Coach Holidays to Spain and the Wine Regions
Northern Spain rewards travellers who cover the ground slowly. The Ebro valley, the high plains of Castile and the vineyard country either side of the Duero all look best from a road that keeps changing its mind about the view, and none of it is easy to reach without a driver.
Our Spanish holidays fly out from the UK and then travel by coach, so the touring is done for you: the back lanes to the bodegas, the walled towns, the cathedral cities. The tours below are based in the wine country of the north.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Coach Holidays to Spain Tours
Not on these tours. Our Spanish holidays include return flights and airport transfers in the UK and at the destination, and the coach travel takes place in Spain itself. That means no long haul across France at either end, and the whole of your time away is spent in the region you came to see. Departure airports vary by tour and date, so please ask us when you enquire.
Return flights and airport transfers at both ends, five nights' hotel accommodation, breakfast every morning, most evening meals, and admission and wine tasting at the wineries listed on the itinerary. The La Rioja tour also includes a lunch. Prices are per person sharing, based on 25 passengers travelling; the La Rioja tour carries a single supplement of £190. Full details of what each tour includes are on the individual tour pages.
More than you might expect. Bodega visits involve standing for a while and often stairs down into the cellars, and the old towns — Laguardia and Peñaranda de Duero in particular — are cobbled and sloping. Nothing is strenuous, and the coach takes you to the door wherever it can park, but comfortable shoes matter. If you have concerns about a particular itinerary, ask us and we will talk it through honestly.
Yes. Alongside our scheduled departures, which individual travellers and couples join, we arrange private group tours for clubs, societies and groups of friends who want the coach to themselves. Dates, pace and some of the itinerary can usually be adjusted to suit the group. Tell us roughly how many of you there are and when you would like to travel, and we will put together a costing.
How coach touring works in Spain
Two quite different things get called a coach holiday to Spain. One drives all the way from the UK, with Channel crossings and overnight stops in France. The other flies out and picks up a coach at the airport, which is how our Spanish tours are arranged — the flight covers the long dull bit, and the coach does the part that matters.
Spanish roads make this straightforward. The autovía network is modern and, away from Madrid and the coast, often almost empty. Distances between the places worth seeing in wine country are short: Logroño to Haro takes about forty minutes, Aranda de Duero to Burgos around an hour, Pamplona a little over an hour and a half from Logroño.
The practical advantage is parking. Bodegas sit down farm tracks, and hilltop towns such as Laguardia keep cars outside the walls. A driver who knows where a coach can turn saves an hour of every day.
Wine country between the Ebro and the Duero
La Rioja is compact enough to see properly in a few days. Haro's Barrio de la Estación has a dozen historic cellars grouped around the old railway station, built there in the 1890s so the barrels could go straight onto the train. Laguardia stands on its ridge above the vines, the streets underneath honeycombed with medieval cellars. At Elciego, the Marqués de Riscal bodega of 1858 now sits beneath Frank Gehry's ribbon of pink and silver titanium.
South-west across the mountains, Ribera del Duero is higher, harder country — much of it around 800 metres, with cold nights that give the Tempranillo its grip. Aranda de Duero has its own network of cellars beneath the old town. Nearby are Peñaranda de Duero's arcaded square, Burgos with its Gothic cathedral and the tomb of El Cid, and Valladolid, where Cervantes lived while finishing Don Quixote.
Choosing the right time of year
Spring comes late and green to the meseta. April and May bring wildflowers along the vine rows and daytime temperatures in the high teens or low twenties, with genuinely cold nights at altitude. It is a comfortable time to walk round towns.
High summer on the Castilian plain is hot — thirty degrees and more through July and August — though the dry air and the altitude take the edge off after dark. September and October bring the vendimia, when the harvest is in and the bodegas are at their busiest, tractors queue at the winery gates and the vine leaves turn copper.
One thing to pack whatever the month: cellars are kept cool and damp all year, usually around thirteen degrees. A jumper for the tastings is worth more than a sun hat.
