Camping in La Rioja: wine, nature and villages with character
La Rioja is the smallest autonomous community in Spain, but it condenses a variety of landscapes, history and gastronomy that few regions can match. Travellers who pitch their tent, park their motorhome or stay in a bungalow or glamping in this land discover that wine, mountains and medieval culture sit very close to one another.
The Riojan territory is divided into two broad strips: the lower river valley, crossed by the Ebro and covered in vineyards that produce some of the most renowned wines in the world, and the southern sierras, where the peaks rise above two thousand metres and forests of beech, oak and pine form landscapes of great beauty. Between the two areas, the valleys of the Najerilla, the Iregua, the Leza and the Cidacos provide hiking and cycle touring routes that let you explore almost intact stone villages. The Sierra de Cebollera Natural Park, in the upper Iregua, is the region's main protected area: damp forests, high mountains and a silence that is hard to find in busier places.
Wine tourism is La Rioja's great draw and an ideal complement to any camping stay. The Rioja Alta district, with Haro as its capital, is home to historic 19th-century wineries whose stone and brick architecture is an attraction in itself. San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Briones and Ábalos are villages perched on hilltops that offer panoramic views over a sea of vines that turns intense green in spring, golden at harvest and ochre in autumn. A visit to a winery with a tasting lets travellers understand at first hand why the Rioja Qualified Designation of Origin enjoys such prestige.
Culture and history are equally present. The monasteries of San Millán de Yuso and San Suso, declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, hold the first glosses written in Castilian, making San Millán de la Cogolla a place of pilgrimage for lovers of the language. Nájera preserves the memory of the first medieval kings of Navarre and Castile in the monastery of Santa María la Real. The French Way of St James crosses La Rioja from east to west through Logroño, Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Belorado, which turns many campers and motorhome travellers into occasional walkers. On the banks of the Cidacos, near Enciso, rocky outcrops preserve Cretaceous dinosaur footprints that make up one of the most important fossil track sites in Europe.
Logroño, the capital, deserves a visit of its own. Calle Laurel and its surroundings form one of the liveliest tapas circuits in Spain: garlic mushrooms, lamb chops grilled over vine cuttings, patatas bravas and, of course, local wine at bar prices. The main camping season runs from May to October, with warm, dry summers in the river valley and cooler temperatures in the sierras. Families with children will find plenty of reasons to explore in the footprint sites and the riverside parks; couples and groups of friends have a complete plan in wine tourism, gastronomy and mountain hiking without leaving the region.
