Payment of bespoke program of private tours | 1st – 3rd of May 2024 | 4 pax
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Description and schedule of services
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1st of May: private walking tour of Seville World Heritage Sites followed by a flamenco and tapas starting with a private boat ride on the Guadalquivir river
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2:30pm: be met by your personal local guide at your accommodation in Seville to start a private walking tour that will take you to the most impressive World Heritages Sites of the city (the Alcazar and the Cathedral with its Giralda tower) and to the quarter of Santa Cruz. You will start your discovery journey by visiting the Alcazar, which is a massive complex of palaces erected in different periods and of breath-taking gardens of different styles. The Alcazar has stunning historical constructions featuring a very particular crossover between Hispanic-Muslim and Christian architecture styles, called Mudejar. This style became very fashionable in Spain in the 14th and 15th centuries amongst the Christian nobility and it reached its maximum splendour in Seville. Another essential part of the Alcazar is the famous house of Trade, which once hosted the offices from where all the commerce with the new world was managed. After enjoying these inner areas, you will be taken to the gardens, which are an exquisite sample of European landscaping from the 16th until the 20th centuries.
Then you will be taken to visit the Cathedral, which is the largest gothic temple in the World and where Christopher Columbus is buried. The Cathedral of Seville was built on a vast extension of land where previously a Mosque had been erected. An important part of the Mosque was preserved and it is now a part of the Cathedral. This makes it a unique construction featuring styles as diverse as Hispanic-Muslim, Gothic, Renaissance, Neoclassical and Baroque. A most important part of the Cathedral is its bell tower known as la Giralda. During your tour you will be taken to the top in order to enjoy the wonderful views of Seville that one can admire from there.
To finish you will visit the quarter of Santa Cruz, with its countless quaint corners, narrow streets, cosy squares, houses of traditional Southern Spanish architecture and Moorish urban planning. It is in this quarter where an important part of the Jewish Sephardic community of Seville lived in the mediaeval times and you will learn about what life in the quarter was like then and how it has evolved until becoming what it is today.
6pm: after your introductory walk of Seville World Heritage sites, embark a modern and comfortable private boat that will allow you to enjoy beautiful views of Seville’s river fronts. Along your 60min private ride, you will be explained the importance that the river has had in the history of the city, the long commercial trips between Seville and the New World that departed from its medieval port and what the river represents today for the city and its inhabitants. Along the journey, you will also start to be explained the origins and evolution of flamenco music.
7pm: disembark the boat in the iconic quarter of Triana and be taken on a private walk aimed at learning more about how flamenco music emerged from South West Spain as a result of a slow fusion of the ancient multicultural musical heritage of Southern Spain with the original gypsy rhythms and musical roots. This will set the context for (and enhance your appreciation and enjoyment of) the flamenco performance in a small and intimate venue that will follow, with 4 people on stage (one singer, one guitarist and two dancers).
7:30pm: start of the flamenco performance.
8:30pm: after your flamenco performance, enjoy a tapas tasting tour through the quarter of Triana. Your tour will take you to 2 – 3 selected tapas bars where the locals like to gather with family and friends and where you will taste a selection of 6 – 9 local dishes to share and up to 4 drinks per person (wine, beer, refreshments, water). This will make an excellent opportunity to learn about Southern Spanish gastronomy and wines, about the connection of different foods to different festivities, regions and specific periods of history and also about the dynamics of tapas bars in Southern Spain.
10:30pm: after your tapas and wines adventure, be escorted back to your hotel stopping along the way for a sweet local treat.
11pm: arrival to your hotel and end of services for the day.
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2nd of May: market tour and cooking lesson with a professional local chef followed by lunch in her cooking studio
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9:30am: meet your personal cooking instructor at your accommodation to start your food and culture experience of the day.
After meeting your cooking instructor at your hotel, you will be taken to a local market to buy all the necessary fresh ingredients for today’s lunch. Along your shopping route, your cooking instructor will provide you with some important explanations about the origins and quality of different produce. This will allow you to understand how the Spanish like to carefully select the ingredients they use for their dishes. Then, your instructor will take you to her cooking studio, just outside Seville old town.
Upon arrival, you will be offered something to drink and then your culinary experience will continue with some further explanations about the origin and quality of some selected produce, this time through tastings!. Then it will be time to cook a selection of regional recipes that will make an excellent and comprehensive lunch that you will be able to enjoy in the cooking studio of your instructor. Finally and after a sweet indulgence, your culinary experience will finish leaving you with a happy belly and a happy soul!
Every trip to Spain should include at least one meal cooked by a caring and knowledgeable Spanish host in a house. Spanish home food is the best that can be found in the country, so a homemade Spanish feast is a must on every trip to Spain for any food lover. Besides, learning how to cook some Spanish recipes will allow you to travel back to Spain from your own kitchen whenever you like! All this and more is what you will get to experience and learn during this tour.
2:30pm: end of your cooking experience with your local host and rest of the day at leisure.
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3rd of May: private day trip from Seville to Córdoba:
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9am: meet your personal driver at your accommodation in Seville and be transferred in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan to Córdoba.
10:30am: upon arrival to Córdoba old town, be met by your personal local host to go on a 3h discovery journey of the historical center of the city.
A UNESCO site since 1994, Córdoba is an inspirational city, which during the Middle Ages, saw a peaceful interaction between the three great Mediterranean cultures. Jews, Muslims and Christians coexisted then in the city turning it into a unique intellectual hub that gave birth to very renowned philosophers, poets, scientists and doctors. This also resulted in the construction of unique buildings of remarkable historical significance.
During your private walking tour, you’ll learn about the period of maximum intellectual splendor of the city and you will see beautiful examples of architecture and urban planning that will allow you to recreate all the grandeur of this era, which has the Great Mosque – Cathedral, the synagogue and the Chapel of Saint Bartholomew as its most representative constructions.
The Great Mosque-Cathedral is probably the most thought-provoking building in Spain and your personal local host will uncover all its beauty and complexity for you. You will understand its origins, its different enlargements and the role that the building has played in the culture and social fabric of the city throughout the centuries.
The synagogue will allow you to understand the very important Jewish – Sephardic community that Córdoba once had and how much it embraced Hispanic-Muslim decorative arts in its places of devotion.
In the Chapel of Saint Bartholomew you will be explained about the transformations that the Jewish quarter of Cordoba suffered after the historical pogrom of 1391 and how it was repopulated with Christians, who were also very heavily influenced by the elaborate Hispanic-Muslim decorative arts of that time.
1:30pm: end of your tour and free time for lunch at leisure.
3:15pm: reconnect with your driver at the same spot where you were dropped off (your guide in Córdoba will give you directions) and be transferred back to your hotel in Seville.
4:45pm: arrival to your hotel in Seville and rest of the day at leisure.
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Pricing
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The cost of this bespoke tour program for a private group of 4 people is 815 Euros per person.
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This price includes
– All private tours mentioned above with a knowledgeable, personable, kind, flexible and interactive fully licensed guide with a great command of the English language.
– All entrance tickets and admissions for all these guided tours.
– A private 1h boat ride on the Guadalquivir river with one drink onboard.
– Admission to a selected flamenco performance in a small and intimate flamenco venue in Seville.
– Private market tour and cooking lesson with a local chef in a private and professional cooking studio.
– All ingredients, drinks and lunch for the cooking lesson and the home-cooked lunch in the cooking studio of the chef. We will send you a menu suggestion before the lesson, for you to approve or suggest modifications.
– Private transportation in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan with a dedicated driver, throughout the journey during your day trip to Córdoba.
– All taxes.
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This price excludes
– Lunch during your day trip to Córdoba, which is at leisure.
– Anything else not specfied in the section “this price includes”.
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Confirmation and payments
In order to confirm this tour program at this price we need a 20% deposit of the grand total no later than the 24th of November 2023 via credit/debit card. The final 80% must be paid via the same method no later than 30 days prior to the start of the tour program.
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Grand total of this bespoke tour program: 815 Euros per person
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20% deposit needed (per person) to confirm the tour program: 163 Euros
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Final 80% needed (per person) to fully pay the tour program: 652 Euros
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Cancellation policy
– If you all cancel the tour program more than 30 days prior to its scheduled start, we will charge the 20% deposit only.
– If you all cancel the tour program 30 and 21 days prior to its scheduled start, we will charge 40% of the full cost of the tour program and we will refund the remaining 60%.
– If you all cancel the tour program 20 and 10 days prior to its scheduled start, we will charge 50% of the full cost of the tour program and we will refund the remaining 50%.
– If you all cancel the tour program 9 and 3 days prior to its scheduled start, we will charge 70% of the full cost of the tour program and we will refund the remaining 30%.
– If you all cancel the tour program 2 days or less prior to its scheduled start, we will charge 100% of the full cost of the tour program.
(*) Please note that partial cancellations won’t result in partial refunds. This applies to the group size and to the duration / activities of the tour program.
