You’re in the Bay Area for the Super Bowl, but that’s not all you hope to indulge in while you’re here. You also want to take advantage of your proximity to California’s premier wine country in Napa and Sonoma. Of course you could just get in your car, set the GPS and start driving but you know enough to realize that there is more than one fabulous area for wine tasting near San Francisco and you have only so much time to squeeze in all you want to do.

To help you choose where you’re going, plan the timing and chart your course, in the chart below we have provided the rough distance from various starting points in the Bay Area to one of the three most frequented wine tasting destinations in the area. While you may not have heard much about it, Livermore is gaining popularity among locals as a close-in wine-tasting experience, depending on your starting point.

Don’t start off clueless though or you’ll find you’ve spent a long, long day driving and haven’t done adequate planning for a comfortable round trip back to your lodgings. If you’re staying in the Santa Clara area and touring time is short you can go to lesser known Livermore. You won’t get the bragging rights of having visited the world famous Napa or Sonoma wine country, but you’ll have a good time and taste some great wine. Also, be aware that wineries charge wine-tasting fees typically from $5-$15 per person in Livermore, from $10 to $25 in Sonoma county and $60 or more in Napa county.

Check out the distances below.

	Napa	Sonoma			Livermore
		Russian River	Sonoma Valley
Distance from Santa Clara County	87 miles	101 miles	93 miles		30 miles
Distance from San Mateo County	66 miles	82 miles	64 miles		41 mile
Distance from San Francisco County*	49 miles	55 miles	44 miles		44 miles
Distance from Alameda County	58 miles	73 miles	67 miles		21 miles
Distance from Contra Costa County	39 miles	65 miles	46 miles		28 miles
Distance from Solano County	28 miles	64 miles	35 miles		64 miles
Distance from Marin County	36 miles	38 miles	27 miles		54 miles
Distance from Sonoma County	14 miles				72 miles
Distance from Napa County		40 miles	14 miles		63 miles
Sacramento County	61 miles	97 miles	68 miles		88 miles

*From San Francisco, you can take a ferry over to Vallejo and get picked up by Platypus Tours. They offer join-in and charter tours. You might even ask for their tour guide turned author, Andy Hyman.

Where ever you end up sipping wine, you’ll have a richer expereinece if you know a tad about it. Check out Andy’s Snob Free Wine Tasting Companion, Wine Smart in a Day available in paperback and e-book format. Download the e-book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or the iBookstore.