The Rioja and Navarra trip was our third trip with Shannon.  It had much in common with our previous trips to Croatia and Sicily:

• It was a small group of very compatible folks—felt almost like a group of friends traveling together but with someone handling the logistics and picking out the best restaurants.
• The food was fabulous and the wine was abundant.
• Our local guide Javier was wonderful.  Knew the history, the culture, the best pinxtos places, the people, and also shared some of his own life with us.
• The pace was relaxed, with ample down time to explore on our own and lots of suggestions and options.

What’s different about this trip is that it is not a heavily trafficked, “tourist” area and not a place we would have gone on our own.  In fact, after the tour with Shannon we visited the more common tourist attractions in Basque country, San Sebastian and Bilbao.  By then we had been immersed in the culture for more than a week with Shannon and Javier, which made our time in those places all the more enjoyable. What’s also different is that the primary attraction in Rioja and Navarra is, in fact, the wine.  So we spent a significant proportion of our time exploring wine country, seeing different business and growing models, visiting an amazing wine museum, walking among the vines in the vineyards, and seeing some beautiful country.  It didn’t feel touristy in the traditional sense  of checking things off a list (except, I suppose, the photos with the bulls in Pamplona.)

If you want to really learn about Basque country and culture, learn even more about wine, see some beautiful sites, and feel like a sophisticated traveler rather than a tourist, this is the perfect trip.