La Rioja Or Navarra Wine Regions

Hi Nate,

Maybe a bit more info would be helpful.

When are you going?

How many nights?

Will you have car?

La Rioja and Navarra, the autonomous community or wine D.O.(C)?

That said, Briones near Haro.

Hi Nate, Welcome to the forum. Neighboring Rioja and Navarre both have a lot of great medieval towns to stay in and literally hundreds of bodegas, or wineries. Today, Rioja has about 500 bodegas and Navarre has about 100. Navarre was once its own Kingdom and had one of the most impressive Royal Palaces ever built in Europe. The Olite Royal Palace was built in the 13th century over the fortress that pre-dated it by a few hundred years. And the fortress was built atop Roman ruins. Today, the Palace is both a museum that you can visit and a Parador-- or government historic hotel-- that you can overnight in as a guest. For a historic property, the rates start at under $100, so this is a great opportunity to live like royalty in wine country as we did last September.

About 80 minutes from Olite by car in La Rioja, you can visit the historic town of Elciego (“Eltziego”) and its Bodega “Marques de Riscal” whose owner had architect Frank O. Gehry design his new $70 million hotel that resembles a smaller and more colorful version of Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum-- also designed by Frank O. Gehry.
About 5 miles beyond Elciego is the town of Laguardia where another architectural wonder can be seen--the Ysios Bodega.
Located in front of towering mountains, the roof of the Ysios Winery looks like a metallic wave that your eyes cannot quite focus on. It's an amazing sight to see and tops any Napa Valley winery here in California.
A rental car is really a necessity for getting around because public transit takes 2-3 times longer to get from place to place in this agricultural region. From Bilbao, it's about a 80-minute drive to Elciego and Laguardia. It's another 80 minutes drive to Olite.
From Olite, it's about an 80-minute drive to San Sebastian/Donostia. Alternatively, you can take a bus from Olite to Pamplona in 30 minutes and continue to San Sebastian/Donostia in another 75 minutes.
Have a great trip!

In the 80s, with the implementation of the autonomous communities in Spain, what was previously known as Logroño changed its name to La Rioja. The Rioja D.O.C. wine region, covering the south of the Basque Country (Rioja Alavesa), La Rioja northern area (Rioja Alta) and La Rioja and Navarra eastern part (Rioja Oriental), is not to be mistaken with La Rioja, an autonomous communitiy that produces wine only in part of its territory. Rioja DOC is much more interesting than Navarre, for a first visit. But if you´ve already been in Rioja, Navarra is a very good next option.

Laguardia, Labastida, Elciego, Haro, Briones...make great places to stay and enjoy the peace of this region.

Labastida was one of those amazing walled hill towns that caught my eye from the highway. Didn’t have time to check it out, so a return trip to Basque Country
is in the cards!

Both areas are close to each other so maybe stay in each. As stated by others, there are plenty of great small towns in that area one can visit. Since you won’t be spending all your time at wineries check out the small towns in the area where you think you’ll stay to see what they have to offer.

We had a rental car so getting to the places we wanted to visit was easy. Many were not reachable by public transportation. If driving, do not drive after drinking. We only visited wineries in the towns we were staying in so the car remained parked.

Finally, if driving, check out and bookmark to a maps application free parking lots in the towns you plan on visiting. That will save time when arriving in them.

Hi dlindstrom,

Thank you for your reply.

I am planning on going to either La Rioja Or Navarra autonomous communities. And I do wish to visit a number of winners, especially for the red wine.

We are thanks of going mid July to early August. And are hoping to be in one of these wine regions for at least a week. We are also planning on visiting Basque Country and Andorra. Flying in and out of Barcelona.

We will have a car rental for the trip, how are the road ways in this region ?

Thanks and have a great new year

Nate

Hi everyone,

Thank you very much for the great information.

Much appreciated and happy new year.

Nate

The roads in the La Rioja and Navarra areas are fine. Since you’d be going to smaller towns the roads will mostly be two lanes in good repair and very light traffic. Remember to drive at or below the speed limit to avoid getting a ticket. Spain has plenty of traffic cameras, especially when entering and leaving towns.