From Blanes to Portbou, the Costa Brava is an idyllic place thanks to its beautiful coves, nature, exceptional cuisine and many charming towns.

Here are the best restaurants outside the city’s historic centre. Bon appétit!

Rajski Vrt

This terrace café, located on the marvellous island of Lokrum, with views over a romantic garden and the sea in the background, rests on the wall of a semi-abandoned monastery. The food served here is more suited to recovering from a swim or a walk in the nearby botanic gardens than to culinary pleasure. They offer salads, pizza, hamburgers, pasta, risotto, meat and fish. Pizzas here are large, with a fine crust and delicious (about 10 euros), as are the hearty helpings of grilled, sausage-shaped minced meat –cevapcici– served with excellent chips and a pepper and onion sauce. Watch out for their lemonade, made with real lemons; it is so sour it will make your tongue sweat instantly. This establishment is open from 1 May until mid-October. Average price: 20-25 euros.

Pantarul

Located in the area of Lapad, just over half an hour’s walk from the historic centre of Dubrovnik. This is a very casual restaurant with relaxing background music. One of the owners is the blogger Ana-Marija Bujic, who conquers the national and international public both at her eatery and on the net. They offer traditional Croatian recipes with a modern twist and high-quality, fresh, seasonal products. Tripadvisor gives them full marks. Only one year after opening, it has become one of the city’s trendiest restaurants. In addition to the menu, that changes seasonally, they promote new options such as sharing dishes, which they are trying to implement in the city.

We can recommend the marvellous, delicate and subtle tuna tartar, the very fresh monkfish tempura with green garlic sauce – made with peas – and the traditional and potent mutton with garlic and soparnik – Swiss chard pie with onion and garlic – and aromatic herbs. Average prices, including drinks, are about 30 euros. This is one of the few restaurants in Dubrovnik that opens all year around, closing only for 3 weeks in January. Their opening times are 12 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 10.30 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday. Monday closed.

Konavoski Dvori

This restaurant is located in an idyllic setting in Konavle, a 15-minute drive south of the airport – Dubrovnik being 20 kilometres north of it. The vineyards in this valley, running parallel to the seafront, are the prelude to a landscape of small river waterfalls, canals, forest paths and watermills, one of which is located next to the 16th-century restaurant, still used to grind corn. Konavoski Dvori gives its name to both this beautiful park and the restaurant.

What is served here? Well, traditional Croatian food. Note for Spanish speakers: the menu is also in Spanish. A must-have is the mutton and beef roasted in an iron “hood” and served with potatoes grilled at almost 200 degrees – a typical Dalmatian dish. We also recommend their frog’s legs and river-eel stew –Neretva– and strokli, a kind of baked cheese and cream lasagne, a Slavonian dish. Waiters wear the traditional costume.

Lero Hotel

An interesting and affordable accommodation option in Dubrovnik. Lero Hotel is a 20-minute walk from the historical centre. It is modern – but not fancy – and very comfortable, with all sorts of amenities such as a swimming pool, a wellness area and a Wi-Fi connection. Many of their rooms have a sea view. Great continental breakfast.

Now you have a complete view of Dubrovnik’s cuisine. Don’t forget to read the first part, about the best restaurants within the city walls. Come and enjoy it! Check out our flights here.

Text and images by Gastronomistas

Camino de Santiago. A trip to experience.

It’s a fact. Everyone who has walked the road to Santiago agrees, the trip leaves marks for life. But, what does Camino de Santiago have to cause such profound impression to everyone? Is it for the people you meet along the way or the amazing landscapes it goes through? Is it, maybe, the reward of arriving by your own merits to the final destination, Santiago, after many days walking?.

The numbers are compelling: every year, more and more pilgrims arrive to Santiago de Compostela, especially on Holy Years. This is a unique experience that combines a sport challenge and seeking for authenticity and discovering your own self. The final goal is to arrive to Santiago, the center of Jacobean tradition and a place of pilgrimage, after the grave of apostle Santiago was found in the 9th century.

The route has become a mass phenomenon, connecting a network of roads with Santiago as the final destination. No other city is so warm welcoming for travelers and pilgrims; this is a meeting point for people from all over the world.

The city. A great monumental complex.

Santiago de Compostela was declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 1985, because of its urban beauty, monuments and for keeping the spiritual essence of an apostolic sanctuary.

The city combines perfectly tradition and modernity, in a great monumental complex. The Obradoiro square, which welcomes thousands of pilgrims, is a good example of how the past and the future coexist here, hand-in-hand. Taking a look around the square we can discover many different architectonic styles from buildings that were built during over 700 years on the making. The people look from the Cathedral to the Hostal dos Reis Católicos or from the Colexio de San Xerome to the Pazo de Raxoi, headquarters for the city council.

Along to the abundant green areas, many urban parks and forests surrounding the city, Santiago is a magic and charming place to visit.

For the food lovers.

Whether you choose a good and economic three-course menu, which recovers the energy of the pilgrims, or you prefer a casual meal of tasty portions or original mixes, Santiago is the place to go for food lovers.

Who can resist a tasty pie filled with the most daring combinations, pork with turnip tops, the best seafood, veal, octopus or a strong Galician soup? Or the distinctive taste of a wide variety of cheese: tetilla cheese, Arzúa-Ulloa, O Cebreiro or San Simón?.

Tarta de Santiago is a famous dessert, with over 200 years of history, combining the right proportions of ground almonds, eggs, sugar, butter and hints of cinnamon, under the Apostle cross drawn on sugar.

You can combine culture and gastronomy, can’t you? The place to go is Abastos market, a beautiful building from 1941. This place is the second most visited place in Santiago after the Cathedral. Around here you will find great restaurants and even places where you can ask the owner to cook the products you have purchased at the market.

So you feel like visiting Santiago, do you? Book your flights here!

Innovation and tradition combine perfectly in the city of Vigo. All neighborhoods have a special charm, historic streets, weekly outdoor markets, nature trails, shopping and cultural acitivities. From the Cies Islands to Mount O Catro, Vigo is a perfect urban destination for your holiday.

Here are some tips so you don’t miss the essence of Vigo.

1.- Food Festivals

It is going to be strange visiting the city and not matching any of its food festivals. The annual calendar is full of them, like Vigo Mussel Festival, which is held every September in the park of Castrelos or The Seafood Festival the second weekend in September at the Port of Vigo, which sold more 40 different varieties at affordable prices.

Ria de Vigo has excellent characteristics in terms of water temperature, which makes excellent seafood! A curiosity: did you know that the best seafood’s season in the Ria de Vigo begin September to April?. Do you know how you can remember the best months to consume seafood? They are the months that contain the letter “R”.

2.- Aperitif time

Visit Vigo is an excellent opportunity to taste the best Ria’s seafood at great pricing, like in the appetizers full of tapas and beer which have a fierce devotion between the people in Vigo, especially on Saturday and Sunday morning: a walk and an apperitif before lunch.

3.- Statue de Julio Verne

One of the best options in Vigo is to walk before the appetizer down to the yachthabour enjoying the ocean breeze, and get to the bronze statue of Jules Verne, opposite the Club Náutico de Vigo. The city has paid tribute to French writer because in his famous novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” dedicates an episode to the Ria de Vigo and to Rande Treasure’s legend .

4.- Learn how to cook  productos of the Ria

If you also want to learn how to cook seafood, join this exciting initiative; a gastronomical workshop that shows you how to buy and cook the best products with the advices of the city’s top chefs, who will help you in everything. After selection of the best raw materials and shopping at O Berbés market or at the port’s shellfish nurseries, you can prepare the typìcal sailor dishes yourself and enjoy them along with some glasses of wine of Rias Baixas.

5.- Try out the oysters on the street

One of the most interesting places  is Fish Street, which offers a unique spectacle when ostreras tirelessly open oysters on the street while preparing the dishes. You can buy oysters directly to them, give them a squeeze of lemon and you eat them accompanied by a good Albariño. There is no such a better pleasure!

6.- Come up to a Furancho

Furanchos are venues or private homes in which buy excess wine or try on the spot accompanied by a good home cooked meal. Usually, served with tortillas, empanadas, meats, sausages and cheeses in a family atmosphere at a great price.In the area of Vigo ther is over a dozen to choose , in which attention is always exquisite!.

We’ll be there. If you want to come too, check out our flights here.