Spain travelers? Good tours, wine tours, cooking classes?

I'll be following this thread as I have a son, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons moving to Spain in February. I'll be going along for the move itself and then making many, many visits there over the course of their time there so I hope to see much of the country.

I know you will enjoy your trip casii. The wine and culinary tours sound fabulous.

We've done the ferry from Gibraltar to Tangier for a day bus tour. I wouldn't do it again. The ferry was filthy and we tourists were kept in a guarded area separate from the locals. The bus was rickety and had broken windows. When I compare where we were taken with photos by other tourists online, I would say we got a raw deal. We were constantly harrassed by kids wanting us to buy things and the tour guide was happy letting them do it. Hardly anyone in our group wanted to buy the carpets or scented oils we were shown and the shop owners got quite intimidating. I'm sure there are quite delightful tours of the area but I think the Spanish tourist office saw us coming. It was a spur of the moment trip and had we researched before hand, we would have been prepared.

We loved Spain! We didn't spend a ton of time in Madrid as we were meeting my cousin who was in Granada so not much help there! I remember all the tapas bars fondly! We did a few days in Barcelona and really enjoyed it! We also squeezed in Sevilla and Granada) We really enjoyed them all and the food was fabulous so I'm sure the food tours will be great. We didn't go to Morocco, and my MIL could have written gillyp 's post above. A very similar negative experience and this was with a group tour, so I would definitely research thoroughly if you decide to go that route.

Wow so many exclamation points - I guess I did like it! We went 17 years ago and are FINALLY going back next March so can't wait!\\

ETA oh and not sure if prices are still extremely reasonable on Iberian, but we did a lot of short flights to get to the different areas for extremely cheap prices.  

I can highly recommend a day in Toledo a short A/C train journey from Madrid. My daughter was at Castilla la Mancha Uni Toledo campus for a year studying Spanish Law.
I visited her there 3 times and loved it. It's absolutely stunning with wonderful cultural joys inc a wonderful cathedral and museum. It's a beautiful place with an old and new section- a land train takes you all around Inc the wonderful river that runs through the town.

We're hoping to go back next year.

Another following this topic as my youngest is moving to Madrid in mid-September to teach English for at least a year. I'm still paying off our trip to Italy where the same kid was doing an internship in Milan last summer so the trip may not be happening for awhile but oldest really wants us to figure out a way to go (youngest is a world traveler, oldest wishes she could be but has always been the responsible one).

Youngest also took a trip with her dad to Spain at the end of her internship and fell in love with it. Looking back looks like they started in Barcelona then took a trip to Madrid and then Bilbao (before moving on to France). Some of the things they did/places visited were La Sagrada Familia, Picasso Museum, Parc Guell in Barcelona; Catedral de Santa Maria and a place that had flamenco dancing in Madrid; Puente Zubizuri, Guggenheim Bilbao, City Hall, and they were there during Aste Negusia.

Following along! We are going next summer. Dh has a race in Pontevedra in June that we will go there for a week and then do another week or two exploring! And we will probably have all 4 kids with us so I need to find lots to do!

We spent 2 weeks in Valencia so if you end up headed that way, message me for recs!

From Barcelona, it is about half an hour by fast train to Girona, which is a really lovely old town for a day trip. It poured rain the day we decided to go, but we still saw a lot, just couldn’t do as much random wandering as we’d hoped. For anything Gaudi in Barcelona, book in advance. We were there in mid October and early January, and the lines for those who hadn’t booked were crazy - I can’t imagine how bad they’d be in peak tourist season! We also did a side trip to Montserrat which I liked.
San Sebastian was lovely as well - it was our next stop after Barcelona and from memory it was 5-6 hours by train, so you’d need a few days for a side trip there. I still haven’t made it to Bilbao, but that’s not far from San Sebastián if you decide to go in that direction.
Madrid - we spent an entire day at the Prado, there was so much to see. Side trips from there - first time we went to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen. The palace was stunning, as was the massive church at the Valley. Lots of interesting history from the Franco era. Second visit we did a day trip to Toledo. I wasn’t impressed by our tour guide at all, but the city itself was stunning. I think we’d have done better just making our own way there, instead having to stop at tourist trap shops and restaurants.

I was in Spain last October. Definitely take a tour of the Sagrada. Also, we did a few tuk tuk tours. They're so fun and can get places a car couldn't get. Our guides were locals who knew everything about the city.

If you are heading Seville way or Malaga (my brother lived there for a number of years) then a day trip to Ronda is do-able. It's an interesting historical town.