Wine, brewery and distillery tours from LondonLimo.net are chauffeured day trips by the hour from London, Ontario in an executive SUV, luxury van, Sprinter or, through our partner fleet, a limo bus: the wineries of the Essex Pelee Island Coast around Kingsville and Harrow two hours west, the Niagara bench and Niagara-on-the-Lake two hours east, Norfolk County's wineries and cideries an hour south, and London's own craft breweries and distilleries in an afternoon. Planning figures: a van for six $120-140 per hour, a Sprinter for fourteen $145-175, with a three- to four-hour minimum; the chauffeur plans the route, books the tasting rooms that ask for it, waits at every stop and drives home. Nobody counts drinks; nobody drives.
Three wine regions within two hours of London, and one in the city
Londoners are lucky in a way the map does not make obvious. Ontario's oldest wine region is not Niagara but the north shore of Lake Erie - the vineyards around Kingsville, Harrow and Amherstburg in Essex County and on Pelee Island, two hours west down the 401 - and it is quieter, cheaper and friendlier to a group of six with a chauffeur than the Niagara bench on a Saturday. Niagara itself, two hours and twenty minutes east, is the country's best-known region with a hundred wineries, and worth the longer day. Norfolk County, an hour south past Tillsonburg and Simcoe, has a young wine and cider scene on the Lake Erie sand plain. And London itself has a craft-beer trade - Forked River, Anderson, London Brewing and the taprooms along the east end - and a couple of distilleries that make an afternoon crawl the most-booked daytime tour in the city. The chauffeur has driven all of them, and the route is built around the group, the season and how many stops six people can honestly do.
| Tour | From London | Typical day | Vehicle for 6 / 14 |
|---|---|---|---|
| London breweries and distilleries | in the city | 4-5 h, 3-4 stops | van $120-140 / h, Sprinter $145-175 / h |
| Norfolk County wineries and cideries | 1 h each way | 6-7 h, 3 stops | van / Sprinter, same rates |
| Essex Pelee Island Coast (Kingsville, Harrow) | 2 h each way | 8-9 h, 3-4 stops | van / Sprinter, same rates |
| Pelee Island itself (ferry from Kingsville or Leamington) | 2 h + ferry | 10-12 h, seasonal | quoted in writing |
| Niagara bench and Niagara-on-the-Lake | 2 h 20 each way | 9-10 h, 3-4 stops | van / Sprinter, same rates |
| Limo bus for 16-30, any of the above (partner fleet) | - | as above | $190-290 / h, 5 h minimum |
Figures are LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST; the engine prices sedans, SUVs, vans and Sprinters by the hour instantly and the desk quotes buses in writing.
How a tour day is built
Tell the desk the date, the number of people, the region and any winery or brewery the group already loves; the coordinator comes back with a route of three or four stops in a sensible order with lunch in the middle, the drive times for that day, and the total hours. Tasting rooms that take reservations for groups are booked by us or by you; the ones that do not are visited when they are quiet. The chauffeur collects the group from one address or several, keeps a cooler in the back for the bottles, waits at each stop, and gets everyone home. The group sets the pace; the only thing the chauffeur decides is the route and the hour the last winery closes.
The Essex Pelee Island Coast
Two hours west on the 401 to the Kingsville and Harrow exits brings you to Pelee Island Winery's mainland pavilion and the estates along the lake road - a dozen wineries within fifteen minutes of one another, on flat farmland under a big sky, with lunch in Kingsville or Amherstburg. It is the tour we recommend first to anyone who has not done it: the tastings are relaxed, the groups are small, the prices are Essex prices, and the drive home along the 401 at dusk with the bottles in the cooler is part of the day. In summer the ferry from Kingsville or Leamington to Pelee Island itself makes a long day of it, quoted in writing with the crossing times.
Niagara: the bench and the lake
The Niagara day is longer - two hours twenty each way - and busier, and worth it for the wineries of the Beamsville Bench, the Twenty Valley and Niagara-on-the-Lake, with lunch on a winery terrace and, if the group wants it, an hour at the Falls or a Shaw Festival matinee on the way home. Saturdays in September and October are the peak; a weekday in June is the same wine with half the people. The route is built around three or four estates and one lunch, and the Sprinter is the vehicle for a group of eight or more with cases to bring home.
Norfolk County and the south shore
An hour south through St. Thomas and Aylmer or down Highway 19 through Tillsonburg is the sand plain of Norfolk County, where tobacco farms have become wineries, cideries, lavender fields and a distillery or two, with Port Dover and Turkey Point on Lake Erie for lunch and a walk. It is the half-day option - six hours door to door with three stops - and the one that suits a mixed group where not everyone drinks.
London's breweries and distilleries
The city's own crawl needs no highway: Forked River on Pacific Court, Anderson Craft Ales on Elias Street, London Brewing on Pall Mall, the taprooms in the east end and downtown, and the distilleries that have opened around the city, four stops in an afternoon with the van waiting outside each and the group walking to the next when two are close. Birthdays, stags and stagettes, a team's afternoon off and a visiting group's introduction to London all book it; the party bus version for sixteen to thirty runs into the evening on Richmond Row.
Cideries, meaderies and the non-drinking stops
Every route can include the stops a mixed group needs: a cidery, a chocolate maker, a cheese shop, a farm market, a lavender farm in July, a lakeside walk. The coordinator asks who in the group drinks and who drives at home, and builds a day where nobody is bored and nobody is counting. Children are welcome on the family-farm stops and in the vehicle with car seats fitted; most tasting rooms will say on their own sites what they allow.
What the tour costs, honestly compared
A van for six at a planning figure of $120-140 an hour for eight hours to Essex County is roughly $160-190 a head before HST, split six ways, with the whole day to yourselves, a chauffeur who knows the estates and a cooler for the bottles - against the organised bus tours that run fixed itineraries at fixed times with strangers, or a designated driver who tastes nothing. For fourteen in a Sprinter the per-head figure falls below $100. Wine and lunch are yours; the hours are the only thing on the receipt. The hourly page explains the minimums and the fifteen-minute blocks.
Alcohol in the vehicle, and the rules
Ontario permits sealed alcohol to be carried in a vehicle and prohibits open alcohol in any vehicle that is not licensed for it; the bottles the group buys travel sealed in the cooler, and the tasting happens in the tasting rooms. Where a partner limo bus holds the licence Ontario requires, the quote says so and the rules aboard follow the AGCO's. No passenger under nineteen is served or serves themselves anywhere on the day. The chauffeur drinks nothing, ever.
Corporate and client days
A company hosting a client group, a team's reward day, a supplier's visit that ends with a winery dinner: tours are booked on the corporate account with a coordinator, a Sprinter or two, a lunch reservation and one invoice. The Stratford Festival combination - a matinee and a winery dinner in Perth County - is the client day London companies book most.
Weddings, birthdays and the bachelorette in wine country
A bachelorette in Essex County or Niagara, a fortieth birthday with a winery lunch, a wedding weekend's Friday tour for the out-of-town guests, an anniversary couple in a luxury sedan for a private day on the bench: each is the same product with a different vehicle, quoted by the desk or booked instantly by the hour.
Seasons: when to go
Harvest, from mid-September to late October, is the busiest and the best; the vines are heavy, the tasting rooms are full and the Niagara Saturdays need reservations. Icewine season in January and February is the quiet, cold, beautiful one, and the Essex estates are open. Spring and early summer are relaxed everywhere. December is Christmas markets at the wineries and the London Christmas lights tour on the way home. The chauffeur knows which roads are gravel in April and which tasting rooms close on Mondays.
Three tours, as they actually ran
Six friends, Essex County, October. A luxury van from Byron at 9 a.m.: three wineries around Harrow and Kingsville, lunch in Kingsville, a fourth estate, home at 7 with eighteen bottles in the cooler. Ten hours, one fare split six ways.
A company's client day, Niagara, June. A Sprinter for twelve from a downtown London office at 8: two bench wineries, lunch on a terrace in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a third winery, an hour at the Falls, home at 8. On the corporate account; one invoice.
A stagette, London breweries, Saturday. A 20-passenger limo bus from a house in Masonville at 2: four taprooms, dinner on Richmond Row, and home by 11. Nine hours; nobody drove.
Planning figures. Rates are LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST; the engine quotes sedans, SUVs, vans and Sprinters by the hour, the desk quotes buses in writing. Winery and brewery names describe where we drive and imply no affiliation; tasting-room rules and hours are theirs. Alcohol in vehicles follows Ontario law.
Lunch, and the stops that are not wineries
Every good tour has a lunch in the middle - Kingsville's main street, a winery terrace on the bench, a fish-and-chip counter at Port Dover, a patio in Wortley Village on the London crawl - and the coordinator builds it in with a reservation where the room takes one. The stops that are not wineries are what make the day for the non-drinkers: the lavender farm near Harrow in July, the Point Pelee boardwalk, the Jack Miner bird sanctuary, the Kingsville marina, the lighthouse at Port Stanley. The Tourism Windsor Essex and Niagara Parks sites list the seasonal openings; the chauffeur has the local knowledge of which are worth the detour.
