Have you always wanted to go wine touring but could never justify spending $130-$200 per person? You are not alone.
In this post I’ll show you how to host a 5 hour wine tour for less than $130 per person. This price will include a private driver, wine tasting fees, water and even snacks. Some things to consider: wine touring companies tell you about some of the background information about the buildings and sites on the drive. Wine tasting fees, water, and snacks are also included in wine tour company prices, but I’ll show you how you can have it all for less.
Step 1. Decide Who You Want to go Wine Touring With
First you will need to send out your invitations. You will want to have 5-6 people confirmed to split the costs of your driver. 6 is the magic number if you do not have a driver or a vehicle big enough to accommodate you and your crew. You’ll see why in the third step.
Step 2. Pick a Date
Second, you will need to pick a day that is about 3-4+ weeks out. This is important as many wineries require a reservation for tastings. Reservations typically accommodate 6 people (another reason 6 is the magic number), some wineries charge the tasting fee during the reservation process but most do not. You can always choose to not make reservations at wineries that charge the tasting fees upfront, and just wing it. If you end up buying a bottle, the tasting fee at most places gets waived anyways.
Step 3. Decide on Your Wine Touring Ride
Third, you will need to hire a driver. You could ask a friend or family member, but make sure they will not be participating in the drinking festivities whatsoever. Drinking and driving is not only seriously uncool, but it’s against the law. If you can’t find a driver this way, I suggest using Your Driver if you have a vehicle amongst yourselves that will fit everyone. They drive your ride and charge $45 per hour with a minimum requirement of three hours. This works out to be around $40 per person! STEAL OF A DEAL. I’ve booked with them twice in the past and the drivers are quite knowledgeable about the area and they provide water.
If you don’t have a vehicle big enough for everyone then I suggest using West Cabs. I used them for my last wine tour and their cost is $100/hour including tax. If there are six of you (another reason 6 is a magic number) this turns out to be around $85 per person. The driver was friendly, picked us up and dropped us off right at the door, carried our wine to the car, and took photos for us. He didn’t know anything about wine, but the sommeliers at each of the tastings made up for that and provided us with water.
Step 4. Map out Your Wine Touring Experience
Then, you will need to pick the area you want to do your wine tour in and plan your route. Some of the best areas to wine tour in are Lake Country, West Kelowna, and East Kelowna. Try to pick an area that’s close to your pick up and drop off location as time is money!
Once you have decided on an area go onto google maps and save all of the wineries in the area. You might not get to go to all of them, but this will give you a pretty good idea of what route you’ll want to take. If you want to hit 5-7 wineries, your total driving time should be less than 1 hour if you’re using the taxi service. You can find this out by using google maps, and adding the driving times between each place up. Don’t forget to include the time from the pick up spot to the first wineries and the time from the last winery to the drop off spot.
Once you have a route planned out you’re going to want to visit each of the winery’s websites to see if they require a reservation. If they do, now would be a good time to book them. In the summer wineries are extremely busy, and walk-ins can be subjected to long wait times. Plan for 30 minutes at each winery when making a reservation. Don’t forget about the driving time from one winery to the next either.
Step 5. Snacks and Water
Lastly, you’re going to want to plan for snacks and water. Ask everyone you’ve invited to bring a bottle of water. This bottle will come in handy on the tour! For one, you’ll have access to water on your drive. Secondly, you now have a container to hold wine in while you get driven around, decreasing the chance of spills on you or the vehicle. Thirdly, you now have something to hold a decent amount of vomit in if it comes down to it. I KNOW. GROSS, BUT YOU NEVER KNOW.
For snacks, it’s the same thing. You can either ask your guests to all bring some sort of snack or you can provide them for everyone. Good choices include: chips, baked goods, trail mix, pepperoni, cheese, veggies, or fruit. Think of things that are easy to eat and won’t make a mess. The cost works out to be less than $10 per snack depending on your choice!
Step 6. Extras
If you want to add a lunch/dinner stop into your tour and have room in your budget, I suggest booking your table ahead of time as well. Make a reservation and plan to be there for an hour. You can also call the restaurant about an hour before you get there letting them know you’ll be in a time crunch and order your food ahead of time. This will ensure that it’s ready at your table when you arrive, cutting the time there down to 30-40 minutes! You can also plan to make the restaurant your drop off location if you want to get dinner and continue on with the night.
No room in the budget for lunch/dinner? No problem! I get it, eating out is expensive and eating out at wineries can be even pricier. If you want to include some food, make the pick up/drop off location your home. Ask your guests to each bring an appetizer over that you can all enjoy when you get back. You could also crack open a bottle of wine from one of your new found favorite places and cook up a glorious meal together!
I hope this post gets more of you out there Discovering Kelowna and trying the beautiful wines that the Okanagan has to offer.
