Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn Review

Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn Review

Last week, I had the pleasure of staying at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn, which is located about 1 hour from San Francisco in the heart of wine country.

Cost: A+

As I had posted earlier in the month, both nights at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn were FREE because I signed up for the Fairmont Credit Card from Chase.

By signing up for the card, you get 2 free nights and 4x $25 breakfast vouchers!

In addition, as a cardholder, you get an automatic upgrade to Premier Status in Fairmont’s loyalty program. As a Premier Member, you are given a Suite Upgrade, Room Upgrade, and $50 food / spa credit annually.

The Suite and Room upgrade can be used on the 2 free nights that you earn with the Fairmont Card, so we were able to upgrade ourselves to a Wine Country Junior Suite for free!

Had we paid for this stay out of pocket, it would have been around $519 a night or over $1,040 for 2 nights.

In addition, the rack rate (or the most the hotel can charge for this room), was listed in the room as $1,500 a night!

Grounds: A-

While I had expected the property to be secluded and surrounded by vineyards, it is actually just located off the main street going into the Sonoma town square.

Since you do have to drive to this property, thankfully there is free self-parking.

I am not sure what the property used to be before it was a Hotel, but for some reason the huge water tower reminds me of Warner Brothers Studios or Alcatraz.

In addition to the Hotel, there is also a golf course and separate spa on the grounds.

Room: B+

The guest rooms are spread out across the property in clusters, with the hallways being outdoors.

Depending on what Room or Suite you receive, you might have an entire patio or balcony to yourself.

We unfortunately did not have either : (

As for the Junior Suite, it was fairly large but as you can see from the images below, the furniture definitely seemed a bit dated.

My 2 favorite things about the Suite were that it came with a real live working fireplace with wooden logs that you could burn AND it also came with a free bottle of wine!

Nothing like relaxing by the fire after a “hard” day touring Napa…

Dining: A-

While there is a Michelin starred restaurant on the premises, you unfortunately can’t use your breakfast vouchers there so we settled for their casual restaurant on the property called The Big 3 Diner.

Typically when I hear the word diner, I tend to think of Denny’s but The Big 3 Diner was surprisingly delicious and fairly affordable even if you didn’t have $100 in vouchers.

I got the breakfast burrito and some of their famous lemon cottage cheese pancakes. Both were excellent.

Overall: A-

While the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn is definitely dated and shows its age, overall I found it to be a great property and would happily return.

Unless you are going to a Hotel only to stay in your room, in all the categories that matter, Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn delivers.

The location is excellent for doing wine tastings (even if you are doing Napa), the spa amenities looked amazing, and there were both fine dining and casual dining options to suit all tastes.

If you are visiting Sonoma or Napa and are looking for a relaxing experience in wine country, then I highly suggest burning your 2 free Fairmont night certificates here. You will not regret it!

-Parag

Don’t ever miss another FFU Update or Travel Deal!

Follow me on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, RSS, Breaking Deals Text Alert, or Email!