1314 Mckinstry Street, Napa, CA 94559
http://www.westinnapa.com/

Recommend! Not one of the many boutique hotels in the Napa area but it is hard to beat for the space, amenities, quality and price.

With a toddler we need at least a one bedroom suite for our hotel stays since she goes to bed before we do. I expect that is a common search scenario for hotels, yet it seems travel sites don’t make it easy to search on. So while planning our first trip to the Napa Valley with our daughter, who was a toddler at the time, I posted a question to a local parents group looking for recommendations on hotels in Napa, Yountville or St. Helena with 1 or 2 bedroom suites. Two recommendations for the Westin Versa soon hit my inbox. After some further research on my own, we decided to stay there and are glad we did. It worked out really really well.

Not only do they have 1 and 2 bedroom suites, but the suites come with kitchens – a huge plus when traveling with young kids. The hotel was only a little over 2 years old, everything was modern, new and clean. The staff very pleasant and the location is great. Honestly, we felt quite comfortable there immediately and it really met all of our needs. We feel like we got a great deal as well, since they had a special where you buy 2 nights and get the 3rd free! With our Starwood membership we also had complimentary internet access.

We had been hoping to stay somewhere in Yountville or St. Helena as those towns are a little closer to some of the things we want to see but staying in downtown Napa is actually quite perfect too. It is only a short drive to most things we want to see, plus downtown Napa has a lot to offer. There are many great restaurants and shops nearby, in walking distance actually! Oxbow Public Market is just a few minutes away by foot offering eclectic specialty shops, a market and interesting eateries. Across the Napa river are more restaurants and shops. We spent a lot of time at Tyler Florence’s shop and enjoyed a nice meal at Fish Story. It was also fun to walk along the Napa River listening to wild life (ducks and geese) and enjoying being outside – in January!

We opted for a 2 bedroom suite, which was suite was very well appointed. Flat screen TVs in the living room and both bedrooms, along with an Xbox 360 in the living room (I only saw one controller). There was even a coat closet by the door, nice since we had coats and could store shoes in it. The furniture was in great condition, modern and comfortable. It was nice to have stools to sit at the kitchen counter and a dining table. The beds were very comfortable, even for our daughter. Hotel beds are typically too high for a toddler to climb into themselves, at least for our little girl who isn’t a big climber. Not a problem at this Westin. She was able to climb onto the bed with ease by making use of the small bench at the end of each of the beds (see photo below)! I think that helped her feel more empowered and made the room more enjoyable for her. She actually didn’t want to leave the hotel on our last day! The bathrooms were clean and spacious. Sofie demanded a bath the first morning we were there! We also enjoyed the in-room movies once our daughter went to bed. We can’t get out to the movies as often these days so it was a treat to watch some movies that have yet to come out on DVD/OnDemand/Netflix.

We ordered room service breakfast once, and it was pretty good. We never made it to any of the hotel restaurants, though La Toque has good reviews.

The kitchen in the room was well equip. To help with your packing/planning, here is a run down of what the kitchen in our room had: full size fridge with ice and water in the door, electric stove and oven, microwave, dishwasher, coffee maker, toaster, knife block, small cutting board, kettle, kitchen towels, plates, silverware, mugs (decent sized), glasses, mixing bowls. That list may not be comprehensive but should give you a good idea of what you might need to bring or not bring. For groceries, there is Oxbow in walking distance, and then a few minute drive away are Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Safeway.

If you are a parent to a young child, you probably do this already, but I’d recommend brining some socket covers. There were 2 pairs of sockets exposed in the room our daughter slept in, and while she doesn’t tend to care about them we figured it was best to lean on the safer side since she’d be alone in the room at night. Some Westin’s actually give them out but no one offered them to use on check-in. They may have some at the hotel if you ask for them. We always have some in Sofie’s travel bag.

Our only complaint (and it didn’t bug us enough to actually complain) is that things can get a little noisy. Specifically, our second night there we were watching a movie in our bedroom when someone upstairs must have decided to take a shower… we could hear the water running the entire time…much louder than really acceptable. But it lasted about 20 minutes and didn’t bother us again because I think we were never in the bedroom the same time a shower was being run upstairs. We also think that same person may have been an 8 year old boy we saw in the elevator earlier that day since there was also a lot of running/bumping around above us. While the noise was annoying, the pros of the hotel outweighed it by a long shot. We may ask to stay on the top floor next time though.

While I’ve tried to give you an overview of the hotel and what we liked, please refer to the hotel website for current details since things change and I am sure I have not listed every amenity they have – just the ones that were important to us. For instance, we did not end up using the pool or gym.

Summary

Location: Excellent, walking distance to Oxbow Public market and downtown Napa. Short drive to Yountville and St. Helena.

Family Friendly: Very. Suites with kitchens, clean, balconies, pool, bocce court.

Service: Valet and front desk staff are very pleasant and helpful. Room Service staff seemed slightly less friendly.

Sleeping: Beds were extremely comfortable.

Bathrooms: Clean. Good water pressure. Good quality toilet paper.

Kitchen: Clean and well equip.

Parking: Only valet, but it is free and the staff is very friendly and helpful.