Boqueria & Santa Caterina Markets Small Group Tapas Tour

This was such a great experience and am so glad that we found this tour when we were planning our trip through Madrid and Barcelona. Our guide Olga was so so nice and had a lot of historical insights to share while we did our walking tour. This was the only tour we signed up for during our trip, so we learned a lot of really great context while walking and then got excellent things to eat at the food stops. The markets were really fun and we bought some things before leaving the second stop. Along the way we had pintxos, tapas, cava, and a lot more! The walk wasn't too long, plus we had stops as we made our way through the city. I definitely recommend this for anyone looking to eat and learn their way through the city.

Stephanie was a wealth of information! Kind, helpful, organized and fun! We learned more from her than any other guide from other tours. Very knowledgeable of the area and has a nice connection with the locals. Great history knowledge but not overwhelming. She wanted to be sure we had a good experience. She went out of her way to show us more than required. Great experience!!

We had an amazing experience and our guide Stephanie went out of her way to ensure we had a great time. Would certainly recommend!

This is a an authentic spanish market. We went yo others as well but mostly touristy

My partner and I had a wonderful time on our food and culture tour with Montse! She is full of knowledge, polite, and fun. We had the chance to try food at different markets and learn about the city as we walked around. Having Montse’s insight was so helpful as she knew the best places to go. It was clear she has developed good relationships with the vendors. Her background in art and history were evident as she shared about Barcelona. Come hungry and with an open mind as there is plenty to eat and drink and a lot to learn! We definitely recommend this tour and it is even better if you end up with Montse as your guide.

Montse was amazing. She spent so much time with us and took us explaining her Catalan culture and we visited her favorite places. We were stuffed with both food, drink and knowledge by the end of the almost 4 hours!

We had a food tour around Barcelona with a guide called Montserrat. She was super lovely and very informative. Not only did we eat really well but she also gave us lots of information about Barcelona which we appreciated. So it was like hitting two birds with one stone. We ate some really good dishes at the market. Our most favourite was a dish called fricandò. She even sent us the recipe later which was very sweet of her. We really felt like a friend is taking us around the city. Didn’t feel forced or structured. Thank you Discover Spain and Montserrat. We highly recommend!

Our guide Montse was brilliant. Very knowledgeable and adapted to include my 10 year old son. We ate like kings and were able to choose from various options along the way.

We were a family of 4 ranging from 12 to 47. Our guide Montse was extremely knowledgeable about the history of Barcelona and the sweet treats of Catalonia. She took us to hidden away gems, away from the busy tourist areas. She is a lovely lady who is very passionate about Barcelona . Also very knowledgeable about the history of the architecture and art if you are interested.. I thoroughly recommend.

This trip feels really personal. We were hosted by Montse, who is passionate and genuinely knowledgeable. A proud Catalan. Our sweet treats were inspired and the knowledge shared was brilliant. Thank you.

Completely enjoyable and educational Barcelona tour with Montse!!! Her knowledge of the history of the area, rapport with the local merchants in the market we visited and her ability to engage our teenage daughters was outstanding. We would highly recommend her to anyone.

The day before, Montse, our tour guide, texted us with additional details as to when and where to arrive for our excursion. That was so helpful when new to this bustling city! Throughout the day, Montse was incredibly generous, showering us with a wealth of tireless energy, profound knowledge, and numerous opportunities to see the real Barcelona from her "local" perspective. In addition to guiding us to and from important historical and interesting sites, Montse picked out an amazing restaurant where all of the members of the group could find something delicious to eat and share. The huge Boquería and St. Caterina markets seemed less overwhelming guided by Montse's extensive experience and keen eye, avoiding touristy kiosks and pointing us to long-standing vendors operated by generations of original families. Along the way, we rested while enjoying conversation, a glass of cava as well as traditional desserts and beverages such as flan, crema catalán, churros and chocolate; and let's not forget horchata! Montserrat comfotably navigated Spanish and English so that all of us could understand and feel included. Our experience with Montse far exceeded our expectations! The next time we visit Barcelona, we are sure to seek her services! Thank you, Montse!

The tour guide was extremely nice and knowledgeable about the places she took us. She encouraged us to take pictures and always offered herself up to take the group foto.

Montse was an incredible tour guide that knew the city and its history by heart! She took us to various interesting places while explaining everything in detail to engage us in the experience. She planned the tour out well and made sure to budget correctly so our experience was balanced and delightful.

I loved the tour! The path was great and the places we ate at were very good. The best thing about the tour was our guide, Montse. She was kind, passionate, knowledgeable, and made the tour very special. She was fantastic!

Montse was amazing with local food knowledge and history of Barcelona and the Catalina culture! Our family loved our tour!

We had such a lovely time with Montse! She was full of energy and had lots of useful info to share about Barcelona. I highly recommend

Very good tour. We learned so much from Montse. She is extremely knowledgeable, friendly and the ultimate professional. Highly recommend her.

“We went on the wine and tapas tour in Barcelona and had a memorable experience. Montse was very enthusiastic and shared a lot of information throughout the evening. It was a good way to explore the local food and wine scene.

We had Montse as our guide. She is so knowledgeable in local history, architecture and art! In addition to taking us to two of the food markets and arranging for meals - despite our varied food restrictions (including gluten-free, vegan, pescatarian and combinations of those) - she showed us additional historical landmarks on the way and answered our many questions about Catalan history and culture. She was very attuned to the personalities and needs of the group and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Thank you, Montse!

Montse was an excellent guide going above and beyond. Very good vibes!!! We enjoyed it very much! The tapas was so yummy and the cava was very tasty as well

Montse was just amazing! The time she spent with us went above and beyond what she needed to do and her knowledge of the culture, food, area, art and historical timelines was so impressive. We learned so much and truly enjoyed her company. I would recommend asking for her specifically and doing a private tour to get as much of her knowledge as you can! I wish she could come on the rest of our trip with us! 10 stars!

Stephanie is amazing. Great food, incredible amount of knowledge. Very personable and fun guide including history and architecture or Barcelona

Stephanie, was great and explained the history of Barcelona and the Catalan region. Showed us beautiful spots that we overlooked or never would found. Referred Stephanie to a friend who is coming in a week.

The tour guide was amazing and accommodated our every need. Food was excellent and wine/cava was delicious. Would highly recommend.

While the historical aspects of the tour were interesting, the overall experience was deeply unsatisfactory. Our main purpose for booking this tour was to explore the food in the markets, but it did not meet expectations. We spent no more than 5 minutes at each market, with no explanation or insights about the food, its origins, or cultural significance. At the end of the tour, we were promised a typical dessert from Barcelona, but all we received was a freebie from a Turron shop. To make matters worse, the guide demanded a tip at the end of the tour. When we declined, she pressured us to go to an ATM to withdraw money for her. Since we couldn’t access an ATM, she later appeared unannounced at our hotel, shouting and intimidating us in front of everyone, demanding the tip.

We had booked this tour with a group of colleagues hoping that we will enjoy 4 hours together by trying different Spanish food at different spots in food market. But it ended up spending ONLY 10 mins in 2 markets but walking around the city with heavily involved history lesson! We sit in a restaurant and had lunch there (like we do every single day) rather than trying different food in markets. It was a bit of disappointing experience given the amount of money we paid. Additionally, we had a bit of awkward situation with our tour guide at the end for tip. I think that tip is optional and if you enjoyed the experience you’re happy to tip. We were actually forced for the tip, and although we said we don’t have any cash on us (polite way of refusing paying tip), she suggested us to go to ATM and withdraw money! This wasn’t the end of story.. she turned up at our hotel the next day and asked for tip and additional money for the drinks we had on lunch (3 small jars of sangria for 9 people - surely this was supposed to be included in food&drinks). Overall, if you are into history, go for it, but set your boundaries when it comes to paying tip!

We booked the tour with Stephanie expecting a pleasant 4 hours exploring the markets of Barcelona and trying the food, the tour had absolutely nothing to do with the description, we spent probably 10 minutes at Boqueria and less than 5 minutes at Santa Catarina, turns out the guide Stephanie didn’t like these markets, the rest of the tour was basically information about buildings and history of the city, we were also quite limited with the food even though the tour cost us £77 per person. We did try to end the tour an hour earlier as we were not enjoying it at all. The most unfortunate thing was the was the tour guide Stephanie demanded us tip her, we said we didn’t have cash with us so then she said we had to pay for the Sangrias we ordered at the restaurant. Unbelievably, she turned up to our hotel the next day demanding us to tip her, there was a proper scene at the hotel lobby as she wouldn’t accept our refusal to give her more money. It was all a terrible experience, we suggest avoiding this tour or consulting first what the itinerary is, most probably another tour guide might know better what the tour is meant to be like.

Our tour title and description was "Boqueria & St Caterina Markets with Food & Tapas". Unfortunately the tour was mostly the History of Barcelona and detailed knowledge of architecture. It was informative but there was very very little discussion or knowledge shared or sampling of food and drink. At one point I seriously thought we had joined the incorrect tour group ! Less than 10 minutes were spent in BOTH of the main markets as our tour guide said 'it was too busy'. We would have liked to have tried and sampled many different foods in the markets as per the description of the tour, but were told 'it was too expensive there'. We walked a very long time to go to one particular tapas bar that our guide was insistent on going to, definitely not pre planned. We paid more than £75 for our tour and I do not feel we got our moneys worth AT ALL in the way of food at all. I ended up buying a little bit of food at one of the markets with my own money, the tour guide asked if she could have MY slip !! If you want to know more about the history of architecture then this is the tour for you and Stephanie is the tour guide for you, if you want to spend time in the markets, learning about and sampling the local cuisine etc this is not the tour for you at all. Quite insistent on a tip the next day at our hotel, very unusual. Soured the experience.

We love Stephanie! She is the best tour guide. She is enthusiastic and shared a lot of interesting information with us. The markets and the food were amazing

We had a wonderful experience on this tour! Montse was a wealth of knowledge. She explained so much about the Catalan history and culture and we really enjoyed seeing so many historical places including the incredible markets. We also enjoyed tasting the foods, everything was delicious. You can tell Montse loves what she does and we loved learning from her. We will recommend this tour to all of our friends. Thank you!

We booked this tour months before our arrival, however THE DAY BEFORE our tour we were informed the markets were closed for a holiday. Come to find out October 12th is huge national holiday that falls on the same day every year…think Christmas Day. A “professional” tour company should know this and block the date from the booking calendar. We were given the option to change for another day, which we did, but lost out on entire day since it was impossible to book something at the last minute. Then our guide asked to change our pick up time by 15 minutes and then apologetically showed up 10 more minutes late. Tour was booked for 12:00 and we started at 12:25. We zoomed through the St Joseph’s market choosing to sit down for tapas at a recommended restaurant but then arrived at St Caterina to find it closed for the day. Frustrating experience.

We booked this tour months before our arrival, however THE DAY BEFORE our tour we were informed the markets were closed for a holiday. Come to find out October 12th is huge national holiday that falls on the same day every year…think Christmas Day. A “professional” tour company should know this and block the date from the booking calendar. We were given the option to change for another day, which we did, but lost out on entire day since it was impossible to book something at the last minute. Then our guide asked to change our pick up time by 15 minutes and then apologetically showed up 10 more minutes late. Tour was booked for 12:00 and we started at 12:25. We zoomed through the St Joseph’s market choosing to sit down for tapas at a recommended restaurant but then arrived at St Caterina to find it closed for the day. Frustrating experience.

We are writing to notify you of our dissatisfaction and disappointment with the food tour my friends and I scheduled with your company. On July 15, 2024, we booked and prepaid the Boqueria & St. Caterina Markets with Food & Tapas Small Group Tour (Viator confirmation #1543549893/Booking reference BR-1158401441). We booked it for Tuesday, September 24, 2024 at 12:00 PM for 6 adults at a cost of $111.02 per person. On the morning of our tour, we were informed that day is a city HOLIDAY due to "La Merce Festival" and the markets, and most businesses are closed for the annual festival in honor of Our Lady of Mercy. Note it is an annual celebration. Needless to say, we were extremely disappointed when we met with our tour guide, Antonio. He confirmed the markets were closed. We continued with the tour, and we sampled some tapas, but it seemed some of the restaurants Antonio had planned for us were closed, also. He improvised as best he could but ultimately, it was not the outing we expected since we were interested in visiting the MARKETS/restaurants that were closed. In conclusion, we would not recommend, nor will we book a tour through Viator again. La Merce is an annual Barcelona Festival and if we had been informed of this in advance, we would have chosen a different day. Regards, Carolyn Yasui and friends

Our guide was very good. He was friendly and knowledgeable. He took us to a good restaurant for lunch and a pastry bakery. We had one person join our tour that didn’t speak English so our guide had to go back and forth between speaking English and Spanish. Over all very satisfying

Very friendly, nice information regarding the history of Barcelona. We enjoyed the tastes we had and seeing the different markets.

Our guide, Stephanie was very knowledgeable. However, first she was 15 minutes late and there was no extra time given. Next, we expected, as per the description, a tapas eating tour with drinks, and we barely did any of that. The night before, we told Stephanie that we had already been to the gothic quarter and that we would like more time in the Bouqueria. The Bouqueria was crowded so Stephanie said, let’s just quickly walk through and get out of this crowd. We left and after over an hour of racing us around the old city section with what seemed like no plan, we finally ended up at a restaurant where we had cheese, mushrooms, tortilla, bread and sangria. She mentioned getting a dessert there but never followed through. Then we headed to the Santa Caterina market which was closed for renovation until August 18. We were shocked she did not know this. It seemed Stephanie had no plan. She asked us what we wanted to eat. This was supposed to be a tour in which we were under the impression our guide would introduce us to a number of different foods. This was not the case. We finally ended up at an Iberia jamon shop where we tasted a few things and got two baguettes. And finally ended the tour with small scoops of gelato. Stephanie told us she had a budget but we had no idea what that was. We know the first place with the cheese was 52 euros. For a four hour tasting tour, we did everything but taste. We raced through the streets to no restaurants for food or drink, we raced through the bouqueria and we ended the tour hungry and disappointed. This was a waste of our money and time and hope you might rectify this.

We had a great time on this tour. The food we had was fabulous! Montse went out of her way to make the tour enjoyable for us and shared a lot of information about the markets and the history of Barcelona. We all loved the food. The night before I let her know I had injured my leg and would be in a wheelchair and she went out of her way to make sure I would be able to participate fully, by calling and making new arrangements to better accommodate the wheel chair. Both my husband and I and the other couple on the tour had a good time.

We had an excellent time and all of the food was amazing. Our guide was Montse, and she was very knowledgeable of the history of the city and gave us a lot of tips. Would recommend!

Kati was an excellent guide on a fabulous tour! Although it was my first time in Spain and Barcelona, it was my dad’s third time. We picked this tour because he had not been to the Bocqueria. And WOW! What a spectacular start to our weeklong trip to Barcelona. Kati gave us a full history of Barcelona so we could understand the the food culture of the market and all the products. She was so knowledgeable and and friendly, and was able to answer every question we had. For a fully private tour, this was a great value! We had 3 drinks (beer and sangria) and tons of pinxtos and tapas. She would have included more, but we were stuffed! Make sure you skip lunch before! We cannot recommend enough!

Great tour! Because we had taken a couple of tours before this one and because Montse didn’t want to show us things we had already seen, she revised the tour accordingly. Montse was an excellent guide! Her pride and knowledge of her country and the Catalans was immense the enthusiasm she exhibited was refreshing. She was extremely helpful in helping us purchase jamon and other meats as well as taking us to a pop up market to purchase wine. I would recommend her as a guide.

Our tour with Montse was fabulous! Everything we hoped it would be and more. We went to two huge markets, ending at the Boqueria. We had a stressful morning because of our hotel (anti-shoutout to Madanis Liceo), but still had a fantastic time with Montse, forgetting all about our troubles. We learned so much about Barcelona, the history of Spain, and Catalan culture. Montse spent extra time with our group, took us to the best places to eat, and simultaneously spoke to our small group in English in Spanish. Truly one of the very best tours I’ve been on in my life! Thank you, Montse, for a memorable trip!

Issac was amazing! He walked us around and told us the history of the neighborhood. We got to see parts of the city that we otherwise would have missed. Highly recommend! And ask for Issac if you take this tour.

Our tour guide was Montse with In & Out Barcelona tours. Her knowledge of the history of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and the arts was inspirational. And her passion for the savoury tapas, variety of meats and fishes and vegetables from the Boqueria & Santa Caterina Markets was infectious! We had a group of three which made our time with Montse very intimate. It was difficult to say goodbye at the end of our tour, a very wonderful introduction to Barcelona;, we are grateful for Montse and her sharing of her many talents.

Great historical information along with gastronomy tour. Guide was extremely personable and knowledgeable. Brought us to places not included in tour just because 😁. Since there were two of us - 4 thumbs up 👍 !

From the moment we met, Montse's warm and welcoming smile set the tone for the day. She shared her extensive knowledge of the food, architecture, art, history, and the people of Barcelona and all of Catalonia. Montse's passion, enthusiasm, and happy spirit made our day both joyful and educational -- not to mention very tasty!

Was a great experience , Montse help us to know about gastronic of Barcelona, the curiosities and point of interest for me, like art and archicture. She is very patience and we love the tour

So much to see, so many foods to try, so many things to buy…all kinds of deliciousness under one roof. You will find a plethora of foods from candy to nuts, from Iberian ham to fresh fish, and everything in between. We enjoyed ourselves and sampled foods at different stalls. It is definitely worth visiting and would highly recommend visiting. Try one of the restaurants in the market. Fresh seafood at its best.

One of our best days in Barcelona. Daniel knows the history of this city and has a passion for it. He took us thru the markets and on a tapas tours with a great selection of tapas. it was an abundance of tapas and we were all full by dessert There is a good amount of walking but the pace is leisurely which adds to the enjoyment of the day. We were able to see less crowded parts and paths of the city as well.