Lovedale Long Lunch Transport
Saturday 17th May, 2025 & Sunday 18th May 2025
Hunter Valley, Newcastle and the Central Coast
Private Tours aboard our 13, 20 or 24 seat buses
The Lovedale Long Lunch is a MUST for every food and wine enthusiast’s calendar and the 2025 Lovedale Long Lunch progressive food and wine festival is no exception! Indulge your inner foodie with us on a custom private tour as we visit 2 of the Lovedale’s most celebrated cellar doors including Gartelmann wines, Allandale wines, Sandalyn Estate, Emma’s Cottage, Wandin Valley Estate, Tatler wines or Saltire on Saturday 17th May, 2025 and Sunday 18th May, 2025.
Forget those cramped mega coaches with their queues and crowds! Travel to the Lovedale Long Lunch from Newcastle, the Central Coast or your local Hunter Valley accommodation in Pokolbin, Lovedale, Rothbury, Cessnock, Broke, Singleton and more.
On one of our private tours a 13, 20 or 24 seat bus is reserved exclusively for your group with your own fun and friendly guide for the day. Enjoy door to door service to the Lovedale Long Lunch venues of your choice, with the start/finish time of your choice without having to worry about sharing the bus (or being delayed by) strangers as we move from venue to venue. It’s the perfect way to enjoy your Lovedale Long Lunch festival in style with your own crew!
Lovedale Long Lunch 2025 – Private Transport Options:
Lovedale Long Lunch from Newcastle or the Central Coast
– Have your own group of 10 – 24 people?
– Want to choose your own Lovedale venues?
– Want to enjoy a private bus exclusively reserved for your group?
– Need door-to-door transport from the address of your choice in Newcastle or the Central Coast?
We have you covered!
Lovedale Long Lunch Transport from the Hunter Valley
– Available for private groups of 8 guests or more (up to 24 guests)
-Pickup and drop-off from your Hunter Valley accommodation in Pokolbin, Lovedale, Rothbury, Nulkaba, Cessnock, Bellbird, Broke, Branxton, Singleton or Maitland
– Alternative drop off at a local restaurant or Harrigan’s Irish pub available upon request
-Relax knowing you can choose your own music in the bus and you don’t have to wait for other groups
– 13 seat, 20 seat or 24 seat buses available
Enquire About Our Private Lovedale Long Lunch Tours:
If you have a group of 8 people or more and you’re keen to enjoy the 2025 Lovedale Long Lunch festival with your own crew, on your own timetable then we’d love to hear from you! Please use the form below to get a quote for a private group price. We can usually reply within 2-3 hours (guaranteed reply within 24 hours). All messages come straight through to the mobile phone!
Or send an sms on 0403 001154
NB> Message is best as safe driving is always a priority!
Who Is Tastes Of The Hunter Wine Tours?
Tastes Of The Hunter Wine Tours is a young and progressive company with an exciting 21st Century approach to touring. Our fun and friendly, guest focused guides are passionate about what they do (bringing people and local stories together for memorable food and wine experiences) and pride themselves on making your day special and hassle free.
Tastes Of The Hunter Wine Tours is a fully accredited Long Distance Tourist and Coach Charter provider with Transport for NSW (accreditation. no 42290), members of BusNSW, as well as members of the SGLBA and GALTA. Tastes of the Hunter also donates quarterly to the Sydney Prince of Wales Research Foundation as part of our “Come on board for Cancer” research donation initiative.
Check out our Hunter Valley wine tours with local pickups for other great adventures you can enjoy in wine country!
Discover The Lovedale Long Lunch
Get those sparkly dancing boots out, find your favourite festival hat and gear up for foodie indulgence at the Lovedale Long Lunch. The annual event first kicked off in 1994 and tickets are now a sought after thrill on the country’s festival circuit. It’s little wonder, as it represents a true gourmand’s heaven of vineyard-hopping and mouth-watering tastings.
Along with seven participating cellar doors to choose from, live music keeps you rockin’, boppin’ or chilling in the sun on grassy lawns. If you love to dress for the occasion, there’s plenty of inspiration to be had in the music alone, with smooth jazz, sixties tunes, classic rock and blues on the playlist.
All that foot stomping helps to make room for the scrumptious line up of dishes created by the Hunter Valley’s master chefs. To top it all off, wineries launch some of their latest wines at the event, so you’ll have bragging rights at the end of it all!
Highlights of the Lovedale Long Lunch: 17th – 18th May 2025
Groove your way from one winery to another, eating, drinking and laughing all the way. Here’s a taste of the pure indulgence that awaits at each venue.
Gartelmann Wines
If Shiraz and Semillon are your fancies of choice, Gartelmann Wines offers award-winning, hand-crafted varieties. Pair your drinks with brie, cheddar and blue cheeses, or feast on snapper, prawn and baby calamari with preserved lemon and saffron risotto. Keen for dessert? Set your sweet tooth singing with passion fruit cheesecake tart topped by raspberry toffee meringue. If you can still move after all that, rock glamour band, All Access 80’s, bring the tunes and the big hair to compete with yours.
Emma’s Cottage Vineyard
Warm up your vocal cords to sing along to funky covers, with the Big Bang Band at Emma’s Cottage Vineyard. Then, quench your thirst with unique blends like Avalon and Sparkles, which is produced by blending Chardonnay and Semillon. Matched with the tropical flavours of 2020 Phoebe, one of the main meals on the menu is aromatic Sri Lankan chicken curry with spiced coconut crumble. Vegetarians don’t miss out, with a baked jumbo field mushroom packed full of goodies like feta, pine nuts and basil. If you get in quick, you might be able to snap up the quaint cottage accommodation onsite.
Allandale Winery
Set on the sweeping backdrop of the Brokenback Mountain Range, Allandale Winery is the home of award-winning Chardonnay, Semillon and Pinot Noir. Sip on the 2020 Chardonnay while tucking into Lovedale pork and fennel sausages with creamy soft polenta, or vegan-friendly tomato braised eggplant ragu. Chocolate and almond cannoli might just tip you over the edge into foodie bliss. The toe-tapping fun starts with the versatile electro sounds of Adam Katz and Nada Leigh.
Tatler Wines
Get down to rock, funk and soul on the dancefloor with Saxanova and the Hornet, at Tatler Wines. This 100-tonne winery is known for incredible Mediterranean food, so tempt yourself to wild Atlantic salmon drizzled with olive oil, lemon and herbs, paired with Pinot Gris. Aged brie and cheddar with Spanish quince paste, dried apricots and crackers keep you moving onto the next song.
Sandalyn Wilderness Estate
Surrounded by olive groves among the vineyards, Sandalyn will welcome you with the fun rock, funk, pop and blues tunes of local band, Phonic. Soak up the panoramic views over the Molly Morgan and Brokenback ranges while sipping Shiraz, Verdelho and sparkling Cuvee. When hunger strikes, you’ll have a choice between lamb kofta skewers, braised wagyu beef and mushroom lentil cakes, with spiced cherry pavlova to satisfy sweet cravings.
Saltire Wines
With a five-star rating from James Halliday for producing amazing Chardonnay, Semillon, Clare Valley Riesling and more, this state-of-the-art winery is a connoisseur’s dream. Newcastle band, Vogue, join the energetic playlists of Silent Shout to keep the crowds jumping…or head nodding if that’s more your thing. If zesty pickled slaw, truffled Paris mash and loaded cheesecake sound good to you, feel free to let your taste buds water in advance.
How to ‘Long Lunch’
No doubt your taste buds are tingling for a slice of the action, so get in quick now to secure tickets as your first course of action! You’ll find them on sale at the official Lovedale Long Lunch festival website. At the time of booking, you’ll nominate your three favourite venues to attend on the day. Don’t want to drive? Fair enough! We’ve got the solution for you, and one that incorporates exactly how you’d like your Lovedale Long Lunch to pan out.
Lovedale Long Lunch Private Tour Packages 2025
Our private tour packages for 2025 include one bus and a driver exclusively reserved for your group. Seating capacity is flexible, with 13, 20 or 24 seat buses available. The day flows like a breeze for you, with door to door service from your Hunter Valley accommodation, Newcastle or the Central Coast. This way, you’ll avoid long lines waiting for taxis at the end of your big day when, let’s face it, chances are you’ll be keen to put those dancing feet up!
The process couldn’t be easier, in terms of scheduling the day to suit you. Upon booking, let us know what your two chosen venues are, how long you’d like to spend at each and in what order. For example, you could spend the first two hours at one venue and four hours at the next with your favourite bands. Here’s an example of a popular schedule to make the most of your day:
10:00am: Kick the event off at your first venue for tastings.
12:30pm or 1pm: Head to your second venue at midday to tuck into lunch.
2:30pm: Greet the afternoon with dancing and dining (continuing at your second venue)
4:00pm: End the day with stress-free transport home.
This is by no means fixed, however, as you could choose a 9:30am start or a 4:30pm finish with variations in between. If you like, spend a longer time at each of two venues, instead of three. It’s up to you, as we’ll customise the transport to match your desires.
Why choose a private tour, you might ask?
You want to make the most of your Lovedale Long Lunch and spending time waiting for strangers to hop on the bus to get to the next venue doesn’t have to be an issue! On a private tour, you’ll only have your own crew to worry about. Yes, that means if Sally needs a gentle push to leave the dancefloor to get to the next, you can go right ahead and do so. This also helps you avoid arriving late to venues and possibly being refused entry. Unfortunately, this can happen due to rules surrounding the number of people allowed at each place at any one time.
Better yet, the faster you get to each venue, the more time you’ll have to indulge in every second of the event. Plus, if someone’s had a few too many vinos or decides to bust out with their loudest rendition of show tunes on the bus, it’s up to you to decide how rowdy, or not, your transport around the festival is. At the end of the day, it’s always nice to avoid that ‘after festival’ messiness of a wine-fuelled day on a mixed-group bus, when all you want to do is get back to your comfy bed.
Therefore, although private tours are a little more expensive than individual seats on large local coaches, the value for money typically outweighs the added cost. Quite simply, you get what you pay for! That’s flexibility, peace of mind and fun on your own terms for a minimum of eight people, on our private tours.
On the Day
To prepare for the day, you’ll need to bring your Lovedale Long Lunch festival tickets with your driver’s licence, passport or proof of age card. You’ll show them at the entry tent of the first venue. Then, you’ll receive your meal vouchers, the event program and your very own Lovedale Long Lunch tasting glass, which you can take home as a wonderful memory of all your ‘big sips’. The meal vouchers can be used at either of the two venues you choose, throughout the day.
At each venue, you’ll find Tasting Tokens Tents and it’s five dollars for five tokens. Just make sure you use them all at each venue, as, unlike the meal vouchers, they’re not transferable to the next winery. Tokens aren’t your only option though, as you can simply buy a bottle (or three!) to enjoy at each venue.
Now that you’ve got the rundown, jump on the Lovedale Long Lunch website to book your tickets, contact us to book your private tour and get in quick to secure Hunter Valley accommodation, if you want to stay for the entire weekend or longer. Every year is the ‘best year ever’ for loyal festival-goers, and we’re here to ensure 2025 is yours!