Caracol Tours

Isabel Calvache is the promoter of Caracol Tours, a pioneering agency of slow tourism, or slow tourism, specialising in Japanese tourism. The idea was born when Calvache, an expert in International Negotiation with a long career in Spanish exporting SMEs, returned to Cordoba after three years of getting to know Japanese life and it became clear to her that she needed to create a project that would involve the Japanese market.

Caracol Tours – Slow Tourism

In 2015, Caracol Tours, an agency specialising in slow tourism, was launched. It is the Japanese, followed by Germans, French and Italians, who currently demand this type of tourism on their trips.

But what is slow tourism?

This is a form of tourism that seeks to discover new places through a sensory and interactive experience with the spaces and people we come across during our visit.

It involves all five senses, i.e. not only looking, but also touching, smelling, listening and tasting, without stress, without rushing and with a special emphasis on caring for the environment.

Experiences of Cordovan tradition

Caracol Tours is an agency that stands out as a provider of experiences based on the traditions of Cordoba, among them:

• Stroll through organic olive groves to contemplate the veraison period.
• Olive oil mills to learn about the production of olive oil up close
• Tasting wine and oil blind in traditional taverns
• Participate in the care of the vines such as pruning, picking and treading the grapes and then visit the cellar where the wines are stored.
• Understand with a livestock farmer why the dehesa is a traditional model of extensive livestock farming unique in Europe.
• An Iberian safari through the dehesa Iberian safari where you can see the pigs in the wild, and then visit the drying sheds of Los Pedroches ham.
• Learn the art of venenciar or ham slicing
• Picking mushrooms, asparagus or identifying aromatic plants with which, after the route, infusions are made to be enjoyed as a group.
• Lose yourself in the orange groves of the Vega del Guadalquivir and taste the freshly picked fruit.
• Enjoy excellent pairings between the local wines and gastronomy.

Other types of experiences include those related to the world of horses, the Cordoban courtyards, flamenco and traditional taverns. Caracol Tours also offers experiences to learn about local traditions and crafts, such as leather and silver work…

All of this is done by the winemakers, farmers and tanners themselves, who produce these products on a daily basis and offer them to the slow tourist.

These are experiences in which the protagonists are the pillars of Cordoba’s gastronomy: Iberian, wine, olive oil, characterised by an ecological, environmental and sustainable development perspective, as well as slow tourists. They also design tailor-made stays for FIT and MICE, and organise fam-trips and press-trips with international tourism professionals.

Collaborations and other projects of Caracol Tours

To promote Cordoba as a destination in the target market, Caracol Tours collaborates with Cordovan institutions in promotional activities of Cordoba in Japan, such as the publication of the first guide to Cordoba in Japanese, “Genic trip in Cordoba”, written by the young blogger Sayuri Ishii in 2016, or the I Cordoba Week in Tokyo, a full week of events related to Cordovan traditions held in September 2017.

Another project in the hands of Isabel Calvache, a self-proclaimed wine and oil lover, is “Tastings with Isa”, whose main objective is to bring the wines of Cordoba to our homes through fun tastings at home, which include unique spaces such as century-old taverns, 5-star hotels, wine cellars or a 16th century courtyard with columns, with the intention of enjoying Cordoba through the palate and the senses.