Spain · Girona, Spain
Market Tastings, Negronis, and a Sandwich Competition
A day in Girona's old town with Gigi, equal parts food tour and drinking tour
Duration
4 hrs
Difficulty
Easy
Group Size
16 Max
Best Season
Year-round
Why We Picked This
Girona has one of the best small-city food scenes in Catalonia, sitting between the Empordà wine region and the Costa Brava's fishing villages, ninety minutes north of Barcelona and culturally miles away from it. Most tours here reverentially walk you through the medieval Jewish quarter. This one gives you €10, sends you into the market to buy sandwich ingredients, and then judges your sandwich against everyone else's over negronis at a natural wine bar. We picked it because it is one of the few Catalonia food tours that admits it is also a drinking tour, and is better for it.
The experience
You meet Gigi in Girona's city centre in the morning. She takes you first to the food market, when the vendors are still unpacking and the crowd is local. Cured meats sliced thin and warm on paper. Local cheeses eaten standing up at the counter. Fried pig's ear, if you have never tried it, is worth trying at least once, and this is the setting for it. At the market you are given €10. This is your budget. You use it to buy the ingredients for a sandwich you will build later. What you buy is up to you. Gigi explains what the Catalan classics look like (pa amb tomàquet, embutido, escalivada) but the sandwich you make is yours. The next stop is a natural wine bar in the old town. Negronis arrive. You assemble your sandwich at the bar. So does everyone else in the group. The sandwiches are then judged, informally and slightly drunk, by the group itself. There is no prize beyond bragging rights and the specific pleasure of watching someone else's sandwich fall apart. You eat your own sandwich alongside the negronis and the ongoing critique. The rest of the day is a walk through Girona's medieval old town with stops for Catalan desserts. Xuixo, the local pastry filled with cream, at one stop. Mel i mató at another. A crema catalana somewhere. Between the dessert stops are more bars, more drinks, and the specific pleasure of a small Catalan city in the golden hour. The tour ends on a terrace with a final drink and snacks. By this point in the day you are full, slightly drunk, and have eaten a sandwich you made with strangers who are no longer strangers. This is what a Cavale food tour looks like when Cavale admits that food tours are also drinking tours. Gigi runs it warm, participatory, and paced so that no one is ever hungry or sober for long. Come hungry, come thirsty, come wearing shoes you can walk in.
Highlights
Guided tastings at Girona's food market
€10 sandwich competition with Gigi
Negronis at a natural wine bar
Catalan specialities including fried pig's ear
Final drink on a terrace in the old town
Day by Day
A day in Girona with Gigi
Meet Gigi in the city centre in the morning. Market tastings, €10 to buy sandwich ingredients, sandwich competition at a natural wine bar with negronis. Then a walk through the medieval old town with stops for Catalan desserts, more bars, and a final terrace drink.
What’s Included
✓ All food tastings at the market
✓ €10 market budget for sandwich competition
✓ Negronis at natural wine bar
✓ Catalan desserts (multiple stops)
✓ Drinks at all bar stops
✓ Final drink and snacks on terrace
Not Included
✗ Transport to Girona
✗ Accommodation
✗ Travel insurance
✗ Flights
Questions travellers ask
Practical Information
Meeting point: Girona city centre (confirmed after booking)
Your Operator
Gigi
We know Gigi personally and have taken this tour ourselves. It's not your standard food tour where someone walks you past restaurants and reads a script. The sandwich competition is genuinely fun and surprisingly competitive, and the negronis at the natural wine bar set the tone for the rest of the afternoon. By the end you've eaten enough to skip dinner and made friends with strangers over who built the better sandwich. Gigi's energy and knowledge of Catalan food culture makes this feel like being shown around by a local friend, not a tour guide.
Photos
We’ll notify you the moment this experience reopens. You’ll be first in line.
