La Rioja
One product, done better here than anywhere else in Spain: a wine region that fits inside a valley, vineyards running from the Ebro plain up into the Sierra de Cantabria, and every town on the road between Haro and Logroño involved in it. It is small enough to cross in an hour, so a good trip is about depth rather than distance. The trade is that outside the wine it is quiet — three days is plenty, and a week needs the Ebro and the Camino.
How long this region actually takes
Three days is Logroño, Haro and one proper winery visit. Five lets you go east to Calahorra and Alfaro and up into the Rioja Alta villages, which is where the difference between a wine weekend and a wine trip shows.
Where to put your nights
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The questions that decide the trip
None. The Ebro is the water here, and it is a working river rather than a scenic one, though there are swimming spots and gravel bars near Logroño in summer.
None.
Riojan cooking is sheep and vegetables: patatas a la riojana, peppers, white asparagus, lamb chops grilled over vine cuttings, and peras al vino to finish. Logroño's Calle Laurel is the densest run of good tapas bars in Spain.
San Millán de la Cogolla is where the first written Spanish was recorded, and the two monasteries there justify the detour on their own. Nájera and Santo Domingo de la Calzada are Camino towns of real substance, with Roman and Celtiberian layers under the whole valley.
Excellent. Logroño, Haro and Nájera sit on the Ebro railway line from Zaragoza and Pamplona, and the region is small enough that buses run between the main towns. Village wineries, though, mostly need a car or a booked visit.
The Rioja Alta villages — Briones, San Vicente, Ábalos — the Sierra de Cantabria road above the vineyards, and the eastern towns of Calahorra and Alfaro. The best wineries are up the side valleys, and nothing else reaches them.
September and October, when the vendimia is on and the valleys are at their best; late June for the Batalla del Vino at Haro. August is hot on the plain, and winter is grey but the wineries are quiet and cheap.
Sunday afternoons and Mondays, when wineries and many restaurants close, and harvest week in Haro if you want to move around easily.
Five days in La Rioja
Where La Rioja gets compared
Experiences worth booking ahead
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Everywhere in La Rioja
The other regional guides
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