The grape harvest is underway in the D.O areas of Jumilla, Yecla and Bullas, making this the best time of year to visit the wineries, as grapes are brought in for crushing, the installations are heady with the scent of fermenting grape juice and there's lots of wine-making activity underway.

There are also extra wine-related events at this time of year and in Bullas these take the form of the Fiestas del Vino which get underway next weekend. This programme includes family wine tours in which harvesting grapes is part of the package, tours of the wine museum, wine tastings and even a chance to visit the Roman Villa site from which the statues were recovered by the Guardía Civíl, and are now the prize exhibit in the wine museum.

There are still plenty of guided routes and tours on offer. A few suggestions; Lorca offers English language guided tours of the city centre every day and English language castle tour packages on Thursdays, Águilas has also posted an ENGLISH LANGUAGE free route of the railways tour, always hugely popular with expats (including transport on the tourist train), exploring the role the British played in building the Águilas railway, the Cueva del Arco archaeological site in Cieza is open on Saturdays until the end of the month, Totana has opened its church tower museum for visits on Saturdays as well as the La Bastida Argaric site, Mula has a special programme of visits, Yecla offers a guided tour of an organic olive oil mill.