A quick getaway for the gals

In that lull between family vacations and the holidays, early fall is a good time to make time for your friends.

One destination consistently comes up as one of the top destinations for girlfriend getaways.

Napa Valley offers all the pampering a girl could crave, with seemingly as many spas as restaurants, safe back roads for relaxed cycling, glamorous destination wineries and boutique shopping.

Travel websites will tout hotel packages, but when you’re assembling your old posse you want communal spaces for long talks over wine or mojitos.

A vacation rental is your best bet for a base camp where you’ll have a kitchen, DVD for multi-hanky chick flicks and stereo for audio trips down memory lane. Many also have pools and/or hot tubs and patios with vineyard views. There are any number of vacation rental sites you can Google, including VRBO.com. But TripAdvisor has the advantage of reviews. Spotted: a small luxury villa with three bathrooms that sleeps eight for $575-$675 a night.

So what to do? Frommer’s declares the CIA Culinary Boot Camps as one of the top girlfriend getaways. But if $895 (starting price) isn’t in your budget, sign up for a two-hour classes for $95 (ciachef.edu) and enjoy a sweet at the new Bakery Cafe. That leaves you time to shop St. Helena, which boasts the valley’s best concentration of boutiques, most arrayed along Main Street.

For your spa indulgence, Indian Springs offers an historical old-California setting and with any treatment ($85 for a classic Calistoga mudbath), you get free full use of a big pool that would please a 1940s Hollywood pin-up girl (indianspringscalistoga.com).

Pleasing everyone’s palate can be tough with a group, but everyone loves Italian. Michael Ciarello’s Bottega in Yountville is among the valley’s best and is roomy enough for groups, with a lovely terraza, Murano glass chandeliers and an indoor fireplace (botteganapavalley.com).