Travel With Kristina

Attention wine lovers! This one is perfect for you, the Hunter Valley is located about 3 hours north of Sydney NSW, Australia and is full of beautiful wineries to visit. The Hunter Valley Region is probably one of New South Wales‘ most popular winery destinations and has over 150 different wineries to visit, taste their beautiful wines and some will even let you frolic through their vineyards and take amazing photos (how cool!). I visited in December 2022 which is the start of peak season for the grape harvest, so I highly recommend planning your trip between summer months December and February to make sure the wine is great and the weather is even greater!

My visit was short and sweet only being 5 days long but I was able to experience so many different things in this time, from the reason for your visit, the wineries, to taking a few swings at aqua golf :). During this trip I decided to stay in at the Crowne Plaza in Lovedale which is an extremely convenient location as there is easy access to all locations of interest! The easiest way to get around to the different wineries around the region is by booking a tour. They will normally pick you up in a mini bus and have about 15-20 people in each tour, I highly recommend this for first timers or if you just don’t like making the decision of which to visit.

When you go for this option everything is planned out for you and it normally includes 3 wineries, a distillery, a lunch location Plus some extras along the way if you’re lucky :). Again, I really think these tours are great and went on one myself when I was in Hunter. One of the best wineries that we went to on the tour was Ernest Hill Wines, this winery is exclusive to the Hunter Valley and can only be bought onsite unlike so many other wineries. You can have a sneak peak at the beautiful winery in the below photo (how gorgeous right?!)

Some other ideas for your trips itinerary can include taking a swing at aqua golf and putt putt in the Hunter Valley Gardens, take a drive to Petersons House and try the absolutely delicious gelato and sparkling wine package (the gelatos are such strange flavours it so fun to make a guessing game of it!), play some golf in the Crowne resort, try some amazing deserts at SABOR or simply chill by the pool at the beginning or end of a big day 🙂

One of the absolute highlights of this trip was seeing the Christmas Light Spectacular at the Hunter Valley Gardens! This light show was absolutely amazing and is run from around the beginning of November to the end of December, if you love Christmas or just appreciate beautiful lights then this is the place for you. I love love Christmas so it was like being a kid in a Lolly Shop as soon as I walked in! It is normally on from about 6pm – 10pm every night and has so many other little things to do while inside. My absolute favourite was the Santa photo set up, it was the most adorable thing ever and I’m so glad I got to see it. There is also plenty for the little ones to do with rides scattered around the gardens as well as the lights themselves duh.

Pro Tip: If you are planning to go in the peak time mentioned make sure you book everything at least 3-4 weeks in advance to ensure good prices and there is availability for everything you want to experience!