The Southern Rhone is stunning and Provence, Lyon, and Dijon are just fun places to walk around in.
Italy…
As Otto says, avoid Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice, etc. Get a car and stay somewhere in the Val d’Orcia. We stayed 3 weeks just outside a town called Monticchiello (difficult to spell!), and were a five minute drive from Pienza and 20-30 minutes from Montepulciano and Montalcino. Plus, Monticchiello has one of the best restaurants in the region with a great wine list. And you can take terrific day trips (all within 30 minutes) to Bagno Vignoni (and nearby Fosso Bianco for swimming in a beautiful natural hot springs), San Quirico d’Orcia, Sant’Antimo, and Buonconvento. Siena is an easy 45 minutes if you must, but parking and getting around becomes more complicated. As a whole, the area around Pienza is a wine, cheese and food paradise, and wine shops (with reasonable prices) are abundant, and plenty of winery visits can be easily arranged.
Alternately, avoid these more well-travelled wine regions and visit either Orvieto (beautiful town and surprisingly delicious, predominantly white wines…with a day trip to nearby Civita di Bagnoregio, a midieval city on a hilltop that can only be accessed by a long pedestrian bridge over a gorge (from the nearby village of Bagnoregio), Friuli Venezia Giulia (the best, most “serious” white wines of Italy), or Veneto (lots of unknown producers of Valpolicella, Amarone, Ripasso, Recioto, etc…and Verona is a totally charming town to spend a few days in (though probably not worth more than 1 day to actually “see”).
Languedoc-Roussillon
Med/Pyranees/history/close to Spain/cool variety of wines/great food…
Go in early summer before it gets too crowded.
Yup, that Aqueduc Romain is some fine wine!
Id second suggestions of Mosel, Portugal, and also add Spain. I think there are places in Spain where its just crazy how good the deals can be. Bonus: combine Spain and Portugal very easily
While Croatia is a terrific country to visit and the wines are outstanding at best, I wouldn’t call it inexpensive during the high season, especially in the more touristy places. We were in Dubrovnik some years ago and it was one of the more expensive places we’ve visited in the recent past. I highly doubt Dubrovnik has become anything but even more expensive because of the Game of Thrones fame. Furthermore, while Croatian wines are priced nothing like US wines, they are still relatively expensive compared to the overall European standard.
If one wants to visit Croatia - especially for the wines - and still keep the budget small, Istria peninsula is definitely the place to visit.
Sorry for the drift but does the Travel Forum not exist exactly for discussions like this one?
Not mentioned yet, South Africa - the rand is weak. But yes if it were me based on your criteria, Portugal. Have good friends who spend 4 months there every summer and it does sound like agreat destination for wine, food and beaches.
Maybe, but will get more views here. It is wine-related ., And Mods will move if deemed necessary .
Of course, it costs so much just to get down there…
But this suffers the same problem as South America: too expensive flights (around $1000+) simply to get down there.
A pleasant day trip or overnight is to the north shore of Long Island. Check out Paumanok.
From New York, while it isn’t cheap, flights don’t look too bad as he can get tickets for in and around $1k or less (it would be during their winter, so that helps). That said, it’s definitely not as cheap as flying into Madrid and then finding one’s way around Spain or Southern France
Yeah, the Travel Forum is more about travel that isn’t necessarily predominantly wine-related. This is predominantly wine-related, and similar in vein to the pinned ‘visiting Sonoma’ thread
Argentina, Chile , South Africa, Spain.
All these would be your best bets imo. I would recommend investing in a vingardevalise so you can bring home a case of wine.
Makes sense. I guess I just wish more people would frequent the Travel Forum ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
That’s sad to hear, I was in Dubrovnik and Split in July 2009 and it was mind-bogglingly cheap to stay and eat, I think the room I rented on the beach in Split was <€10/night and food was commensurately inexpensive. Best squid I’ve ever eaten as well.
Try Mexico. There’s some interesting wine there.
And depending on the exchange rate, Canada. You can drive to Ontario or fly to BC.
Careful with liquor in Mexico.