Touring the Maipú Wineries by Bike
Maipú is a small town southeast of Mendoza city, famous for its amazing wineries. What better way to earn a drink than cycling your way through the vineyards in the Mendoza sun? The light workout certainly made me feel better about drinking wine at 10:30 am on a Tuesday!
Exploring the Maipú wineries by bike was one of our favorite things to do in Mendoza, and we can’t recommend doing this tour enough. The amazing views, wines, and super hospitable wineries make this a must-do activity when visiting Mendoza.
In addition to a detailed itinerary, we’ll go over how to get there, how much each tasting costs, and our tips for a successful self-guided bike tour of the Maipú wineries!
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Timeline of Your Perfect Day in Maipú
- 9 am: Take bus from Mendoza city to Maipú
- 10 am: Rent bikes from Maipú Bikes
- 10:30 am: Bike 30 minutes to Mevi
- 11 am: Wine Tasting at Mevi
- 11:55 am: Bike 5 minutes to Viña El Cerno
- 12 pm: Wine Tasting at Viña El Cerno
- 12:40 pm: Head across the street to Tempus Alba and do the 10 minute self-guided tour
- 12:50 pm: Wine tasting and lunch at Tempus Alba
- 2:00 pm: 45-60 minute bike ride to La Rural (with stops for photos – we recommend taking the long route and biking past Trapiche for some amazing views!)
- 3 pm: Tour of La Rural Museum and Wine Tasting
- 4 pm: 12 minute bike ride to Domiciano
- 4:15 pm: 30 minute tour and tasting at Domiciano
- 5 pm: Head back to Maipú bikes
- 5:15 – 6 pm: Free happy hour at Maipú Bikes!
Tips for a Great Self-Guided Bike Tour of Maipú
- Go on a weekday if possible! The wineries are much busier on weekends so you might not be able to do tastings or tours.
- We highly recommend renting bikes with Maipú Bikes, as they give discounts for most of the wineries, and provide a free happy hour at the end of the day!
- If you’re going with a big group, it’s worth reserving bikes online in advance to make the pick-up process smoother
- Bring a water bottle!
- Bring a backpack for the bottles of wine you might buy – you’ll at least need one for the bottle of wine that comes with your ticket into La Rural!
- The main road has a bike lane and the other streets were also safe.
- You can rent a helmet – safety first!
- Get to Maipú Bikes as close to 10 am as possible if you’re planning on doing all five wineries!
- You can tour two olive orchards but we left these out
- If you’re on a budget, bring snacks for lunch!
- In total we spent 51 USD per person, but you don’t have to go to all the wineries! La Rural “makes” you buy a bottle with your entry ticket and food at the wineries can be pricey!
If you don’t want to do a self-guided tour, consider booking this tour of two wineries and eat a gourmet lunch!
Detailed Itinerary for Touring the Maipú Wineries by Bike
We want to help you get a good idea of what you’ll spend on this bike tour in case you’re on a budget, so we’ll be showing what we spent at each winery in this section. We’re displaying all of our costs in USD, though we paid in Argentine Pesos. We did this because of the insane inflation going on in Argentina, which causes the value of the peso to fluctuate a ton.
Read about how to get the best exchange rate when you’re traveling in Argentina!
Getting to Maipú Bikes at 10 am
The #920 bus will take you from downtown Mendoza to Maipú Bikes and costs around 20 cents. Google Maps will also present alternative routes. While the routes are accurate, the schedules are usually delayed, so plan appropriately!
To use the buses in Mendoza, you need a SUBE card. Find places to buy and recharge your SUBE card using this map. Worst case scenario, you can pay someone on the bus to use their SUBE card, but this is not a guaranteed option. Make sure to wave down the bus so it stops, and scan your SUBE to pay. When it’s almost time to get off, press the button on the railings near the rear door to alert the driver to stop at the next stop.
Once you get to Maipu Bikes, the owner will sit down with you and help you plan out a route. He was super helpful and provided us with a map of the area and all the wineries he recommended hitting. You don’t need to rent bikes in advance (especially if you’re only a couple of people), but it never hurts! You’ll pay the same price whether you rent online or in person, so do whatever you want for this! To reserve bikes in advance, do so on the Maipu Bikes website.
Cost: $8 per bike per day
Bike 30 minutes to Mevi Winery
Wine Tasting at Mevi Winery 11 – 11:55 am
Mevi Winery has the best views of any winery we’ve ever visited. The backdrop to tasting delicious wines simply could not be better. If you’re traveling with 2 or more people, we recommend getting the varietal and the reserva tasting so that you can share 6 wines instead of getting the same 3 types of wine.
Cost: $5 for varietal tasting and $8 for reserve tasting = $6.50 per person
Bike 10 minutes to Viña El Cerno
Wine Tasting at Viña El Cerno 12 pm – 12:40 pm
While Viña El Cerno didn’t boast the same views as Mevi, they had a cool hipster-type vibe going on. The tables are near massive industrial machines (maybe grape crushers, I have no idea) and they are the only winery with 100% organic and vegan wines. We also loved them because they gave us a ton of water!
Cost: $5 per person
Head across the street to Tempus Alba
Lunch, Tasting and Self-Guided Tour at Tempus Alba: 12:40 – 2 pm
Tempus Alba was the busiest winery we went to – it seems to be the hot spot for a lunch break. You can either do your tasting and eat at the food truck area or on the second-story deck – the deck overlooks the vineyard so we definitely recommend hanging out up there! There is also a quick 10-minute self-guided tour here which you can do before or after the tasting. If you plan on eating at the restaurant on the weekends, you should make a reservation by texting +542615275118
Cost: $5 for the tasting and $11 for lunch per person
Bike 1 hour to La Rural. We took a detour and went right on Pres. Bartolome Mitre road, then left on C. Nueva Mayorga, which had a beautiful view of the Trapiche vineyards with the snow-capped mountains in the background. This would take closer to 30 minutes if you went the fastest route.
Self-Guided Tour and Tasting at La Rural: 3 – 4 pm
Bodega La Rural has a super interesting museum full of all sorts of tools used to make the oak barrels that wine is aged in. While you do pay $10 for entry to the museum and the tasting, your ticket also serves as a voucher for buying one or more bottles of wine. If any of the bottles are more expensive than $10, you just pay the difference! Take advantage of their water coolers and refill your water bottles!
Cost: $10 per person for tasting and the bottles
Bike 12 minutes to Domiciano
Guided Tour and Tasting at Domiciano: 4:30 – 5 pm
Bodega Domiciano has a beautiful outdoor seating area. While their main vineyard is in Uco Valley, they have a small vineyard and production area that you can explore on a guided tour, which is followed by a tasting. They harvest their grapes at nights so for temperature purposes which we thought was really interesting!
Cost: $5.5 for the tasting
Bike 15 minutes back to Maipú Bikes
Free Happy Hour at Maipú Bikes Until 6 pm
What better way to end a day of drinking wine than with more wine? Cristian, the owner of Maipú Bikes, provides unlimited drinks of his own home-produced wine accompanied by music and other people who also just finished their bike tours.
Other Options for Touring Maipú
In addition to this guided tour, you have a few other options for enjoying Maipú.
Trapiche is the largest winery in Maipú, but the tour and tasting is more expensive (25 USD per person) and takes longer than visiting the other wineries. You also need a reservation to visit this winery – you can make your reservations for Trapiche here!
If you fancy olive oil tasting, check out La Melesca and Entre Olivos. You get a 15% discount at Entre Olivos if you rent your bikes through Maipú Bikes!
Alandes is one of the many other wineries in Maipú, you can make your reservations by texting +542616137503.
Where to Stay in Mendoza
The best area of Mendoza to stay in is the city center, close to Plaza Independencia. Mendoza is a super cheap place to stay – we got a really nice apartment close to the center and only paid 20 USD per night!
Mendoza Accommodations
Keep Exploring the Mendoza Province…
Our Favorite Travel Resources
Accommodations: We use Booking.com for hotels and HostelWorld for hostels. We also use VRBO or TrustedHousesitters for longer stays.
Flights: We recommend using Skyscanner to find the cheapest and best flights.
Ground Transport: We use 12Go and Omio for buses and private transfers, and rentalcars.com and Discover Cars for rental cars.
Activities: GetYourGuide and Viator are the best websites for booking organized tours.
International Medical Insurance: We highly recommend SafetyWing for Digital Nomads and HeyMondo for those not traveling full-time, or who frequently engage in higher-risk adventure activities.
eSIM: We recommend Airalo or Holafly for getting data internationally.
Check out our Travel Resources Page for more of our favorite travel-related products and services!
