The Best Time to Visit Margaret River
The best time to visit Margaret River for a wine tour: harvest in March and April, the dry busy summer, the wet quiet winter and spring, season by season.
For a wine trip, March and April are the best months to visit Margaret River. The grape harvest runs from late summer into autumn, so in March the vineyards are working, the days are still warm and the evenings are mild enough to eat outside. By April the crowds have thinned. Summer is drier and busier, winter is wetter and quieter, and spring sits in between.
The cellar doors open all year, and the wine tours run all year too, so there is no wrong season to go. What changes is the weather between tastings, how busy the tasting rooms are, and what else you can do on the same trip.
Margaret River by season
| Season | Months | What it is like | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer | December to February | Driest and longest days; school holidays; the busiest cellar doors | Beaches between tastings, long evenings |
| Autumn | March to May | Harvest in March; warm days, mild evenings; quieter by April | The vineyards at work, the best all-round weather |
| Winter | June to August | The wettest season, July the wettest month; quiet tasting rooms | Slow tastings by the fire, lower demand |
| Spring | September to November | Green vines, wildflowers; the Pair’d food and wine festival in November | Mild days, fewer crowds than summer |
Autumn: harvest, March and April
Vintage is the busiest time of the year for the wineries and the most interesting time to visit them. March is the tail end of picking, so you can see fruit coming in, and the weather is still warm. Visitor numbers are high in March and drop away in April, when the days are mild and the evenings cool. If you can choose any week, the first half of April is hard to beat.
Book a tour with a fixed lunch stop at this time of year rather than planning to walk in. The full-day tours on this site include lunch, so the table is already held. All About Margaret River’s full day seats you at an olive farm, Wine for Dudes’ Wine Adventure at a winery restaurant.
Summer: dry, long and busy
December to February is the driest stretch, with the longest daylight. It is also the school-holiday season, and the best-known cellar doors are at their busiest. A tour helps here in a practical way: it books the tastings and the lunch ahead, and nobody has to find a car park at a full winery at midday. The beaches are the other reason to come in summer, and a wine tour can easily share a trip with two beach days.
Winter: wet and quiet
Winter, June to August, is the wettest time of year, and July is the wettest month: expect rain on most days through June and July. It is also when the tasting rooms are quietest, the fires are lit and the staff have time to talk. Winter also brings the first of the new season’s aromatic whites and rosés. From about June to November, Waves of Wine’s blind-tasting day stops at a surf-break lookout where you may see whales, though nobody promises them. On a rainy day a tour beats driving yourself: the roads between the wineries are rural and the light goes early.
Spring: green vines and the Pair’d festival
September to November brings the vines back into leaf and the wildflowers out along the coast. The weather is mild and changeable. November has the Pair’d food and wine festival; book accommodation early for that weekend.
Which tour suits which time of year
Hidden-gems full day
Three family-run wineries with barrel-room access, an olive-farm lunch. Lunch is booked for you, even in March.
Check dates →Half day from Busselton
Two wineries and Cape Naturaliste in four hours, leaving the rest of the day for the beach.
See the half day →Prices and review counts as listed on GetYourGuide in October 2026, in US dollars, not a quote.
If the date is already fixed, the season matters less than you think: the tours run all year and plan their stops for the day. The prices guide compares what each tour costs, and how many days sets out how to fit the coast in around the wine.
Three Wineries, Lunch and No Driving
All About Margaret River's full-day tour visits three locally owned wineries with roughly 30 wines on offer, with an Italian-style lunch at an olive farm, chocolate and olive-oil tastings and pickup in Margaret River town centre. Seven hours, rated 4.9 from 130 reviews (October 2026), free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
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