Napa: Accessibility

Knock our traffic all you want, but clock some time on Sonoma’s less picturesque U.S. 101, hauling from one backroad to the next, and you’ll pray to Dionysus for corridors as jarringly compact as Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. And, yes, Napa can bruise your bank account, but you don’t always need to pull out the platinum card for a four-star experience. The $25 Taste Napa Card gets you sipping at a dozen downtown Napa tasting rooms all within an easy-to-walk half-mile of one another.

Score: 7