Traditional Flamenco dancer, Seville, Spain. Photo / Getty Images
Traditional Flamenco dancer, Seville, Spain. Photo / Getty Images
A taste of the food and musical culture of Spain and Portugal whets the appetite, writes Frances Cook.
If you're interested in Spanish food, you'll know tapas. Snack-sized portions of food that let you work your way through an entire menu without ending up groaning and over-stuffed. A taste of the best on offer, that together makes a substantial meal.
The Best of Spain and Portugal tour from Insight Vacations has a similar idea. It sets aside two weeks to do what the name promises, and show you the best and most famous sights Spain and Portugal have to offer.
To live up to the promises, the trip is jam-packed. Starting in Madrid, you make a 2700km loop through destinations including Porto, Lisbon, and Gibraltar, before ending in Barcelona.
Along the way you can eat yourself stupid, marvel at ancient cathedrals and you can even learn how to make paella like a local.
Although you'll never be short of beautiful buildings and history to soak up, the definitive highlights of the tour are the cultural experiences.
Gothic Quarter of Barcelona.
A fiery flamenco performance proved to be an evening that I and fellow travellers would never forget. You may think that a famous dance form, declared a world heritage treasure by Unesco would be over-hyped and would fail to live up to expectations.
But the dancing at El Palacio Andaluz proved those expectations wrong, with an electrifying performance that set our tour group abuzz for several days. The passion, live music, live singing, and of course live dance, was full of drama and energy.
According to tradition, flamenco needs more than the hundreds of hours of practice the dancers put in. The performers also need life experience, to pour the tragedy or joy from their own lives into the dance. You can get better only with age. If that tradition is true, then these dancers must have lived full lives so far. They pulled the audience deep into the performance, frequently sparking spontaneous applause as they stamped and twirled through the show.
You didn't need to speak a word of Spanish to follow the dramatic storyline of love and betrayal.
But although the flamenco evening was one to write home about, or rather FaceTime home about, the fado evening in Lisbon, Portugal, nearly topped it.
The traditional folk-music style couldn't be further from the lively performance of flamenco, yet is something people travel to Lisbon to experience. The mournful songs reach into your chest and squeeze, the pared-back performance relying on the skill of the singers to bring a tear to your eyes, even when you're not sure what they're saying.
The tradition has deep roots in Portuguese culture, originally being sung by the poor and common people. So it's only fitting the tour took us to Cafe Luso to experience it, the former cellars and stables of the Palace Brito Freire.
The modernised venue lays claim to being the location of the first-ever fado recordings, which eventually spiralled into the modern fado that is still popular in the region now.
It's an intimate performance, one that stirred up feelings of sadness and longing as the four singers drifted through the audience. It's little wonder that fado also makes the Unesco list of cultural treasures worth saving, with the dramatic style often referred to as being the soul of Portuguese music.
In between such moving evenings of entertainment are also trips to the Alhambra palace in Granada, a port tasting in Porto, and everywhere you turn, local markets that deserve to be savoured.
Insight's offering ends up being similar to a highlights reel of Spain and Portugal. You will usually spend one or two nights in each place, and although you do get free evenings for exploration, you're not going to get a full day to shop or get lost, unless you separate off from the tour itinerary.
No, it's not a tour to take you off the beaten track. It's a tour to show you the highlights of both countries, giving an introduction to their art, culture, and food. It blends the best and most famous delights the region has to offer and is a warm welcome for a first-time visitor.
Getting there Insight Vacations' 15-day Best of Spain & Portugal holiday takes in architectural masterpieces, regal history and delicious cuisine from Madrid and Barcelona, to Granada and Lisbon. Departure dates are available from March to October 2018. Priced from $4950 pp, twin share with early payment savings of up to 10 per cent for bookings prior to December 14.
