Gerry Dawes is a writer-photographer and author of Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain, who lived in Spain for eight years and has made more than 125 trips to Spain. He has spoken frequently on on Spanish gastronomy, wine and cultural themes and has organized and led more than twenty customized gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain.
Gerry Dawes has led multiple tours for some of the best-known American chefs, culinarians, food and wine aficionados and Spain enthusiasts, including Chefs Thomas Keller, Michael Lomonaco, Mark Miller (seven times), Mark Kiffin, James Campbell Caruso, Michael Chiarello, Norman Van Aken, Terrance Brennan, Michael Ginor, Christopher Gross and others such luminaries as Author Rozanne Gold, Restaurants Consultant Michael Whiteman, Baseball great Keith Hernandez and U. S. Senator James Abourezk, plus such groups the Commonwealth Club of California (twice), the 61st Tactical Fighter Squadron (twice), the World Trade Center Club and the Club Chefs of NY & CT.
In addition to being awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronómía He was a finalist for the James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts retrospective piece on Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.
$4,995 per person, without airfare; $895 single supplement.
Tours
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Itinerary (B, L, D, T = Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Tapas)
Photographs by Gerry Dawes©2024.
Day 00 Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Fly from home cities via Spanish or
European gateway cities to Bilbao, The Basque Country, Spain.
Pre-trip group arrives in Bilbao in the evening.
Museo Guggenheim Bilbao.
Day 01 Thursday, May 1 Bilbao
Group arrives separately at Bilbao airport and take taxis or airport bus to our centrally located hotel in Bilbao.
We will meet in the lobby of our hotel at 14:00 (2 p. m.) and depart for lunch at an excellent tapas restaurant near Museo Guggenheim Bilbao.
After lunch, I will offer the option of exploring Bilbao on foot. We will visit la Plaza Nueva in the old quarter and walk around the magnificent Frank Gehry-designed Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, which I have been photographing periodically since before it officially opened in October 1997. For those interested, there will be the option to visit the interior of the museum.
After our walking visit in Bilbao, we will be free to relax, take a siesta, do more exploring or shop in this vibrant city.
At 20:00 (8 p. m.), we will meet in the lobby, have an optional cocktail or refreshment, then walk just a block from our hotel to a wonderful seafood-centric restaurant. In July, 2024 (and on previous visits) I ate at this restaurant and its sister restaurant several times, once with a dozen presenters from The Hemingway Society Conference. I look forward to sharing this restaurant with you.
Since many of you will have recently arrived from trans-ocean flights, we will make an early night of it to be fresh for tomorrow’s adventures.
Hotel Ercilla, Bilbao.
Day 02 Friday, May 3 Bilbao – San Sebastián B, L, D
In the morning, there will be the option of visiting the colorful Mercado de la Ribera, alongside the Nervión River. We make a short stop for a second breakfast, then return to our hotel and depart for San Sebastián, via the Bay of Biscay coastline, which has spectacular views and some wonderful fishing villages. We will also make a stop in the historic town of Guernica (Gernika in Basque), which inspired Picasso’s immortal Spanish Civil War painting.
We will check into our hotel near the old quarter and overlooking the magnificent La Concha beach, then I will lead our group on an orientation tour of the old quarter with its multitude a of pintxos (Basque for tapas) bars and quaint and original shops full of treasures available only in the Basque Country. You will be free to wander, explore or even walk the spectacular La Concha beach. Around two p.m., I will lead us to a traditional old quarter restaurant for lunch on typical Basque dishes.
The afternoon will be free to enjoy San Sebastián. Once you experience this place, you will be grateful for having the free time to enjoy the city on your own.
In the evening, we will meet and take a short bus ride to Monte Igueldo, which overlooks San Sebastián and the splendid Bahía de la Concha. We will stop at a hotel overlooking the city and weather permitting, we will have an optional drink on the terrace, then have dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant serving cocina de vanguardia, the Spanish avant-garde creative cuisine that made San Sebastián one of the most famous restaurant cities in the world.
San Sebastián.
After dinner will be free for optional drinks in one of several recommended local bars.
Day 03 Saturday, May 4 San Sebastián B, L
We will have breakfast in the hotel and spend a leisurely morning, strolling la Concha beach, re-visiting the old quarter, or shopping.
Since Saturday will be a mandated free day for our bus driver, we will take a city bus to the nearby port of Pasajes de San Pedro, where we will catch the little ferry that crosses the inlet every 15 minutes to Pasaia Donibane (Pasajes de San Pedro). We will stroll this very picturesque inlet-side Basque village, where Victor Hugo once spent a year. In a very special traditional cuisine restaurant overlooking the water we while away an afternoon over a long, leisurely Spanish luncheon.
Pasaia Donibane.
We will catch the ferry and bus back to the center of San Sebastián where the afternoon will be free (once you experience San Sebastián, you will thank me).
In the evening, we will join the paseo and stroll over a few blocks for an optional pintxo bar hopping tour of the Casco Viejo of San Sebastián. I will leave one third of our group in one bar and show you what to order, then a second group in another bar and a third in another, then we will rotate with Kay and me floating between groups. If we can find space for the whole group at one special place, we will end the evening’s outing with the legendary tarta de queso quemada vasca, “burnt Basque cheesecake.”
Mushrooms at a great pintxos bar in San Sebastián.
Day 04 Sunday, May 4 San Sebastián – Getaria B, L
In late morning, we move to the beautiful fishing village of Getaria, which is just 25 kilometers west of San Sebastián. Getaria may truly be the greatest fishing village in the world in both the fish harvesting off its coast and the quality of the seafood restaurants in this town, which are astounding. Literally, the greatest fish restaurant in the world may be in Getaria.
Gerry Dawes with the great maestro parillero (grill meister) Pello Arruabarrena and a whole grilled rodaballo (turbot) at Kaia in Getaria. Pello, now 27 years at the grills at Kaia, worked on fishing boats for 12 years.
Getaria is the birthplace of Juan Sebastián Elkano, the first man to circumnavigate the earth (Magellan was killed in the Philippines and Elkano brought the one surviving ship of the expedition back to Spain). It is also the hometown of the late famous fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, in whose honor the village opened the Balenciaga Museum a few years ago, and of Pepita Embril, a famous zarzuela and operetta soprano and the mother of the great opera singer Plácido Domingo.
Port, Getaria.
We will check into our charming boutique hotel, then we will walk a couple of village blocks to have lunch in a stunning restaurant overlooking the Bay of Biscay, the port and the Basque Coast. We will enjoy txangurro, a legendary Basque crab dish, and share whole rodaballo (turbot) grilled of wood coals, accompanied by some surprising wines from the owner’s cellar. This restaurant is one of the most memorable places I have ever eaten. I have brought several famous American chefs, writers and personalities here for lunch.
We will visit this small village, see the two statues to Elkano and the village church, which has Elkano’s tomb, the port and the chapel of la Virgen del Carmen, the fisherman’s Madonna, which is beneath an archway over the street where fishermen stop on their way to the port to pay their respects to the virgin before heading out into the often wild Atlantic Ocean.
After our long lunch, the evening will be free to relax or form small groups to explore this charming small town and find your own tapas bars and restaurants from a list of recommendations or just relax and have a drink at an outdoor café.
Day 05 Monday, May 5 Getaria – Artajona - Olite – Corella - Tudela B, L, D
Kay Balun at breakfast in Getaria.
Weather permitting, we will have breakfast at our hotel on an outdoor terrace with spectacular views of the Bay of Biscay, then depart for Navarra and travel a little over an hour to the south where will visit the hilltop walled villlage of Artajona, which is completely surrounded by 11th century medieval towers and fortified walls, known as El Cerco de Artajona (“The Walls of Artajona”).
After another half hour ride we will arrive in the splendid medieval castle town of Olite, where we will stop to explore, do some light shopping for typical Navarrese items and have some refreshments, weather permitting, at one of Olite´s outdoor cafes.
Olite
After Olite, another half hour ride south will take us to the town of Corella, where we will visit a winery which has some of the best wines in Navarra, including one of the world’s greatest rosados (rosés). After our winery visit, we will go to one of my favorite restaurants in northern Spain, whose chef is a friend of mine for many years. He specializes in dishes featuring the exceptional vegetables of this region—white asparagus, artichokes (artichoke hearts fried, served with foie gras), cardoons, pimiento de piquillo and bean dishes, along with such unforgettable dishes as cabrito asado (roast goat) and glorious desserts. We will accompany this wonderful food with plenty of those vinos we tasted earlier. The winery owner will likely be our guest at this memorable meal.
After lunch, we will travel 20 minutes east to the marvelous town of Tudela, the capital of La Ribera del Ebro, the great vegetable and wine growing region of Navarra. We will check into our hotel in a historic 18th-century building that is just a block from the Plaza de Los Fueros, the heart of Tudela. We will take a walking tour of the old quarter of Tudela, home to Christians, Moors and Jews in Middle Ages and birthplace of the famous wandering Jew Benjamín de Tudela. The Cathedral of Tudela has one of the greatest Romanesque doorways in Christendom and the cloister has the remains of the synagogue that once stood here.
La Plaza de los Fueros, Tudela (during the Fiestas de Santa Ana in late July).
The rest of the afternoon will be free to enjoy exploring Tudela or relaxing at one of the outdoor cafés in la Plaza de los Fueros.
In the evening, we will meet in the
lobby of our hotel and stroll to a restaurant in la Plaza de los Fueros, we
will dine on dishes based on vegetables grown in the chef’s own gardens in la
mejana, an area along the Ebro River dedicated to kitchen gardens. During and after dinner, we will likely hear
some jota singers, for Tudela is the epicenter for jotas.
Chef Luis Salceda, Restaurante Remigio, Tudela in the artichoke patch in his kitchen garden.
Day 06 Tuesday, May 6 Tudela B, L
We will spend a leisurely morning exploring more of old Moorish-Jewish-Christian Tudela, then visit the municipal market of Tudela and the vegetable gardens and fruit patches and orchards of La Mejana along the Ebro River to scout some of the ingredients for our lunch.