Rioja Vineyard Trail

Bilbao | Arrive and Explore.
Fly to Bilbao and spend one night in the city.

Bilbao/Rioja | Guggenheim to La Rioja.
Morning to explore the old centre of Bilbao as well as Frank Gehry’s famous titanium clad Guggenheim museum. In the early afternoon your guide picks you up in front of the museum to take you to lunch for some traditional Basque food: maybe some pintxos. Continue this afternoon to the region of La Rioja, just over an hour away. Stop at the Mirador de Tolono, a viewpoint on the northern edge of the Rioja region with views across the whole valley to the high mountains of the south. From here you can see what gives this tiny area its precious micro-climate. Traditional harvesting methods are still the norm in many wineries.

Drive down into the valley of the Rio Ebro to your boutique hotel in a small village near Haro, the heart of wine production in La Rioja.
Settle in to your boutique hotel where you spend the next 3 nights. Relax for a while before your first introduction to the region’s famous cuisine.
Riojan food is a unique combination of seafood from the coast to the north, meats from the plains to the south and vegetables from the fertile valley of La Rioja itself. Meals on this holiday are eaten sometimes in the restaurant of your hotel and sometimes in other restaurants.
Lunch will either be a picnic of local specialities prepared by your guide or will be taken in a restaurant. (b,l,d)

La Rioja | Walk and Wine Tasting.
Today starts with a visit to the one of the finest and most traditional wineries in the region, Muga. At this bodega everything is made of oak. They even have their own master coopers on site to make the barrels & casks for the wines. Barrel making is actually fascinating to watch, particularly the final stage where they seal the wood over flames. At harvest time, in September/October, you will see all of the activity going on around you as you tour the vineyard. From the nearby village of Briones, set off walking a relaxed but pretty route through vineyards towards the castle at Davalillo.
The valley is wide and open at this point so you enjoy lovely views of the mountains to the north and south, hilltop villages and the pretty castle ahead. Enjoy a picnic lunch at the castle before returning to the hotel to relax a while.
Walk 11km, 3hrs, 90m, 90m

This afternoon contains one of the highlights of your holiday: a 3-hour private wine tasting course with Jorge Martinez, winemaker for Bodegas Luberri and one of the region’s foremost wine experts.
End your day with supper in a first class restaurant.
(b,l,d)

La Rioja | Walk in the High Hills.
This morning you visit the fascinating wine museum at ‘Dinastía Vivanco’.
Budding Jilly Gooldens can get inspiration from the olfactory section with its rows of small pots containing every imaginable wine related smell.
Continue to the ridge of the Sierra de San Lorenzo, from where you have spectacular views of the plains of Rioja and a series of 2,000m peaks.
Walk from a pass to the peak of San Lorenzo: at 2,270m it is the highest in the region.
Walk 8km, 2hrs, 300m, 300m
Return to your hotel to relax before dinner. (b,l,d)

La Rioja | Dinosaurs and Vineyards.
Visit a bodega this morning.
Carry on to the east of the region to spend the next 2 nights in the village of Arnedillo.
The area around Arnedillo has a dry, Mediterranean climate which means that the flora and fauna change dramatically.
After a relaxed lunch, explore one of the world’s most important concentrations of dinosaur fossils and footprints. (b,l,d)

La Rioja | Walking and Spa.
Despite the dry land around you, a short drive away is the verdant beech forest of the Hayedo de Santiago. It is a lovely area and provides a cooling contrast to the scenery you have encountered at the start of the week.Lunch is a picnic served in the forest. Walk 12km, 3hrs, 300m, 350m
This afternoon relax in the thermal baths near your hotel and explore the village at your own pace.
Enjoy supper this evening. (b,l,d)

La Rioja | Rioja Alta.
This morning, visit the monasteries of San Millán where the Spanish and Basque languages were first written.
Set off walking into the foothills through a landscape of red sandstone cliffs, pine and Iberian oak trees.
Walk 12km, 3hrs, 420m, 420m
Change hotels today. Stay in a comfortable small hotel in the centre of the region for your last 2 nights.
The scenery changes once more, to a landscape of forests, mountains and steep gorges with no sign of vineyards.
This evening enjoy dinner in a small village near your hotel.

Dramatic rock formations on the walk from San Millan to Tobía.

High mountain scenery in the south of the region.
The restaurant is run by two brothers – one is the chef, the other the sommelier: both are self taught. Recipes derive from their mother’s traditional cooking. Ingredients come from the hills around and about but the food is remarkably sophisticated and delicious. The sommelier explains their choice of particular wine to go with particular foods. It really is quite a revelation to experience the difference a well chosen wine can make. (b,l,d)

La Rioja | Sculpture Forest.
This morning walk through a natural park with a difference, as you follow a route combining natural landscapes with art.
Eight different artists were commissioned to create sculptures from raw materials of the forest.
You discover the sculptures as you walk – not all of them are at all obvious at first sight.
Walk 13km, 4hrs, 350m, 350m
Enjoy your farewell supper this evening. (b,l,d)

Travel | Return home.
Drive back to Bilbao for your flight home. (b)