I love maps!

I love vacations!

And I really love maps that help plan vacations, especially when they can help our guests plan a great trip to Oregon Wine Country.

We now have three great tools to help you. Let’s start with a new one I just found.

“Wines and Times”

“Wines and Times” is a website you can use to plan a trip to any wine country in the United States, not just Oregon. .

What the folks at “Wines and Times” have done is to develop a database of hundreds or possibly thousands of wineries. This database includes their hours of operation, they types of wines as well as locations and links to their websites. You can literally click on a calendar, click a few more times to determine the area you want to visit, and it will show you which wineries are open on the days you want to visit. Click on another day, and you will see some wineries appear on the map while others disappear.

They put their instructions and kind of an odd place, so I’ve taken the liberty of reproducing them at the end of this post. You might find it helpful to print the instructions. Or, do what I did, which is just poke around.

The Kelty Vacation Planner Map

I have also created a map to help our guests. It’s not as fancy as the “Wines and Times” map but it has some information that they don’t have, such as which wineries in our part of the country won a medal at the San Francisco International Wine competition. Those are marked with a blue pushpin. I marked with yellow the stops that international wine writer Jamie Goode made on his tour in the summer of 2008.

Area attractions are added in red.

You can visit our own map here.

You can read Jamie Goode’s tour here.

Roundtrip Planner

If you pick out a few wineries you want to visit, I recommend you check out one of my very favorite mapping sites with the mouthful of a name, “Google Maps Fastest Round Trip Solver.” There you can enter up to 24 addresses and it will figure out your shortest round trip. If time is limited, this could be important…or not. However you travel in Wine Country, longest distance or shortest drive, the journey is at least as important as the destination.

There is an easier way to plan your trip. Call our Concierge, Nicci Stokes at 800-867-3740 or 503-560-1512.

She knows the wineries, the hours, the owners. Plus she will be delighted to schedule our very own All Events Limo for you. Best bet: You drink. We drive.

What a plan!

FAQ for “Wines and Times” Map

SELECT WINES: Check boxes at top of screen to select European (Vitis vinifera/hybrids) varieties, American (muscadine, Niagra, Concord, etc.), or Meads/Fruit wines (honey, fruit, etc.).

SELECT TIMES: Current week is shown on calendar at right. You can select the week or day of your choice. Corresponding times will show for selected wineries. Be sure to re-check your tour winery times after changing the calendar.

SELECT EVENTS: Don’t miss a festival, concert, or special tasting during your selected dates.

SELECT ICON: Mouse over displays state overview or winery name; click for details. Use the pop-up balloon tour tab to create your personalized tour with Google directions.

Facilities codes: T for tasting, W for winery, V for vineyard, and R for restaurant.

Let’s face it. There are a lot of good places to have dinner while visiting Oregon Wine Country. You really need to know someone, which, if you stop and think about it, you do. She’s our concierge, Nicci Stokes. She will help you plan your trip. But she’s gone a step further. She’s already planned the perfect three-day week-end.

You can download a PDF copy of Romantic Week-end Getaway in Oregon Wine Country. She prepared the itinerary over in Yahoo Travel where you can customize it if you like. Just click here to go there. To customize it, you will click the “Copy Trip” items, and yes, you will need a Yahoo account. But it’s free, so go ahead. You can add or delete items from your itinerary, or if the choices Yahoo offers for items to add are not what you want, just click on “Create Item,” and then add it to your itinerary.

You will enjoy dinners at the Joel Palmer House, Nick’s Italian and Tina’s. For lunches have recommend the Crescent Cafe and The Horse Radish. And of course on Saturday, you’re scheduled for a winery tour in our very own All Events Limo.

On Saturday of your romantic getaway, we have you scheduled for a tour of some of Oregon’s great wineries. Our slogan, as always: You drink. We drive.

There is always something to do in Oregon Wine County. Pick a week-end, and the Concierge here at the Kelty will recommend places to go, wineries to visit, where to eat. Heck, with our All Events Limo service, we’ll even take you there. But sometimes the choices are just staggering. Take July. Of course the 24^th to 28^th is the International Pinot Noir Celebration. Can’t get tickets to that? Check out the week before. Check our availability here.

Saturday, July 19: Motor on over to the Sokol Blosser Winery in Dundee (5.1 miles from the Kelty which is, of course in the heart of the heart of Oregon Wine Country.) From 12:00 to 4:00, enjoy their “Inaugural Grape & Grill BBQ.” Your cost: $0.00. Get complete details here.

Saturday, July 19. This could be quite a day. After your BBQ in the afternoon at Sokol Blosser, by all means attend an awesome evening at Stoller Vineyards.  Bill and Cathy Stoller are hosting “Starry Night” an evening of dinner and dancing under the stars—all to benefit the McMinnville Education Foundation. Tickets are $85 per person. You will enjoy a traditional Northwest Salmon Bake as well as dancing and an auction.  For info call Maria Stuart at 503-472-6990 or visit the Foundation’s website at www.mac40kids.org.  Oh, by the way, you are all of 4.1 miles from your BBQ at Sokol to the Stoller Vineyards. See what I mean about the Kelty being in the heart of the heart of Oregon Wine Country?

Sunday, July 20. Vista Hills Winery and Bike Gallery are teaming up for a bike ride ande catered lunch and wine pairing. 100% of the proceeds go to Oregon’s Children’s Foundation. It all begins at 9:00 AM and wraps up to 2 PM.  After the ride, you will enjoy a  lunch at Vista Hills catered by Olive You from McMinnville.  You are a big 5.2 miles from the Kelty, about 11 minutes. Anyone interested in the ride can contact wineride@bikegallery.com for more information. To register they can visit any Bike Gallery location or call Kelly at 503.636.1600.  To find a Bike Gallery website near you, visit the Bike Gallery website

Sadly, your Kelty Inn Keeper never gets to attend the Pinot Noir Festival — held this year July 24-27. We’re here to make sure you enjoy every minute of your celebration. You will enjoy meals and wine as never before in your life…or so we are told.

But do make sure you have a designated driver who doesn’t touch the stuff. Hmmm. That’s not going to work, is it? So you drink and enjoy.

Our very own All Events Limo will provide the designated driver, for a modest fee of course.

We’re here to make sure you have a great time!