¡Tapas, Tapas, Tapas!

Less than one hour after touching down in the beautiful city of Malaga at around 9pm, we found ourselves hauling our backpacks through streets packed with people just beginning to eat dinner and entertaining themselves by staring at the two confused tourists looking for an Airbnb.


Approximately 15 minutes later, we blended into the packed streets by sitting down, eating an early dinner (by local standards), and entertaining ourselves by staring at the occasional confused tourist backpacking their way through the city, and pretending we hadn’t just been doing the same thing. But most importantly, what do we eat? Now that we’ve reached southern Spain, it’s all about the tapas, or at least in my mind it is.



A tapa, literally translating to “Top” in Spanish, is just a small plate of food. A tapa could be as simple as a few pieces of cheese, to something much more complicated, such as ceviche de pulpo (octopus ceviche). I personally prefer the later while Heather would generally opt for the former, but no matter your tastes, you’re certainly guaranteed to find something you’ll enjoy on the seemingly endless list of tapas that are offered throughout this region of Spain.

For budget travelers like us, tapas are an exceptional way to enjoy a fairly upscale night out without spending too much money. We get to sample these wonderful dishes for a price of anywhere from free (common) to €5 (not very common) per plate. Free you say? Yes, in some areas of Spain such as Granada, we have found, tapas come for free with each drink you order, no matter the price or size of the drink. On a night that we weren't terribly hungry for dinner, we each ordered two small beers (~8oz each) which came with a green bean and shrimp salad and a Spanish tortilla, all for well under $10 including tax and a generous tip, perfect.