Hi all, my husband and I will be visiting Burgos and Salamanca in August and I plan to use a combination of ALSA and Renfe to move between cities, and walk/bus/taxi inside the cities. I would love to visit a winery or two while we're there - perhaps a half day or day trip at most. Are there any easily accessible by bus or train in the area, or any that you'd recommend visiting in either city? I plan for us to pass through Valladolid and spend a day there as well.

If there are any wineries that come highly recommended that we'd need a car to get to, how easy is it to find and rent a car for just a day in either of these cities? And what is the cost?

As a last resort, can anyone recommend any tour group options that include transportation? We'd be amenable to walking or biking tours as well.

I should add - I speak Spanish but my husband doesn't, so if the winery includes a tour, it would be great if there was an English option, but not a dealbreaker. Otherwise, if we can just visit the winery to look around, try some samples, and maybe have a picnic, that would be lovely as well!

Thanks!

There's a train between Burgos and Haro. The fastest one leaves at 8:21am and takes about 1-1/4 hours. There are a lot of bodegas that you can walk to in Haro.

Check rome2rio.com for train, bus, taxi info. But, verify that data as I've heard it is not always correct.

https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Burgos/Haro

A day trip to Haro is a great idea!

I don´t recall any wineries in Burgos or Salamanca, these cities are not wine producers. Burgos is close to the Ribera del Duero wine D.O. and you could get to some wineries in Aranda using public transport and a taxi. Haro is a bit far for a daily trip, I believe. Near Valladolid you have the Rueda (whites mainly) D.O., Cigales D.O. and Ribera del Duero D.O., but all important wineries are outside the city and quite scattered. If you really want to see wineries, I´d recommend to visit the Rioja wine region (having Haro in Rioja Alta as the main city and Laguardia in Rioja Alavesa as a beautiful medieval town), but not on your route.

We stayed near Valladolid, at a vineyard (Abadia Retuerta). You could easily take a taxi to that, or to other nearby wineries. Personally, I would rent a car for the day. Call Kemwell and see what they can dig up for one day. That area is super easy to drive around. And the food! If you like lamb, this is Mecca with a capital "M."

If the goal is to visit wineries, but sure you are comfortable with sip-and-spit tastings before renting a car!

<< Haro is a bit far for a daily trip, I believe. >>

Really? What is your distance, from a time-wise perspective, for a day trip? OP is not interested in making "daily" trips to wineries.

I don't think 1 hour 17 minutes each way on the train is too far for a day trip by any means. And, the OP doesn't have to worry about drinking and driving.

OP, here are my photos from Haro:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...gway1jZGcxVzlR

Well, joannyc, the OP says she´s interested in half day or day trips at most, as she says in her original post. And most trains take two hours. But of course, Haro is a good place to visit wineries on foot, the train station is next to a good bunch of wineries. My favorite one is Gómez Cruzado, by the way.

Many of the Haro ones need a booking so they can get an English speaker there etc. But they are dead easy to fall into as they cluster on the plain near the station while the town is on a bluff above you.

In the Barrio de la Estación in Haro, Rioja Alta (Rioja D.O.), there are 7 bodegas (wineries) that can be visited in two ways: just a wine bar tasting, normally no booking required, and you´ll probably have an English explanation of your tasting by a winery professional. The other way is to make a reservation for an in depth visit of the winery, that normally lasts around one hour and includes wine tasting, subject to schedules for English visits. Muga, López de Heredia, Gómez Cruzado, Roda, Rioja Alta, CVNE,..., all offer both ways.

From the winery quarter you may want to walk to Haro city center for lunch (around 2pm), when wineries normally close. Many reopen at 5pm, so you may have some time for a last wine tasting.

Near Burgos there aren´t any relevant wineries and you´ll need a car to get to those for Ribera del Duero D.O. No wineries in or near Salamanca to my knowledge.

You've already gotten mikelg's excellent input about what places do and don't require reservations. I'll just add that I thought the reserved tour of the López de Heredia among the most interesting and informative (and tasty!) of my visits to wineries in La Rioja.

Enjoy!

<< Well, joannyc, the OP says she´s interested in half day or day trips at most, as she says in her original post. And most trains take two hours.>>

Well, mikelg, there are only 3 trains per day from Burgos to Haro from what I can find. The morning train is 1 hr 17 min, the afternoon train is 2 hrs 2 min and the overnight train is not even feasible. Nor is the afternoon 2 hr train feasible since it leaves Haro in mid-afternoon and doesn't arrive in Haro until after 5pm. Being that there are only 3 trains per day and only 1 of them is 2 hrs, I would hardly say that "most trains take two hours".

And the OP said in her original post "perhaps a half day or day trip at most", one singular trip of one-half day or one full-day, at most. Not multiple trips.

amandararrr, yes, you would be locked into the 2 trains you mention in order to go to Haro. But, it is well worth it. I didn't do any of the winery tours, just tastings. No reservations were needed at any of the bodegas that I went to for tastings.

Enjoy your trip!

joannyc, I don´t even know why we are arguing. You literally said that "OP is not interested in making "daily" trips to wineries" but she actually is, and I just said that a train trip to Haro (when she was looking for wineries in Burgos or Salamanca, in the city o accesible by train or bus) could be not feasible, due to the scarcity of trains and length of itinerary. For a Spaniard, an over an hour trip to get to a winery is excessive, it may be a problem of perspective.

It´s probably my fault, amandarawrrr", I´m fluent in English but it´s not my native tongue...I misunderstood "daily trips" by "day trips". My apologies to everyone.