Epicurean Vacations in Spain
Cooking is art in motion
–Ferrán Adrià
Culinary Travel in Spain
Epicurean Ways specializes in insider’s food & wine tours and cooking vacations in Spain. Take a leisurely look at our culinary tours and food and wine vacations throughout Spain. From relaxed cooking vacations in Catalan country houses to epicurean adventures focusing on a culinary region, we have it all!
We also arrange private customized trips and cooking vacations for 2 or more people. Call us for your custom designed culinary vacation in Spain.
Epicurean Adventures with Gerry Dawes
We are thrilled to offer our expert led culinary tours in Spain called Epicurean Roads. The Epicurean Roads trips are designed and guided by writer and leading specialist in Spanish food and wine, Gerry Dawes. Gerry has dedicated 30 years to living and traveling in Spain, tasting and reviewing regional specialties, avant-garde tasting menus and Spanish wines. Friend of chefs and winemakers throughout the Peninsula, Gerry takes you to tapas bars, bodegas, restaurants and pueblos unknown to many. The culinary experiences include winery visits, wine tastings, traditional and avant-garde dining, tapas tours and cultural visits. Traveling with Gerry you will meet influential winemakers, have cooking demonstrations with renowned chefs, taste local artisan foods and participate in the local culinary life and traditions.
Epicurean Roads tours take you to La Rioja & Ribera del Duero (including San Sebastián), Valencia, Galicia, Andalucía, Extremadura and Barcelona. Join us this year to experience authentic Spanish cuisine, noteworthy artisan foods, and world-class wines! See the Epicurean Roads trips.
New in Catalonia
New tours in the Priorat & Montsant wine regions near Barcelona, the Penedès Cava region, and the Empordà region at the foot of the Pyrenees.
A fantastic walking tour among the tranquil vineyards in the Priorat stopping at bodegas for wine tasting and sleeping in boutique rural hotels. See Wine Country Walking Tour.
A five-day exclusive food and wine vacation in the historic wine regions everyone is talking about. Experience luxurious charm in the Priorat & Montsant regions with winery visits, wine tasting, private cooking classes, vineyard walks, and a boutique olive oil mill visit and tasting. Stay in a beautiful restored village mansion and savor the tranquility.
Experience the Penedès cava producing region in the company of three local winemakers: Joan Entrena, Joan Cusiné and Jordi Bohigas. Private winery tours and tastings, lunch cooked in a historic winery, vineyard tours in jeeps and a private cooking class at a 16th century winery.
See northern Spain by bicycle on our Cycling tour from the Pyrenees Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea. Savor authentic local cuisine and DO Empordà wines each day in the scenic Empordà region.
Epicurean Tours
We travel to places in Spain where the locally produced cuisine, artisanal foods and wines are presented with pride. Our trips highlight the best authentic foods and wines each region has to offer. We offer insider’s access to wineries, vineyards, olive oil producers, artisanal cheesemakers, chefs and cooking classes. We guarantee you memorable food and wine experiences.
Our personal expertise in the foods and wines of Spain comes from our many years of living and traveling there, forging relationships with chefs, winemakers, local guides and culinary experts. We know and love the regions and the gastronomy in the regions of Spain and are continually inspired by the many curious culinary travelers we have traveled with.
Epicurean Roads
Our Epicurean Roads trips are 6 to 12-day journeys exploring food and wine regions in Spain. Led by food and wine expert Gerry Dawes, these tours offer insiders access to Spanish cuisines and wines.
Food & Wine Tours
Our Food & Wine Tours are 1 to 6-day culinary vacations based in a city, town or country hotel. No packing or changing hotels while you are with us. Relax and indulge yourself in the best of Spanish food and wine.
The Food & Wine Tours offer cooking classes, giving you the opportunity to learn the secrets of Spanish cuisine in the kitchens of English-speaking Spanish chefs. All tours include Epicurean Ways expert guides, artisanal food discoveries, memorable meals, tapas tours and wine tasting or winery tours. We stay in four and five-star hotels, Spanish paradors and renovated historic inns. All hotels offer deluxe comfort and regional character and charm. We can arrange our tours and cooking vacations with three-star accommodations upon request.
The details of your trip are meticulously worked out in advance, freeing you to fully experience the food, wine and people. We believe that balance is important, so every trip allows time for you to explore on your own. A well designed combination of culinary activities and solo time means our trips work well for both groups and for single travelers.
Cultural Travel
Not only do we acquaint you with the food and wine, but we also visit museums and medieval villages, Moorish palaces and famed cathedrals. Our trips are culinary and cultural explorations of Spain that reveal the soul of each region.
Spanish Food & Wine Experts
We specialize in Spain and Spanish food and wine. Call us to discuss food, wine and cultural travel in Spain, even if you are not yet at the trip-planning stage. We can recommend mouth-watering books, articles, recipes, DVDs and websites to commence your culinary explorations of Spain.
Catalunya in September
June 9, 2009
We are offering a special on one of our most popular culinary trips in Catalunya: Catalan Cooking in the Empordà. Our September 5-10 trip will be $200 per person off the regular price for bookings made by August 1. Come along for 6 days in a little-visited region of Spain north of Barcelona.
You will have private cooking classes with a Catalan chef, take a private sailboat trip on the Mediterranean where a chef will cook a fisherman’s lunch for you, visit wineries of the Empordà appellation, taste olive oil at an olive oil mill, spend time in medieval villages near the Costa Brava, eat at traditional Catalan restaurants and dine at acclaimed two-Michelin starred El Celler de Can Roca. Minimum number of travelers needed for guaranteed departure is 4. See the description here.
Posted by Jane Gregg
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Álvaro Palacios
June 8, 2009
Spanish winemaker Álvaro Palacios creates some of Spain’s most remarkable wines from his vineyards in the Rioja, Priorat and Bierzo regions. Here’s an article in Wines From Spain
describing Palacios’ strong connection to the land where he grows his grapes–his sense of terroir.
Posted by Jane Gregg
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Spain scores high on World’s 50 Best Restaurants list
April 25, 2009
Spanish cooking has made headlines in recent years, with the world’s attention focused on the high quality traditional cooking as well as the innovative molecular gastronomy practiced by leading chefs. The restaurant magazine-S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list places Spanish restaurants in 4 of the top 10. Ferrán Adrià’s El Bulli restaurant in Catalunya has been in the number one spot–The World’s Best Restaurant– for 4 years in a row. Andoni Luis Aduriz’s Mugaritz in the Basque country is in 4th place, Joan Roca’s El Celler de Can Roca shot from 21st to 5th place, and everyone’s favorite, Arzak, comes in 8th.
Other restaurants in Spain on the top 50 list include Martin Berasategui–the benchmark in contemporary Basque cooking (33rd place)–and Asador Etxebarri in 39th place. Asador Etxebarri near San Sebastián is barbeque turned art form, or so they say. I know where I’m eating next time I’m in San Sebastián.
See The World’s 50 Best.
Posted by Jane Gregg
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36 Hours in Barcelona
April 24, 2009
Barcelona is a wonderland of edgy design hotels and restaurants, down to earth eateries filled with the working public at lunchtime, and a nightlife that won’t quit. It’s got beaches in town, food markets with market cafes and Mediterranean breezes. What more could you want? See 36 Hours in Barcelona in the New York Times.
Posted by Jane Gregg
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Traveling Alone
April 16, 2009
If you travel alone, especially if you are female, refresh your memory on a few simple safe travel precautions, compiled by the American Society of Travel Agents. See the tips.
Posted by Jane Gregg
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