Below, the verdant Napa Valley spreads out like a green quilt, the Mayacamas Mountains on our left and the city of Napa to our right.

The sky is hazy on the horizon as the sun rises in a cloudless spring sky. There are 12 of us in wicker basket held aloft by no more than a rainbow-hued shroud of canvas and hot air, and I have no idea how we are supposed to get back down to earth.

"Always remember, the most important thing about landing," says Jonathan, our hot air balloon commander, "is-" But just then the white-haired Brit obscures his words by reaching up to press a toggle switch, resulting in a loud blast of propane. A plume of flame shoots into the air above our heads, raising the balloon higher.

Admittedly, I knew nothing about hot air balloons before this June morning's excursion. Except that the vehicle goes up and comes down. I'd certainly had no idea why my traveling companion Nicole and I had to lurch out of bed in time to meet our ride in the resort lobby at 5:30 a.m. Inevitably, there was some grumbling -- our suite's bed was a king-size four-poster that was nearly impossible to leave. And we'd woken up in a pile of rose petals.

The petals are part of the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa's special holidate "Drunk with Love" package.

Conceived to capitalize on a trend Fairmont had noticed among its clientele, namely that casual daters were indulging in weekends away with each other sooner than ever, the "holidate" idea was born.

Lest you think the "holidate" is just another marketing ploy, consider this: a recent Lavalife poll found that 41 per cent of respondents would consider travelling with a new partner.

Moreover, 31 per cent would wait only three months before embarking on such a potentially freighted excursion (a fearless 22 per cent would dive in at the one-month mark). Kind of makes dinner and a movie seem pale, doesn't it?

Anyway, back to Sonoma. The night before, our first in the lush valley west of the Napa, we'd gone into town, a few minutes' drive from the Inn, where we'd feasted on artisanal cheeses selected by an actual French dude and quaffed local wine on the patio of the Girl & the Fig, a romantic, quaint French restaurant.

We'd arrived back at our room -- trailing, at one point on the hotel grounds, a just-married couple, the bride still in her wedding dress -- to find hundreds of pink, red and cream-colored petals arranged in a heart on the bed and scattered around the two-person soaker tub. "At first I thought it was a little corny," said Nicole later. "But it was pretty sexy."

Sonoma casts its own spell -- the rolling, fertile hills, the rows and rows of vines, the warm, caressing rays of the northern California sun. The town itself, a fraction the size of Napa, is arranged around a plaza, and offers privately owned boutiques, thrift stores, restaurants, a few bars and hotels, and a theatre. No chain stores and no buildings over three storeys. After the balloon ride, we spent part of the afternoon in town, lunching outside the Basque Boulangerie and browsing at the local bookstore, Readers' Books, for something to read at poolside.

Yes, a chance to soak up the sun while sipping a Pina Colada -- every traveling journalist's dream. Fortunately, our contact at the Inn had included some free time in the itinerary. "Writers always seem to want to sit around the pool," the publicist had said.

I broke from my thriller only long enough to venture into the Inn's airy lobby for the daily afternoon wine tasting. There, I met a couple from Milwaukee, Ben and Rachel, staying at the Inn as Rachel's birthday present to her husband. Love was in the air -- and so was the smell of the fragrant local cheeses being offered along with the wine.

Dinner that night was at Santé, the Inn's white-tablecloth, three-star dining establishment (The Big 3, a second restaurant on site, is more casual and serves more basic fare). Dusk was settling in when we sat down at a table near the window looking towards the pool.

Reassured by the room's low-key ambience, we were convinced to trust chef Andrew Cain's tasting menu with wine pairings. Selecting a cocktail -- from a menu featuring classics such as the Air Mail (lime juice, honey, gold rum, Champagne) -- was a little more challenging.