Nobody eats tapas sitting down. Book the crawl, not the table.
How many bars a tapas tour really covers. Whether the wine and the vermut are in the price. Why the good ones do not start until eight. What a paella class costs in Valencia. Reviews of the tapas tours and food crawls you can book across Spain and Portugal.
Four tapas nights that pay for the flight on their own.
The crawls travellers book first in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville and San Sebastián. What each one costs, and what the people who walked it say afterwards.
01The Barcelona classicBarcelona Tapas and Wine Experience Small-Group Walking TourSmall group, old-town bars, a different glass poured with every plate. It ruins supermarket tapas for good.
02The Madrid eveningMadrid Tapas & Wine Tasting Walking Tour – Small Group Local BarsLa Latina and the taverns off Cava Baja, at the hour Madrid actually sits down to eat.
03The Seville runSevilla Food Tour: Tapas, Wine, History & TraditionsAcross to Triana and back, ending on vermut and something fried. Andalusian portions, so arrive hungry.
04The pintxos counterSan Sebastian Old Town Pintxos & Wine Tour Small Group TourSan Sebastián bars stacked a foot deep, txakoli poured from a height. The best eating in Spain, standing up.
Six Spanish cities where the tapas crawl is the main event.
Barcelona’s old town, the taverns of La Latina, Triana across the river in Seville, paella at source in Valencia, the market bars of Málaga and the pintxo counters of San Sebastián. Six cities, and the night worth booking in each.
A tapas tour is not one thing. Pick the format before the city.
Some walk you through six bars in three hours. Some hand you an apron and a paella pan. Some are a pintxo counter in San Sebastián, a vermouth tap in Seville, or a Madrid rooftop with the plates arriving at sunset. The format shapes the night far more than the postcode does.
Barcelona: four ways to spend an evening eating standing up.
The bars worth finding are scattered between the Gòtic, El Born and Gràcia, and nobody finds them alone on a first visit. These are the four formats, what it costs to join each, and which one fits the night you have left.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · Barcelona Old Town Tapas Night: Hidden Bars, Cava & Vermut
The wine-paired crawlFour or five bars, a different glass at each one.
The walking tourThe bars, plus the streets in between, with a guide talking.
The Boqueria morningMarket stalls first, then the counters behind them.
The cooking classYou cook the paella, then you sit down and eat it.
All 118 Barcelona tapas tours →
The tapas tours more travellers take than any others.
Every tapas tour we have reviewed →The crawls, classes and tastings that fill up first across Spain and Portugal, and what earns each one the slot.
1
Montserrat Half-Day Tour with Tapas and Gourmet Wines
Ride from Barcelona to Montserrat for a guided monastery visit, free time, and views of Catalonia’s famous mountain. Select the winery option for a castle cellar, three wines, seasonal tapas, and dessert. Guides such as Yerai, Thais, Vince, and Mayi bring history and wine to life.
From · $55
Read our review →
2
Montserrat & Cogwheel Train, Gourmet Wine Tasting & Tapas/Lunch
from $81
3
Barcelona Tapas and Wine Experience Small-Group Walking Tour
from $83
4
Montserrat with Black Madonna & Medieval Winery with Tapas/Lunch
from $65
5
Montserrat and Winery Tour with Tapas or Lunch
from $61
6
Tapas Walking Tour with Food, Wine, and History
from $78
7
Paella Cooking Experience & Boqueria Market Tour
from $85
8
Madrid Tapas & Wine Tasting Walking Tour – Small Group Local Bars
from $93
Nobody in Spain orders tapas with an empty hand.
Rioja with the jamón, cava in the Gòtic, a cold fino next to the fried fish in Seville, vermut drawn from a tap before Sunday lunch. The pairing is the whole point, and these tours build the route around the glass rather than the plate.
Seville eats late, eats fried, and eats standing at the bar.
Andalusian tapas come cheaper and saltier, with a cold fino you did not order. Cross the river to Triana for the market bars, come back for the tablao, and do not think about sitting down before ten.
Every Seville tapas tour →
What a night on the tapas trail actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you pay. Most of the best eating in Spain lands well under the price of one restaurant dinner.
Bar crawls, pintxo counters, market mornings and the short vermut walks.
The full evening: wine-paired crawls, a paella class with the market run, tapas and a tablao.
Private guides, chef-led tastings and the sailing days with the food brought aboard.
Madrid does not start eating until you have given up waiting.
The taverns off Cava Baja fill at ten and empty at two. Before that there is vermut on a Sunday, San Miguel for the visitors and San Fernando for everyone else, and a run of tiled bars nobody has ever bothered to modernise.
- 1Madrid Tapas & Wine Tasting Walking Tour – Small Group Local Barsfrom $93
- 2Madrid Tapas & Taverns Small Group Food & History Tourfrom $95
- 3Tapas & Wine Tasting Tour with Local Guidefrom $91
Three things that only happen at a Spanish bar.
Small plates turn up on every menu in Europe now. A counter stacked a foot deep in pintxos, a vermouth tap running on a Sunday morning and a pan cooked over orange wood do not.
Pintxos in San Sebastián
In the Parte Vieja the bars lay the food out along the counter and you help yourself, keeping count of your own toothpicks and settling up on the way out. Etiquette is one or two per bar, then you move on. A dozen good ones sit inside three streets, which is why the crawl works here and why nobody sits down to a full dinner.
- 1San Sebastian Old Town Pintxos & Wine Tour Small Group Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,102 reviews
- 2San Sebastian Pintxo Food, Wine & Market Foodie Tour(Small Group)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 621 reviews
- 3Discover San Sebastián’s Best Pintxos on a Unique Culinary Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 602 reviews
The Vermouth Hour
Around one o’clock, before lunch, usually on a Sunday: a small glass of red vermouth over ice with an olive and a slice of orange, drawn from a tap or straight from the barrel, taken with crisps and whatever came out of the fryer. It is a time of day rather than a drink, and the bars that keep it properly have been keeping it for a century.
- 1Barcelona Old Town Tapas Tour: Vermouth, Bites & Hidden Gems★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 627 reviews
- 2Barcelona Old Town Tapas Night: Hidden Bars, Cava & Vermut★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 454 reviews
- 3Seville Food Tour: Vermut, Churros & 10+ Tasty Local Dishes★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 420 reviews
Paella Over Orange Wood
Paella belongs to Valencia and the Valencians are strict about it: rabbit and chicken, flat green beans, no chorizo, cooked wide and shallow over orange-wood flame until the bottom layer catches. The classes here start at the Central Market with the shopping and finish with the socarrat scraped straight off the pan.
- 1Paella Cooking Experience & Boqueria Market Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,661 reviews
- 2Barcelona Paella Cooking Class with Market Visit, Tapas & Sangria★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,531 reviews
- 3Coves and Beaches Boat Trip w/ optional Paella★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,220 reviews
Four tapas bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of Spain can be arranged from a bar stool the night before. These four run on group caps, market trading hours and show times that take no interest in when you land.
- 01San Sebastian Old Town Pintxos & Wine Tour Small Group TourThe bars are tiny, so these cap at eight or ten people. Friday and Saturday go weeks ahead.
- 02Paella Cooking Experience & Boqueria Market TourMarket tours run while the stalls are trading, so mornings only, and La Boqueria is shut on Sundays.
- 03Authentic Flamenco Show with Tapas & Wine Guided TourTablao seats are sold by show time and the front tables go first. Walk up on the night and you are standing at the back.
- 04Barcelona Paella Cooking Class with Market Visit, Tapas & SangriaThe kitchen shops for the exact number booked, so the small classes close their lists a day or two out.
Spain eats at the wrong time. Book the tapas around it.
Lunch is at two, dinner at ten, and between four and eight most kitchens are shut. It catches out every first visit. The fix is to put the market and the cooking class in the morning, the vermut at one, and let the bar crawl start when the locals arrive rather than three hours before them.
By city — Spain, Portugal and a few strays
By kind of night — counter, class, tablao or deck
Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Madrid, San Sebastián: a fortnight built around dinner.
BilbaoThe newest tapas tour reviews.
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