Travel Discussions

My parents did it and loved it!  The hardest part was deciding what they would bring home.

So did they sign up with a tour company?  Or just do their own tour?

they just did their own tour.  they wanted the freedom to stay as long or as short as they wanted at the winery.  also some they skipped - if they read about them ahead of time and decided that they just weren't their kind of wines.

i did it 'free form" in napa and it was great fun. I have also done the wine tour tastings in gatlinburg too.  I get a list check it twice and make my plan. there is one in KY that was quite fun too.

next bryan and i hope to do a tour on our own of some wineries here in texas -- but of course the beer tours always take priority! :-)

some of them even have little snack shops and such so you can wine and dine.  It's  a nice relaxing low key activity. you can chat with them about the wines or not -- just take your tasters over to a table and enjoy.   

 

 

 

Yeah I've been reading about a bunch of them and it's hard to decide :) Some people say these 3 are the best, others say those aren't the best... etc. I was wondering, do you generally get to see the winery/vineyards? That's what I really want to see! I could actually live without tasting much wine, but I'm more interested in seeing the vineyards b/c they look so pretty.

ill ask them -- they leave for nashville tomorrow but I will try to catch them.

i know I have never been able to see the vineyards - not in gatlinburg, richmond, napa, or anywhere else -- I mean you could sort of see them from the road but not "touring" them.  

 

Thanks for letting me know your experiences at least :)  The main reason I'd want to go is to see the process, but a lot of the winerys I look at online seem like they just have a "tasting room" they let you go to and that's it.  That wouldn't be worth it for me, I want to see more :)

I've never done the ones here but it would be fun.  I've heard the ones in the Kalamazoo area are pretty good too.  I believe they have tours set up as well.  Don't fall for the one in St. Johns though... it's just a tasting room (although it all tastes good ;).  Too bad our vacations probably won't line up or I'd meet up with ya somewhere in there.

I'm starting to give up on the whole wine thing!  So much of the places I read about say it's basically just a tasting room, which I could care less about tasting the wine (although I wouldn't mind a few sips - that wouldn't be reason enough to visit!)

So far the only thing on our vacation agenda is Sleeping Bear Dunes.  My husband doesn't know it yet, but I plan to spend a nice long day there :-D

vivasuzi said…

I'm starting to give up on the whole wine thing!  So much of the places I read about say it's basically just a tasting room, which I could care less about tasting the wine (although I wouldn't mind a few sips - that wouldn't be reason enough to visit!)

So far the only thing on our vacation agenda is Sleeping Bear Dunes.  My husband doesn't know it yet, but I plan to spend a nice long day there :-D

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I love the Dunns... Where are you planning on staying then?  Traverse isn't really that far from there or Frankfort is a pretty nice place too... although I'm not sure there are many "big" hotels there.  There's tons of cottage/cabin type places though that would be fun.

I originally was planning The Homestead in Glen Arbor, then I read a bunch of negative reviews so now I'm not so sure!  I was talking to a CW who goes up there all the time for vaca and I think my basic itenerary is going to be divided now... something like 3-4 days in/around the dunes, then going up to st ignace so I can visit Mackinac island.... or maybe I'll stay ON mackinac island.  I haven't decided :)

Hello!  I see you posted your question quite awhile back, but perhaps this information will still be useful...

My girlfriends and I (all 20+ of us) have gone to the Leelanau Peninsula for the past 3 years and are booking our rooms and tour this week for this fall's tour.  We have an absolute blast when we go out there.  The wines are wonderful, the vintners are friendly and knowledgable and the countryside is absolutely beautiful.

We stay at the Holiday Inn West Bay in Traverse City just because it is a cost effective way for all of our girls to be able to go (for 2 nights hotel and 4-6 hour tour it's been between $130-150).

We've been to Chateau Fontaine, Leelanau Cellars (my favorite), Blackstar Farms (a must see--and try their roclette cheese with crackers), L. Mawby (gotta do if you love sparkling wines, plus they have yummy snacks for a small fee), Longview (try their dessert wines), and Shady Lane.  We all have favorites at everyone and there are always souveniers available for purchase.  If you visit Chateau Fontaine (my 2nd favorite), pick up some of the dip mixes--delicious!

I recommend a chauffered tour if you can swing it.  The wineries are fairly generous with the servings (generally 4-6 wines per location).  I know that personally there's no way I'm safe to drive after the first 2!!  As far as transportation goes, we've used By the Bay Shuttle as well as Great Northwest Tours.  This year I am searching for a different company to use.  If you do choose By the Bay and have a small group (less than 10), ask for Chris.  He was our driver the first year and was fantastic.

I hope this is helpful to you and serves as encouragement to visit.  You will not regret it.

Have fun!

Christy

Thanks for the advice :)  We are going to Glen Arbor later in June and still have a day or two with no plans so now that I have more info I'll see if we can swing it.  It depends on if my husband is into it or not.  If not, I'll just have to plan a girls only trip some other time b/c that sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing!!

I live in Leelanau County and I think the wineries here are just about as good as Nappa Valley. i haven't done the tour yet, but am thinking of getting a group together to do it. Email me for more information. Paula pse71@aol.com

The above contemplation is smart and doesn't necessitate any further calculation. It is great thought from my side.
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Hi Christy...did you ever find a different tour company?  I am planning a trip for me and my girlfriends and was wondering what the best company to use was.

Heather

Hi Heather, we ended up going it alone and found it to be very easy!  We did the old mission peninsula where all the wineries are seriously within minutes of each other.  If you print out the winery map, you'll find it's no trouble at all to do it yourself and a lot cheaper than the tours I looked into!  We planned a stop at Peninsula Grill in the middle of the day for lunch, it was great.

We didn't do the other, bigger peninsula because I had gotten advice that the other peninsula has too many wineries and can be hard to plan what to do.  With only 7 on the Old Mission Peninsula, we could have hit them all no trouble.  We decided to only do 4-5 though just because we got bored.