A Passion for Travel
Our story begins when we, Cristina and Guillermo, met back in 2011. Our passion for travel and food brought us together and soon enough we found ourselves traveling in Asia. For over 10 months, we spent most of our time discovering local cultures and food.
We learnt to travel in a different way: we avoided touristy spots and instead looked for unexplored villages and natural areas. We met with local people eager to show us how they lived, shared incredible moments and looked back on life with a new perspective.
Instead of going all around the world, we only picked a few destinations, extended our stay there, stayed up-close with local life and always looked for the best and most typical food and drinks of the area. After our trip, we learned that traveling that way was called Slow Travel.
Back In Barcelona
This journey opened our eyes to the incredible flavors of local, seasonal, backyard-garden food which we got to try in many of the places we visited, where industrial goods often were not available.
As we resettled in Barcelona in 2012, we integrated this new way of eating to our lifestyle and to our new project of cooking classes in Barcelona, largely inspired by our overseas adventures.
From travelers, we became hosts and invited people from all over the world to cook and taste our regional cuisine, using fresh, local and seasonal products from our local market first.
Barcelona Slow Travel Today
Then, finding new products for our cooking classes became a fantastic excuse to spend most of our days in the countryside, chasing the finest local food and wine makers of our region. Since 2013, we’ve made new connections weekly and are now proud to know some of the finest artisan food and wine produce of Catalonia.
As you can imagine, these are the products you’ll find in our cooking experiences, and the places we’ll visit in our day trips, including our Penedes Wine Tour, Beyond Montserrat Tour and many other.
Our Concept
PRIVATE VISITS WITH THE OWNERS & HIGH-END TASTINGS
Over the years, our taste buds became experts at recognizing premium food and wines and we naturally wanted to offer our guests the best produce we had found. We believe that meeting the people leading the small-scale projects (organic farmers, boutique wineries, artisan cheese-makers and else…) was much more enjoyable than a classic group visit with a guide.
That’s why in all our experiences, we’ll offer you private, exclusive visits with the owner of each place, and tastings of the finest produce available.
ECO-BOUTIQUE EXPERIENCES
We have created the concept of eco-boutique experiences, where luxury travel meets slow and sustainable travel. In all our experiences, we promote the local economy, culture, and environment preservation. Unlike usual private tours, our experiences are not standardized and we’ll never take you to visit industrial-scale, touristy spots. Instead, we choose to visit family-run, small-scale businesses and projects that aren't usually receiving tourists.
Why we are different
IN DEPTH AND NON-STOP RESEARCH
When you purchase an experience with us, you’re not just purchasing a 4-hour activity or a day trip. You’re purchasing the result of thousands of hours of excursions, of online research, of onsite meetings with local organic producers, small entrepreneurs and fine artisans. You’re enjoying the final result of years of passion in the quest of offering you the most unique experience for your stay.
UNIQUE AND TAILORED-MADE EXPERIENCES
Each and every one of our experiences will be personalized to your tastes, needs and previous experiences. We have dozens of options available and we customize our itineraries and visits to our customers thanks to a quick process of customization that takes place right after booking.
YOUR GUIDES ARE LOCAL FOOD AND WINE EXPERTS
We, Cristina and Guillermo, will always be crafting your experiences personally, and we still run most of our experiences ourselves, together with a very reduced team of friendly local food and wine experts. Don’t expect any of us to be classic guides, we’d rather be your new local friends, real experts of Catalan gastronomy and culture, and your one-way ticket to unforgettable high-end local adventures.
BEHIND-THE-SCENES ACCESS
Prepare to meet some of the most inspiring characters behind the small-scale projects of organic food and wine production of our region, ready to offer you a warm welcome into their world. Expect no less than having a behind-the-scenes access to undiscovered wineries, farms, shops, and restaurants.
COMPLETE AND MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE
Because that’s what Barcelona Slow Travel stands for- an amazing trip to go beyond the surface of Barcelona life, to meet extraordinary people, to taste incredible food and wines and to get inspired by Catalan life and culture.
Sustainability
OUR JOURNEY CHANGED OUR MINDSET
Our journey in Asia also opened our eyes to the effects of climate change which were visible in every place we visited. From then on, we changed our lifestyle and adopted a very sustainable way of living. And, of course, we didn’t just make changes at a personal level.
HOW WE APPLY SUSTAINABILITY AT BARCELONA SLOW TRAVEL
ORGANIC FOOD
All of the foods and drinks we offer in our experiences are locally sourced from organic small-scale farmers.
ZERO-WASTE
We reduce as much as possible the use of plastic, paper, glass, etc... and apply strict recycling policies.
RENEWABLE ENERGIES
We are fully powered with renewable energy (which means we wrote those lines using Spanish solar energy).
LOCAL & ARTISANAL
We stay away from industrial products and instead fully rely on local, artisanal and handmade goods.
We believe well-designed, sustainable tourism can be a powerful way to promote local economy, culture, and environment preservation while, at the same time, being a fantastic way to experience a destination for travelers.