TAPAS & FOOD-CRAWL TOURS · SPAIN & BEYOND
A glass, a small plate, and the next bar.
Vermut counters in Barcelona, late taverns in Madrid, sherry bars in Seville, and the food crawls of Lisbon, Rome and beyond. Real reviews of the tapas tours worth clearing an evening for, with a local who knows which door to push.
Worth a trip for the table alone
Three cities you plan the trip around dinner.
Some places you visit for the sights. Barcelona, Madrid and Seville you visit for the crawl: the marble counters, the late tavern, the sherry and the small plate. These are the cities travellers come home telling everyone to book.
Catalonia
Barcelona
Dinner here is a crawl, not a table. A vermut and a few pintxos at one marble counter, then on to the next place the locals are packed into, from the stalls of the Boqueria to the back-street bodegas the tour groups never find. A guide orders the things you would have skipped and gets you the spot at the bar. Few cities reward eating standing up more.
- 1 Montserrat Half-Day Tour with Tapas and Gourmet Wines
- 2 Montserrat & Cogwheel Train, Gourmet Wine Tasting & Tapas/Lunch
- 3 Barcelona Tapas and Wine Experience Small-Group Walking Tour
Central Spain
Madrid
The capital eats late and on its feet. A glass and a small plate at one old tavern, then on to the next the regulars are squeezed into, from the jamon counter to the place with the good vermouth on tap. The long nights end with churros and chocolate at dawn. Half the fun is the walking between, and a local knows which door to push.
- 1 Madrid Tapas & Wine Tasting Walking Tour – Small Group Local Bars
- 2 Madrid Tapas & Taverns Small Group Food & History Tour
- 3 Madrid: Small Group of Prado Museum Tour & Optional Tapas
Andalusia
Seville
Seville invented the tapa and still does it best. An afternoon bar to bar through Triana and the old centre, a fino sherry and a small plate at each, from the century-old tiled counters to the abacerias that double as grocers. A guide walks you to the bars the tour crowds never reach and orders what the south actually eats.
- 1 Sevilla Food Tour: Tapas, Wine, History & Traditions
- 2 Ultimate Seville Tapas, Wine & History Small Group Tour
- 3 Seville: Tapas Crawl
If you only book one
The tapas tour more travellers rave about than any other.
Out of every tour we have looked at, this is the one that sends people home telling everyone they know to clear an evening for it.
The crowd-pleasers
The Most Popular Tapas Tours Right Now
Barcelona vermut crawls, Madrid tavern nights, Seville sherry bars, Malaga beach espetos. The bookings travellers are happiest they made.
Start with a city
The best tapas tours, city by city.
Barcelona for the vermut crawl, Seville for the sherry bars, Granada for the free tapas. Pick the city you are headed to and we will show you the tours worth booking there.
Where in Spain do you go hungry?
Three corners of Spain, three kinds of crawl.
Start with the part of Spain you are headed to. Each one eats in its own way, from the Catalan vermut counter to the Andalusian sherry bar to the slow island market, and a different food day waits at the end of it.
Barcelona
Vermut at noon, pintxos until late.
Barcelona eats standing up and on the move: a glass of vermut and a few pintxos at one marble counter, then on to the next place the locals are packed into. A guide walks you from the Boqueria market stalls to the back-street bodegas the tour groups never find, and orders the plates you would have skipped.
See the best Barcelona tapas tours →Madrid
The capital eats late, on its feet.
A Madrid tapeo winds through the old centre, tavern to tavern: a slice of tortilla and a cana at one tiled bar, jamon carved to order at the next, a plate of gambas and a glass of the good vermouth on tap. A guide knows which door to push and gets you the spot at the bar. The long nights finish with churros and chocolate as it gets light.
See the best Madrid tapas tours →Andalusia
Where the tapa was born.
The south runs on small plates and chilled sherry. Seville crawls bar to bar through Triana, Granada still slides you a free tapa with every glass, Cordoba layers Moorish flavours into its taverns, and Cadiz fries the day’s catch by the sea. An afternoon here is a sherry in one hand and the next counter already in sight.
See the best Seville tapas tours →Malaga & the Costa del Sol
Espetos on the sand, sweet wine in the old bars.
Malaga eats with its feet in the sand and its glass full of sweet local wine. A tapas tour winds from the chiringuitos grilling sardine skewers over driftwood to the century-old bodegas pouring Malaga dulce straight from the barrel, with a stop for fried fish and a plate of olives along the way.
- 1 Malaga Wine & Tapas Small Group Guided Tour
- 2 From Malaga: Caminito del Rey/White Village Tour & Tapas
- 3 Málaga: Wine & Tapas Tour
How the night runs
How far into the evening do you want to go?
Spain eats on a clock of its own. An early vermut and a market lunch in Valencia. A proper bar-to-bar tapeo in Seville. A Madrid tavern crawl that ends with churros at dawn. Pick the stretch of the night that sounds like yours.
Vermut hour
Valencia, the easy start.A gentle way in: the Central Market at its busiest, a glass of vermut and a few small plates, paella where the locals actually eat it. Everything you came to taste, nothing you have to be brave for.
The tapeo
Seville, bar to bar.The real thing: a sherry and a tapa standing at one Triana counter, then on to the next, the way the city has eaten for a hundred years. A guide orders the dishes each bar is known for and gets you the spot at the bar.
The long night
Madrid, until it gets light.The city that never quite sits down. Tavern to tavern from the jamon counter to the late place with the good vermouth, ending with churros and chocolate as the sun comes up. Half the night is the walking between.
Portugal
Follow the grilled-sardine smoke uphill.
Just across the border, Portugal eats in the old neighbourhoods: a custard tart still warm from the oven in Lisbon, bifanas and a glass of green wine at a tiled counter, the petiscos of Porto where small plates work just like tapas. A guide climbs the hills with you, stopping at the family-run tascas the funicular crowds walk straight past and ordering what the table has shared for generations.
See all 25 Lisbon food tours →By city
Pick a city to eat your way through.
Barcelona for the vermut crawl. Madrid for the late taverns. Seville for the sherry bars. Malaga for the beach espetos. Valencia for the market and the paella. Mallorca for the island table.
More cities
More cities worth a hungry weekend.
Granada for the free tapa, Cordoba for the Moorish flavours, Bilbao for the pintxos counters, the islands for the slow market lunch, and Portugal just over the border. The rest of the map, ready when you are.
Three cities, three food days
Pick a city, build the day around the table.
A market morning in Valencia, a free-tapa afternoon in Granada, a slow island table in Mallorca. Three cities, three very different ways to spend a day eating in Spain.
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