City guideLa Rioja · Travel guide
A long weekend among La Rioja's vineyards
Century-old bodegas, a Gehry hotel and a pintxo crawl through Logroño.
La Rioja is still surprisingly quiet for a region with such famous wines. Close to 600 producers and more than 65,000 hectares of vines line the Ebro River, and in September and October, harvest season, the hills turn green, gold and red. The 50's guide suggests three days.
Start in Haro, whose Station District has the world's highest concentration of century-old wineries, all within walking distance of each other. At family-run Bodegas Muga, you can take a dawn balloon flight over the vines and watch coopers make barrels on site. Nearby Vivanco has a whole museum of wine culture and a record-breaking collection of more than 3,000 corkscrews. Stay at Hotel Santa Maria in Briones, a 16-room boutique hotel, and eat at Los Caños or Nublo in Haro.
Day two is about architecture. Frank Gehry's Hotel Marqués de Riscal in Elciego, with its twisted ribbons of purple, gold and silver, sits beside a winery founded in 1858, with a Michelin-starred restaurant by Francis Paniego. Santiago Calatrava's shimmering Bodegas Ysios is minutes away, pointing straight at the church tower of the medieval hilltop village of Laguardia.
Finish in Logroño, the lively capital. Work your way down Calle del Laurel, trying one pintxo in each bar.
Our summary of a story from The 50, published 22 September 2026. Read the original
8 photos
From The 50