First Trip To Rhone - Guidance Needed

Hello Fellow Berserkers

I’m taking my wife to France for her 40th birthday next year. We will start in Lyon and end in Provence. The wine-focused days will be in Beaujolais, North Rhone and South Rhone. We will have a car, however the million dollar question is do we self-guide ourselves or do we join a private/semi-private tour. I’ve recently passed my WSET Level 3 so very interested in the intimacy/knowledge of the various stops. I’d appreciate any recommendations on tours, producers that appreciate wine geek tourists, hotels, and restaurants in the area. Insider recommendations go a long way in my book! I’m not as familiar with the producers in the South Rhone other than top ‘famous few’ as the geography/appelations are vast compared to North Rhone. Thanks in advance for any help!

our last european trip before covid was september of 2019. we stayed at the hotel de tourrel in st remy. i highly recommend st remy as a provence base. the hotel was perfect…about 8 rooms, in the heart of town. they have a garage about 2 blocks away from the hotel. we went east to the vaucluse…gordes, menerbes, roussillon, baux de provence, apt, bonnieux. we found a lot of these towns overwhelming with tourists but liked the quiet of bonnieux. we went west to arles and that was a fun day trip. we went north to gigondas and chateauneuf du pape. i highly recommend l’oustalet in gigondas…one of our favorite meals ever (eating outside on a perfect mid september evening). we dont love southern rhone wine but if i was back, id try and visit trevallon and henri milan nearby.

we did the van gogh cave projections in baux de provence before it became an international success. if you havent gone, it may be a good idea. id recommend le galoubet in arles at least for lunch.

after about 5 nights in st remy, we drove to nice and stayed in eze for 3 more nights before flying home. we love the cote d’azur more than provence but i would not hesitate to go back.

Thank you - that is the second recommendation for L’Oustalet so I will have to add that to the list.

I have no idea of pricing, but the Hotel d’Europe in Avignon is beautiful and probably a good place to stay in the Southern Rhone. Just don’t order a Manhattan.

I’ll second Avignon as a great base to explore the So Rhone and Provence. Make sure you set up your domain visits well in advance, though I’m not sure how Covid has affected visits. If you like hiking, there are fantastic opportunities in the Vaison-la-Romaine. We also did a day hike of the Dentelles in Gigondas, though we ended up taking a wrong turn to a village 15km from our car. Luckily we found a super nice gentlemen to give us a ride back to Gigondas. Loved our visits to Gordes, Roussillon, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in the Camargue (had lunch in Arles that day-worth a visit for the flea market).

I could swear I answered your question in a thread titled exactly the same. Am I losing my mind? It still shows under my postings, but not in this thread. Bizarre.

Here is the thread.

Edit. You posted the same in two topic areas.