Culinary Discovery tours

[Buranogal]

I see a new blog post for these today but when I visited the Oceania site couldnt book them. Anyone else tried? Also does Riviera have a sea day brunch that is special?

[CAG]

We are on the Marina Transatlantic sailing on March 19th and we have booked one of these tours for our stay in Maderia, Portugal. It was not listed when the excursions were first posted but was added later. I am just hoping that it gets enough interest and isn't cancelled as we have turned down other privately arranged shore excursions in order to partake in this new adventure.

 

I will try and post about it after our return.

Cenia

[Buranogal]

Thanks for reply. I will keep checking. I know you will fall in love with Maderia..looks amazing. Thats in my must do's. Isnt the blog site fantastic with all the ports they gather ingredients and photos. Dont think it will be hubbies thing but Im going to try and do it. Liz

[MightyQuinn]

There is a Culinary Discovery Tour offered in Cadiz on our upcoming crossing aboard Riviera. The description sounds interesting: shopping with the chef in the local market; sampling tapas and sherry; then a 90-min cooking class on Flavors of the Sea. Pre-book price $233 pp.

 

It's very tempting ... except to take the Culinary Discovery Tour I'd have to give up an independent tour to Seville. We've not been to Seville before and I know we can't do it justice in a few short hours, so I'm leaning towards the culinary tour. But I'm not sure, so I'd love to hear any recent experiences. Are the culinary tours so much better than a regular cooking class? Anybody take the Flavors of the Sea class recently? I've read Chef Kelly's blog but would welcome any first-hand comments. Thanks.

[Mura]

It's very tempting ... except to take the Culinary Discovery Tour I'd have to give up an independent tour to Seville. We've not been to Seville before and I know we can't do it justice in a few short hours, so I'm leaning towards the culinary tour. But I'm not sure, so I'd love to hear any recent experiences.

 

I'm just going to talk about the value of a short visit to Seville -- I can't speak to the culinary tours because I haven't taken one, although I would love to.

 

On our first Renaissance cruise in October '99 we took a ship's tour to Seville from Cadiz. Yes, it takes about an hour and a half to get there (by bus) but we found we had lots of time. Obviously, not enough to see Seville in depth but we enjoyed the day very much. We had a 2-3 hour at the Alcazar (probably more like 2 than 3), visited the Cathedral, had a walking tour through the Jewish sector and then free time for lunch. After lunch we returned to the Cathedral and had a bus tour of some other sites.

 

I'm assuming you have a full day in Cadiz, of course! If you leave early (as we did once on Oceania when we had to race back from Jerez to be back on board by 3:30), then I agree that you don't have enough time to see Seville adequately -- although you should do better on a private tour than we did with a ship's tour.

 

Just my two cents, and if you tell me things have changed since 1999 I won't argue!

 

Mura

[pacheco18]

We just did a private tour from Cadiz to Seville on our Nautica cruise in May.

 

I had been to Seville before and spent almost a week there -- decades ago. It is one of my favorite cities in Spain. My husband had never been there so I planned the private tour. We had 2 excellent guides (one for the trip and a local guide for Seville itself) but there was clearly not enough time to spend in beautiful city.

 

You are choosing between not seeing Seville at all or getting a glimpse of it. If you do not think you will be back, than by all means see Seville -- a small amount of time is better than none at all. If you think you will have a chance to spend substantial time there in the near future then you might choose another option.

 

I would probably choose a culinary tour in a port I had visited before.

[Carnevale]

I see a new blog post for these today but when I visited the Oceania site couldnt book them. Anyone else tried? Also does Riviera have a sea day brunch that is special?

 

Hi Buranogal: I'm pretty certain from the roll call that we are on the same sailing. I found a culinary tour for our day on Corfu. It is listed in with the rest of the excursions and didn't jump out at first as a culinary event. But it sounds terrific - we will be touring on shore with a chef from the ship (tasting things and learning about the food) then after a short rest back on the ship we will meet in the cooking classroom to do a class on Greek food. We are really looking forward to it!

[wripro]

Go for Seville. It's a magical city even if only for a few hours.

[MightyQuinn]

Thanks for the replies. Interesting to see no comments on the Culinary Discovery Tours, so I guess few here on CC have taken them. Carnevale, I hope you report back!

 

Mura, we have an overnite and 2 full days in Cadiz, so timing is not an issue. But good sense would say that the trip to Seville should be made on the first day, which unfortunately is when the Culinary Discovery Tour is offered. Maybe I'll appeal to Oceania to change their schedule so I can do both! LOL.

 

Pacheco, we're booked for the Seville tour with the same private operator as you used. I know they get great reviews but I still have dissonance about being rushed about. My only other reference point was a day trip to Rome from Civitavecchia, where we did see quite a lot in a short time, but it was anything but pleasant. I was constantly glancing at my watch rather than enjoying the sights. Maybe Seville would be different.

 

Wripro, I value your comments very much. Short, sweet and always on point. Thanks!

[Dbedros]

Buranogal, please for give us for high jacking your thread.

 

I would like to give my vote for Seville. We also had an overnight in Cadiz in 2005. At the time there were very few private tours for Seville and they were very costly. The ship docked very close to the train station, about a five or ten minute walk. Another advantage of Oceania's small ships. The train ride was very pleasant.

 

We had reservations at a hotel in the Jewish quarter next door to a top notch Flamenco School. The hotel agreed to get us tickets for that evenings performance as they were highly sought after. Upon arrival after check in we walked to the Cathedral and to the Alcazar Royal Palace which were not all that far from the hotel. Afterward we strolled through the Jewish quarter back to our hotel. We went to the performance of classical Flamenco and then attended one of the big tourist performances and had dinner.

 

The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel that was included and took a taxi to the train station and returned to Cadiz. We checked in to let the ship know that we were back. My DH was too tired for anymore and stayed on the ship. I saw out our window that the HOHO stopped near the ship. I took the tour of Cadiz and got off at the Cathedral and visited the crypts. I strolled thru the streets of shops prior to returning to the ship. This was a priceless experience.

 

I have changed computers since that time and can not give you the name of the hotel. I do recall that I found out about the Flamenco school and performance from a Rick Steves article. With a little research you can do the tour of Seville easily and very cheaply. There was also a train returning that same night but because we wanted to compare the classical to the tourist Flamenco we choose to stay overnight. I suggest that you get with others on your roll call and maybe you can do something as a group. What ever you do it will be wonderful.

[pacheco18]

 

Pacheco, we're booked for the Seville tour with the same private operator as you used. I know they get great reviews but I still have dissonance about being rushed about. My only other reference point was a day trip to Rome from Civitavecchia, where we did see quite a lot in a short time, but it was anything but pleasant. I was constantly glancing at my watch rather than enjoying the sights. Maybe Seville would be different.

 

 

The tour company was great. I think you will be glad you did it. You have options when you get there re what to see. You can tailor your visit to the time you have - eliminate some points of interest and just focus on others. One idea is to go to the old part of town first -- see the Alcazar and the Cathedral to make sure you have enough time there and then do the other points of interest. We did the reverse, which made some people have to choose between the two landmarks.