Food Tour: Spain and Portugal

Day 1 – FOOD TOUR LISBON

Arrive at Lisbon Airport and meet your driver just past customs for the ride to Lisbon. First, check in at your hotel in the Old Town so you can acclimatize. Later, meet your guide so you can get in touch with Lisbon food and wine with a guided food tour. During the tour, learn about Lisbon’s café culture near Rossio Plaza, try codfish cakes, stop at a wine bar in Bairro Alto for the local white wine. Visit Castle Hill to see the best views of the city and discover Lisbon’s best sausages and cheeses, paired with a glass of port.

Finally, enjoy a Fado show.

Day 2 – ARRABIDA WINE REGION

Meet your guide at the hotel for the drive along the Tagus River and through the Arrabida wine region. You’ll pass through vineyards, cork and olive trees. Visit a beautiful, family-owned winery in the heart of Arrabida Park. Try some of the local vintages. Continue to the highest point of the park for views of the Atlantic Ocean extending before you. We’ll take some time to walk along Portinho da Arrabida beach before enjoying lunch on your own at Sesimbra fishing village.

Day 3 – ÉVORA

Pick up your rental car. Begin the day at some of Evora’s Megalith sites: Cromelech of Almendres and Dolmen of Zambujeiro. View similar stone arrangements as Stonehenge and a burial site that have been in existence for more than 7000 years. Later drive on to Evora for an afternoon tour. Discover Giraldo’s Square, Diana’s Temple, the Moura Gates, city walls and the Bone Chapel. Stay here for the night.

Day 4 – BADAJOZ AND VIA DE LA PLATA

In the morning, drive to Badajoz, across the Portugal/Spain border. Your guide will take you on a walking tour so you can see the city walls that defended the city from the Moors for centuries. Your guide will show you the San José Convent and the Espantaperros Tower and after that, visit the cathedral. After lunch, continue your route down the ancient Via de la Plata. This is the road the Romans used to take silver to Rome. The next stop is in Jabugo, where you’ll visit an Iberian pig ranch and taste the acorn-fed Iberian ham. Walk around the small town of Aracena with its castle and grotto own your own. Arrive in Sevilla in the evening.

Day 5 – SEVILLA

In the early afternoon, your guide will meet you in the lobby for a walking tour. Firstly, stop in the city walls, passing the Murillo Gardens with several stops in Barrio Santa Cruz. Secondly, see the Alcázar fortress, Cathedral and Giralda prayer tower. Finally, in the evening, we’ll have an intimate flamenco show reserved for you.

Day 6 – MARKET AND COOKING CLASS

Meet your guide/chef at a venue in the Jewish Quarters just before lunch for a cooking food tour. Today you’ll learn about Spanish cuisine, beginning at the local fresh market. See how differently Spaniards present their produce, meats, cheeses and wines. Decide on a dish to cook and select your ingredients. Head back to the kitchen to prepare. At the end of class, try what you’ve made, paired with local wine.

Day 7 – FREE DAY SEVILLA

Day 8 – WHITE VILLAGES AND RONDA

Discover a small corner of Spain where traditional village life goes on as it has for thousands of years. Firstly, stop in Zahara de la Sierra, where your guide will tell you some conquistadors and bandits legends before visiting an olive mill for a tour and tasting. Secondly, stop in Grazalema, a town within a natural park. Finally, we’ll have lunch in Ronda with a tour and wine tasting at a countryside winery. After lunch, your driver will leave you at your hotel so you can take some free time before meeting your guide at the hotel for a tour of Ronda, the birthplace of bullfighting where you will be able to get into the bullring. Cross the New Bridge spanning a plunging gorge that separates Ronda’s New and Old Quarters. After that, your guide will continue down cobblestone streets into the Collegiate Church and Don Bosco’s medieval palace.

Day 9 – GRANADA

Drive east to Granada – the last Arabic kingdom in Spain until 1492. Your guide will be waiting at the entrance to the Alhambra. We’ll go back 900 years to visit the 11th wonder of the world. Gardens of Paradise, Alcazar Fortress and the renowned Nasrid Palaces are just some parts of the entire Alhambra Forbidden city that you’ll visit on tour. After leaving the palaces, we’ll have a Nasrid medieval tasting menu reserved for you at the Parador hotel. Spend the afternoon discovering Granada old town on your own. Drive to Málaga in the evening.

Day 10 – MÁLAGA

Before lunch, your guide will pick you up in the lobby for a tapas food tour. Join the locals on their pre-dinner tapas route up Larios Street into the open-air market. See the local cheeses, produce, bread and wines on display. Notice how differently Spanish present their fish and meats! Your guide will explain a few basic ingredients for Spanish staples like paella or migas. Continue into the oldest tavern in town to sample fresh seafood. Head into the Old Town for fusion tapas, classic “raciones” and more local gourmet food. As you taste your way through Málaga, you’ll pass the Roman Theater, Alcazaba Fortress, Picasso’s Birthplace and the Cathedral.

Day 11 – MADRID

Drive to Málaga Airport as you turn in your rental car and catch a short flight to Madrid. As you arrive our driver will pick you up. In the afternoon start a walking tour of the Madrid “Letters and Arts” District, including a visit to the Prado Museum and El Retiro Park; then, continue to Plaza de Oriente, the center of 15th century Madrid. This walking tour will lead you through streets and squares belonging to the times of the Hapsburg royalty. For example, pass the Royal Palace, Royal Theater and Opera, so your guide will be able to explain you the legends and history of the commoners and nobility during the Spanish Renaissance. A few other stops along the way are the Tower of Lujan, San Miguel Market, Plaza Mayor where bullfights were once held and Plaza de España. Meanwhile, we’ll stop for classic raciones and tapas.

Day 12 – TOLEDO

Firstly, catch the train from Atocha to Toledo. The ancient capital is well-preserved and full of cultural wonder. As you approach, notice how the entire city crowds onto a high, rocky perch protected by the Tajo River. Your guide will meet you at the Bisagra Gates, the entrance to the Arabic city, to begin your tour through the Old Town and Arabic Quarters. During your tour, visit Zocodover Square where the main market was once set up. Enter Santa María la Blanca Synagogue and the nearby Cristo de la Luz Mosque. Along your way, the guide will tell you the story of Toledo’s 3 religions and people groups that lived in harmony during a time when the rest of the country was at war. End the tour at an artisanal sword maker, Toledo’s famous trade that was set in motion by the Umeyyad Dynasty. Finally, return to Madrid.

Day 13 – DEPARTURE

Meet your driver for the ride to Madrid airport.

Book this tour!