Epicurean Experiences in Spain Travel

Madrid & Surroundings

An Insider’s Tapas Tour of Madrid

In a nutshell, tapas in Madrid means tradition, and this includes the atmosphere, not just the food. In charming small bars in the heart of Madrid’s charismatic historic area, sample all kinds of delectable tapas, washed down with choice Spanish wines. Amidst the joyous hullabaloo of the welcoming Madrileños, who better than a local resident to introduce you into the world of Spanish cuisine and tapeo? 

An Insider’s Epicurean Tour of Madrid

Customized to suit your particular preferences, our local epicurean tours encompass delis, local markets, chocolate heavens, boutique wine stores with tastings, specialist cheese and olive oil stores, and can even detour to include delicious nuns homemade cakes at a hidden convent. Madrid has emerged in the last few years as a worth gastronomy center. Enjoy it with an expert guide.

A Cooking Class with a Top Chef in Her Private Home

A Cooking Class in an Exclusive Cooking School

A Unique Olive Oil Tasting Experience with one of Spain’s most Revered Experts

The Adolfo Gourmet Experience

Wine & Dine

We’ll book the restaurant and whilst you dine, our Madrid based wine expert, Esteban, gives an informal, relaxed and highly original insight into Spanish wines. Which wine with which dish? Best starter wines? Best dessert wines? Informative and fun on the night and, your dinner parties at home will reap the rewards of this experience!

Private Wine Tasting

Sample the nectar of the gods, with Spain’s finest wine educator… Daughter of a US diplomat, she has over 14 years of professional study and job experience in the wine sector, and is a member the Union Española de Catadores (Spanish Association of Wine tasters), the Circulo de Vino Matritense and of the American Society of Wine Educators. She been teaching wine classes for five years in Madrid… A fun experience, as the Madrid & Beyond team knows only too well!

Barcelona & Surroundings

A Private Cooking Class in Barcelona

Enjoy a hands-on introduction to Spanish cuisine during a private cooking lesson. Your instructor is an accomplished amateur chef whose family has owned several restaurants. Start with a walking tour around the famous Boqueria market, continue with the cooking experience and finish the adventure enjoying the menu prepared in a friendly and casual atmosphere.

An Insider’s Epicurean Tour of Barcelona

Your hostess for the morning is a wonderful lady and chef who knows all the gastronomic nooks and crannies of Barcelona. Together, you will enjoy a private insider’s tour of the best of the city’s specialty food shops. Full of variety, interest and fun… allow your hostess to guide you through many traditional establishments, with several opportunities to indulge in delicious delicacies.

A Private Wine Tasting Session

Indulge in a wine tasting experience at the premises of Barcelona’s premier boutique wine store. A true haven for wine connoisseurs and gourmet fans, with several thousand bottles of Spanish wine and well selected imported wines. Apart from its slice of wine heaven, across the narrow street, the Vila Viniteca deli offers a wide variety of delicious artisanal cheese and Iberian hams. Let us put together a tasting experience that will hit the spot for all wine lovers.

An Insider’s Evening Gourmet Tour

Barcelona is a mecca for foodies from all over the world. Your epicurean hostess introduces you to some of the most inviting stores, markets and bars which provide a fascinating insight and taste of Barcelona. Visit a beautiful store that has been roasting their own almonds for over 150 years, indulge in some pastries from one of Barcelona’s most historic pasteleria, or drop into a specialized cheese store housed on the site of one of Barcelona's first butter-making factories... enjoy a tailored gourmet tour that promises to a fabulous experience. ¡Bon profit!

A 2-day Biking & Gastronomy Tour in Rural Catalonia

This two day cycling tour incorporates all the wonderful things that the Catalan countryside has to offer: wild flowers in Spring, miles of unspoilt coastline, lush farmland, orchards, fantastic food and wine, perfectly preserved medieval villages, local markets, festivals and of course the great climate which makes cycling so much fun!

An Excursion to the Wine Region of Penedes

Catalunya’s premiere wine region Penedes producing a range of excellent still wines ranging from delicate whites to beefy reds, as well as the flagship Cava, is less than an hour south of Barcelona. Enjoy a fabulous excursion to Penedes with your private host and driver, a connoisseur of wine, a wine writer and a personal friend of many of the wineries. Visit at least two select wineries and enjoy private tours and tastings with either the owners or managers of the wineries.

An Insider’s Overnight Food & Wine Excursion to El Priorat

Combine a fabulous and very personal epicurean experience with an overnight stay in rural Priorat, Spain’s primer wine region. A fabulous trip for those who love fine wines, fantastic food and warm hospitality… all set in the landscape of rural, off-the-beaten track Spain.

Andalucía

An Insider’s Tapas Tour in Sevilla

Seville is possibly the best city in Spain for tapas. It is after all, the home of the tapas and has the largest number of bars per inhabitant anywhere, offering an amazing range of food. There’s something for everybody, whether it be meat, seafood, vegetables, olives, cheese etc. You name it, somebody is sure to have used it in a tapa. Tapear in Sevilla is a fun and recommendable alternative to the full-blown sit down meal and who better than a local resident and epicurean expert to host you.

Private Cooking Class in Sevilla

Madrid & Beyond has teamed up with one of Seville’s most prestigious chefs, who offers his services as a cookery teacher to Madrid & Beyond clients. The chef, trained in Spain and Paris, runs one of Seville’s top restaurants, where his creative Andalusian cooking has brought him accolades from around the world. This is a wonderful opportunity for “foodies” to benefit from taking a class with a true professional who is at the forefront of the revolution in Spanish cuisine, but at the same time firmly rooted in the cooking traditions of the country.

Insider’s Epicurean Tour, Sevilla

Visit markets selling everything from fruit and vegetables and seafood, to snails, and even bulls’ tails, sample sweets produced by nuns, taste the famous Jamón Ibérico and indulge in some fine Spanish wines, all in the care of a local gastronomic expert... Buen provecho!

Markets Tour with Delicatessen Tasting

Explore the colorful covered markets and street stalls in the environs of the cathedral before tasting some fine regional products in a charming delicatessen.

Wine & Cheese Tasting Activity

Ignoring the pomp of pure palates, preached by enological puritans, our local food expert will introduce you to a barrage of tastes and smells for what is a delectable gastronomic experience.

Local Markets Tour & Spanish breakfast

Experience the hustle and bustle of a lively Spanish marketplace marvel at the quality of Spanish fresh produce, taste seasonal fruits and vegetables, and learn about local meats and seafood.

Private Excursion to Ronda - with option of gastronomy extras

Sample Spain’s finest wines in the perfect Andalucian setting... Ronda, famous for the Puente Nuevo spans the 120m deep river gorge which divides the town, is not for the faint hearted!

Private Wineries Tour in Jeréz de la Frontera.

One of our favorite epicurean excursions… Taste 30-year old wines and feast all of your senses in one of the most picturesque areas of Spain. Visit at least two prestigious wineries, including a well-known bodega which traditionally sweeps the awards each year. Experts in sherry-making will show you around. Of course, you will enjoy tastings as you go…

Jamón! A Foodies Pilgrimage to the heart of Iberian Ham

Visit the Sierra of Aracena, a mountainous area north-west of Seville where the finest hams in the world are made from the Iberian pig. Considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Spanish gastronomy, jamón iberico is a major delicacy, however very few get to experience an Insiders Visit of the best ham producers and a private visit to a farm to see how the pigs are reared… Savor a very unique experience in this fascinating insight into the world of Spanish ham.

Olive Oil – tradition and modernity

Old and New. See how modern and traditional olive mills produce Spain’s most important culinary ingredient. Visit a spectacular white village in Andalucia and wallow in the surroundings of an olive oil mill dating back from 1755. Whatever your culinary passions, we like to think we can satisfy the most discerning of palates! Buen provecho!

Private Full Day Excursion to Jeréz de la Frontera.

Enter spectacular “cathedrals” and “sacristies“ closed to the public - without even entering a church. You will taste 30-year old wines and feast all of your senses in one of the most picturesque areas of Spain.

Northern Spain

To every resident of San Sebastian, the terms “pintxos” conjures up images of mouth watering delicacies, from simple eats to highly elaborate haute cuisine creations. With almost one hundred bas to choose from, knowing where to go and what to order only comes with experience and local knowledge. Your host for the evening has plenty of both, and together you can enjoy an evening of fine food and good company. It’s a must-do experience in San Sebastian.

A Special Basque Experience - Private Cooking Class in a Gastronomic Society

Today you will explore Basque cuisine, in a venue usually closed to outsiders. Traditionally, Basques gather at sociedades gastronómicas to cook, eat, drink, sing, and socialize. These clubs have nurtured the Basque culinary tradition, resulting in the current proliferation of outstanding restaurants in and around San Sebastian. Madrid & Beyond has arranged private access to the most prestigious gastronomic society of them all. Savor an informal cooking class in a venue which few have access to.

Private Touring of the Basque Coastline including Getaria &/or a Txacoli Winery

Produced in the breathtakingly beautiful Basque coast, the winemakers of Txakoli have to fight the elements (salty, sea air, chilly temperatures, Atlantic winds) to make these zippy white wines that supply all of the bars in San Sebastian. Be welcomed by the owner of a small winery and begin to understand this truly Basque product.

Full Day Customized Wine Tour of La Rioja

A customized day of winery visits that combines the tradition and family values of old historic wineries with the contemporary and innovative wine-making approach of an increasing number of Riojan winery owners. From labyrinths of underground caves excavated in the rock, home to thousands of oak barrels to avant guard wineries grabbing international headlines as much for their architectonics as for the wines… enjoy a day of fine hospitality and, of course, tastings.

A foray into the authentically Asturian world of cheese & cider

Visit a typical Asturian rural village and its cheese cave, where you will learn the basics of the maturing process of Cabrales cheese. Later, to quench the thirst, partake in the cider making process with a private visit to an apple orchard and, finally, a “llagar” a cider press, where you are treated to a hearty and typical lunch (Espicha).

The Seafood Collectors of Galicia

Witness and experience traditional methods of collecting seafood. At a spectacularly indented coastline of the Rías Baixas see at firsthand how seafood is collected by the Cofradía de Santo Tomé, during the three hours of low tide of the Ria de Arouse and later cleaned. The Cofradía consists of over 200 women and to see them working during the low tide is a reminder that old traditions still persist. One of the collectors herself will provide an insight into their working lives and how they live.

Valencia and Islas Baleares

The World of Paella

Enjoy a rural experience close to Valencia and learn about the art of paella making in an 18th century farmstead, which also boasts gardens, former stables , a church and museum. In the main patio of the farmstead, discover the main steps for successful preparation of paella. Then it’s your turn and you will start to make your own paella under the supervision of the chef. Informal, fun and a great recipe to take home with you.

Gourmet Cuisine in Mallorca

A wine and art experience finishing at the chef’s table in the Michelin starred restaurant Read’s. A deluxe and customized gourmet day. Please consult for more details.