Wine Cities
Short wine weekend breaks
These short wine breaks are great value and mean spending only a little time away from work if this is important for you. They are likely to suit those who are short on time but keen to have an enjoyable, informative wine tasting break, led by one of our personally selected local or UK based wine experts team. Private chateaux visits, wine tastings and even private lunches at wine estates are all included. These short wine trips are all personally fully arranged by Arblaster & Clarke’s team of UK based wine experts exclusively for our clients so you travel as a privileged Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tours client on an exclusive A&C tour, not just part of a general public group booked onto a locally available “ daily excursion” with a “tour” guide for “half a day” as happens with lesser wine touring firms.
You meet up on location with our own Wine Guide who will escort the wine events and who is on hand to answer all the wine related questions you may have. The wine visits and meals at wine estates are carefully selected so you will taste a wide range of excellent wines, representing a good introduction to the region to be visited, in a way that is not possible if you are travelling independently. For instance, in Lyon on our Rhone wine weekend we visit Château Thivin where owner Claude-Vincent Geoffray welcomes the party to taste his typically spicy “Côte de Brouilly’s”, which rank amongst the best from the appellation.
They work out considerably less expensive than trying to organise all these details on your own ( if indeed it were possible to organise all of this on your own), and all in just one phone call or email to a fully bonded, reputable wine tours professional offering you all the back up and security that booking with a fully bonded tour operator offers.
During these long weekends each city has a good variety of non wine related things to do such as museums, galleries, shops, restaurants and bars. The hotels are centrally located so getting around in the evening is easy and we provide a list of recommended restaurants for you, but unlike on our fully escorted tours the evenings are free for you to make your own choice of dining venue, from simple wine bar to gastronomic Michelin star. We can easily book the hotel for an extra few nights to tie in with your travel schedule or if you simply want to explore the city that you are staying in some more.
Flights or travel to the destination are not included in the tour cost so that you can book these yourselves on-line (or we are happy to do it for you at the published rate plus a small administration fee – we are fully bonded with ATOL 2543, so you can book your flights through us with total financial confidence). Our chosen wine cities are easy to reach from many UK local airports by scheduled or low cost airlines. If you do not want to fly then consider joining our Bordeaux trip by train. (Bordeaux takes about 5 hours by TGV from Ashford in Kent). Alternatively you could self-drive via the Loire. This has the big advantage that you can bring back some wine or make the trip part of a longer holiday. In the past these breaks have included destinations such as Bordeaux, Florence, Rhone, Oporto, Burgundy, Champagne and Barcelona.
View Other Ideas and Past ToursTours
Bordeaux Jubilee Wine & City Weekend
2 - 4 June 2012
Bordeaux Wine & City
13 - 15 April 2012, 16 - 18 November 2012
