Epicurean Experiences in Madrid

Highlights

Five days in Madrid featuring a walking tour of Madrid, tapas tour, private cooking class, a visit to Toledo–Spain’s medieval home of the three cultures– and phenomenal restaurants.

See our blog about Madrid.

Join us in captivating Madrid as we explore Spanish cuisine, wine, art and history. You will see why millions visit Madrid’s stellar museums every year–and why they call Madrid the city that never sleeps.

Our small group tour is meant for curious culinary travelers who are intrigued by great art and historic architecture. You will have a variety of sophisticated encounters with Spanish cuisine in Spain’s capital. A private tapas tour shows you the bars that specialize in the little dishes, while a unique tasting menu at Zaranda (one Michelin star) offers a contemporary creative approach to cooking without abandoning tradition.

You will get a taste of modern Spanish cooking in a cooking class in a private Madrid home, and have a guided gourmet tour of Madrid’s unique food shops and markets. In your free time, tour Madrid’s Prado Museum and historic neighborhoods to satisfy any art cravings you may have, while a private guided tour of medieval Toledo outside of Madrid takes you back to the era of the peaceful coexistence of the Christian, Moorish and Jewish cultures.

You will be guided by local experts throughout your stay, affording you a deepened knowledge of the long flourishing creative soul of Spain. Our goal is that you leave with a stronger connection to Spanish cuisine, wine and art.

5 Days, 4 Nights

Day One

Private Transfer from airport or train station to hotel.
Check in at the 4 or 5 star boutique hotel. You have time for a stroll or a massage in the hotel’s spa before the evening’s tapas tour.

Tapas in Madrid are synonymous with tradition. In the charismatic old quarter near the Plaza Mayor, a wonderment of charming small bars serves up the small dishes. The informal, authentic settings are ideal for the inherently straightforward tapas. Your guide will assist you in deciding among the varied offerings of meats (chorizo, jamón ibérico), seafood (shrimp, squid, octopus, anchovies), grilled vegetables (peppers, mushrooms), and wine for your multi-course meal.

Day Two

Your guide will meet you at your hotel in the morning and take you on a private epicurean walking tour of Madrid. You will enjoy the architecture and sights of Spain’s capital on a walking tour that includes local markets, chocolate heavens, boutique wine stores with tastings, specialist cheese and olive oil stores, and even a detour to include delicious nuns’ homemade cakes at a hidden convent. Much of central Madrid is a gastronomic center, with traditional restaurants, bars and shops, including the famous Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world.

Optional Tour: An in-depth visit of the Prado Museum.

In the evening you will have a cooking class with Pilar, a top gourmet chef, in her private home. Chef Pilar welcomes you with an aperitif of top quality Catalan cava (sparkling wine). The class can be hands on or off. You’re free to simply watch while enjoying cava or wine.

Pilar is famous in the culinary scene in Madrid’s already ample selection of top chefs, having been featured in Departures magazine, Gourmet (Spain) and Habitania, along with a flurry of TV shows. You will dine in the company of chef Pilar. Superb wines are selected to accompany the superb meal.

Day Three

Your private walking-tour guide will pick you up at your hotel and together you board the AVE, the high-speed train, to historic Toledo.

It is Toledo, perhaps more than any other city, with its narrow, winding streets, stone houses and churches, that embodies Spain’s past. Explore the city’s splendid medieval heart, marveling at the soaring Gothic cathedral, among the greatest of Gothic structures in Europe, and home to paintings by El Greco, Van Dyck and Goya. Later, enjoy El Greco’s finest work, the famed Burial of the Count of Orgaz. Explore the old Jewish quarter, which includes two of the few remaining medieval synagogues in Spain. At the beautifully crafted El Tránsito, you can visit the Jewish Museum, devoted to the history and legacy of Jewish Spain. We will visit a convent famous for making marzipan according to recipes dating to the Middle Ages.

Private Wine Tasting with the Adolfo Family in their Family Wine Cellars

Restaurante Adolfo is the finest restaurant in Toledo. Adolfo’s occupies the ground floor of what was a Jewish merchant’s house in the 1400s, with a fine coffered ceiling supported by granite columns, and dark-red tiled walls. Game is the specialty here, but the fish is outstanding too. The eleventh century bodega (wine cellar) is carved into the earth and contains over 50,000 bottles. The restaurant’s wine list offers over 1,200 different wines.

Begin your food and wine experience with a private tour of the wine cellar of the Adolfo family. Here you will meet the son and heir and visit the underground cellar followed by a wine tasting. Next you will have a private tour of the family’s El Cigarral vineyards and winery, with another wine tasting.

Once back at the restaurant enjoy a specially prepared tasting menu paired with Spanish wines drawn from their extensive holdings.

Day Four

You have the day to explore as you wish. Madrid’s world-class museums include the Prado, the Reina Sofía (contemporary art, including Picasso’s Guernica) and the Thyssen Museum (over 800 works from the 13th century to the present). Between museums, Madrid invites you to stroll, and the many cafes dotting the streets are welcome spots to rest and people watch.

Optional: Private Wine Tasting with Mary, a professional wine taster and educator, who happens to be an American. Her 14 years of experience in the wine sector and membership in the Unión española de catadores (Spanish Association of Wine Tasters) mean she will lead a high quality wine-tasting session. After the tasting, you will enjoy a tapas dinner with Mary.

Your last evening in Madrid may be your best. Our excellent relationship with chef Fernando Pérez Arellano of Zaranda, a one Michelin-star restaurant, enables us to treat you very well. Fernando creates a special tastings menu just for us. For this meal, personal preferences and tastes can be accommodated. Simply let us know any foods or products you can’t eat and then prepare yourselves for a sumptuous culinary experience. Specially selected wines will accompany your dishes. At the end of the dinner (as long as you don’t leave early!) the chef will come and introduce himself to you.

Fernando Pérez embraces a contemporary creative approach to his cuisine, but he never abandons tradition. Indeed, the menu is shaped almost wholly by the seasons of the year.

Day Five

Private Transfer from hotel to the airport or train station. Departure from Madrid.

2010 Tour Dates

Tour available year round upon request.

2010 Tour Price

• 2280€ 2 people
• 1975€ 4 people
• 1870€ 6 people
• 1790€ 8 people

All prices are in Euros. Prices are per person, based on double occupancy.

What's Included

• Accommodation for 4 nights
• Daily breakfast
• Madrid tapas tour
• Madrid epicurean tour
• Guided trip to Toledo
• Adolfo's Restaurant wine tasting and lunch
• Private cooking class in Madrid home
• High speed train to/from Toledo
• Airport transfers

Airfare to/from Spain/ Meals not specified/ Travel insurance/ Gratuities to guides not included

Reservation

Please fill out the form below to reserve your place on the tour.

Terms and Conditions

All Terms and Conditions and Waiver and Release of Liability apply to each trip participant once the reservation form has been submitted. Read Terms and Conditions.

Forms

The Terms and Conditions Agreement and Waiver and Release of Liability Form must be signed and returned via email, fax or mail to Epicurean Ways with your trip reservation. See the Agreement here.

Deposit

A deposit of $750 per person is required in order to reserve a trip. After we receive your reservation form we will send you an invoice via email for the deposit. You may pay securely through PayPal via credit card, by bank transfer, or by check. We will confirm your reservation upon receipt of the deposit.

Full payment for the trip is due 60 days before the program begin date. For reservations made less than 60 days before the program begin date, full payment is due at the time of booking.

Travel Insurance

You must indicate on this form whether you accept or decline travel insurance. We strongly recommend that you purchase travel insurance because of the protection it offers you in the case of travel emergency or need to change your travel plans. Epicurean Ways offers our travelers TravelGuard travel insurance. Click on the TravelGuard logo for a customized no-obligation quote based on your total trip cost. You can also contact us and we will give you a quote for insurance. You may purchase travel insurance through Epicurean Ways or independently.

Thank You

We are pleased that you have decided to travel with us. Do not hesitate to call or email with any questions you might have about your trip.

Epicurean Ways

Toll free: 866-642-2917
Mobile: 434-228-0641
In Spain: 951-190-478 or 635-468-938

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Trip Info for Classic Madrid

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