A Weekend Spent Sipping on Wine In Hunter Valley, NSW

If you like wine, Hunter Valley is a perfect weekend escape from Sydney. One of Australia’s major wine regions is famous for its Semillon and Shiraz.

We spent 2 wonderful, slightly intoxicated nights in Hunter Valley during our 2-week trip travelling the NSW coast. Hunter Valley is located about a 3-and-a-half-hour drive from downtown Sydney making it the perfect weekend trip for Sydneysyders.

Hunter Valley is a picturesque area covered by sprawling fields and vineyards, jumping kangaroos and beautiful independent wineries.

We spent two nights here. One relaxing at our hotel with wine. One, slightly (very) intoxicated night, after a full-day tour of some of the beautiful wineries.

Hunter Valley Tour vs Independent

The majority of people who visit Hunter Valley opt to take part in a tour around the region. It is possible to visit without doing a tour and to drive around yourself, if you opt to do this, tastings start from as little as $5 but obviously, the designated driver won’t be able to participate in many of these if this suits someone in your party, then it’s the perfect option!

Tours in Hunter Valley

If you do decide you want the full experience of a tour then your next decision is to decide on which one you want to do from the hundreds listed online. Whether it be fully inclusive or a hop-on hop-off version around the vineyards.

iHop Hunter Valley – a hop on hop off tour

iHop runs a hop on hop off service starting from $52.50 per person. Making it the cheapest option for a tour in Hunter Valley. They operate on an hourly timetable with 14 stops to choose from and over 40 different venues to explore at your own pace! If a more relaxed pace suits you or if you’re on a tight budget then this is a great option.

Two Fat Blokes – a fully inclusive tour

If a fully inclusive tour is more what you were looking for then you have plenty to choose from. This can make it quite hard to decide! The one which was constantly recommended to us and seemed to be held highly was Two Fat Blokes.

They have options to suit everyone depending on what you are looking for. If you prefer your tour to be more focused on food pairing then they have options such as cheese pairing, bubbles and nougat pairing or the ‘food and wine lovers’ tour they also have options for the beer drinkers amongst us.

For us, we wanted an all-inclusive tour, including a taster of everything. Making the half-day and full day options appealed to us most. After a bit of deliberation and us being in ‘holiday mode’ we ended up opting for the midweek package, which included the full-day tour.

The tour in total cost us $580. It included:

• 2 Nights accommodation
• 1 ‘Uncork the Hunter‘ Full-Day Wine Tour
• Breakfast for 2 at Two Fat Blokes Gourmet Kitchen
• Afternoon tea for 2 at Two Fat Blokes Gourmet Kitchen

We had an amazing time and would fully recommend the company. The accommodation – Leisure Inn was lovely. Packed with cute huts set in the beautiful grounds of the ‘inn’ with a beautiful lake view. It was the perfect spot to sip your wine as the sun goes down.

Our honest opinion of Two Fat Blokes Hunter Valley Tour

However, we visited during Covid-19 (during June 2021. At this point the worst of it – so far, in Australia, was over. Restaurants and bars had been allowed to re-open at a 50-person capacity for some time, and life seemed to be returning to normal. However, despite this we were told 45 mins prior to our afternoon tea reservation time that this and our breakfast wouldn’t be going ahead due to staffing issues through Covid. We were sent packages containing cereal, juice, a few crackers some brie etc. to substitute our breakfast and afternoon tea.

To say we were disappointed was a slight understatement. From a company with such great reviews we were expecting a far better service. To top it off, we also emailed them explaining what had happened and received no response.

However, we stocked up on more cheese and a couple of bottles of red wine from the local bottle shop (located at Harrigans Irish Bar) and had a lovely first evening. Ready for our full-day tour the following day.

Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tour

Bright and early we were picked up alongside 10 other people (all couples) from our hotel. All on the same 2-night deal. At 9.30 am and off we went to our first winery! We visited 6 vineyards in total. Including one chocolate and wine pairing, one cheese and wine pairing, one organic winery and 3 others. All topped off with a local brewery and a flight of beers.

The day was almost faultless. Our driver/ guide was relaxed and informative, the scenery was beautiful, the Sommeliers were knowledgeable and friendly. The picnic lunch and an antipasti box that were included were also extremely tasty. They catered well for us vegetarians. We got very lucky with our group and naturally, after a few glasses, (or bottles), we all ended up singing on the coach and generally talking rubbish all afternoon and into the evening.

The only criticism that we have of the tour was that it was very rushed in parts, esspecially our lunch. A bit more time to enjoy the food and our surroundings would have been bliss. A few of the others, who were far more knowledgeable on wine than we are, also commented a few times how most of the grapes aren’t actually grown in Hunter Valley and the wines aren’t fully produced here. So, maybe not the best place if you are a wine expert. However, if you want a fun, informative and beautiful day then the Hunter region definitely won’t disappoint!