Grady O'Bryant

Sacramento’s Unofficial King of Day Trips Grady O’Bryant never flies solo. Part travel junkie, part entrepreneurial spirit, part social butterfly, he’s helped thousands of people get out of their houses and their shells to explore new places together. “I just love getting people together for travel,” O’Bryant said. “Everything’s more fun as a group. Plus, with someone else handling the details, people can just relax and enjoy the journey.” In the Beginning, There was Wine After years traveling overseas with the Air Force and working in Alaskan tourism, Grady and his wife decided to start their own tour company. Initially specializing in small tours with a nightlife focus, O’Bryant ventured into wine tours after receiving a call from two women visiting from Mississippi. They wanted to enjoy an afternoon of wine tasting in the Sierra Foothills. “We called the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau and asked about tours to local wineries and were told they didn’t have any tour company to recommend,” O’Bryant said. “We were also told to call a limousine company, but every limousine company recommended a trip to Napa Valley wineries. That’s when the light bulb went on.” So in 2007 he founded Sacramento Wine & Nightlife Tours to showcase the wineries surrounding Sacramento. The company got its big break the next year when the American Wine Society held its annual convention here, and O’Bryant successfully conducted wine tours to five different wine regions for more than 250 wine experts over three days. Today, the company continues to organize tours for locals, vacationers, and corporate clients, offering offers tours to more than nine wine regions, including Amador, Lodi, Napa, Apple Hill, Fair Play, Clarksburg, Sonoma, Calaveras County, Suisun and Russian River. A stickler for personal service, O’Bryant has visited every winery on each tour, meeting with owners, winemakers and tasting room personnel. From these relationships, he’s come to specialize in winemaker’s dinners. He works closely with a couple of winery owners and a chef to create authentic California winemaker’s dinners for groups of up to 100 people. Day Trippin’ Always on the lookout for new ways to help people enjoy themselves, O’Bryant created Sacramento Day Trippers in 2008 to take advantage of the city’s proximity to so many great things. The group’s 1,000 members have visited wine country, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Half Moon Bay and other locations in Northern California.