The Sonoma Valley is one of California’s oldest and most renowned wine regions. On this full-day tour, travel around the Sonoma Valley in a Vintage VW bus and visit award-winning wineries. Learn all about the winemaking process as you tour a wine cave, sample a variety of Californian wines during guided wine tastings, and tuck into a gourmet Italian-style lunch at a winery restaurant.

Guided wine tastings at Sonoma Valley Wineries
Delicious lunch of gourmet Italian cuisine and regional wines
Round-trip transport from San Francisco in a vintage VW bus
Small-group tour ensures an intimate tasting experience
Option to upgrade to a private tour for up to 6 people

What's Included

Complimentary mimosas and Chocolate Truffle
Discounted tasting fee
Golden Gate Bridge Photo op
Bottled water and light snack
Visit 3 award winning wineries plus wine CAVE
Ride along our Famous Painted Ladies City tour
Professional Tour Guide

Cost of lunch- Usually averages between $10-20
Gratuities
All the Tasting fees -some can be waived with bottle purchasing-

Meeting And Pickup

You can head directly to your preferred meeting point, or request pickup.

Meeting points

Select a meeting point

Type to search

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Pickup details

Hotel pickups around Union Square are between 8:45-9a.m. and pickups in the Fishermans Wharf area are between 9:00-9:15a.m.. Please provide the number you can be reached at so that our guides can call you and give you an exact ETA. If your hotel is not listed, please meet us at 427 Post St. (Union Square pickup) or 1300 Columbus Ave (Fishermans Wharf pickup)

What To Expect

Union Square

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Golden Gate Bridge

Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
For the shared tour option, a minimum number of 4 people applies. There is a possibility of cancellation after confirmation if there are not enough passengers to meet requirements. In the event of this occurring, you will be offered an alternative or full refund
Stroller accessible
Recommended tip amount : tips make up a large chunk of our tour guide income in the US) Thank you for being considerate as we would like to give you a Professional tour guide.
If you prefer to eat lunch at the Sonoma Plaza- please let us know. We might be able to make that happen. Depending on the group consensus.
Service animals allowed
Near public transportation

Most travelers can participate
Note that each vehicle seats up to 7 people total. We can still accommodate larger groups seated in separate vehicles.
Everyone in your group needs to complete our digital waiver.
COVID-19: A plexiglass partition has been installed between the driver and passengers. The touch points on our buses will be fully disinfected between and during tours.
Anyone showing symptoms of COVID 19, including fever, cough or shortness of breath won’t be able to participate.
Everyone will be required to wear a mask while inside the bus. We will have extra masks for purchase in case you have forgotten yours. Hand sanitizer will be provided.
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 14 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Featured review

Cyndee_K

Our guide, Jamie, was very knowledgeable about the San Francisco area. It was so much fun going around in a vintage BW microbus. We visited 3 family owned wineries and tasted some wonderful wines. Lunch was at another family owned restaurant featuring more family owned wines. The tour ended at a family owned wine cave. Overall a very enjoyable day and I would definitely recommend The Painted Ladies Tour.

Reviews

5.0

262 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

Showing 1-10 of 262 reviews

Awesome

Karen_C, Sep 2023

We had a great guide Glen..he was very informative and the shared his passion about Sonoma. The other passengers with us made it so fun..great tour

Perfect Napa day trip.

Dan_K, Aug 2023

Al was great. He helped keep us on schedule but didn't rush the group. The wineries were perfectly spaced apart to not be overwhelming. Definitely would recommend this to others and do again if I in the area!

Definitely a Magic Bus kind of tour!

Cyndee_K, Jul 2023

Lots of fun!

Jeffrey_P, Jul 2023

We had a great time! The wineries were picturesque and offered delicious selections for tasting, and our guide and chauffeur, Al, was friendly and knowledgeable. The charming vintage VW bus added a whimsical touch. Tasting fees were extra. Lots of fun.

Mom & Daughter girls trip!

Nathalie_l, Jul 2023

Jim was an excellent tour guide. He is a native San Franciscan which made for a wealth of knowledge throughout the tour as we drove through the city into Sonoma. I enjoyed the scenic routes in our classic VW van. I felt welcomed at every wine tasting and felt like each winery was unique, offering different environments, types of wines, and food options. It was a relaxing day trip, and I highly recommend it while visiting beautiful SF.

So much fun! Book this trip!

Mysha_H, Jul 2023

We had a great time on this trip! The van made it even more fun! Highly recommend over a large tour!

Lean back and have fun!

Jwayton, Jul 2023

We had a great time! The wine tastings were good, and served at a tour discount. There was nice variety in the wines served and their venues too. Riding in the van was fun, keeping in mind that you are riding in a ~50 year old vehicle. Overall this was a great, fun way to enjoy Sonoma!

Awesome

Nick_C, Jul 2023

Our tour guide Jim was awesome. He made the whole experience fun and he was very knowledgeable . I would definitely recommend this tour.

Worth it!!

Arianna_M, Jun 2023

It was such an amazing wine tour!!! Food and selected wine tours were also on point 👌🏼. My family and I enjoyed the small group experience- Caio our tour guide/driver was awesome and we enjoyed his playlist all the way!!

Fun day

Shannon_C, May 2023

We had a very fun and positive experience on our tour. Nobody in our group had been on a wine tasting and this one looked fun. That’s exactly what we got. The mimosa at the view of GG bridge was perfect and set the tone for the day. Our tour guide, Caio, played wonderful tunes and our van, Poppy, was a perfect vehicle. If you want a fun, wine tasting experience, book this tour.

Cool experiences

Charyl_P, Dec 2022

Very good tour guide. Van had no heat, Feet were frozen. No snacks were served as described. Did have mimmosas. I would have preferred a tour where the tastings fees were included.

Making memories

Marietta_R, Dec 2022

Caio was the best tour guide. From his knowledge about the San Francisco and Sonoma areas to his music selection’s. We loved the wineries, the food at VJBs was delicious and the wine at Deerfield Ranch was exceptional. Thanks Caio for a memorable day, we loved it. Marietta Australia

Visiting the 3 wineries...

Ilona_C, Sep 2022

Visiting the 3 wineries in Sonoma and Napa! Really my favorite was Roche. I loved their outdoor serving area...it was beautiful. Our tour guide was originally from Brazil and he was outstanding!!! The only concern was the Viator original write up that we booked said lunch was included which it definitely was not. We found out via a follow up email that lunch was not part of the price. It was very misleading the Viator description needs to be accurate!

A delightful experience!

Helena_A, Sep 2022

This was such an enjoyable tour! I love how small our group was. Our tour guide was very friendly, and full of information. I love how much he knew about wine, the Vinyards, and about San Francisco. He gave us great recommendations for dinner and sightseeing. The VW van was comfortable and oh so cute!!

Best tour ever!!!

JeanMichel_N, Jul 2022

Glen’s Energy made our tour a success! The music, the wine were the best! We would do it again! Everyone was very nice!!!

Fun day out!

Dionne_H, Jul 2022

Lots of fun. If you are not particular about wines this is for you. The lunch place was a bit more commercial than expected but understood why we went there since we had 3 wineries to fit in. Would recommend for a fun day out! Caio was really great! 🙌🏾

Rather Pricey

Christine_G, Jul 2022

We really enjoyed the experience of riding in the Volkswagon bus, but feel like it was rather pricey, since we still had to pay for wine tastings which totaled $70. We also paid for our lunch, so the price for the trip only paid for being driven to the wineries.

Response from Host, Jul 2022

Hi Christine, we are taken aback with your review as we went above and beyond to make this tour happen for you. Even though the min of passengers was not met, we made it happen for you as you were not flexible with your dates. And you really expressed an interest in wanting to do it. Not only did we decide to still run the tour for just the two of you, we only charged you 1/4 th of the price of what it would have costed for a private tour- you were also given discounted wine tasting fees as we have build partnerships with our wineries and you get a VIP treatment. the wine tasting fees in Napa/Sonoma have gone up anywhere from 40$ -70$per person per tasting sometimes. Ours are around $20. We start the wine tour of with complimentary mimosas. As a token of our love , you get to choose a custom made chocolate truffle of your choosing at a chocolatier. We are a small boutique wine tour company and we take pride in what we offer and we feel the price is totally fair comparing to other wine tour companies. We are the number 1 wine tour company as well. It’s good to toot your own horns sometimes. We are sorry that you did not see the value in what we offer and recommend maybe you go with big bus tour companies. Please remember that small businesses like ourselves have gone under extremely challenging circumstances ( Covid, gas prices have gone up, economic recession, understaffed , a family to take care of at home,…)Maybe something to think about before you write a review like yourself in this situation? In future, If for some reason you are not happy please reach out to us directly as we aim to please our customer as you can see from all the positive reviews we have gotten over the years . We are thankful for our customers that you have chosen us to spend your day with. Love #supportsmallbusiness

Amazing Tour

Melissa_M, Jun 2022

We had so much fun on this wine tour! The VW bus (Poppy) was amazing and it's the best way to travel in California! Our guide, Caio, was so much fun and very knowledgeable. He went above and beyond to make sure we had amazing photos and that every one was comfortable during the whole trip! We had a great time at all of the wineries and loved every minute of this trip!

No pretense wine excursion

David_S, Jun 2022

This is a very down to earth friendly no pretense wine tasting to vineyards that are small and don’t mass produce. Since the van can only hold 8 (incl driver) it’s a fun couple of hours at making instant friends. Highly recommend.

It was such an amazing...

Jamie_R, May 2022

It was such an amazing time at some amazing and unique wineries! The whole experience is different than any other tour I have been on in the past. I will be recommending this to anyone visiting the San Francisco area!

...