Wine and Cheese Tour

[TravlGrl]

Has anyone done this tour in Nanaimo offered by Celebrity?

 

The tour includes a stop at the Cherry Pointe Vineyard, followed by a stop at Hilary's Cheese Farm, and then on to the Cowichan Bay Seaside Village. Just wondering if it's worth the $76/person and if this particular excursion books up fast.

 

I looooooooooooooooooooooooooove cheese, and like wine as well, and this seems like a good tour that will allow us to see the area a bit. Anyone have experience on this and can give feedback?

[rottilvr]

I've never done the tour but live on Van Island. Hilary cheese is EXCELLENT and Cherry Point vineyards has wonderful wines. You HAVE to try/buy their blackberry port...to die for! :D Cowichan Bay is a really cute little village with small shops etc. If you go there you must go to "Udder Guys" ice cream shop...THE best ice cream on the island i.m.o. And Rock Cod Cafe in Cow Bay has really good food as well!

[TravlGrl]

Just back from this cruise yesterday and I wanted to report on this tour. What a great choice we made!

 

The wine tour at Cherry Point was very good, albeit VERY cold outside during the tour. The blackberry port was excellent, as was their Solera (sp?) port which is a blend with their blackberry port. I highly recommend it!

 

The highlight for me was really the tour at Hilary's Cheese Farm. The cheesemaking education aspect was SO fascinating, and the cheese was SOOO GOOD! The only bummer was that we could not bring the cheese back on board with us, so none of us were able to purchase it unless we were going to eat it before getting back on the ship.

 

Hilary has two very sweet and goofy doggies, and they were an additional highlight. One would actually sing for cheese. Very cute!

 

On the way back, we were given the option of stopping in Cowichan Bay or Chemainus. The group voted on Chemainus so we went there. We only had 30 minutes for browsing, so it wasn't a lot of time to spend. The town was so small anyway, but it was nice to walk around, grab some coffee and just take a look at the area.

 

Anyway, I recommend this tour not just for the wine and the cheese, but also for the tour operators (wish I could remember their names, but we booked via Celebrity).