A wine tour can be a fun day out (or even a fun weekend away), allowing you to taste and learn about the various wines of a region. Whilst there are organized wine tours that you can go on, planning your own wine tour could allow you to personalize your trip and do things at you own pace. For planning the perfect wine tour, here are just a few great tips.
Choose the right wineries
First you need to plan which wineries you’ll be visiting. Do your research online and consider factors such as opening times and prices. It could be worth ringing each of them up to check that they will be open. You may decide to stick to a certain type of wine such as red or sparkling, or you may decide to mix it up. It could also be worth reading reviews to see what others recommend (there may not be much to see or experience at some wineries, whilst others may offer tours.
Plan out meals
It’s important that you’re eating enough throughout the day. Planning a large breakfast could be worthwhile for lining the stomach. You can then also plan out lunch and dinner (bringing a packed lunch could save costs if you don’t want to eat out every meal of the day). Most wine regions have no shortage of great restaurants.
Rent a mini bus
If you’re taking a group of you, it could be worth renting a mini bus. Some mini bus rentals can hold up to 24 passengers offering lots of space. Decide whether to choose someone as a designated driver or to hire a driver (the latter could allow everyone to enjoy the tour without someone having to abstain from drinking).
Keep the itinerary simple
It’s easy to overcomplicate a wine tour by trying to visit too many wineries in the region. Ideally you want to be visiting no more than three or four wineries in a day (it will be a push to manage any more than that given the time it takes to travel between them). Plan out your route so that you avoid going back on yourself as much as possible and consider whether you can keep all wineries in a similar area to cut down the time spent travelling.
Pace yourself
Be careful of drinking too much too early – you don’t want to have to head back early because someone threw up in the minibus. Taking wine with you on the coach might not be a good idea and you may want to be wary of having too much wine with lunch. This will allow you to enjoy each of the wineries. Remember that you can use the spit bucket and you don’t have to swallow each wine.
