Specialist UK operators offering wine tours in the UK & worldwide. This list is looking a little thin now with a number of operators dropping out of the business during 03/04. |
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| Arblaster & Clarke |
01730 893344 |
The best-known wine tour operator. Tastings, weekend breaks, wine cruises, gastronomic tours, and vineyard visits the world over. |
| Gourmet on Tour |
020 7396 5550 |
Primarily culinary tours and cookery course holidays in Asia, USA, Australia, Greece, Spain, UK, Ireland, France and Italy, but GOT also do wine appreciation breaks. |
| Grape Escapes |
08707 667617 |
GE specialise in flexible self drive holidays with a wide range of accommodation, combined in an itinerary that features social events ranging from gastronomic dinners to escorted vineyard tastings and suppers , so that you get the benefits of group travel while travelling independently. |
| Northumbria Travel |
01670 829922 |
Agency with a programme of wine tours to Languedoc, Rhone and Loire Valleys. |
| Orpheus & Bacchus |
07808 727735 |
Wine & music holidays based at a converted farm near St Emillion, France. |
| Winetrails |
01306 712111 |
Walking & cycling through wine regions in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Hungary, Cyprus, Madeira, Switzerland and the USA. |
| Country Wine Weekends |
0870 458 0246 |
John & Heather Hurley's Country Wine Weekends offer wine weekends at country houses in the Wye valley. |
| Ultimate Travel Company, The |
020 7386 4646 |
Weekend wine-tasting break at a 17th century chateau near Pau in south-west France. |
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| Research Tips: | * | www.winedrive.com is not really a 'tour operator' but is a very useful subscription-based (£24 pa) resource for independent travellers to France and its vinyards. Details and descriptions of 730 wines and 150 appellations from 100 vineyards - in Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, the Loire Valley, the Rhône Valley and Provence plus the south west and Languedoc - form the core of 1,607 pages pages of travel & wine info. |
| * | Italy Wine Hotels is a group of thirteen 3 and 4-star hotels in Italy that have joined together to form the first Italian "club di prodotto" (product club or association) specialising in food and wine holidays. Each hotel organises special cuisine, tastings and tours of their regional wines. |
| * | Tanglewood Wine ToursWho used to be in the list above, have now stopped running their annual programme of air/coach wine tours to the continent, in order to concentrate on their wine accessories business. But you never know, they could start them up again. |
| * | IntoTheBlue is a website selling gift vouchers for activities, sport, and lifestyle experiences, including gourmet breaks and wine tasting trips. |
| * | If beer not wine is your thing the UK & European short breaks by coach specialist Gold Crest offers tours to the Brussels Beer festival, the Belgium Beer Festival and the Munich Beer festival. |
| * | BKWine Tours, run from Paris by Swedish wine expert, Britt Karlsson, visits European vinyards (mostly in the French wine regions) in small groups of 12-18 people. Since its launch in the early nineties the company has organised more than two hundred wine tours to France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Hungary and Austria. |
| * | Gourmet Touring specialise in self-drive (in stylish, open-topped, 2-seater sports cars) gourmet itineraries in Bordeaux. Their 'Vignobles' wine touring itinerary includes a special two-part wine class in St Emilion and appointments at various wine chateaux. |
