Downtown Napa Guide: Oxbow Public Market, First Street Tasting Rooms & Riverfront Walk

Ten years ago, visitors treated the City of Napa at the southern end of the valley purely as a motorway pass-through on their way up to St. Helena. Following a major flood-control and urban renaissance along the winding Napa River, Downtown Napa has blossomed into the most walkable, energetic and evening-friendly hub in all of Napa Valley, where tasting salons stay open into the evening.

1. Oxbow Public Market & The 'CIA at Copia' (610 First Street, Free Parking)

Just across the Napa River bridge on First Street (5 minutes' walk from downtown hotels) sits the 40,000-square-foot Oxbow Public Market, a covered food hall with a wide wooden deck overlooking the river where everyone in your group can pick their own breakfast or lunch:

• Top Stalls Inside Oxbow Market: slurp fresh oysters from Tomales Bay at Hog Island Oyster Co., order carnitas and duck tacos on handmade organic corn tortillas at C Casa, grab an inch-thick bacon-and-egg English Muffin at The Model Bakery, espresso at Ritual Coffee Roasters, rotisserie meats at Five Dot Ranch, cheese at Oxbow Cheese & Wine Merchant, and soft-serve at Gott's Roadside across the car park.
• Right Next Door, The 'CIA at Copia' (500 First St, Free Culinary Museum & Gardens): walk across the car park into the Culinary Institute of America's food-and-wine centre to stroll through free outdoor culinary gardens, view the free downstairs Chuck Williams Kitchen Collection, or book the immersive 3D Le Petit Chef dinner show.

2. Walkable First Street Tasting Rooms (Open Into the Evening) & Riverfront

While rural vineyard wineries up-valley close their gates in the late afternoon, in Downtown Napa (along First, Second and Main Streets) over 40 boutique urban tasting salons sit within a 6-block radius, many accepting walk-ins without an appointment and staying open into the late evening. Stroll down First Street to taste inside a former 1920s bank vault at Brown Estate (Napa's first Black-owned estate winery), sip Pinot and Chardonnay on the rooftop of the Archer Hotel (Sky & Vine Rooftop Bar), and visit Mayacamas Downtown, Alpha Omega Collective, Compline Wine Bar and the historic 1884 brick Napa Mill on the riverfront, where you can ride a Venetian-style Napa Valley Gondola on the Napa River.