Input on food re: A Week in Spain
Hi All. Will be taking the "Week in Spain" tour in a few months. Can former travelers fill me in on the quality of the food? I am a big foodie so hope the tour food is good. How are the breakfasts at the hotels? Any good fish available at meals? Thank you in advance for your input.
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I have taken all of Tauck’s longer land tours of Spain and Portugal, as well as the Douro River cruise. We loved the food in Spain, especially the tapas, stews and paella. I usually eat more fish and seafood in Portugal due to its proximity to the Atlantic. The octopus in both countries is excellent.
The hotel breakfasts typically have the traditional American selection of eggs and bacon/sausage which I am not a fan of. I can say that the porridge, yogurts and fresh fruit are very nice. You can also order off a menu in some places. They don’t always advertise that, however.
kfnknfzk - thank you for your response. Great to hear you loved the food in Spain. Tapas, stews and paella sound very appealing.
lisajanetx - My pleasure. If you have free time in Madrid, you might enjoy the Plaza Mayor area. Venture out from the Plaza to find tapas bars.
Close to the Plaza is Mercado de San Miguel, a wonderful market with a dizzying array of local specialties.
Also close by is Sobrino de Botín, a restaurant favored by the locals. Reservations are imperative, however.
Enjoy!
kfnknfzk - I can't tell you how much I appreciate the restaurant recommendations! I will definitely write those down.
I hope you enjoy some of them. I am sorry you had some bad experiences in Portugal. Some of the best regional cuisine I have had was there, especially the fish and seafood. And blood sausage! Just a little bit since it is so rich.
Again, best wishes.
I’m not here to comment on food but just had dinner with friends last night who just returned from the 2 week Tauck Tour - Barcelona to Porto. Tauck was unable to secure tickets for the interior viewing of La Sagrada Familia for their tour as well as the tour that is taking place in 2 weeks. Evidently, they were told by the tour guide that Tauck typically secures the tickets thru a broker and were unable to do so. They were not given any other options and simply had to miss seeing the inside. They were understandably very disappointed and were also not advised of this until the day of. Having visited Spain on our own 2 years ago, we secured tickets on our own thru the official website and is a must see if in Barcelona. IMHO, the interior of La Sagrada is nothing short of magnificent, breathtaking, and awe-inspiring and I have seen every major Cathedral and church in Spain, Italy, France and UK. I feel Tauck should have advised the group ahead of time if tickets couldn’t be secured for the group and this would allow those who wanted an opportunity to try and secure tickets on their own.
Nothing unusual when yoiu are trying to cut corners!
We love Spain and there is much to love. But, having visited Sagrada Familia several times it is one of, if not the highlight of visiting not only Barcelona, but all of Spain. I hope those who missed out will seek some compensation although, IMHO, nothing will replace that first moment of walking into this very special place.
On A Week in Portugal, Tauck skipped Sao Bento Train Station without telling any one. The bus sped by and that was it!
Instead of going inside Jeronimo Monastery, Tauck went to the Maritime Museum instead. Now Tauck has clearly stated in their brochure it is the Maritime Museum, not the real thing, supposedly very hard to get discount tickets.
Food: thinking of Spanish food is sort of like thinking of Italian food. You won’t see risotto in Rome and if you do, you’d be better off not getting it. Lot’s of regional differences. Paella is from Valencia. You might see it elsewhere but it’s not the genuine thing. An exception might be Barcelona where there is a strong Sunday paella tradition, especially along the water. One universal tradition is tapas. Our Spanish is pretty elementary and we find the tapas scene to be a bit intimidating on our own (lots of pointing and gesticulating). A tapas tour in Barcelona and San Sebastion (pinxtos there) were great fun and the food was terrific. Some areas (Granada) have a tradition we like: order a drink and a free tapa comes along. We took the Northern Spain tour and the best food was on the fore mentioned tapas tours and at places we had researched and booked on our own. The 2 to 3 hour Tauck lunches and dinners (which grew old quickly) were ponderous. The food was good but more like cruise ship good, especially the ones in hotels. I’ve found group meals on most tours to be generally that way with really great meals the exception.
Oh please, Henry. Give it up already. Your miserable existence is getting tiresome.
Folsomdoc --- appreciate your comments
We have 1 week in Spain coming up in September. Looking forward to local food. Boyfriend lived in Spain and still raves about the food there. Thanks Folsomdoc for the great summary
We have found that going to Mass in some of the European churches surpasses the normal visitor experience. This was particularly true of St Mark's in Venice. We had been through it as tourists and were herded through the church which was pretty dark. We came back the next day when they were having services. The church was lit up and the mosaics were fabulous. If you find that you cannot get into a church for any reason, look up the Mass schedule. You will get the church in all its glory and could leave early, if you decide not to stay for the service. The only caveat is that you might not be able to take many pictures.
Thank you to Maresc who reports, "...friends last night who just returned from the 2 week Tauck Tour - Barcelona to Porto. Tauck was unable to secure tickets for the interior viewing of La Sagrada Familia for their tour as well as the tour that is taking place in 2 weeks. Evidently, they were told by the tour guide that Tauck typically secures the tickets thru a broker and were unable to do so."
Since the Week in Spain definitely states that the tour includes La Sagrada Familia, can anyone who has been on this tour recently report on their experience? I was going to get tickets on my own, but see that it is supposed to be included, so want to make sure Tauckers are indeed getting in to experience this very special cathedral. Thank you!
Hello Lisajanetx,
Just came back from a marvelous one week in Spain arranged by one of Tauck's competitor after Tauck collected my deposit and said it was too late to add me despite not full with only 17 for a classic excursion.
It was until the 24 hours before that the tauck competitor well known for its luxurious private tour found one ticket for the 11am deluxe workshop included tour to La Sagrada Famila with visit to the crypt and the construction area. It was a total wonder stepping inside and the hotel room they have arranged for me gave me night time views of the Familia. Call Tauck and see if they can find tickets to La Familia. The Tauck hotel The one is next door to La Pradera, another one of Gaudi's masterpiece. It is also a 5 minutes walk to Casa Batilo. See if Tauck have included any of those tickets. Now La Familia has limited group size to no more than 30. Access will not be easy.
Supposedly it is the most difficult to get a La Familia ticket, La Pradera is the easiest. Parc Guell will be difficult without transportation.
Email me in private. Some of the recommendations given out there is mostly from blogger reading from a book.One of the restaurant mentioned is a tourist trap that every Spainerd would be laughing at you if you mentioned it!
Perhaps your reputation precedes you.
Yes!
Glad that I tried the other company. One of the best trip I have taken in years!!!
Only my wallet hurts!
We were in Madrid in 2017 on our own and staying in a hotel close to the train station. We found a small "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant close to the train station that had very nice paella.
At first they didn't want to serve us but when Judy spoke to them in her high school Spanish they welcomed us. I guess they didn't want to deal with tourist who could only speak English.
Then, when the owner learned that I was a beekeeper, he brought us a couple of glasses of a liquor made from honey and refused to let us pay for it.
By the time it was all over, the owner was our best buddy.
[Added note: Spain is one of those countries that you can do on your own and really enjoy it. Trains are easy to use and the people are very helpful and nice.]
[Second added note: We were sitting outside, in front of the restaurant. I don't remember how we found that restaurant. Maybe a recommendation from the hotel, or just a Google search for a restaurant close to us. It was on the other side of the train station from the hotel so it was a bit of a walk.]
[Okay, one more addition. We had dinner a different night at a nice tapis restaurant recommended by friend who resides in Madrid - El Imparcial. She joined us for dinner there.]
Mike I had dinner there a long time ago, the food was excellent.
For authentic paella one must go to its birthplace, València in eastern Spain on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. I have also had it in northern Spain by the Pyrenees on the advice of our tour director. It was delicious.
Paella is so easy to make at home, I would not go out of my way to eat it.
I make Creole Jambalaya at home, which is based on Paella. It developed to use whatever you had on hand, sausage, chicken, seafood, etc. Often the Sunday meal had leftovers and the leftovers went into Jambalaya. Like a lot of dishes, it's designed to stretch the expensive food, in this case, with rice.
Creole Jambalaya uses tomatoes in it. Cajun Jambalaya does not use tomatoes. Here's my web page on how to make Creole Jambalaya. Every time I make it I make it differently so this does not represent exactly how I'll make it next time.
https://www.mikes-woodwork.com/Jambalaya.htm
I just printed out your recipe, Mike. I'm looking forward to trying it. Have you ever made it with shrimp? If so, do you use raw shrimp or just throw in cooked shrimp at the end?
Thanks for your note and question, MCD. You can do either. Sometimes you have raw shrimp and sometimes cooked shrimp. You can also add other kinds of seafood, such as crab (broken apart) or calamari. Some people put unpeeled raw shrimp in Jambalaya and the guest has to peel each of them. I don't do that. For crab, the guest has to pick the meat out of the crab pieces - that's just the way crab is.
I don't like pieces of regular fish in Jambalaya. If I do shrimp, I like to use the very small peeled cooked shrimp that I can buy at my local grocery. I find that large shrimp are tough. When I was a lot younger, shrimp were different. They were not farmed but wild caught, and they tasted different. A shrimp cocktail was something special and different than what you get today.
With the little shrimp, they are just included as part of a fork full of the Jambalaya.
Most of the time, I make it without seafood just because most people prefer it that way. But I would always recommend using the Italian sausage. It adds a certain flavor that I really like in Jambalaya. If you go all seafood, you're sort of back to Paella.
[Let me point out that Jambalaya, like Gumbo, was a poor family's dish. Both can be made with whatever you have on hand and both dishes extend the meat or seafood that you do have into a family meal. Gumbo tends to go more towards seafood than Jambalaya. In my experience, Gumbo was always served with a scoop of rice on top of the Gumbo. I went to Commander's Palace one time and ordered the Gumbo and they brought it without rice. I asked for some rice to go with it and the waiter came back from the kitchen and said they didn't have any rice. That was nonsense. In New Orleans, a restaurant always has rice - there are too many dishes that are made with rice. In any case, restaurants use parboiled rice, so preparing some would be quick.]
For those people who like dessert, here's one that I do and really like. But it's high calorie - https://www.mikes-woodwork.com/PeachesNcream.htm