Okay, so I’ve been meaning to hit up some cool wine festivals in Europe. I finally got around to planning it out, and let me tell you, it was a bit of a journey. Here’s how I did it.
First Steps: Getting My Bearings
First, I grabbed my laptop and opened up Google. My initial search was super basic: “best wine festivals Europe”. I just wanted to see what would pop up, you know, get a feel for what’s out there.
The search results were overwhelming! So many options, so many places I’d never even heard of. I started clicking through a few articles and blog posts, just scanning for names of festivals and locations that sounded interesting.
Narrowing It Down
After a while, I realized I needed to be more specific. I decided to focus on festivals happening in the late summer/early fall, since that’s when I could actually get some time off work. I also figured I’d stick to countries I’d always wanted to visit, like France, Italy, and maybe Spain or Portugal.
So, I refined my search. I typed in things like “wine festivals France September” and “best Italian wine festivals autumn”. This helped a lot! The results were much more manageable, and I started to see some recurring names.
Making a List, Checking It Twice
I grabbed a notebook and started jotting down the names of festivals that caught my eye. I also made notes about the dates, locations, and any other details that seemed important, like whether they were focused on a specific type of wine or region.
- Medoc Marathon, France Sounds crazy, costumes and stuff.
- Douro Valley Harvest Festival, Portugal The pictures, wow.
- La Rioja Grape Harvest Festival, Logrono, Spain Grape treading ceremony? I’m in.
Deep Dive Research
Once the initial list was ready, next up, I dug a little deeper into each festival. I found some other traveler’s blogs and that helped fill in the gaps from any of the other articles I read previously.
The Final Plan
After all that research, I finally had a plan! I picked three festivals that seemed like the perfect fit for me. And that was that.
