Wine Tours with Pickups from NYC

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A Wine Tasting Tour on Long Island with pickups and drop offs in most of the five (5) boroughs, "Mid Town" Manhattan, Brooklyn, Western Queens and the Bronx will require a minimum of a (10) Hour Day, which normally includes (3) Venue stops and optional Boxed Lunch.
A Wine Tour with a pickup and drop off on Staten Island will generally have an (11) Hour Day for a general (3) Venue stop and optional Boxed Lunch.
From Flushing Queens west to Nassau Border can have a minimum of (9) Hours for a general 3 Venue Tour day.
Downtown Manhattan, West Side or Upper Manhattan can see a minimum of (11) Hours, depending on the class of vehicle and day of week due to traffic concerns.
Some Visitors may ask "why 10 hours as a minimum from NYC"? The travel time from NYC to the East End is generally 2.5 to 3 hours, especially coming out of Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn.

Our Quotations to you will include applicable Tolls, based on the vehicle class as well as the rates on the day of the quote.
Mass transportation options combined with our wine tour service is the Long Island Rail Road, commonly known as the LIRR. Groups can take the railroad from NYC or Zone 1 to Babylon or Ronkonkoma. From Babylon, the minimum duration of a ‘typical’ wine tour will be (7) hours, while a Ronkonkoma pickup will have a minimum of a (6) hour ‘typical’ wine tour duration.
As of Oct 2022, the round trip LIRR rate from NYC to Ronkonkoma is $28.50/pp round trip and from NYC to Babylon it is $24/pp round trip off peak.
The travel time with our vehicles from Ronkonkoma to the western area of the North Fork Wineries is 60 to 75 Minutes.
Another alternative mass transportation option is the Hampton Jitney Luxury Bus service departing out of Manhattan and returning to same, upper East Side with much less frequent schedule, but with greater options during late Spring, Summer and early Fall. The Hampton Jitney round trip as of Fall 2022 was $62/pp-pre-paid
And finally we offer the option to take mass transportation one way and take your wine tour reserved vehicle the other way.

East End Wine Tasting Tours does not offer regular "scheduled" tours from NYC. In other words, we do not offer the option to join a larger group of people, let's say 20-50 group sizes, who are unknown to each other and on a regular schedule. Out company 'will' be offering this option but for small groups of 12 people in Sprinter Coach style vehicles. All of our tours are customized to a group of friends, co-workers, prearranged tourist groups, etc. And don't let the term " customized" scare you to think this cost more money. Whatever the wineries charge us, is what you pay*.

Most of those large tour or regular scheduled tours will be headed to (3) wineries, where 95% of all groups tend to head to, especially on weekends. There is nothing wrong with this type of tour. But, it is easy to figure out that you will be with the "masses" whereby most wineries do not have reserved seating.  Perhaps there may be one lower premium winery in the mix but most premium wineries do not take more than 25 people.  

So, all we are saying is that we deal with (45+) venues during the course of 1-2 years. Whether we have groups heading to party with the masses, or small groups heading to boutique wineries off the beaten path, to mid range or better wineries that allow boxed lunches inside their tasting rooms coupled with reserved seating as well as table side introduction of each wine by a personal server, to a large variety of premium wineries with reserved seating, we offer it all. East End Wine Tasting Tours also offers 'touring of a vineyard" which several wineries offer. Unfortunately, tours of vineyards are not free, but they offer a different view into the winery. Anthony, of Sannino Vineyard, has the top 10 tours in the USA over the past 7-8 years, and the only winery on Long Island to make the list by Trip Advisor and USA today. We also offer corporate event wine tours and provide a mix of venues across your budget including the Macari Barrel Cellar option.  

Boxed Lunches offered by our wine tour company are thru local North Fork caterers as well as South Fork or Hampton caterers. Boxed Lunches are permitted at (7) out of the (40+) Long Island vineyards that we offer, which is all the venues that permit "for-hire" vehicles. However, in some cases limousine, buses or vans are not permitted.(3) Wineries out of the (7) venues that permit Boxed Lunches, allow these lunches inside, with reserved seating as well as table-introduction to each wine poured, as long as the group is well behaved.

Lunch offered by Wineries? There is only (1) Winery that is officially designated as a restaurant or legally permitted to cook and serve food, Jamesport Vineyards' NOFO Pizza Company. If you are thinking is this an inexpensive option, not really. Also Greenport Harbor Brewery has a self-served style restaurant. Riverhead Cider House also incorporates a restaurant. Macari includes a lunch but this option is the most expensive of all wineries on Long Island.

 
Food Trucks: Are found mainly on weekends at certain wineries and also at a Farm Brewery in the town of Riverhead only. In the town of Southold, whereby a majority of the wineries are located, there is a "ban" of food trucks at Wineries. Of course the North Fork Table Food Truck is open on weekends and not affected by this legal action. Don't ask, it's ridiculous.

Prix Fixe Lunches at Restaurants: A couple of local restaurants, Cooperage Inn and Alure Chowder, each offer prix fixe lunches 3-course meals, mainly on Weekends. This will require 1.5 to 2 hours extra, depending on the size of the group, which there are limitations.