Wine drive holiday

[maybs]

Hey folks

So the wife and I are thinking of taking a domestic instead of international holiday next year. We will be leaving the kids with my parents. Originally we were thinking of just going to Margaret River, but then we got in mind the idea to do a drive.

So now we are thinking either fly to Margaret River then drive to Adelaide and do a few SA wine regions (probably Clare calley and barossa) or start by flying to Melbourne, do Yarra Valley then drive to SA and so some wine regions.

I haven't looked into it in detail yet but am assuming the drive from Melbourne is easier and maybe nicer places to stop and look at on the way?

Could make it anywhere between 7 and 14 days.

Would be interested in thoughts or tips.

Cheers
Scott

[Mike Hawkins]

Ive down the Yarra, Great Ocean Road, Coonawarra, Mclaren, Barossa trip a few times. Would thoroughly recommend it.

Mike

[Ozzie W]

Ive down the Yarra, Great Ocean Road, Coonawarra, Mclaren, Barossa trip a few times. Would thoroughly recommend it.

Mike

My dream holiday! Maybe one day.

[paulf]

Margaret River to Adelaide is a Monster of a drive. I just plugged it in to Google and google says 2954 km and (31 hrs). Thats a lot of time spent in a car. I think if I wanted to do both, I'd be flying.
Melbourne to Adelaide is about 8 hrs. There are plenty of wine regions around Melbourne that aren't that far from the city - Yarra, Mornington, Geelong, Sunbury, Macedon, Heathcote and Bendigo.

Driving across to Adelaide, you could go through Henty, or Great Western. If you want a scenic drive, you could always take the great ocean road.
If you were looking for a fancy place to eat along the way Brae at Birregurra (North of Lorne) or the Royal Mail hotel (Dunkeld, near Hamilton) are pretty fancy options. Melbourne to Coonawarra is about 5 hours, so it is possible to leave in the morning and still be in time to hit a few wineries.

It has been a while since I've been to the Barossa and Clare so I can't add much there. Don't forget McLaren Vale since it is practically in the Burbs of Adelaide. I think there is some interesting stuff happening there right now.

[maybs]

Haha I just looked into the Margaret river angle a bit more, good heads up. It didn't look THAT MUCH further on a larger map but yeah, that ain't happening.

So, at this stage it will probably either be

Drive from Sydney to Beechworth to check out Savaterre, Giaconda etc. Overnight there and drive to Yarra Valley. Spend a day or so there then scoot across to Coonawarra, then up to Adelaide to check out McLaren Vale, Barossa/Eden Valley and Clare if we have time, then drive back across to Sydney

OR

Fly to Melbourne, hit Yarra, across to Coonawarra etc and fly back from Adelaide (assuming we can get a decent hire car we can pick up in Melbourne and drop off in Adelaide)

Any thoughts from anyone who has done those areas or that trip (Mike?) on suggested time of year?

[Polymer]

Either one but replace Yarra w/ Heathcote and/or Geelong.....The nice thing w/ the drive from Sydney one is it isn't that far to Beechworth (it is but it isn't) but makes it easy to hit up Rutherglen and any other semi surrounding wineries...or you can even go through Canberra to get to Beechworth (slightly out of the way).

Depends on how much time you have but that breaks up the drive quite a bit...

I've actually considered this exact same drive...

[maybs]

Either one but replace Yarra w/ Heathcote and/or Geelong.....The nice thing w/ the drive from Sydney one is it isn't that far to Beechworth (it is but it isn't) but makes it easy to hit up Rutherglen and any other semi surrounding wineries...or you can even go through Canberra to get to Beechworth (slightly out of the way).

Depends on how much time you have but that breaks up the drive quite a bit...

I've actually considered this exact same drive...

Yeah the reason I was thinking of driving from sydney is (a) I like several Beechworth wines, it is a pretty easy drive to there, and it will save me about $3k in flights and hire car costs.

Down side, I figure including the trip back it's 3 or so days extra travel. Which I can manage but may mean less time on the ground in wine country (but more money to spend on wine haha). Will have to think about it.

I would invite you Polymer but the missus might get upset

[paulf]

Either one but replace Yarra w/ Heathcote and/or Geelong.....The nice thing w/ the drive from Sydney one is it isn't that far to Beechworth (it is but it isn't) but makes it easy to hit up Rutherglen and any other semi surrounding wineries...or you can even go through Canberra to get to Beechworth (slightly out of the way).

Depends on how much time you have but that breaks up the drive quite a bit...

I've actually considered this exact same drive...

Yeah the reason I was thinking of driving from sydney is (a) I like several Beechworth wines, it is a pretty easy drive to there, and it will save me about $3k in flights and hire car costs.

Down side, I figure including the trip back it's 3 or so days extra travel. Which I can manage but may mean less time on the ground in wine country (but more money to spend on wine haha). Will have to think about it.

I would invite you Polymer but the missus might get upset

I'm no expert on car hire, but I was looking into it last week for a trip going north from Melbourne. One thing I've discovered is that you pay a significant premium if you aren't returning the car to the place you hired from. I think it was about $300 extra on the quotes I looked at, so driving down from Sydney makes some sense. Definitely money better spent on wine! The good thing about Victoria is that you are never far from a wine region.

[Polymer]

Down side, I figure including the trip back it's 3 or so days extra travel. Which I can manage but may mean less time on the ground in wine country (but more money to spend on wine haha). Will have to think about it.

Well Clare to Sydney is really just one long day of travel..you can always break it up into two days..drive through Mildura and check out a couple of places there....And if you haven't gone to Murrumbateman on the way to you can drop by on the way back....

Or Fly into Adelaide..Do that area and then come back via Coonawarra, etc...then you'll be able to transport your wine back to Sydney...That probably makes for an easier trip since your drives will all be max 5 hours or so...

[maybs]

Yeah the only thing is the missus has a slightly dodgy back. I can probably stretch the first day sydney to Beechworth or something like that, maybe even melbourne, but I reckon I will have to break it up into 5 or so hour chunks max after that. So coming back from Adelaide is at least 2 days.

Paul I looked into it tonight, and it looks to me like if you are picking up at Melbourne airport and dropping off at Adelaide airport they charge you nearly double so it will either be fly in to Melbourne and do a round trip back to Melbourne or drive from sydney

I'm half tempted to cut out Victoria the more I look at it and spend more time in SA wine country, maybe a day or two down on the coast somewhere too, but I quite like driving. Will just have to sit down and actually work out an itinerary and see how it looks. I hate being too rushed, especially when there is wine around

[TiggerK]

Hey maybs,

I agree, we've done a few holidays now (as have we all), and one thing I've learnt (albeit slowly!), is that staying in or around one area makes for a better and more relaxing holiday. But it's a fine line between not doing enough and doing new and interesting things, as it's the latter that makes the holiday seem longer (brain forming new memory pathways altering the passing of time aspect).

I'm temped to suggest... albeit from limited experience.

Fly to Melbourne/Avalon, get a hire car (Avis were good for us recently), drive via Great Ocean Road around to Adelaide, stopping at places like Lorne, Apollo Bay, Warrnambool etc as needed for food/overnights. A week or so around Barossa, maybe making your way up via McLaren Vale/Coonawarra etc (don't miss Star of Greece at Port Willunga).

Then head home via a night out somewhere flash (and to have been looked forward to) like Royal Mail or Brae, then if needed/desired overnight in Melbourne for another nice 'city' night out (European and Movida a fav of ours, amongst many others), then fly home.

Cheers
Tim

[Michael R]

Hi Maybs

Driving from sydney, via Beechworth to yarra etc, onto SA and driving back to sydney is ill advised over 2 weeks.
In fact trying to fit in all those regions over 2 weeks seems exhausting.
Fwiw I drove to Beechworth for 2 nights a couple of years ago. Loved it, but the drive is tiring. Spent most of a day at Giaconda which I'll never forget (was the reason we went to Beechworth) , plus Sorrenberg and Savaterre the following day.

Lots of great options in each region, but if you want to drive form Melb to SA or vice versa... Fly from Syd.
Alternatively if u really want to drive from Syd and back, I'd recommend heading to Victoria and save SA for another day.
Beechworth, Macedon, pryenees, Geelong, yarra, mornington etc gives you Gia, epis, curly, dalwhinnie ,bindi, by Farr, bass Philip, main ridge etc etc. couple of days max at each, with 3-4 days driving thrown in chews up 2 weeks pretty quickly.
also as Polymer says, Canberra is an option either there or back.

[Tom A]

Hi Scott,
Nice timing, I just did Melbourne to Adelaide with the kids a couple of weeks ago. We took 10 days to do it so we took our time. My wife and I had done the great ocean road before so this time we went from Melbourne out to the Grampians and stayed at Halls Gap. From there Best's was tops to visit. You pass Seppelts and Mount Langi on the way through.

From there we headed south to Port Fairy, nice and quaint at this time of the year. I was keen to visit Crawford River Winery on the way through to Mount Gambier but sadly there was no one available for show us through the day we were doing that drive (by appointment). We stayed in Coonawarra (Penola) which was fine if you like the regions wine. I'm much more Margaret River Cabernet than Coonawarra so from a wine perspective it was pretty lean. Wynns don't open their premiums, nor does Balnaves and Parker. But with kids it meant the longest drive was only Penola to Adelaide which was about 4 hours so that worked out well.

If I had more time I was toying with hiring the car in Melbourne and driving down through the Mornington Peninsula. Then put the car on the ferry to Geelong and drive the great ocean road before heading up to Adelaide. That way you get 2 more wine regions in!

Our car hire cost us about $500 all up for the trip which wasn't too bad.

Cheers

TA

[Duncan Disorderly]

Gave up on WA pretty quickly...

Margaret River is a great place, with some great wineries, restaurants, beaches, scenery, etc but their are some other great wine regions in Western Australia, particularly if you want a bit of a drive.

Why don't you fly to Perth, spend a day or two there then hire a car and drive to Mt Barker. It's a 375 km trip and there aren't many wineries (or much of anything really) until you get to Mount Barker, but once your there there is some excellent wines with the likes of Plantagenet, Castle Rock Estate and Gilberts, and the view from Castle Rock in the Porungurup National Park is pretty amazing.

From Mount Barker you can go through to Albany which is a pretty scenic town, particularly around the waterfront, or you can begin the trek west and head through to Denmark, taking in Frankland Estate on the way. Once in Denmark I'd spend a couple of days taking in the local produce (West Cape Howe, Howard Park, Forest Hill, Harewood Estate, La Violetta (no cellar door), etc) and the beautiful coastline and forests.

From Denmark go to Pemberton, but have a night in Walpole and take a trip out on the Nornalup Inlet for the day. Pemberton is a beautiful town surrounded by forest and some good wineries like Picardy, Salitage and Donnelly River.

From Pemberton its only 120 km and you're in Margaret River and there's more wineries than you can poke a stick at. As far as accommodation Margaret River is a great town, but personally I prefer the coast so I'd be looking to stay at either Bunker Bay, Yallingup, Gracetown or Prevelly, although Dunsborough is also an option. Have a couple of days there as there is plenty to see and do.

From Margaret River to Perth is a bit dull, but Capel Vale between Busselton and Bunbury is pretty good and Peel Estate at Karnup (a mere 55 km south of the Perth CBD) is in my opinion one of the most under rated wineries in Australia.

Once back in Perth get back on the plane ASAP... lest you want to pay through the nose for everything. However if you persist it is a great town and there are plenty of good food and wine experiences if you are willing to have a look around. The Winosapien blog is a good resource and I'm sure there are plenty on here who know their way around Fremantle, Mt Lawley, Subiaco, Perth City and Cottesloe much better than I do. There are also some pretty interesting wine experiences to be had in the Swan Valley and the Perth Hills.

[Mike Hawkins]

Haha I just looked into the Margaret river angle a bit more, good heads up. It didn't look THAT MUCH further on a larger map but yeah, that ain't happening.

So, at this stage it will probably either be

Drive from Sydney to Beechworth to check out Savaterre, Giaconda etc. Overnight there and drive to Yarra Valley. Spend a day or so there then scoot across to Coonawarra, then up to Adelaide to check out McLaren Vale, Barossa/Eden Valley and Clare if we have time, then drive back across to Sydney

OR

Fly to Melbourne, hit Yarra, across to Coonawarra etc and fly back from Adelaide (assuming we can get a decent hire car we can pick up in Melbourne and drop off in Adelaide)

Any thoughts from anyone who has done those areas or that trip (Mike?) on suggested time of year?

Last time I did it I paid a $60 drop off fee - flew to Melbourne and out of Adelaide. The time before that I didn't pay one at all. I've always been partial to either Oct or March / April as the weather is good and different wineries tend to release new wines in either spring or autumn. Plus every 2nd year the Barossa has a festival in April, at which you get to tatse some fantastic, and older wines.

[Sean]

deleted

[maybs]

Wow. Just wow.i appreciate all the thoughts and info here guys but Sean that is above and beyond. Some great food for thought there. I really need to sit down with the missus and work out a realistic list of priorities (sight seeing vs wineries etc) and a realistic schedule. I know she is very keen to drive the great ocean road but I am just wondering how much that is going to eat into our schedule and whether on our timing it will be too tiring. I think it may depend how close to the 15 days we decide to stretch it.

I had toyed with the Tasmania angle but think I would just fly in and hire a car, and that I will leave that for another time. Maybe when the kids are older.

Haha yes dumped Margaret River quickly. Not because I don't love the wines from there, I really do, but SA was always the end game for this particular trip and it is just too much of a trek.

We did briefly check out Mornington Peninsula when we were down in March. Just spent a day out there, saw a few wineries and drove down to Sorrento. Great spots.

I am starting to lean towards actually just going and spending 7 or 8 days in the regions around Adelaide, fly in and fly out of there, and then the same in Victoria another time. So break the two weeks up into two trips basically. Will mull on that and speak to the Minister of War and Finance.

[Diddy]

Just out of interest, would your Mrs be interested in 7-8 days of wine holiday?

I only ask because if your wife is anything like mine she'd be bored sh!tless after the first few hours!

Sometimes in my enthusiasm for all things wine I tend to forget that...

[maybs]

Yeah Diddy I am pretty lucky. She doesn't take it to the same level of nerdiness I do but she loves a good wine and food trip. It was actually her idea. With a few bits and pieces thrown in I will have no trouble keeping her happy.

[Scotty vino]

Wow. Just wow.i appreciate all the thoughts and info here guys but Sean that is above and beyond. Some great food for thought there. I really need to sit down with the missus and work out a realistic list of priorities (sight seeing vs wineries etc) and a realistic schedule. I know she is very keen to drive the great ocean road but I am just wondering how much that is going to eat into our schedule and whether on our timing it will be too tiring. I think it may depend how close to the 15 days we decide to stretch it.

I had toyed with the Tasmania angle but think I would just fly in and hire a car, and that I will leave that for another time. Maybe when the kids are older.

Haha yes dumped Margaret River quickly. Not because I don't love the wines from there, I really do, but SA was always the end game for this particular trip and it is just too much of a trek.

We did briefly check out Mornington Peninsula when we were down in March. Just spent a day out there, saw a few wineries and drove down to Sorrento. Great spots.

I am starting to lean towards actually just going and spending 7 or 8 days in the regions around Adelaide, fly in and fly out of there, and then the same in Victoria another time. So break the two weeks up into two trips basically. Will mull on that and speak to the Minister of War and Finance.

Did the tasmanian wine odyssey this time last year. Was a great trip. Fly in, rent the car.
Tassie being the size it is makes for quite short stints of driving.
From memory did about 7 wineries, and as recommended on here went to Josef Chromy and it was a real highlight.
But the Best wine was the Freycinet Louis Pinot Noir.

AS for the SA wine trip. Keep it simple I reckon. Often what you think you can achieve in one stint you cannot.
My basic rule for any region is 3-4 wineries a day 5 max. Standard for most forumites I would've thought.
If you're doing the Clare Valley PM me as I'm there 2-3 times a year and have been doing so for about 5 years
so I can throw my 2 cents in on accomm etc
I'll be there this weekend doing what I call the 'auburn double' which is Grosset and Mount horrocks.
Maybe crabtree if I get time.

[Andrew Jordan]

My basic rule for any region is 3-4 wineries a day 5 max. Standard for most forumites I would've thought.

Scotty,

Sounds very relaxing and the kind of wine trip you would take the wife on. However, when Mike H and I are by ourselves we get a bit out of control and aim for 10 a day while taking turns in being designated driver. We even go to the point of making sure we check cellar opening times and go to the earliest opening one first and finish at the late closing one last - for example if visiting the Barossa start at Henschke which opens at 9.30am and finish at Torbreck which closes at 6.00pm. Palate fatigue is a real problem but none-the-less a very enjoyable day! The last thing you want over dinner is a glass of wine ...

[Scotty vino]

My basic rule for any region is 3-4 wineries a day 5 max. Standard for most forumites I would've thought.

Scotty,

Sounds very relaxing and the kind of wine trip you would take the wife on. However, when Mike H and I are by ourselves we get a bit out of control and aim for 10 a day while taking turns in being designated driver. We even go to the point of making sure we check cellar opening times and go to the earliest opening one first and finish at the late closing one last - for example if visiting the Barossa start at Henschke which opens at 9.30am and finish at Torbreck which closes at 6.00pm. Palate fatigue is a real problem but none-the-less a very enjoyable day! The last thing you want over dinner is a glass of wine ...

Mate, you don't muck around. I find with lunch thrown in and a good chin wag with the odd wine maker I'd struggle to get to 7.
I think if you're coming from afar you're gonna tend to go a bit harder though.
Living an hour or so away there's always the option to return later on for me which I take advantage of.

[precariousb]

The Melbourne to Adelaide trip is exactly what we are planning in February. Hopefully won't be too hot, we are British after all. Some great information posted in this thread, really helpful. Cheers.