Wildland Adventures Celebrate 30 years with Culinary & Wine Adventure in Spain

New Culinary & Wine Travel Series Launched To Explore Food Culture and Traditions Worldwide  

What do many people do on an anniversary?  They treat themselves to a gala dinner.

This is Kurt and Anne Kutay’s way of celebrating the 30th anniversary of their company, Wildland Adventures. On a May 21, 2016 departure, they will host Walks, Wine and Culinary Adventures in Northern Spain, experiencing with guests the full terroir of Basque and Castile culture from food and wines, to Guernica and the Guggenheim.  This special tour also launches the company's new “Travel Style” of offerings dubbed Culinary and Wine Adventures.

“There's no better way to celebrate 30 years of 'Going Wild' around the world than sitting down to the table with guests on a Wildland Adventure, to be served by local specialty chefs while toasting with glasses full of regional wines poured by local winemakers,” says Kurt Kutay.

Joining them on the May departure will be wine experts David and Ruth Arista of Arista Wine Cellars and Xabi Extxarri, a Spanish guide whose passion for culture, literature and the arts emanate from his Basque homeland.

The Spain immersion covers 13 days and begins and ends in Bilbao (think Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim). The per person double rate is from $7,995. More information here.

Over a nine-course, wine-paired welcome dinner at the Guggenheim Museum, guests experience haute Basque cuisine for an unparalleled dining experience. East of Bilbao lies the town of Guernica, the traditional heart of the Vizcayan Basque culture. Guernica resident, writer and historian, Edorta Jimenez, walks with guests into this region’s history, revealing the  bombing of Guernica by the Luftwaffe in April 1937 that woke the world up to the perils of war that so devastated the community. In 1937 Pablo Picasso painted Guernica, a powerful political statement depicting the tragedies of war.

From Bilbao, a private guided tour introduces the caves of Sierra de Atapuerca containing a rich fossil record of the earliest humans in Western Europe, and the worlds’ largest collection of Hominids, the direct ancestors of Neanderthal man. This day continues on foot to the small, ornate city of Burgos made famous by its extraordinary Gothic cathedral looming over the skyline of Spain’s culinary capital.

Guests travel among the remote mountains and along the coastline of Basque and historic Castile, hiking through the vines of the region, as well as along the Camino de Santiago, through National parks and castle-fringed farmlands. Dining includes haute restaurants and local wine bars where Spanish pintxos (snacks) are served. Private tastings in the vineyards and bodegas of Spain’s top winemakers, conversations with farmers, cheese makers, authors and celebrity chefs, as well as the best sommelier of La Rioja, are woven into this tapestry. In San Sebastian, where Michelin stars fall from the sky, guests learn the art and preparation of pintxos at Ni Neu Restaurant.

Other new additions to Wildland’s Culinary and Wine Adventure category include Argentina, South Africa and Turkey.

In Argentina, Wine, Cultures & Canyonlands: Mendoza and the Northwest is a 14-day immersion in culture, history and nature, all with a gastronomic embrace. The per person double rate is from $5,800. The trip begins in Mendoza and ends in Tucuman.

Turquoise Coast Odysseyis a 13-day journey through Turkey from $4,895 per person double on which guests sample a new dish every day, from the street foods of Istanbul, to a cooking lesson at a women’s coop restaurant in Cappadocia, to family recipes prepared on board a gulet cruising along the Mediterranean coast.

A trip that was launched in 2015, Cape Town to Kruger Safari is a wines and wildlife safari in South Africa featuring wines grown from vines on Earth’s oldest soils and wildlife encounters in prime game habitats. Guests enjoy an eight-course, wine-paired African surprise dinner in the Cape winelands of Stellenbosch and Franschoek before going on safari in Greater Kruger National Park and after exploring Cape Town and Robben Island, the political prison of Nelson Mandela. This is an eight-day program from $3,950 per person double.