ganesh8888

Can any one give me some advice for me and my wife who are planning to visit these regions wine areas.

I am looking for a Wine specialists and not just a general tour we love wine and food and have travelled extensively other World Wine regions. This is a blow out trip for my Wifes' 60th and I need to get it right.

Right now our shortlist is as follows.

If anybody has travelled with wither of these companies I would really appreciate knowing of your expereince. both appear expensive but highly regarded.

Arblaster and Clarke

Robertson Wine Tours

Santiago Adventures.

Very much appreicated

Richard Dorkin
Kent UK

HappyTrvlr

While we were attending an event in Chile, we met a family who had been doing tours with www.slowtravel.cl.They were thrilled the company and it's excellent guides and drivers.

ganesh8888

Dear Richard Thank you very much for this we are still in the process of weighing up how to proceed with this but it is likely we are going to choose a company that is based in the region as opposed to a UK based company.

Many thanks for your response though and we will certainly get in touch with Ms Harvey should be wish to proceed at all.

sincerely

Richard

ganesh8888

We have had quite a few messages from people asking us how we got on so thought I would add to this.. I have to tell you these wine regions are quiet extraordinary. It makes the spanish and french experiences or at least the one we have expereinced extremely weak in comparison. Linda's 60th was one of of the most important celebrations I have had to organise to date and we were so lucky.

We returned two weeks ago from the South American Wine regions. The weather was kind to us but not hugely warm and think if we returned we would choose to go in their summer which is the play opposite of the England. Machu Picchu is something that everyone should see, tick it off the list, Cusco merits more time than we gave it, 3 nights was just not enough. Lima is not as unattractive as we had been lead to believe and the food is without question the best Fusion food we have ever tasted. In Chile you should visit Valparaiso, port towns are never so attractive but Valparaiso also the Centre of the Government of Chile is fascinating. Dont miss the Wineries of Casablanca and San Antonio. We stayed at the Zero Hotel and then at Matetic. First class. Santiago can be done in less than the 4 nights we set aside for it but as total foodies we loved the Seafood. Mendoza which is the wine capital of neighboring Argentina is a lovely town/City. We crossed the Andes with private transport providers by Robertson Wine Tours, we are so glad we did, Its an incredible trip and you are in the foothills of the highest peak in the Americas.

We stayed in Mendoza at the intercontinental which was brilliant and not expensive. In the vineyards we opted for Lares which is in Charcas de Corria, A pretty suburb good place and like most argentines the people are so friendly and could not do enough for Linda's 60th Birthday night we had drinks by the pool and then dinner at a wonderful restaurant close by called Nadia. Buenos Aires has 13 million inhabitants, not being city people we found it a little overwhelming but definitely worth knowing even for the huge avenues and wonderful beef and wine... All in all I would recommend this type of trip to anyone, Our Experience with LAN airlines was not so good with 2 delays being over 1 and half hours. Our Operator Robertson Wine Tours were faultless and think they are pretty much the Experts in South America, but not cheap. The wineries that we thought were unmissable in no particular order
Perez Cruz Chile
Lapostolle. Chile
Antiyal. Chile
Walter Bressia. Argentina
O Fournier
Diamandes

Feel free to message me for any further information.

Happy travels Richard and Linda