The famous Rioja Wine region is a must for wine lovers visiting Spain. Located in the south of the Basque country, you will visit the village of Haro, the unique medieval village of Laguardia. Of course, you will visit a traditional wine cellar for a wine tasting, and a guided walking tour of Vitoria.
Follow the highway towards the south, until you arrive at Vitoria, the capital city of the Basque Country, where you will have a panoramic tour into the city. It is considered to be one of the best cities in Spain for quality of life, and is the city in Europe with the most green square meters per inhabitant. You will do a walking tour in the old part of the city where you will see such sights as the old Inn 'el Portalon' from the XV century, the Virgen Blanca square, the Machete square and the Cathedral of Santa Maria among others.
After your walking tour, you will head towards the south and arrive finally into the land of Wine, to Rioja.You will stop at Laguardia, a unique medieval village that still keeps the real atmosphere of the old times, with the two churches, the walls, the house shields and the narrow medieval streets among others. You will visit in this village, a traditional underground Rioja wine cellar, carbonic maceration with open pools and do a wine tasting at the end of the visit.
Afterwards, there will be free time for lunch and your guide will suggest a selection of recommended local restaurants.
Finally you will return directly back to Bilbao to arrive at approximately 6:00pm.
Amazing tour of southern Basque country. Wonderful sights and really worth the day. Out tour guide Stefan was knowledgeable, friendly, and clearly passionate about his job and the area. Wish were back there!
Review by: Peter H, November 2015
Our guide was great!!_br/_ The tour was interesting but not much different than similar tours in other countries.
Review by: sylviane b, October 2015
tHe only negative was that the guide spoke in Spanish 70 percent and English only 30 percent.We felt like second class citizens.
Review by: Paul P, October 2015
A very passionate and talkative guide! Great scenery. Vitoria was very interesting. The English speaking wine tour and sampling lasted an hour, and the winery guide was great.
Review by: Peter C, September 2015
Excellent trip as an introduction to the Basque Country. Pedro, our guide was very good, informative and helpful.
Review by: François S, September 2015
I enthusiastically give a top rating to Viatour, and to the Vitoria and the Rioja Wine Region tour._br/_ Everything started on the right foot. Viatour notified me a few days ahead that of the pickup time. Pedro showed up precise as clockwork._br/_ The Vitoria leg was superb: gorgeous city. But Guardia was the real treat. A splendid village in a region of breathtaking beauty. Viatour had arranged a visit to a traditional winery, a very interesting tour. We then had lunch in an excellent restaurant._br/_ And Pedro, our guide, is a pure gem. Knowledgeable, relaxed we are, after all, on vacation, and capable of discussing openly and honestly potentially delicate aspects of Basque politics and sociology. Plus ladies, take notice he is very handsome._br/_ So there you have it: great scenery, great organization, great guide. I could never have arranged such a visit by myself. Next time the occasion shows up to take a Viatour excursion, I wont hesitate.
Review by: Robert Y, September 2015
A very interesting tour. Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable.
Review by: sulava50, August 2015
Our guide, Pedro, was excellent, very knowledgeable of the region and history. The tour of the winery was interesting and unique! We had a great time!
Review by: vvt, June 2015
Perfect trip that you should not miss.Pedro is very knowledgeable and very nice. Very well organized.
Review by: Barbara G, June 2015
The tour of Vitoria was a waste. Not a very interesting or pretty place to be. Would have preferred going to two wineries rather than spending time in an undistinguished city.
Review by: Taru, June 2015
June 2015_br/_
We had a wonderful time at this tour. Pedro, our guide, is very knowledgeable of the area and very attentive to his customers. Thank you so much!
Review by: jeanette b, June 2015
very good. thoroughly enjoyed. Pedro the guide was incredible
Review by: Patricia R, December 2014
Seeing the wine making process in El Guardia was really interesting. The town of Vitoria was really interesting. The guide was marvellous, a minefield of knowledge, friendly and happy to cheerfully answer all questions.
Review by: Debra M H, September 2014
There were just 3 of us, and it almost felt like a private tour! Mariano knew his history well and had plenty of little interesting stories and funny antidotes that made it all real. In every town we went he got us maps and pamphlets. The winery and wine tasting was really special and then we had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant he recommended . On the way back he made an un scheduled stop at at the hotel and winery Marques de Riscal, which Frank Gehry designed, and we went into the hotel and had coffee there. We ended up with getting an extra hour of the tour. A wonderful guide and an extraordinary tour.
Review by: joannes v, August 2014
Excellent guide, interesting explanation, impressive day
Review by: Erik G, August 2014
A wonderful day filled with beautiful scenery, winetasting and intersting information. Our guide Garaia gave us tons of interesting facts about the Basque country and people. He was very enthusiastic and funny!_br/_
Will definatly recommend this tour.
Review by: yvonne, June 2014
This was a wonderful trip! Our guide, Garay, was both personable and knowledgeable. Vitoria and Laguardia were so beautiful. The wine tasting was very well done. We learned so much about the history of the Basque people and present customs. The fine print mentioned that the tour could be cancelled if there were not enough people. We were the only couple, but the tour went on-just as a private tour (at no extra charge).
Review by: Rune S, July 2013
Recommended
Review by: Phil Z, July 2013
I really enjoyed my excursion to the basque wine country. Old town Vitoria was interesting and our guide gave us lots of great information. We had to take a detour from the fast route to the wine region due to a road closure but our guide was able to find an alternate route that was very scenic. Unfortunately it made us late for our wine tour. However our guide convinced the winery to give us a tour anyway although I felt it was a bit rushed. I would have liked if we could visit more than one winery.
Review by: Siobhan, May 2012
We had a lovely day in the Rioja region. The tour was informative and relaxed and the guide was very helpful, pleasant and enthusiastic.
Review by: Edward P, April 2012
A really interesting tour of the countryside that ended up at a local wine cellar (not a vineyard, the vines and grapes are a few miles away) with a wine tasting and opportunity to buy wine direct from the producers. Our tour guide was very friendly, knowledgeable and spoke good English. We stopped for both coffee and lunch at excellent locations that our guide recommended. If you are staying in Bilbao then this is a trip worth making.
Review by: Brian Elliott S, March 2012
A good day trip to a scenic and historic area. The tour guide at the Fabiola Winery was great as was the history and wine itself. The tour guide for the day could have been a bit better at English and given more information, but the city of Laguardia is gorgeous and the valley of Rioja amazingly beautiful. I wish we could have had longer to explore the town. Overall, a good tour.
Review by: Leslie W, October 2011
We expected to visit several wineries, but only visited one, which turned out ok because the whole day was really enjoyable! Vitoria was a visual treat and John's sense of humor made everyone have a good time. The visit to the winery was one more fun thing in a whole day of fun.
Review by: Laine P, October 2010
Very disappointing and not up to the Viator standards we are used to. The tour guide (Teresa) did not speak English well enough and she did not have a very good understanding of the region. We packed in a tiny van and Teresa would shout out some tid bits of information as we drove to the different stops but if you were sitting in the back of the van you could not understand anything. After a while you stopped trying to listen because she had nothing to say that was of any interest. For lunch we were on our own as Teresa did not know anything about where to eat. We later found out from some others on the tour a good place for lunch but by then it was too late, we were leaving. The tour was suppose to last until 6:00 pm but she was speeding back to Bilbao and had us at our hotel by 5:00 pm. Very disappointing and not worth the money. The best part of the day was the winery tour and that was conducted by a very interesting and informed person working at the winery. Find a different tour organizer for Bilabo.
Review by: Laine P, September 2010
Very disappointing and not up to the Viator standards we are used to. The tour guide (Teresa) did not speak English well enough and she did not have a very good understanding of the region. We packed in a tiny van and Teresa would shout out some tid bits of information as we drove to the different stops but if you were sitting in the back of the van you could not understand anything. After a while you stopped trying to listen because she had nothing to say that was of any interest. For lunch we were on our own as Teresa did not know anything about where to eat. We later found out from some others on the tour a good place for lunch but by then it was too late, we were leaving. The tour was suppose to last until 6:00 pm but she was speeding back to Bilbao and had us at our hotel by 5:00 pm. Very disappointing and not worth the money. The best part of the day was the winery tour and that was conducted by a very interesting and informed person working at the winery. Find a different tour organizer for Bilabo.
Review by: Paul J M, United Kingdom, November 2008
Fantastic Trip, fantastic guide! Vitoria and Laguardia were beautiful, as was the drive through the Rioja region and with it's breathtaking scenery, and the staff at Fabulista wine cellar were also very informative and friendly. Highly recommended!!
Review by: , November 2008
This was an enjoyable day out from Bilbao. We had a good time, and the guide was great. We feel it would have been better to have a guided tour of the Santa Maria Cathedral than a visit to the card museum.
Review by: Jacqueline M, November 2008
This was an enjoyable day out from Bilbao. We had a good time, and the guide was great. We feel it would have been better to have a guided tour of the Santa Maria Cathedral than a visit to the card museum.
Review by: Anonymous, November 2008
This was an enjoyable day out from Bilbao. We had a good time, and the guide was great. We feel it would have been better to have a guided tour of the Santa Maria Cathedral than a visit to the card museum.
Review by: Anonymous, Spain, July 2007
This was an enjoyable day out from Bilbao. We had a good time, and the guide was great. We feel it would have been better to have a guided tour of the Santa Maria Cathedral than a visit to the card museum.
Review by: Jacqueline M, July 2007
This was an enjoyable day out from Bilbao. We had a good time, and the guide was great. We feel it would have been better to have a guided tour of the Santa Maria Cathedral than a visit to the card museum.
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