HUA HIN, Thailand — Oenophiles with a taste for traveling in style can stop searching for the ideal day out.
Siam Winery’s Hua Hin Hills Vineyard and the iconic Peninsula Bangkok have developed a package for hotel guests that combines award-winning wine and helicopter rides.
“We’re trying to rewrite the jet set’s expectations of what to do when you’re in Thailand,” said Preyanuch Chaengchenkit, marketing supervisor at Hua Hin Hills Vineyard, 200 kilometers south of Bangkok. “Yes, you can dive. Yes, you can shop for gems and silks. And yes, you can pair some pretty exquisite wine with a ride on the back of an elephant.”
Called ‘Fine Wine Meets Adventure,’ the offer also includes an elephant-back tour of the 560-acre plantation and a gourmet lunch courtesy of The Peninsula Bangkok's executive chef.
The US $8,650-per-person experience begins at 9 a.m. on The Peninsula Bangkok’s rooftop, where guests are whisked from the hotel’s helipad to Hua Hin Airport in 45 minutes — less than a third of the time it takes to drive there.
The exhilarating trip gives passengers a bird’s-eye view of the world’s most visited city, a seaside resort region popular among Thailand’s elite, and the lush landscape between.
After a limousine transfer to the vineyard, guests have the opportunity to explore the former elephant corral from atop a pachyderm, sample the flagship wines of Siam Winery’s Monsoon Valley line — including the acclaimed Cuvee de Siam Rouge and Cuvee de Siam Blanc — and design their own wine labels.
A videographer and photographer will document the entire outing, which concludes with a return helicopter flight at 4 p.m.
‘Fine Wine Meets Adventure’ is one of seven meticulously curated activities that make up The Peninsula Bangkok’s Peninsula Academy, an annually changing program designed to expose hotel guests to the best of Thailand.
Hua Hin Hills, the home of Monsoon Valley wines, is one of three vineyards in Thailand owned by Siam Winery, Southeast Asia’s largest producer of wine and other grape-based products.
The estate’s loamy sand and slate soil and proximity to ocean breezes allows international grape varietals to thrive, resulting in some of the world’s finest New Latitude wines.
The vineyard is also a founding member of ‘It’s in Hua Hin’, a destination marketing group comprised of Hua Hin’s leading tourism assets.
