A Bespoke Wine & Music Journey Through La Rioja
Classical music, wine culture, and place, designed entirely around you.
La Rioja is a region where music, wine, and daily life unfold at a human pace. Historic towns, intimate performance spaces, and vineyard landscapes create a setting that feels refined without being formal, cultural without being staged.
This journey is not a fixed-date tour. It is a privately designed experience shaped around your interests, timing, and travel style. Some travelers choose to incorporate performances from the annual La Rioja Wine & Music Festival, while others prefer a quieter exploration of the region’s musical and cultural life beyond the festival calendar. Both approaches are possible, and every itinerary is built from scratch.
Whether you are traveling as a couple, a family, or a small group with a shared interest in music and wine, we design each journey to balance cultural depth, comfort, and unhurried discovery, guided by our network of musicians, cultural figures, and local partners in northern Spain.
How a La Rioja Journey Might Unfold
A sample flow, fully customized around your dates, interests, and pace.
Every La Rioja journey we design has its own tempo. What follows is not an itinerary, but a sense of how wine, music, and place often come together. The details, timing, and emphasis are always shaped around you.
Opening Notes: Logroño
Most journeys begin in Logroño, where Rioja’s everyday life sets the tone. A walk through the historic center, a first glass poured without rush, and time to settle into the city’s natural rhythm.
An evening might bring a small concert, a rehearsal, or simply a beautifully chosen dinner, allowing music and conversation to ease you into the region.
The Body: Wine, Land, and Craft
Days often unfold among vineyards and cellars, with private visits to winemakers who know their land intimately. Tastings become conversations. Landscapes become context.
Lunches stretch comfortably. There is space to linger, to listen, and to let the character of Rioja emerge without agenda.
Variations: Villages and Musical Moments
Medieval towns like Briones or Laguardia add texture and contrast. Stone streets, small producers, and quiet views shape the day.
Music may reappear here in different forms, from formal performances to unexpected encounters. When desired, select festival events can be woven in naturally, without overwhelming the flow.
Closing Notes: Reflection or Continuation
The final moments are intentionally unhurried. A last tasting, a favorite return, or simply time to reflect before moving on.
For some, this is the cadence that completes the journey. For others, it becomes a bridge to the next destination.
The La Rioja Festival
Each May, the La Rioja Festival brings classical music into historic churches, intimate halls, and cultural spaces across Logroño and the surrounding region. Performances take place in settings that feel closely connected to place, where music is experienced as part of daily life rather than as spectacle.
Under the artistic direction of guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, the festival highlights Spanish and international repertoire while maintaining a sense of intimacy and regional character. For travelers drawn to music as a cultural language, the festival offers moments of depth rather than scale.
The festival itself runs on fixed dates, but our journeys are not bound to them. We design travel before, during, or after the festival, incorporating select performances only where they enhance the overall rhythm of the journey. Festival moments are treated as accents, not the structure, and are always optional.
You listen closely. To music, to place, to the spaces in between. You’re drawn to experiences that feel measured, personal, and well-tuned. This journey is for travelers who appreciate music, wine, and culture when they’re given space to resonate.
La Rioja, Spain
Northern Spain’s wine country, shaped by history, landscape, and sound.
Private, tailor-made travel with its own tempo. Designed around your interests, timing, and sense of rhythm.
May will be the time to go to La Rioja if you want to experience the La Rioja Festival. The festival usually runs mid-May; contact us for more info about upcoming dates.
Official Collaboration with the La Rioja Festival
Musical Getaways is an official collaborator of the La Rioja Festival, giving our guests access that goes beyond the standard program. Through this partnership, we arrange private winery visits, guided tastings with local experts, and relaxed conversations with vintners who know the region best.
We also secure premium seating for selected festival concerts once the schedule is confirmed. The result is a weekend that feels personal, well-organized, and connected to the people and traditions that make La Rioja special.
Donation Included
A $300 donation is made on behalf of each guest to
Asociación Cuerdas en Común (Strings in Common), the nonprofit behind the La Rioja Festival.
Begin Your Journey With Us
Designed by musicians. Dedicated to your discovery.
“The La Rioja Festival is a unique and compelling experience as well. It features top-tier musicians combined with magical locations spread around the La Rioja region. 80% of the concerts are in incredible historic villages, churches, and monasteries that date back many centuries. It is a very beautiful experience…“
SEAN
Gallery
La Rioja Festival Concert – Cuarteto Casals feat. Pablo Sainz-Villegas
La Rioja, Spain
Nature & Art Experiences in Cervera de Rio Alhama
La Rioja, Spain
Learn more About la Rioja Festival
La Rioja Festival: Music, Wine, and the Spirit of Northern Spain
How a Classical Music Festival in the Heart of Rioja Became One of Spain’s Most Inspiring Cultural Stories
Pablo Sainz Villegas and the soul of spanish guitar
Interview
In an interview for Musical Getaways, Judy Cantor-Navas talked to Pablo about the sound and soul of Spanish guitar, La Rioja Festival, and how music’s impact on individuals can change the world.
La Rioja: The Best Place in Spain to Experience Wine and Music
Nestled in northern Spain, this region is world-renowned for its exceptional wines, breathtaking landscapes, and unique music scene.
