Canberra’s cool new wine experience doesn’t need a designated driver

Kassia Byrnes Kassia Byrnes
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Hop on and hop off at some of Canberra’s best wineries.

Looking for a new wine region to explore? Forget South Australia, heck, you can even forget the Hunter Valley and Mudgee in New South Wales. Canberra’s wine region is booming, and a new Wine Hopper Tour is making it easier than ever to get around.

What began in the 70s, after some CSIRO scientists decided to take advantage of the region’s cool climate and soil types, is now a thriving wine region with plenty of incredible wineries to fill up a weekend.

wine hopper tour canberra bus
Hop your way around Canberra’s wine region.

The problem? As with all wine regions, it so often means someone in the group has to play designated driver. This is where the new Wine Hopper tour comes in. It’s a hop-on, hop-off service from 10am to 5pm on weekends that follows a route around Canberra’s most celebrated wineries. So, unlike other wine tours, it means you can set your own pace and path (and they promise there’s enough time to visit three to four places in a day, before making your way back to the Canberra CBD).

Clonakilla Winery vines canberra
Visit up to four wineries in one day.

Stops include the likes of boutique McKellar Ridge Wines with their award-winning handcrafted wines, the family-owned Clonakilla with gorgeous vineyard views from the tasting patio and the award-winning wines and carefully curated experiences of Shaw Estate.

Tickets start from $89 per person and include round-trip transport from Canberra with expert driver-hosts, a route map, winery guide and unlimited hops throughout the day.

Sign us up.

Clonakilla Winery canberra
Taste the wines of picturesque Clonakilla. (Image: Destination NSW)

Let everyone enjoy their wine and try booking Wine Hopper, but first, read more about our top Canberra winery picks, and discover some other lesser-known wine region gems.

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Kassia Byrnes
Kassia Byrnes is the Native Content Editor for Australian Traveller and International Traveller. She's come a long way since writing in her diary about family trips to Grandma's. After graduating a BA of Communication from University of Technology Sydney, she has been writing about her travels (and more) professionally for over 10 years for titles like AWOL, News.com.au, Pedestrian.TV, Body + Soul and Punkee. She's addicted to travel but has a terrible sense of direction, so you can usually find her getting lost somewhere new around the world. Luckily, she loves to explore and have new adventures – whether that’s exploring the backstreets, bungee jumping off a bridge or hiking for days. You can follow her adventures on Instagram @probably_kassia.
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This geological wonder is hiding in the heart of Victoria

    Michael Turtle Michael Turtle
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    Mythical, historical and most of all, spectacularly beautiful, Buchan Caves demands you take your time – and a tour. 

    In the pools of water, so still they could be mirrors, the reflections of the stalactites make these limestone towers seem even taller. Almost 400 million years ago, an underground river carved through the rock to create the Buchan Caves. Now, artworks created by dripping water adorn these subterranean galleries: stalactites hanging from the ceiling, pillars connecting some to the ground, even curtain-like wave formations clinging to the stone.

    Caves House
    Visit the caves for the day or stay onsite in the campground or at the self-contained Caves House. (Image: Ben Savage)

    “This is called the Fairy Cave because it’s full of fairy dust,” a guide tells visitors as they enter a cavern glittering with “calcite that’s solidified into thousands of tiny little diamond shapes”.  Buchan Caves is Victoria’s largest cave system, but Fairy Cave is a highlight and, along with nearby Royal Cave, is accessible only by tour. Naturally cold, naturally dark, these caverns deep below the surface light up as the local experts tell their stories. 

    couple walking in cave
    You’ll need to book a guided tour to see the caves. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    Among the hundreds of caves, some can be easily accessed from the surface. For instance, a casual stroll along the FJ Wilson Interpreted Walk, as kangaroos watch on from beneath acacia trees, leads into the 400-metre-long Federal Cave and its natural steps of white limestone. A slightly longer track, the Granite Pools Walk heads through soaring forest down into moss-covered gullies where the calls of lyrebirds trill through the leaves. 

    A quick history lesson on Buchan Caves 

    Buchan Caves
    Buchan Caves are a must-visit attraction in Gippsland. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    Among the geology and the nature are millennia of history. This part of East Gippsland connects the high country to the coast and was long a place of refuge for the local Gunaikurnai people on seasonal migrations to the mountains. Archaeological studies show humans lived here up to 18,000 years ago, with artefacts such as small stone tools found around the site. But not too far into the caverns – oh no! The Gunaikurnai didn’t dare venture deep into the dark at Buchan Caves, telling stories they were inhabited by gnome-like nyols (small grey-skinned creatures that could steal memories). 

    Buchan Caves Hotel
    The Buchan Caves Hotel was rebuilt after burning down in 2014. (Image: Jess Shapiro)

    By the early 1900s, more people had started to hear about these incredible caves and so the Moon family set up home at the site and started to run tours below ground for intrepid visitors. More than a century later, their historic residence is available as accommodation, with the three-bedroom house sleeping up to eight people and now equipped with modern amenities the Moons could only have dreamt of. 

    But whether you stay overnight or just spend the day here, it’s worth taking your time to explore more than just the main caves, to get a deeper understanding of one of Victoria’s fascinating geological attractions.