After our visit to the Padre is time to go to Yosemite Valley. But our stay there is not really for this website, because it’s far from luxurious. After hiking this shit out of Yosemite it’s time for some relaxing in Napa Valley. And we’re staying at the Meritage, one of the most famous hotels in this wine country.

And again, the hotel is massive. And again, like we said before in our Venetian review, this shouldn’t be a problem because you can be personal in a bigger hotel. It’s just that a lot of hotels don’t seem to know how to dot it. Maybe they can all go and sleep a few nights at San Diego’s Hotel Del Coronado, because they actually know…

Anyway, checkin goes smooth. We don’t really feel special which isn’t that hard to do, but it seems like the check-in girl doesn’t care. We get our room number but there’s not one person of the hotel staff that walks us to the room or helps us with the bags. Of course we don’t need help, we can take care of ourselves, but still, the hotel staff should at least offer the help (and a really good hotel helps even when you say you don’t need their help). The weird thing with this is the fact Americans usually stand out for their hospitality, and this is second hotel we’ve encountered none.

When we get to the room we notice that our key doesn’t work. We have to go all the way back to the reception to ask what’s wrong and they tell us the key has the wrong room ‘attached’ to it. No wonder we didn’t get a good feeling at the check-in, the girl was doing al kinds of other stuff accept paying attention.

Right. Enough with the complaining you think. How about the room? Well, the room is pretty excellent. There’s a complementary bottle of wine and there’s the view of the vineyards, which is pretty cool if you’ve never been to Napa Valley. For a good impression we urge you to take a closer look at the pictures because we can write out a 1000 words but a good visual about the Meritage in Napa Valley will do a lot more ‘damage’ if you ask us.

The next morning we don’t go for breakfast at the hotel. This isn’t complementary in your stay so you’ll have to be paying extra for something we’re used to be getting for free. This thing with not having your breakfast as part of the fee you’re paying at the hotel is something we can’t get used to. But, it is what it is and we can keep on complaining about it or find solutions. Our solution in this case is called Wholefoods.

After a cool bike ride, some sightseeing and our first encounter with In-N-Out-Burger we arrive back at the hotel. We decide to spend some time next to the bar which is located in the bowling area. The area is packed but it doesn’t feel al that welcoming. We decide to leave after just one drink.   

Price range: From €320,- a night
More information: Meritage Resort website
TripAdvisor: link
Google: maps
Rating: 7