Sonoma: Visit wine country after grape crush rush for $75 rooms

Yes, fall is the season for grape-picking, grape-crushing and festival-hopping in Napa Valley and nearby Sonoma. But lag a little and you may find yourself with better bargains on accommodations. At Sonoma Creek Inn, a budget hotel a couple miles northeast of downtown Sonoma, prices decrease come November.

Deal: The “Stay Longer, Dream More” package at this hotel includes, for $75 per night (pre-tax and based on double occupancy), a queen room and wine-tasting passes for local wineries. Plus, if a better room is available upon check in, you can get an upgrade to the best available room.

That must at least partly cover the “dream more” component of the package title because guests who “stay longer” — as in, stay two nights instead of one — get a package rate of $72.50 per night.

Rooms under a “last minute” special, on right now for stays this week, cost $99 per night, so this late-fall/winter rate is over 20% less than that current offer. The wineries for which you’ll receive tasting passes vary, and tasting fees vary by winery. But you might get passes to, for example, Ravenswood, where tastings run $10-$15, and Paradise Ridge, which charges a $10 fee.

When: The “Stay Longer, Dream More” deal is good for stays Sunday through Thursday, Nov. 1-Apr. 15, 2010. But if you happen to be planning ahead for a stay Jan. 4-31, 2010, ask instead for the “January Getaway” offer, under which you’ll get a room for $65 per night.

Tested: I had trouble with the online reservations system timing out on me, so I called about dates in early November, which had plenty of availability. The total quoted to me for two nights was about $161 after taxes.

Contact: Sonoma Creek Inn, (888) 712-1289

- Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Photo: A room at Sonoma Creek Inn. Credit: Sonoma Creek Inn

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 19, 2009 at 8:27 am by Susan Derby and is filed under California, Deals, Fall, Hotels, Northern California, Sonoma Wine Country, Winter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.