The Grape Escape via Sydney

250 kms over 3-day circle tour

Red Spot Car Rentals will fix you up with something spiffy when you land in Sydney, and after an overnight stop in trendy Newtown for shopping, ethnic cuisine and gay entertainment venues, you can use our self-drive itinerary to explore New South Wales’ fabled Hunter Valley …Disneyland for indulgence seekers.

Day 1

For your first night in Newtown, we suggest staying with Declan and Peter at their vintage 1870s B&B called Ardmore House in the heart of this trendy gay neighborhood. You can easily walk or grab a cab to go to the Imperial Hotel where the original Priscilla Queen of the Desert was filmed.

Ardmore House is an elegant terrace house, redolent with the atmosphere of its age. A beautiful semi-tropical garden allows guests to have breakfast under the spreading eucalypts whilst watching the native parrots feeding.

Day 2

When you are finished eating, time to get in the car and head north to wine country and your next port-of-call at Pokolbin. You’ll sleep over at the Rainbow Tourism Accredited Twin Trees Country Cottages. This is your perfect base to go wine tasting and dinning in the Hunter and Upper Hunter valleys. Each cottage is fully equipped with a large, sunny kitchen, dining and living room, and has a gas log fire set into a federation fireplace for a cosy winter's night.

Perfect after a long hard day of tasting some of the finest wines in OZ. BTW, gay and lesbian winemakers are among some of the best and major producers in this region, no surprise.

Day 3

We recommend a gay friendly wine tour by one of the many tour operators in the Hunter. You can select the pricey hot air balloon flight, the moderate bicycle ride through the vines, or the bargain value horse-drawn carriage tour with lunch and four tasting stops. I have done this tour twice and highly recommend it for seeing cellar doors as few tourists ever do and signing to the horses as you cut through the vines on a shortcut between cellar doors.

Either way (self-drive or on tour), drink responsibly and have a safe and gorgeous drive back to Sydney Airport in time to drop your hire car and catch your next flight. Don’t forget the souvenir bottles of wine in the boot. You’ll want to invite friends over to hear about your tasting and eating adventures and to share the vino and hear about your grape escapades.