Barcelona is a great place to sample all of these things. From the Boqueria market just off the Ramblas to the wine bodegas outside the city, there is plenty in Barcelona for the foodie.
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1. Gourmet Meal on Glass-Topped Bus
Image: (c) Viator
Take in the sights of Barcelona on a glass-topped bus, while being fed a gourmet meal by Michelin-star chef Carles Gaig.
This tour looks to me to be one of the best-value tours in Spain. Get a three-course meal by a famous chef while viewing sights such as La Sagrada Familia and the bullring.
This tour would suit foodies, those who need a little distraction while on a bus tour and anyone on a tight schedule while visiting Barcelona.
2. Wine Tasting in Barcelona
Image: Jenny Downing (Some Rights Reserved)
Sample Spain's classic reds, as well as its lesser known whites, in this wine tasting session in central Barcelona.
This session takes place in a wine shop, which may not have the atmosphere of a winery, but ensures an impartial session that doesn't push you to buy a particular wine. The session lasts one-and-a-half hours, during which you'll taste four wines.
3. Spanish Cooking Class in Barcelona
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Learn to make three classic Spanish dishes - paella, tortilla and gazpacho - on this cookery class at a Spanish chef's own home.
I have tried to make all three of these dishes and I can assure you, seeing an expert make them for the first time helps enormously. Gazpacho and tortilla are simple dishes, but getting sizes and quantities exactly right is difficult with guidance on your first attempt. Paella is a little more complicated to make - getting the rice cooked just right on your first attempt is difficult without the help of an expert eye.
More: Barcelona Cookery Class
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4. Barcelona Tapas Tour
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Tapas are not a type of food, nor simple the Spanish for 'small dishes'. They are a way of eating - normally on foot, hopping from bar to bar, with a beer or glass of wine in hand.
The tapas culture in Barcelona is not as big as it is in, say, Seville or San Sebastian. If you are going to Seville I would recommend this Seville Tapas Tour instead. But if you are only visiting Barcelona, this tour is a suitable substitute.
Choose from Morning/Afternoon or Evening.
More: Evening Tapas Tour or Morning Tapas Tour
5. Montserrat, Wine and Cheese
Image: (c) Damian Corrigan
Visit the impressive rock-formation-cum-mountain of Montserrat, a short drive outside of Barcelona, before visiting the Oller del Mas winery, where you'll sample three local wines with some cheese.
Montserrat is one of the most popular day trips from Barcelona, but this trip's emphasis is on the wine, with only a short stop at Montserrat. If you prefer your sightseeing to be brief and your wine-drinking to take up most of your day, this is the tour for you!
There is also an optional extra round of golf.
Find out more: Montserrat Wine and Cheese Tour
6. Spanish Cava Tour
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The Spanish like to call Cava 'Spanish Champagne'. The rest of us call it a very drinkable bubbly. Cava is a very Catalan drink (Catalonia is the region where you'll find Barcelona), so much so that whenever the Catalans upset the rest of the Spanish, it is Cava sales that go down first in the country, out of spite.
Visit the Cava winery of Freixenet, either with a tour of the Torres Bodega (see before) or as a combined tour with either Montserrat or the town of Sitges (I would choose Montserrat):
7. Barcelona Chocolate and Sweets Tour
A walking tour of Barcelona with an emphasis on Spanish sweets.Find out more: Chocolate and Sweets Tour of Barcelona (book direct)
8. Torres Winery Tour
There are several wineries in the Catalonia region, but the most accessible is the Torres bodega. A visit to Torres is included a number of tours of Catalonia:- Wine and Cava Day Trip from Barcelona (book direct)
- Two-Day Southern Catalonia Tour (book direct)
- Four-Day Best of Catalonia Tour (book direct)
