Taking wine tours from your cruise ship is a very enjoyable thing to do in quite a number of ports around the world, Barcelona for Penedes, Capetown for Stellenbosch, San Francisco for Napa…the list goes on! But there is only one country in South America where you have very easy access to several important wine regions at once and from two different ports no less. Even better, these two ports serve as the start or endpoints of many cruises in South America. This means that these wine tours become an even more attractive proposition as they can be included as part of the airport-to-ship transfer or vice versa. The country we are talking about here is Chile of course, and the ports are Valparaiso and San Antonio.
Some might say that Montevideo in Uruguay is a good option (and it is) but it just doesn’t come close to offering the quantity, variety and quality of wineries that can be visited from the two Chilean ports in question. The chance to combine a great wine tour with a private or small group transfer to or from the capital Santiago is a real bonus, especially when people start to look at the cruise ship’s prices for simple large group transfers!
By heading off in slightly different directions from either of these important cruise ports a wine lover can enjoy a day trip to either Casablanca (the most famous and high-quality wine region close to the ports), San Antonio (including the highly regarded Leyda area), Pirque, Maipo, and also parts of Aconcagua or Cachapoal. We offer these shore excursions in either private or small group formats, this allows us to visit small, family-run wineries where large cruise ship buses would overwhelm the place.
Obviously, we can and do visit some of the heavy hitters in the region, as we like to provide our clients with a cross-section of wineries showing contrasts in investment level, wine style and winemaking philosophy. It might be that people regularly drink a certain wine at home and would like to see where it is made, no problem on a private tour as we can take you anywhere you like as long as time permits.
If you are joining your cruise you can be picked up from Santiago airport, or a city hotel if you arrived prior to your boarding day. Arriving a day early for your cruise is highly recommended as this avoids the stress of potentially delayed flights creating uncertainty about whether you will make it to the port in time. The cost of an extra night in a hotel before, or after, your cruise is negligible in comparison with the overall cost of your vacation and is well worth it for peace of mind.
Whether you are travelling to or from your cruise you can enjoy a full day among the vines, learning a little more about winemaking in general, and Chilean winemaking in particular, and of course sip some excellent wines along the way. Lunch will be scheduled also, usually at a lovely winery restaurant. Now is there really a better way to start or end your cruise?