The phone call I'm proudest of started with an impossible ask. A guest was flying in with her whole family for one reason, dinner at The French Laundry, and she didn't have a reservation at what is probably the hardest table in the world. I got her in the day she landed. I still can't quite believe I pulled it off. But I did.
I tell that story with a caveat, because I'll never promise what I can't guarantee. The French Laundry is one of the toughest reservations anywhere, and nobody honest claims to have it on demand. But we do have some pull, and for the right occasion, sometimes I get to pull the lever. That, in miniature, is the whole job.
So when people ask me what it costs to hire a Napa Valley trip planner, and what you actually get for it, I want to answer the way I'd answer a friend across a tasting table. Honestly. Because the honest answer is the reason people trust us with their vacations in the first place.
This valley is our family business
My dad started MG Concierge more than two decades ago, after years of working in this valley before that. My mom, Gloria, spent sixteen years at Calistoga Ranch and has been curating Napa Valley itineraries for twenty-five. And I grew up right in the middle of it. Between the two of them, my parents built something you can't buy off a shelf, real relationships with the wineries, the restaurants, the resorts, and most of all with the people who run them. That's what I get to work with every day, and I don't take it for granted.
It's also the truest answer to what you're paying for. Not software. Not a list. Relationships, almost three decades of them, including at places that aren't open to the public at all. There are winery owners in this valley with homes they've never once put on the internet, and because of who we are, our clients stay in them.
Those relationships do something else too. They get you better pricing. Our clients save an average of twenty to thirty percent below market rate at the resorts and hotels, and I'll say it plainly, we have the best rates in the valley. When we're saving you a couple hundred dollars a night on your room, the fee for planning the whole trip has a way of paying for itself.
How our pricing works
The structure is simple. Book your lodging through us and we charge a flat hourly planning fee. A full day for a group of up to six takes us about an hour to build. A larger group, say around twelve, runs closer to two hours, because that's when preset menus at restaurants and contracts at the wineries enter the picture.
You'll notice I'm not quoting the fee itself, and that's on purpose. Every trip is different, so reach out and we'll give you an exact number for yours. What I can tell you is how the math tends to land. Between what you save on your rooms and the hours of coordinating you never have to do, most clients come out ahead. All you have to do is show up.
How a trip comes together
Building a week in the valley, the way only locals can.
It starts with a call with me. We talk through your travel style, what you're hoping for, and what you're comfortable spending. Once your lodging is set, you fill out our Get to Know You form, which covers your taste in food, your taste in wine, and the kinds of activities you love. We keep a long list.
Then you talk to Gloria. Twenty-five years of doing this means my mom has relationships in this valley that honestly no one else has. The wineries and restaurants she sends you to know her, and they know us, so they go above and beyond because you're our client. The red carpet comes out. That's the part people fall in love with, and it's why they come back and send us their friends and family.
The days themselves are their own craft. What separates a relaxed day from a rushed one is invisible on a map. The true drive time between two wineries. How long a tasting actually runs. When to schedule lunch so nothing feels squeezed. We know those rhythms by heart, so we'll send you up into the hills for a morning tasting, sit you down to a long lunch at a winery, and make sure you never once look at the clock.
The wineries you can't book on your own
Plan the trip yourself and here's what happens. You search things to do in Napa Valley, and you find the corporate wineries, the big ones that advertise and rank first. There's nothing wrong with them. They're just not why you flew here. The boutique wineries up in the hills are another world entirely, family run, one on one, the kind of place where your host pulls up a chair and stays a while. Corporate and boutique are night and day, and we send our clients to the boutique side every time, including estates that are reservation only or closed to the public altogether.
Two favorites tell the story. Cimarossa sits at the very top of Howell Mountain, where Kristopher hosts. He spent years as Joseph Phelps' personal sommelier, and the wine is allocation only, which means the only place in the world to buy it is up at the winery itself. Then there's a private estate on Diamond Mountain above Calistoga, a homestead since the 1890s, where Wendy hosts with the entire valley spread out below you. Neither one is bookable on your own. That's the real difference between handing you a list of wineries and knowing the people who run them.
Who this is for, and who it isn't
I'll be just as honest about fit, because it saves everyone time. If your ideal Napa trip is riding the wine train, staying at the Marriott, and keeping the whole thing to a couple hundred dollars, we're probably not your people, and that's completely fine. Go have a great weekend. On the other end, I'm not in the business of talking anyone into a three hundred dollar tasting. That's not what we're about either.
We're for the traveler who wants the elevated version of this valley without spending the vacation coordinating it. That can absolutely be a smaller trip. Stay in downtown Napa, which is wonderful, or out at a resort. Do a single wine tour at boutique wineries with real hospitality. Let us plan your dinners, which we don't charge extra for, and you'll order like a local, the Meyer lemon ravioli at Bistro Don Giovanni, where Giovanni still comes out to greet you. Even one tour, done right, changes what you think Napa is. That alone is worth it to me.
The part an app can't do
After all these years, I can tell you the trips people never stop talking about are built out of small things. A welcome amenity and a card waiting in your room. A bottle of bubbles that appears on the right night with a note reading happy thirtieth from Leah and Gloria. Every restaurant, winery, and driver on your itinerary already knowing it's your anniversary, because it matters to you, so it matters to us.
No app does that. No website does that. We're human, so we care. I think that's why we have over two hundred five-star reviews on Google, and why most of our new clients arrive as someone else's warmest recommendation. The rates matter. The access matters. The care is the real product.
The rates matter. The access matters. The care is the real product.
A few tips, whether you hire us or not
- Book early. Four to six weeks ahead is a sensible minimum for the best wineries, restaurants, and rooms. For spring or the fall harvest, think three to six months.
- Think in drive times, not just stops. The distance between wineries is what makes or breaks a day.
- Decide what you actually want before you book a single thing. A trip built around your taste beats a trip built around whatever happened to be available.
Keep reading
If you want the places themselves, I gave away a lot of them here: Napa Valley Hidden Gems: 16 Places We Send People. And if you're weighing the other side of the county, we plan Sonoma trips the same way.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to hire a Napa Valley trip planner?
When you book your lodging through us, we charge a flat hourly planning fee, and a full day for up to six people takes about an hour to build. Because our room rates run twenty to thirty percent below market, the savings usually cover the fee on their own. Reach out and we'll price your exact trip.
Is a Napa Valley concierge worth it?
If you want boutique wineries, real hospitality, and days that flow instead of days you manage, yes. You're trading a planning fee for better rooms at better rates and a vacation you don't have to run yourself.
Do I need a travel agent for Napa Valley?
Not for the wine train and a hotel. You need one for the other Napa. The wineries closed to the public, the private homes that never hit the booking sites, the dinners chosen around your taste. That's what a concierge who actually lives here is for.
Can a concierge get me into The French Laundry?
Sometimes. Nobody honest promises that table every time, and we don't either. We do have some pull, and for the right occasion we've made it happen, including once for a guest the same day she landed.
What is the difference between a corporate winery and a boutique winery?
A corporate winery advertises, ranks first in search, and moves crowds through. A boutique winery is smaller, usually family run, and someone sits down with you one on one. We send our clients to the boutique side, including some that are reservation only or closed to the public entirely.
How far in advance should I plan a Napa Valley trip?
Four to six weeks minimum for the popular spots. For spring and the fall harvest, the busiest stretch, give it three to six months. Last minute is sometimes possible, so it never hurts to ask.
Come see us
Hiring us comes down to one trade. You stop coordinating your vacation, and you start actually taking it. Tell us what you want, and we'll handle the rooms, the reservations, the drive times, and the little note waiting upstairs. All that's left is to show up hungry.
And if there's an impossible table you've been dreaming about, tell me that too. Every so often, I get to make someone's whole year with a single phone call.
LET'S PLAN YOUR TRIP
Tell us what you're dreaming about. We'll price it honestly and build the days around you.
Request Your Custom Itinerary