I love vacations!

And I really love maps that help plan vacations, especially when they can help our guests plan a great trip to Oregon Wine Country.

We now have three great tools to help you. Let’s start with a new one I just found.

“Wines and Times”

“Wines and Times” is a website you can use to plan a trip to any wine country in the United States, not just Oregon. .

What the folks at “Wines and Times” have done is to develop a database of hundreds or possibly thousands of wineries. This database includes their hours of operation, they types of wines as well as locations and links to their websites. You can literally click on a calendar, click a few more times to determine the area you want to visit, and it will show you which wineries are open on the days you want to visit. Click on another day, and you will see some wineries appear on the map while others disappear.

They put their instructions and kind of an odd place, so I’ve taken the liberty of reproducing them at the end of this post. You might find it helpful to print the instructions. Or, do what I did, which is just poke around.

The Kelty Vacation Planner Map

I have also created a map to help our guests. It’s not as fancy as the “Wines and Times” map but it has some information that they don’t have, such as which wineries in our part of the country won a medal at the San Francisco International Wine competition. Those are marked with a blue pushpin. I marked with yellow the stops that international wine writer Jamie Goode made on his tour in the summer of 2008.

Area attractions are added in red.

You can visit our own map here.

You can read Jamie Goode’s tour here.

Roundtrip Planner

If you pick out a few wineries you want to visit, I recommend you check out one of my very favorite mapping sites with the mouthful of a name, “Google Maps Fastest Round Trip Solver.” There you can enter up to 24 addresses and it will figure out your shortest round trip. If time is limited, this could be important…or not. However you travel in Wine Country, longest distance or shortest drive, the journey is at least as important as the destination.

There is an easier way to plan your trip. Call our Concierge, Nicci Stokes at 800-867-3740 or 503-560-1512.

She knows the wineries, the hours, the owners. Plus she will be delighted to schedule our very own All Events Limo for you. Best bet: You drink. We drive.

What a plan!

FAQ for “Wines and Times” Map

SELECT WINES: Check boxes at top of screen to select European (Vitis vinifera/hybrids) varieties, American (muscadine, Niagra, Concord, etc.), or Meads/Fruit wines (honey, fruit, etc.).

SELECT TIMES: Current week is shown on calendar at right. You can select the week or day of your choice. Corresponding times will show for selected wineries. Be sure to re-check your tour winery times after changing the calendar.

SELECT EVENTS: Don’t miss a festival, concert, or special tasting during your selected dates.

SELECT ICON: Mouse over displays state overview or winery name; click for details. Use the pop-up balloon tour tab to create your personalized tour with Google directions.

Facilities codes: T for tasting, W for winery, V for vineyard, and R for restaurant.

“McMinnville, the county’s largest city with 30,000 people, draws those seeking a life fulfilled by organic produce and good pinot noir. It is home to dozens of art and antiques shops, and there are plenty of destinations for natural healing and meditation. In Yamhill County, the party is wherever you want it to be. It can be at a rural barbecue, a restaurant and bar in McMinnville, or even a bed-and-breakfast in Carlton. Just don’t expect any urban luxuries — other than creamy sauces and rich dishes. Oh, and there’s rarely a shortage of wine.”

Read the article here.  Registration required, but it’s free.

They wrote, “Billing itself as the ‘place for pinot,’ this slumbering grapevine district is home to more than 200 wineries, most of which beckon visitors with tasting rooms and even eco-wine tours.”

Read all about the 10 hotspots here but naturally call our concierge Nicci Stokes at 503 560-1512. She will arrange a tour through #6 with our very own All Events Limo.  You will want to be sampling our wonderful harvest.  So you drink.  We drive.

You can download a PDF copy of Romantic Week-end Getaway in Oregon Wine Country. She prepared the itinerary over in Yahoo Travel where you can customize it if you like. Just click here to go there. To customize it, you will click the “Copy Trip” items, and yes, you will need a Yahoo account. But it’s free, so go ahead. You can add or delete items from your itinerary, or if the choices Yahoo offers for items to add are not what you want, just click on “Create Item,” and then add it to your itinerary.

You will enjoy dinners at the Joel Palmer House, Nick’s Italian and Tina’s. For lunches have recommend the Crescent Cafe and The Horse Radish. And of course on Saturday, you’re scheduled for a winery tour in our very own All Events Limo.

On Saturday of your romantic getaway, we have you scheduled for a tour of some of Oregon’s great wineries. Our slogan, as always: You drink. We drive.

Coming up November 1, you will enjoy Buffalo Flank Steak Stuffed with Hazelnuts, Spinach, and Dry Jack Cheese Served with Baby Garlic Carrots, and Cardamon Spiced Potatoes French Chocolate Torte with Grand Marnier and Raspberry Sauce.  Each course will be paired with exactly the right wine, enhancing both food and wine.

If this date has come and gone, call her anyway 1-503-560-1512.  She will know when the next one is and whether reservations are available.

The Coelho Winery and Tasting Room was established in 2002.  They are located in a 1930’s building which, before it was heavily damaged by fire, was a hardware store.  Much of the charred wood has been salvaged.  You will find some of it in the winery’s tasting bar.

After attending the International Pinot Noir Celebration, he set off on a 4-day tour of our section of heaven.  An interesting tour for you would be: go where he went.  To help you, I put the wineries he visited on my “Oregon Wine Country and Willamette Valley Vacation Planner Map.”

When I am finally done with this map, it will be THE DEFINITIVE MAP of Oregon Wine Country.  It now has shows two sets of wineries.  The blue pushpins are the wineries that won at least one award in the 2008 San Francisco International Wine Festival.  The yellow pushpins are the wineries Jamie visited on this trip. The red pushpin is where the Kelty is, your starting and ending point for this great tour.

And by the way, I should mention, we are the only B&B in Wine Country with our own limo service.  You drink.  We drive.  Check out All Events Limo.

All four of articles on the great Oregon vineyards Jamie Goode visited are on a single page of his blog. Start at the bottom of the page for Day 1 and work your way to the top.  In my map, when you click on one of the vineyards, you can easily click on the website for a given winery.  So read and look at the map together.

In my next post, I will show you how to pick the wineries you want to visit and calculate the shortest route.  It’s very cool if I do say so myself.

Not that you will ever see it or even need to know about it.  You see, their customers are the wineries you visit and enjoy.  Eighty of them are clients of Oregon Wine Services.   

Here’s what OWS ( as they call themselves) say about their services.

“We ship winery client orders Monday through Friday, using both UPS Ground and FedEx Express services. Our pricing includes all labor and packaging. We offer both styrofoam and environmentally friendly pulp packaging, available in all shipping sizes. Our rigid quality control, with multiple audit points, ensures minimal errors.”

If you are curious or really want to know who is shipping your precious nectar, check out Oregon Wine Services.

Bill Good

After attending the International Pinot Noir Celebration, just concluded in McMinnville on July 25, he has started a tour of Oregon Wine Country.  Just as soon as I get another minute, I will add some of his stops to my “Oregon Wine Country and Willamette Valley Vacation Planner Map”

But for now, you can follow his travels.  Check out Day 1 of Jamie Goode’s Tour of Oregon Wine Country.