We like wine – a lot. We have been on wine tours across France, Chile, California, Western Australia, South Australia, and New York State, and we are planning more…
A morning cycling through the Casablanca Valley vineyards before arriving at a winery that produces some of South America’s finest Sauvignon Blanc. A wine tasting cruise along the Swan River from Perth watching the Swan Valley estates pass from the water. A single overnight detour into Sonoma on a California road trip that made us wish we had stayed a week.
We like wine – a lot. We have been on wine tours across France, Chile, California, Western Australia, South Australia, and New York State, and we are planning more…
A morning cycling through the Casablanca Valley vineyards before arriving at a winery that produces some of South America’s finest Sauvignon Blanc. A wine tasting cruise along the Swan River from Perth watching the Swan Valley estates pass from the water. A single overnight detour into Sonoma on a California road trip that made us wish we had stayed a week.
Our wine tourism experiences sit within Stage 2 of the Platinum Roadmap alongside cycling, walking, wildlife and watersports. A vineyard visit is a day or part of a day within a broader trip, not a reason to take one. The planning follows the same logic as every other experience in our guide – decide who is coming with you, what you’re doing, check the season, find your accommodation, book before you travel.
On this page, you will find what wine tourism is, how to plan a wine tour following the Platinum Roadmap, and the best wine regions in the world, whether you need to be a wine expert to enjoy it, who it suits and who it does not, and the personal wine experiences we have had.
Wine tourism now accounts for 25% of total winery income on average in the UK, with 1.5 million visits to UK vineyards and wineries in 2023, up 55% on 2022. Globally, 88% of wineries now offer some form of wine tourism activity (WineGB UK Wine Tourism Report 2024 | Global Wine Tourism Report 2025 | Hochschule Geisenheim).
Wine tourism means travelling to wine-producing regions to visit vineyards, take part in tastings and tours, and understand a wine through the place and the people that made it. It is the difference between reading a tasting note on a label and standing in the vineyard the grapes came from, talking to the person who decided when to harvest.
The best winery tours are designed to be accessible to people who enjoy wine without knowing much about it. A good tour starts with the vineyard and the production process, not with tasting vocabulary. By the time you reach the glass, you understand where the wine came from, and why it tastes the way it does, which makes the tasting more interesting regardless of how much you know.
What you need is genuine curiosity about what is in the glass and interest in the place that produced it. Technical knowledge helps but is never required.
If wine tours are new to you, start with a guided winery tour rather than a walk-in tasting. The guide’s knowledge of the vineyard, the production choices and the regional context transforms the tasting from a pleasant drink into something life-shifting. Book through GetYourGuide, filter for small group tours, and read recent reviews for comments that name the guide specifically.
Wine tours are not appropriate for young children. The experience is built around tasting alcohol, and most reputable wineries have minimum age policies for tastings. The production tour element, the vineyard walk, the barrel room and bottling facility, is interesting regardless of age for teenagers with any interest in food, science or production processes.
For teenagers of 16 and above travelling with parents in a country where supervised tasting is legally permitted (like France), some wineries will accommodate this at the parents’ discretion. Always check the specific winery’s policy when booking.
For young adults and upwards, wine tours are a great food and drink experience. The 25 to 44 age group is the fastest growing segment in wine tourism globally. For groups where some members do not drink. Choose wine regions where the landscape, food and other activities make the visit rewarding independently of the wine. Margaret River in Western Australia and Long Island in New York State are the best examples of this from our own experience.
Wine tourism follows the same planning journey as every other experience in the Platinum Roadmap. Here is how each stage applies specifically to wine…
Adults, empty nesters and couples suit wine tours most naturally. For mixed groups where some members do not drink, choose a wine region where the non-wine offering is strong enough to make the day work for everyone.
Margaret River, with its surf beaches, caves and forest alongside the vineyards, and Long Island, with its beaches and historic East End towns, both suit groups with varied interests.
When it actually comes to wine tours, there can be a few variations on the style of the trip:
Two to three hours combining production tour and guided tasting. Suits road trips, and city break day trips where accessible wine production is nearby – just make sure you don’t drink and drive!
A full day visiting two or three producers and understanding the regional character. Suits couples and adult groups with genuine wine interest. This is the standard wine tour you’ll find on GetYourGuide, where you visit multiple independent wineries in one day.
Combining wine tasting with a river or coastal boat journey. The Swan Valley wine tasting cruise from Perth is a great example. The Douro Valley river cruise from Porto is one of the most celebrated in Europe.
Riding through vineyard landscapes before arriving at a tasting. The Loire Valley in France, the Casabalance Valley in Chile, and the wine cycling routes through Tuscany and Burgundy are among the best globally.
Incorporating a wine region as a single overnight stop within a longer road trip. This is how most of our personal wine experiences were planned. There may even be some vineyards that have campsites attached to them … makes the not drinking and driving thing easier!
Harvest, September to October in the northern hemisphere and February to April in the southern hemisphere, is the most visually dramatic time to visit but also the busiest. Spring and early autumn offer the best balance of access and atmosphere. English wine tourism runs from May to September. Some regions are limited in what they offer in winter months.
With the wine tour style and timing clear, Stage 4 is finding which region or valley suits you best. GetYourGuide is useful at this stage – search Vineyard Tour, or Wine Cruise by destination shows which regions have strong well-reviewed high recent reviews.
If you are following the entire Platinum Roadmap for your holiday, you will have a rough idea of where you are going. This stage will help you narrow down which winery tours are available in the areas you are looking at going. For example, in Adelaide, there are quite a few different wine tours you can go on, and you will be choosing between the Barossa Valley, or McLaren Vale.
A standard single-winery tour and tasting can cost between £15 to £40 per person. All day tours, visiting multiple vineyards, can cost between £50 and £90. Premium experiences, private tours and barrel tastings, may cost £90+. A wine tasting cruise, you’d expect to pay between £50 to £90 per person.
Most of these wine tours, if booked through a tour company, will include transport to and from the vineyard. You will also have the option to buy the wine you have tasted, with some vineyards even being able to export the bottles to your home address.
Book winery and vineyard tours before you travel, particularly for peak season visits to popular producers or regions. It’s always to have an experience booked, and then decide later if you want to go or not – just make sure you cancel your booking at least 24 hours before for a refund, and also so the travel company can fill your seat.
The right region depends on the type of wine tourism, the time of year, and what you want alongside the wine. Here is a guide to the major wine tourism regions, looking at both our own personal experience as well as some broader knowledge of what makes each one distinctive for visitors.
France remains the benchmark for serious wine tourism. Burgundy, the narrow band of vineyards running south from Dijon, contains some of the most valuable agricultural land on earth and a density of great producers within walking or cycling distance of each other.
The Route des Grands Crus from Dijon to Beaune is the most celebrated wine tourism route in the world. Bordeaux combines outstanding wine with one of the most architecturally impressive cities in France. The Loire Valley offers exceptional wine alongside UNESCO-listed chateaux and the La Loire a Velo cycling route, one of the best wine and cycling circuits in Europe.
Tuscany is the most visited Italian wine region, combining Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Noble di Montepulciano with food culture, art and landscape of extraordinary quality.
Piedmont produces Barolo and Barbaresco from Nebbiolo in a landscape of castle-toppled hills that welcomes people at a slower pace. Sicily and the Etna wine region on the slopes of the volcano are producing increasingly excellent wines with dramatic scenery.
La Rioja has a concentration of architecturally significant winery buildings designed by Frank Gehry for Marques de Riscal and Zaha Hadid for CVNE Contino that make the region worth visiting as much for architecture as wine.
Priorat in Catalonia produces intense wines from old vine Garnacha on steep slate slopes, with small family producers offering intimate visits. The sherry triangle between Jerez, Sanlucar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa Maria offers one of the most distinctive wine tourism experiences in Europe – the solera system for producing sherry is unlike any other wine production method.
The Douro Valley is also rated among the most visually spectacular wine tourism destinations in the world. With steep terraced vineyards running down to the Douro river, accessible by river cruise from Porto or by road through mountain scenery.
The Alentejo, the vast plain south of Lisbon, produces full-bodied red wines in an agricultural landscape of cork oak forests and whitewashed villages that are great for people wanting a slower holiday.
Margaret River in Western Australia produces some of Australia’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, in a peninsula that also offers outstanding beaches, ancient caves, and old-growth karri forest. Boutique producers mean tasting rooms are personal and unhurried.
The Swan Valley, Perth’s local wine region, is accessible by both bus, and by river cruise from the city. The wine tasting cruise along the Swan River combines the journey with the tastings and removes the driving question entirely.
The Great Southern region around Denmark and Albany produces exceptional cool-climate Riesling and Shiraz. The town of Denmark has an arty, independent character and the combination of wine, the Elephant Rocks coastline and the Porongurup Range makes it a rewarding stop on the Perth to Esperance road trip.
South Australia produces some of Australia’s most celebrated red wines, and the Barossa Valley is the spiritual home of Australian Shiraz. Old vine Grenache, Mataro and Shiraz from vines dating back to the 1840s, in a landscape of Germanic-influenced Lutheran towns and cellar doors that range from family-run to internationally recognised. Penfolds, Seppeltsfield, Henschke, and Yalumba are among the most visited estates.
Alternatively, just an hour away from the Barossa, is McLaren Vale. Its Shiraz and Grenache have a different character from the Valley’s and the combination of ocean views, rolling vineyards and a thriving restaurant scene has put McLaren Vale on the map.
Both wine regions are in very close proximity to Adelaide, which has a lot more going for it than people give it credit for.
Sonoma is the correct choice over Napa for anyone on a California road trip who wants wine alongside a genuine sense of place. Less formal, less expensive and less crowded than Napa, it produces wines across Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Zinfandel that rival anything from the more famous valley. A single overnight in Healdsburg fits naturally into a coastal California drive.
Long Island’s North Fork produces Merlot and Cabernet Franc in a maritime climate that suits both varieties well, alongside the beaches of the South Fork and the historic towns of the East End. Uniquely among wine regions, the North Fork is accessible by commuter train from Penn Station, making it viable for visitors who want to taste properly rather than drive.
The Casablanca Valley in Chile sits between Santiago and the coast at elevation, producing exceptional Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. The combination of vineyard cycling and wine tasting makes this one of the best wine tourism experiences in South America – cycle through the vines in the cool of the morning, arrive at the winery by bicycle, taste with the context of having ridden through the estate.
Argentina’s Mendoza at the foot of the Andes produces high-altitude Malbec with the snow-capped mountains as a backdrop. South Africa’s Cape Winelands, an hour from Cape Town, offer some of the most value-for-one wine tourism experiences available – Stellenbosch and Franschhoek both reward a full day.
New Zealand’s Marlborough produces outstanding Sauvignon Blanc and Central Otago produces Pinot Noir in an alpine landscape that is great in its own right. England also has a growing wine scene, centred around Sussex, Kent and Hampshire. It is producing sparkling wines that now benchmark against Champagne in international tastings.
Most standard single-winery tours run between one and a half, and two hours, combining a guided walking through the production facility with a tutored tasting. Multi-winery tours, last most of the day, and will include a tasting at each vineyard, of all their most popular wines, with one of the wineries hosting a lunch. You will end up drinking a lot of wine.
If you are not doing a tour, with a tour company, then you will need to sort out transport. Some regions may be so remote that it is necessary for you to hire a car, or seek alternative accommodation nearby. Either way, you should ensure there is a designated driver within your travel group.
Harvest at a working winery transforms the atmosphere of a visit in a way that a quiet week in winter does not. If the activity and energy of an operational estate at harvest is what you are looking for, check the specific harvest dates for the region and the vintage year before booking.
Outside harvest, the estate is still worth visiting but the visual drama is different. Unlike distilleries, which have silent seasons, most wineries remain open and producing in some capacity year round, but the character of the visit changes significantly by season.
Vineyard visits will most likely involve outdoor walking on uneven ground, often across gravel paths, grass or muddy tracks between vine rows. Flat, comfortable shoes with grip are the right choice. In some countries, like Australia, there are highly venomous snakes living within the vineyards, so you do need to keep an eye out.
When you are on the actual tour itself, make sure you listen to the rules of the wine tour. In some countries, like Australia, it is illegal to walk amongst the vines due to biosecurity, and you will be fined heavily for it. It is also illegal to smoke on most Australian vineyards, because of the wild fire threat.
By visitor numbers, Napa Valley in California is the most visited wine tourism destination globally. By reputation among wine enthusiasts, Burgundy in France holds the mantle. For the combination of wine quality, landscape and visitor experience, Tuscany in Italy, Stellenbosch in South Africa, and Mendoza in Argentina.
However, our favourite wine region has to be Margaret River in Australia. It has a great location, wineries aren’t very busy, and it has great wine.
Yes, most wine tours are the perfect day trip from a major city. The Swan Valley from Perth, the Casablanca Valley from Santiago, the Douro Valley from Porto, Franschhoek from Cape Town, the Yarra Valley from Melbourne, the Barossa Valley from Adelaide.
On the odd occasion a wine region is located far away, there will be lodgings or a hotel nearby to allow an overnight stay. Just make sure you check before you start booking.
Yes, visiting a winery doesn’t mean you have to drink. Most vineyards will offer soft drinks, and you can enjoy the vineyards, and even the wine making process without having to taste it. If you do a multi-vineyard day, while there will be lots of wine around, you will also be offered local food platters, and be amongst some beautiful landscapes. The tours of the vineyards themselves are also full of history.
A guided tour is almost always better for a first visit to a wine region, because the guide’s knowledge of the estate, the vintage conditions and the regional context transforms the tasting. For a return visit to a region, self-guided gives you the freedom to linger at producers you prefer, and visit ones you didn’t go to on the tour. For guided options, GetYourGuide is a reliable starting point for comparing tours.
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