Today I’m sharing the second leg of my recent 12-day road trip around northern Spain with my friend Becky: the beautiful province of La Rioja, just over an hour’s drive south of our starting point Bilbao on the other side of the Sierra Cantabria mountain range.
La Rioja is world-famous for its high-quality wines and contains three separate wine-making regions. The Rioja Alta lies on the Cantabrian slopes at the western end, with its altitude resulting in grapes that ripen late and therefore wines that age well. To the north-east is the Rioja Alavesa, part of which extends into the neighbouring Basque Country, while the Rioja Oriental sits in the province’s south-east and has a hotter, more Mediterranean climate.
There are plenty of guided wine-themed day tours to La Rioja from Bilbao and San Sebastián, but it’s definitely worth staying for a few nights if you can. There’s a lot more to the province than wine, and as you travel around you’ll come across stunning landscapes, ancient castles and monasteries, sun-baked medieval towns made from distinctive ochre sandstone, excellent restaurants and more. Here are my top tips…
Wine-tasting & bodega tours in Haro
I know I just said wine isn’t the only reason to visit La Rioja, but it’s certainly one of the top attractions.
The small town of Haro, which is perched on a hill in the Rioja Alta, above the junction of the River Ebro and its tributary the Tirón, bills itself as the region’s wine capital and makes a great place to start. It has numerous bodegas, mostly clustered around the station a short walk from the centre, so if you’re staying in Haro itself or arriving by train you can sample their wares without having to worry about driving.
We began with a pre-booked tour and tasting (available in English, Spanish and French) at Gómez Cruzado, one of the town’s oldest wineries. It was fascinating, with a knowledgeable and very friendly guide who took us through the history of the region, the way the wine is made and how it’s shaped by the local climate, before we sat down at a table among the barrels to try four of their vintages (served alongside plenty of snacks).
After Gómez Cruzado, we dropped in to some of the other bodegas, most of which have wine bars and shops which you can visit without reserving ahead. Our favourites were 145-year-old CVNE, which has tables dotted around a beautiful tree-shaded terrace, and TIHOM, a fairly new set-up in a sleek modern building framed by Corten steel. Both offer wines by the glass or the bottle, as well as plates of charcuterie, cheeses and the like. Oak-aged reds are the mainstay of La Rioja, but there’s also an increasing number of whites and rosés, and we were surprised at the breadth and variety of the offering.
TIP: Haro’s bodegas seem to change their opening hours frequently, and the times listed online aren’t necessarily correct. As they’re so close together, I’d recommend starting with a quick walk around all of them to check the hours listed on their doors, then planning an itinerary of the ones you want to visit based on which is open when. During our stay, some closed at 2pm whereas others stayed open to 4pm or later. If you want to do a tour or a guided tasting, you’ll almost always need to pre-book.
Haro itself is well worth strolling around, with narrow lanes that wind up to the 16th-century church of Santo Tomás (make sure you take a peek inside, as it’s surprisingly ornate) and an art gallery called the Museo del Torrejón. It’s a quaint and atmospheric town, but I was fascinated to learn that despite its small size, the importance of the wine industry meant it was one of the first places in Spain to get electric street lighting!
When it comes to eating, there’s a concentration of informal tapas bars on Calle Santo Tomás, Calle San Martín and Plaza de la Paz. Our favourite was Los Berones, which is run by two Argentinians and mixes local specialities with influences from Latin America (the mole chicken and cheesy empanadas were delicious). We also had a meal in the cloistered restaurant of Hotel Los Agustinos, which occupies a 14th-century building that has served as a convent, a military garrison, a jail and a hospital over the course of its long history. The food – a high-end spin on Riojan classics, with dishes such as confit egg on vegetable stew and aged beef in a Tempranillo sauce – was fantastic, and the architecture is nothing short of stunning, but the 80s decor (faux-snakeskin sofas, heavy velvet curtains) was a bit of a let-down.
Vivanca
Set just outside the town of Briones, a few km down the road from Haro, is Vivanca – a sprawling modern winery that incorporates a restaurant, a visitor centre, gardens and the world’s biggest wine museum. The museum is far more interesting than I expected and covers the history of wine in La Rioja and elsewhere, with exhibits exploring everything from the cultural connotations of wine to barrel- and bottle-making. It also, rather bizarrely, encompasses a 6,000-strong corkscrew collection!
You can choose between a ticket for the museum only or one that also includes a bodega tour. We opted for the latter and found the tour to be a great complement to the one we did at Gómez Cruzado, with more of a focus on the vines and the way they’re grown. There was of course also the opportunity to sample some of the wines for ourselves in Vivanca’s super-modern tasting room, which has a wooden relief of vine leaves carved into the ceiling plus a picture window with sweeping views.
Laguardia
Sadly we didn’t get to see the walled medieval town of Laguardia (I’ve used stock images below) as a traffic collision meant the police had closed the access road, but I’ve heard so many good things about it that I had to include it in this post. It’s officially just over the border in the Basque Country, within the Rioja Alavesa, and is said to be beautiful. It’s home to a maze of cobbled streets, the Romanesque Abacial Tower, numerous underground wine cellars (including Casa Primicia, the oldest working winery in Spain) and several pretty churches, as well as another small wine museum. You can also walk along sections of the original town walls, which have viewpoints gazing out over the countryside.
San Millán de la Cogolla
Huddled in a forested valley, the little town of San Millán de la Cogolla is famous for its two Unesco-listed monasteries, Yuso and Suso.
It was a bit of a geek visit for us, as Becky and I both studied Spanish at university and Suso is where the earliest instances of written Spanish (as opposed to Latin) have been found. But even if you don’t share our linguistic interests, it’s a beautiful and hauntingly atmospheric place to visit – especially on cooler days when mist shrouds the pine-clad slopes behind.
Sprawling 16th-century Yuso is the lower and larger of the two monasteries, with the car park and ticket desks for both. You can take a look around, but you have to join one of the regular guided tours and they’re in Spanish only – not an issue for us, but I can imagine it’s frustrating for many. Special buses then take you up the steep, winding road to Suso (cars aren’t allowed), which was founded around a hermit cave in the 6th century and is partially built into the hillside. Again, visits are by guided tour only, but bizarrely this one is in both Spanish and English!
TIP: You have to buy separate tickets for Yuso and Suso, and numbers for the latter are restricted. It’s therefore worth heading to the Suso ticket desk (on the lower floor of the Yuso visitor centre) to book onto the next available tour as soon as you arrive – and in high season, you might want to reserve ahead. Don’t let the potential language barrier put you off visiting the monasteries, as they’re stunning – just make sure you pick up a printed leaflet (available in English, French and more) to give you some idea of what you’re being shown.
Logroño
The administrative capital of La Rioja, Logroño is a lovely place to spend a day or so, with colonnaded streets lined with pavement cafés, flowering trees, pastel-coloured Art Nouveau apartments and riverside walks. It sits on the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, so you’ll see plenty of backpack-laden hikers trudging along its narrow lanes to the beautiful Concatedral de Santa María de la Redonda, located on the Plaza del Mercado in the very heart of the city.
One of Logroño’s main draws is its tapas scene, which is centred around Calle Laurel. From early afternoon onwards it’s packed with locals and tourists hopping from one bar to another, and there are more than 50 to choose from. Many have their own specialities – Bar El Cid and Bar Soriano, for example, focus on mushrooms, while Jubera is known for its patatas bravas and Divina Croqueta for (you’ve guessed it) croquets. For a bit of everything in a contemporary interior, Casa Victor is a good bet.
The hot springs of Arnedillo
Set in a deep gorge in the Rioja Oriental, the town of Arnedillo is known for its open-air spring-fed thermal bathing pools – although there’s very little info about them online, and we only found out about them from a Spanish guidebook in our hotel reception!
Known as the Pozos de Arnedillo, the pools are carved into the stone bank of the River Cidacos. They’re free to visit and open to all – just head to the car park by the municipal swimming pool, follow the wooden steps down the slope and climb in! There are three linked pools, all between 30 and 40C, and they make a lovely place to wallow. They’re even open after dark, should you fancy a soak beneath the stars! Be aware that they do smell a little sulphurous, but there’s an outdoor shower for rinsing yourself off afterwards – although no other facilities, so you’ll have to leave your belongings on the rocks nearby. Note that I’ve used a stock photo of the Pozos below, as I didn’t want to risk my camera getting wet, but you have my word that it’s accurate!
Even if you don’t want to take a dip, the drive to Arnedillo, past striking red-stone escarpments topped with medieval fortifications, is breathtaking – it’s a totally different landscape to the lusher, greener Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa. If you wanted to, you could stop off at the ruins of Arnedo Castle for a look, and once you get to Arnedillo, there are plenty of pavement cafés for an alfresco coffee or lunch.
Where to stay in La Rioja
We split our time in La Rioja between two different hotels. We spent two nights at the simple but comfortable Hotel Arrope in Haro [AD – affiliate link], which we used as a base for exploring the town’s bodegas and visiting Vivanca (we booked a taxi to the latter so that we could both taste the wines). We then moved on to the gorgeous Casa Grande Hotel [AD – affiliate link] in the tiny village of Grañón, which has minimalist design and is ideally situated for a day trip to San Millán de la Cogolla (read my full review of it here). Moving accommodation meant we got to experience several different aspects of the region without a lot of driving, but it would be totally feasible to visit all the above places from a single location if you don’t want the hassle of switching hotels.
I’ve also heard excellent things about Hotel Santa Maria in Briones, Hotel Viura just outside Laguardia and Finca de los Arandinos to the south of Logroño. And for those with a lot of cash to splash, there’s a luxurious but super-pricy hotel at Elciego winery Marqués de Riscal, which was designed by Frank Gehry and looks like a colourful version of the Guggenheim in Bilbao [AD – affiliate links].
Getting to La Rioja & getting around
Logroño has a small airport, but it’s only served by domestic flights from Madrid so you’ll likely arrive via the larger international airports in Bilbao or Zaragoza, both of which are within easy reach.
As we were visiting the region as part of a wider trip, we had a hire car – and that’s certainly the easiest way to get around. But it is possible to reach La Rioja by train, as there are services from Bilbao to Haro and Logroño. Just be aware that they’re not very frequent, and at the time of our visit they seemed to be disrupted by engineering works; you’ll also then find you’re reliant on taxis if you want to visit anywhere outside the main towns.
When to visit La Rioja
The climate in La Rioja is quite variable, but spring and autumn are good bets. We visited in early September and were treated to two days of balmy sunshine, with the first tinges of autumn colour decorating the landscape, but we also had some cool, damp weather. Although it was technically high season, the entire region felt blissfully quiet and didn’t seem particularly busy with tourists – had we visited a couple of weeks later it might have been different, as late September and October bring the grape harvest and related festivals.
Don’t rule out winter visits, as there are plenty of cosy restaurants and hotels, and you might even catch the beautiful sight of snow on the Cantabrian peaks. Be aware that high summer can be baking hot, and some of the wineries close over August.
Please note this post contains affiliate links (all clearly marked), which means I will receive a small commission on any resulting bookings. You won’t pay any more by clicking on these links than you would by visiting the websites directly, and it helps to support the free content I create here.
Laguardia images by Anton Sheiko and Jjfarq via Dreamstime.com; Pozos de Arnedillo image by Ikeroesia via Dreamstime.com. All other photography by Abi Dare
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