Hunter Valley Luxury Tours

Hunter Valley Luxury tours are as popular as ever as guests are frequenting the Hunter Valley more and more. And they wish to be shown around in comfort as well as with an experienced operator. But what makes a tour a Hunter Valley Luxury Tour? I can narrow this down to 3 important elements. After all, this is what we do best! Here they are and how we do it!

 

The Vehicle

First a foremost, you need a comfortable ride! Especially when you are travelling up from Sydney for the day as you will spend hours on the road. There are a variety of vehicles available to operators with many choosing the Mercedes Sprinter. Why? Because it’s a Mercedes! Are they a luxury vehicle as a bus? Well, the certainly can be. However the interior seating of Mercedes Sprinters are not fitted by Mercedes. A 3rd party vehicle seating company must do the design & installation. The vehicle owner will have an idea of how many seats they wish to install and the level of comfort (and expense). The standards we have seen a generally very good however no two systems are the same and so you won’t really know what seating system you will have until you get picked up!

 

Our vehicle choice for our Hunter Valley Luxury Tour is the Toyota HiAce Commuter GL. It’s Toyota’s first luxury minibus, and they have entered the luxury minibus market with flying colours. A complete upgrade from previous models, it’s longer, wider and has less seats. Seating 12 rather than 14 despite the size increase. With wider seats that recline, guests have access to a USB connection, free wifi access, cup holders, storage net, ducted individual air conditioning, feet warming for those cold mornings, tinted windows, 6 surrounding speakers and an automatic door. There is also plenty of storage for bags and/or wine!

 

As an operator, having guests comment on the comfort of this bus on most tours is lovely to hear. One guest even described it as the best bus they have ever been on!

 

The Guide

Hunter Valley Luxury Tours also require an experienced guide! After all, you will likely book a tour to not only experience the area but to also learn about the area and wines as well. Knowing the Hunter Valley and her wines is paramount to having a great tour. In all honesty, this should be a standard for all tours, whether they be a luxury tour or not. What you don’t want is simply a driver who takes you from one place to the next with no information about any of it. Unfortunately, drivers, rather than guides are more common than not as it’s hard for a lot of tour companies to find guides who actually have Hunter Valley and wine knowledge. You would hope, that if you are paying more for a Luxury Tour, you would get a knowledgable guide.

 

Kangarrific Tours has been operating since 2009 and I have personally taken over 10,000 guests to the Hunter Valley. My experience as a Hunter Valley guide, along with my broad knowledge on Hunter Valley wine is shared with each and every guest. I try to create an interesting, as well as fun tour that suits guests with a variety of wine backgrounds and knowledge.

 

The Locations

The 3rd important element required for Hunter Valley Luxury Tours are locations! After all, for many of our guests, this will be the one and only time they will visit the Hunter Valley as many come from abroad. The Hunter Valley has about 150 cellar doors and is known for their small boutique vineyards. There are not a lot of big players up there. Cellar doors need to be selected carefully if the guests are to get the most out of their day. The better tour operators avoid the bigger producers. Why? Well there is not really a lot of point visiting a cellar door to buy wine that you can buy in Sydney or even in your home town abroad.

 

If you are making the effort to visit the Hunter Valley, accessing cellar doors and wine only available exclusively within the Hunter Valley is what it’s all about. And the majority of these small producer only sell their wine direct to the public from their cellar door. That’s why Hunter Valley wines are so special.

 

On our tour, our vineyards are not chosen until we meet the guests in the morning. We like to talk to the group and discover their wine interests as individuals and as a group. Some guests are after something quite specific. Others want a general overview. Once we get to know our guests, we will then organise our cellar door choices based on their interests. That way they will get the most out of their experience. It also gives us a degree of flexibility with times. If everything is book ahead, guests can feel rushed in order to stay on schedule. Our tours are more fluid as we call to arrange our next visit usually around 30 minutes before we plan to arrive.

 

If you or anyone you know might be interested in one of our Hunter Valley Luxury Tours, please get in touch. I would love to look after you on either a group of private tour.

 

Contact us here to learn more and well, I hope to see you on tour soon!