Meadowood may have only 85 rooms and 250 acres, but despite its small size it has many of the amenities you'd expect of a larger resort, including a well-run complex of seven tennis courts. Set in its own wooded valley, just outside the town of St. Helena, this Relais & Chateaux gem started out as a private club for the Napa Valley community before blossoming as a resort in the 1970s. It provides a convenient base for touring the Napa Valley wineries, and a tranquil, creature-comfort-rich place to retreat to when you want to relax. It is also a stellar place to learn about—and sample—wine. Its Wine Educator, Donna Leveranz, is passionate about assisting wine connoisseurs with delicious new wines and many are available by the glass.

Tennis Features

Pro Shop: 707-967-1252

Although not a tennis resort with a high national profile, Meadowood has an excellent and long-serving pro in Doug King, who's run this seven-court complex since 1984. King played No. 1 for the University of California at Berkeley and in the late 1970s ranked No. 1 in the state. He trained under the legendary Tom Stowe, best known as Don Budge's coach and a man who helped develop the modern game.

Tennis Programs. Much of the weekly calendar focuses on the needs of the local membership, and so as a guest you'll generally find more going on than you might expect of a small property. "The thing that is most distinctive is we have what you'd expect to find at a large facility in terms of programs and quality of service," says King. "Our goal is to integrate people into the membership program, to make them feel like this is their club." During a typical week there are men's and ladies' clinics, a couple of drop-in social round robins, and in summer weekly junior clinics. In summer, King also adds a once-a-month three-day midweek adult camp. "We cover everything from stroke production, drills, match play, singles and doubles, conditioning," he says of the program. "It's primarily doubles play with a video program one evening for those who want a serious hard-core tennis experience."
Courts & Fees. Meadowood's seven hard courts have been laid out on two terraces just above the Health Club and its outdoor swimming pools. The upper terrace holds three courts, oriented northeast-southwest, and a handsome clapboard pro shop shaded by a huge maple tree and surrounded by a wooden patio that looks southeast across the lower terrace of four courts oriented the traditional northwest-southeast. Trees and gardens border the complex, whose wooden fence posts harmonize with the rest of the resort. Court fees: $16/couple/day.

Your Call

Here's what others have had to say about Meadowood Napa Valley.

• "A little wary of reviewing this resort, because I know I'll be back, and I don't want to be blacklisted. But anyone considering a tennis-focused vacation needs to know the scoop.
  First lesson was with the head pro. We hit for an hour and he said nothing...not a word...even though I mentioned I needed some pointers moving from clay to hard courts. I had called ahead for daily lessons and was asked whether I needed someone who "moved well". Yes, please, because I like playing lessons. Let's just say it didn't work out. My five playing days were cut to three.
  The game matching was good. The courts were being resurfaced, and they're beautiful, but I was not told that five of seven would be out of commission during my stay.
  It's a serene (and incredibly expensive) place with loads of tennis potential, and is the premier racquet club of the upper Napa valley, so what can you do? Hope for the best, I guess."—N.B., Adv., September 2007

Other Recreation

Golf Course. A 9-hole executive course of par 3s and par 4s runs west through the narrow valley then doubles back on itself and returned east.

Spa & Fitness Center. Housed in a two-story clapboard building between the tennis courts and lap pool, the Health Spa provides both a range of massages and body treatments and a daily menu of fitness classes. Its signature treatment is a Valley Stone Massage, which uses warm smooth basalt stones to induce deep relaxation and chilled marble stones to invigorate intended, they say, "to bring harmony to your inner being."
The Fitness Center on the second floor, meanwhile, has a room full of all types of cardio equipment—including exercycles, treadmills, Stairmasters, elliptical, and rowers—arrayed in three lines with windows on three sides, mirrored walls, and headsets to tap into any of three television programs or a choice of music. Around the edges are 9 or 10 Cybex machines and a few free weights and dumbbells. At the opposite end is a studio for classes such as yoga, Pilates, step aerobics, and meditation. While in between is a room a lounge chairs, a few more cardio machines, fresh fruit, and doors onto an outside deck with more lounge chairs and views of woods and the lower tennis courts. Personal training can be arranged as well.
Each of the men's and women's locker rooms has sauna, steam, robes, slippers, and lockers. There's also an outdoor whirlpool.

Croquet. This is not your backyard—or Alice In Wonderland—variety of croquet but the international competitive version, played in all white attire, that elevates bashing balls around a green to a sport requiring the strategy of chess. Croquet pro Jerry Stark, who looks like someone who'd be at home on a Harley, teaches individual and small group classes.

And ... Bicycles are available at the Health Spa, which provides maps of suggested trails, and there are 1.6 miles of marked hiking trails (with plans to add enough to double that length) out along the golf course and up to the ridge overlooking the Napa Valley.

Lodging

Eighty-five private cottages, suites, and lodges nestle among the oaks and pines of the property's wooded setting in a private two-hundred-fifty-acre valley. Architecturally appealing in their white dormers, gabled roofs, French doors, and broad porches, they follow up inside with high, beamed ceilings, white wainscoting, watercolor landscapes, and stone fireplaces.

Restaurants

The main dining option is The Restaurant, whose chef, Joseph Humphrey, focuses on Napa Valley cuisine. Under Humphrey, it was named one of the "Best New Restaurants in America" in 2007 by Esquire Magazine and made John Mariani's prestigious "Best New Restaurants" list. Humphrey focuses on the innate goodness of regional ingredients. The menu changes regularly to reflect the most delicious market and garden ingredients of the day, which are either grown on property or sourced as close by as possible.

See Also

If you're contemplating a visit to Meadowood, also look at:

• Bacara Resort & Spa, California
• Inn at Manitou, Canada
• Rancho Valencia Resort, California

Travel Essentials

Seasons. Year-round

Meadowood Napa Valley
900 Meadowood Lane
St. Helena, CA 94574
707-963-3646
Toll-free: 800-458-8080
Fax: 707-963-5863
Web Link: Meadowood Napa Valley

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Travel Instructions. There is a county airport in Napa; however, most visitors arrive at either San Francisco International (SFO) or Oakland International (OAK). Regular shuttle service from either is available through Evans Charter Service at 707-944-2025. Travel time is roughly 1 hour from Oakland, 90 minutes from San Francisco.

General Tourist Information. For information about the whole of the Napa Valley, check out the Napa Valley Conference and Visitors Bureau web site or phone 800-582-6208. Once in the area, stop by the Napa Visitor Center in Napa for information about everything from wineries and restaurants to biking, hot air ballooning, and anything else the region offers.

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