceiving - everything in real life is a lot smaller, especially the pool and bathrooms. I sat down on the toilet and my knees were bumping against the bathroom door. Pool size was not fit for the amount of guests the property can accommodate and looks twice as big in the photos.||||-No sound isolation whatsoever. You can hear people sneeze/talk/get changed in the rooms next to yours, no sense of privacy whatsoever. To add to this disaster, each room is operated by a PIN code rather than a key. In our case, rather than showing or handing us the PIN, the host just said the PIN out loud for us to try out from the hallway - the implication being that other people probably heard it and our room was essentially unlocked for everybody. I had more privacy when I lived in student halls at uni than at this ‘’luxury’’ chateau.||||-I had a query about our reservation where we initially wanted to stay an extra night at the property, however, it was near impossible to get hold of the property - 3 contact numbers, 2 email addresses and Booking messaging system later, we finally received a 1-sentence response via Booking messenger with the property completely misunderstanding our request and providing the wrong advice which completely paralysed our options when it came to our time in Napa valley. Their attempt to remedy the situation was a bottle of wine - which we explained we’re unlikely to be able to accept as we’re due to catch a flight back and our luggage was already full. No other offers or solutions to rectify the poor customer experience.||||Overall, not worth the money, especially considering...

I’ll start by saying that, just as I did, you’ll probably be able to get a much better stay in Calistoga in another property for a fraction of the price. ||Despite property descriptions and their website, I did not witness anything luxury about this place, apart from the diner. I was at the property for only a couple of hours but that was more than enough. ||-Photos are a bit deceiving - everything in real life is a lot smaller, especially the pool and bathrooms. I sat down on the toilet and my knees were bumping against the bathroom door. Pool size was not fit for the amount of guests the property can accommodate and looks twice as big in the photos.||-No sound isolation whatsoever. You can hear people sneeze/talk/get changed in the rooms next to yours, no sense of privacy whatsoever. To add to this disaster, each room is operated by a PIN code rather than a key. In our case, rather than showing or handing us the PIN, the host just said the PIN out loud for us to try out from the hallway - the implication being that other people probably heard it and our room was essentially unlocked for everybody. I had more privacy when I lived in student halls at uni than at this ‘’luxury’’ chateau.||-I had a query about our reservation where we initially wanted to stay an extra night at the property, however, it was near impossible to get hold of the property - 3 contact numbers, 2 email addresses and Booking messaging system later, we finally received a 1-sentence response via Booking messenger with the property completely misunderstanding our request and providing the wrong advice which completely paralysed our options when it came to our time in Napa valley. Their attempt to remedy the situation was a bottle of wine - which we explained we’re unlikely to be able to accept as we’re due to catch a flight back and our luggage was already full. No other offers or solutions to rectify the poor customer experience.||Overall, not worth the money, especially considering...