Intinerary Advice 2-3 week wine relaxation Champagne-Burgundy-Piedmont

Posted by aggilliam on 11/01/18 07:46 PM

Beginning to plan a trip for Fall 2019. Would like to use Paris as gateway, but mainly focus on wine. Aiming to spend 1-1.5 weeks visiting Champagne, Chablis, Beaune, Dijon then venture to Northern Italy for the remainder of the trip. Not sure about the Italy portion, definitely Piedmont.

Looking for recommendations on how best to accomplish this trip. Train? Renting a car? Leaning toward trains if feasible, but might consider renting a car and maybe doing a few day group tours where none of us would have to drive.

Any and all advice, recommendations, things to consider, etc is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!!

Posted by d.beach.grrl

florida

11/01/18 07:53 PM

14 posts

personally, i would suggest you list out all the potential wineries/towns you want to visit. from there, determine how many days you would need to spend in/at each to accomplish what you want. and then you can decide if the whole trip is doable, what you need to cut out, and what your transportation would should be.

happy travels :)

Posted by Nelly

Abruzzo Mountains

11/01/18 08:25 PM

1088 posts

I've been through the wine area in Piedmont. You won't get very far with public transportation, unfortunately. There are private van tours - Italianna is a good one - or self drive, trading off drivers on alternate days so the same driver isn't always feeling deprived. (Extra driver fees with the rental car agency are likely to apply.)

You could also pick a specific wine family, such as Barolo or Barbaresco, just book a hotel someplace in that town, and try to drink the regional enoteca dry without getting in the car. The Barolo enoteca represents hundreds of producers. It would save you driving for the tastings, and leave your driving time for sightseeing. My personal favourite town was Neive. Of course, it's always more fun to get right in among the vines.

However you manage it, don't miss it! The wine is incredible, the scenery beautiful, the food...well...you get the idea.

Posted by Elizabeth

Pittsburg

11/18/18 11:49 PM

19 posts

In Champagne, you could easily stay in Reims and do all your tasting there in town or take the train to Epernay. Dijon and Beaune are both on the train lines, but any winery visits would need to be done by car or private tour. Rental car charges for drop off in another country (often several hundred euros) make keeping a car between France and Italy prohibitive. But check the train connections you might want to take carefully because there are not that many trains between France and Italy these days. It may be easier to fly to Italy from Orly Airport south of Paris after your time in Burgundy, particularly if you rented a car, you could just return it directly there. There are many flights from Paris to Milan. As one of the other posts noted, Piedmonte doesn't lend itself to public transit. We based ourselves in the town of Alba when we did our touring there--it is close to a lot of wine towns. Sounds like a fun trip.