Overview
A blissful weekend afternoon spent sipping your way between wineries and cellar doors sounds pretty flawless — until you remember that you've got to organise a designated driver to be able to pull it off. Luckily, Victoria's wine regions have no shortage of tour crews and hop-on-hop-off-style operators that'll handle all the driving for you. And one of these just added an entire region's worth of new tour routes to its roster.
Already a firm fixture in the Yarra Valley and on the Mornington Peninsula, Hop It has broadened the scope of its popular hop-on-hop-off bus service, making its first foray into the Bellarine Peninsula from Saturday, April 1. Brimming with wineries big and small, the region is an ideal fit for the local tourism operator.
Dubbed the Blue Route, Hop It's newest schedule gives punters another low-stress option for exploring Bellarine wine country, located just southeast of Geelong. Running every Saturday to start with, the timetable will incorporate a slew of much-loved wine destinations such as Terindah Estate, Oakdene, Jack Rabbit Vineyard, Scotchmans Hill and Leura Park Estate.
For those after something other than vino, it's also set to also stop by the likes of Drysdale distillery The Whiskery, Flying Brick Cider's Wallington cellar door and the family-run FarmDog Brewing at McGlashan Estate.
You'll have three options to experience the Blue Route, depending on where you're setting off from. Melburnians will take a ferry ride from Docklands to Portarlington before hopping on the bus to their chosen destinations (from $109.95), while Geelong-based guests will depart on the bus from Cunningham Pier (from $94.95). And Bellarine locals can jump aboard at any of the designated stops along the route, with tickets from $89.95.
Best of all, your wine-hopping adventure is fully customisable — simply take a look at the route map and timetable, decide which spots you want to hit and when, and devise a plan of attack.
Hop It's new Bellarine Blue Route will run Saturdays commencing April 1. Jump over to the website to check out the full timetable and buy tickets.