Cozy inns with crackling fireplaces and jacuzzis made for two. Spas where your body and soul are pampered for hours. A rugged, Wuthering Heights-style coastline with some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Oh, and wine—lots and lots of wine.

Romantic enough for you?

If Sonoma County doesn't exactly leap to mind as the perfect Valentine's Day destination, perhaps it should. It's one of the most romantic spots imaginable—and one of the most fun. If you and your sweetheart both like wine and are excited by the idea of touring lush countryside by bike, then this sunny part of Northern California is for you. Unlike Napa, the other well-known California wine region, Sonoma is generally considered to be more down-to-earth and easy to maneuver, whether you explore it by bike, by car or on foot.

The wineries are the raison d'être for most people visiting the area—there are nearly 200 of them—and you can have free samples at places bearing the names of your favorite wines and Champagnes, including Kendall-Jackson, Arrowwood and Korbel. Naturally, while there you'll have the chance to purchase bottles at excellent prices to bring back home - or to your hotel room. But don't pass up the opportunity to enjoy a world-class California wine at one of the many world-class California restaurants, including The Girl and the Fig in Glen Ellen, the Eqqus at the Fountaingrove Inn, and the Restaurant at the Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa.

And speaking of spas, if you go to Sonoma, be prepared to be rubbed the right way. There are literally dozens of spas in the area. At Mermaids Spa in Sebastopol, for example, you can enjoy a Fandango Mud Bath that uses Italian volcanic ash, or you can request instead their Come Hither Milky Oat Bath, featuring silky oat flour. Perhaps the most indulgent of the spas is Osmosis, where you and your mate can begin by slipping into kimonos and sipping cups of green tea specially prepared for you in a Japanese-style room looking out onto a Japanese garden and bridge. This is followed by an enzyme bath à deux, followed by a heavenly hour-long massage in a heated glass-enclosed hut in the woods. (Ask for Judith Reimuller, a certified massage therapist with magic hands.) If this experience doesn't leave you wanting to risk your reputation for a quick tryst with your honey right there in the woods, nothing will.

There are other activities in Sonoma you two can enjoy while clothed, among them antiquing in Petaluma and hiking in the Redwoods. When those get tiring, you can always retire to your room in one of the beautiful and comfortable inns or B&Bs scattered throughout Sonoma. They range from the Bodega Bay Lodge & Spa, with its king-sized beds, fireplaces and jacuzzis; to the Inn at Occidental, whose 16 guest rooms have been personally designed by owner Jack Bullard and which are named for the kinds of antiques (the Tiffany Room, the Folk Art Room, the Carnival Room) they contain. There's no TV or VCR in the rooms, unless you specifically request them. But then, again, it's Valentine's Day. Who needs Law & Order when you've got a four-poster bed and a whirlpool tub built for two?

Photographs by Mary McHugh.

For further information:

Sonoma County/Wine Country
(888) 842-2684

Mermaid Spa
(707) 823-3535

Osmosis Enzyme Bath & Massage
(707) 823-8231

Bodega Bay Lodge & Spa
(800) 368-2468

The Inn at Occidental
(800) 522-6324