Barossa Valley Makes NY Times List
The New York Times have released their list of the 53 places to go in 2008 and only one place in Australia was mentioned, the Barossa Valley:
The world’s love affair with shiraz is bringing wine spectators to Australia’s Barossa Valley. The hilly region is home to some of the world’s oldest shiraz vines, some dating back to the 1840s. And if the more than 60 wineries aren’t enough, Barossa also offers an artisanal cheese trail, and nearby Adelaide is a foodie destination in its own right.
There is a lot of problems with this New York Times list and the Barossa Valley is just a minor one. For starters Kuwait City made the list. I have to wonder if the people writing the article had even visited Kuwait City among a host of the other rather unspectacular places recommended in the article. At least Australia got one place recommended because northeast Asia was completely ignored. How do you recommend Kuwait City over destinations in China, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia? Heck Kuwait City was even ranked ahead of the Barossa Valley.
Anyway back to the Barossa Valley. The valley is a nice wine producing area, but would I recommend people travel all the way to Australia just to go visit the Barossa Valley? No way. The Yarra Valley area near Melbourne and the Margaret River area near Perth have just as many wineries, are more scenic, and have more things to do in the surrounding areas besides visit wineries. Visitors to Australia wanting to visit wineries while visiting the country would get a lot more out of their trip by visiting these areas. I would even say stopping by the Hunter Valley in New South Wales would be a better option than going all the way out to the Barossa Valley.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
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About The Author
Dobbs
I am a avid hiker with a love for travel and the outdoors. I currently call the Evergreen State of Washington my home.
We're planning our 2nd vacation to Australia in Feb/Mar 2010. (Yes, we are so excited about it that we're planning it now! That and the fact that business class frequent flier tickets to Sydney are hard to come by, so we want to be prepared with the dates.)
We had wanted to go to the Barossa Vintage Festival, but apparently it's every other year and won't be held in 2010.
Have you ever been to the Grape Gazing Festival in the Yarra Valley? What did you think?
http://www.grapegrazing.com.au/www/324/1003905/de…
Any suggestions you can offer would be appreciated!
I haven't been to the Grape Gazing Festival but I have been to the Yarra Valley many times and I am in fact going there again this weekend to pick up wine. Personally I like the Yarra better then the Barossa because the valley far more scenic and very close to my favorite large city in Australia Melbourne. However if someone is traveling to Australia solely to go to fine wineries then the Barossa would be the best place. Besides checking out the Yarra wineries during your tour make sure to go and check out the Goulburn Valley wineries as… Read more »