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Jerez de la Frontera - Horse Show/Bodegas

I have gleaned mucho information from this website, particularly thanks to Maira/Pedro/Maribel. After months of mining this forum, finally I have some questions for which other posts do not have the answers I need. Planning to spend a Tuesday in Jerez de la Frontera next month. This is actually a return visit -- we had so much of an "adventure" driving through there the last time that we ended up coming up short on what we wanted to do (directional signs were, shall we say, a little lacking) so we're trying it again. Two goals are the horse show at the Real Escuela and touring a bodega. We've already done the Alcazar etc. For the horse show, I know it is at noon. I have looked at their web site and was wondering if reservations are useful or needed and if so, how are they obtained. Tried to send an email to the info address and no replies yet. Also, if anyone knows, could use some directions (coming from Sevilla) to the Real Escuela. I'd like to avoid the running around in circles this time. For a bodega, I saw an earlier post on Domecq and Gonzales Byass. Reservations seem to be needed at both of these. Are any tours in English at either one of these, and are these at specific times? Also, has anyone heard of Sandeman? That one is much closer to the Real Escuela but their website brings up a blank page. Any help would be appreciated. --Eric

The Real Escuela de Arte Ecuestre show is held every Tuesday and Thursday from March to October. It is at noon (12:00) and in summer months it would be reccommendable to have a reservation but the problem is that the way to do it is calling them at this number 956 31 80 08 or through Jerez travel agencies. Regarding the wineries, Gonzalez Byass is huge, has a little train and it is probably what you would expect from a sherry winery to be. Tours in English each hour everyday from 11.30 to 13.30 and 16.30 to 18.30. You will not need to book it in advance. Sandeman also show you all the proccess and the winery building is nice as well. It is smaller but also has tours in English each hour, following roughly the same schedule than the other one. Its situation close to the horse show building and the Clock Museum could make it easier to visit. Jerez is a city where you will have lots of problem to park in surface but there are several underground parkings not very expensive and safe where you could park your car. There is a big one 5-10 minutes walking to Horse Show/Sandeman area. It would be reccommendable to get a map from Jerez and look for them. For eating, there is a well-known locally bar/restaurant that serves really good tapas/raciones, it is called Juanito ( C/Pescaderia Vieja, close to Arenal Square )

This brings up a question from me. The tour I am taking is stopping at the "horse school", but it is not on a Tuesday or Thursday--so no show for us. What will we be seeing, if not a show? Does anybody know?

I think the rest of the days what is shown is the training. It might also be interesting but I really do not know.

Thanks, Pedro. At least I have an idea there is a chance we'll be seeing more than the A** end of horses as we walk thru their stables. :)

Pedro, Thanks for the info on the horse show at Real Escuela. Do you know if anyone at the number you gave speaks English? I would have trouble trying to do it over the phone <<en espanol>>. I was thinking of booking it prior to leaving the USA. We won't get to Jerez until the day of the show so I think that rules out Jerez travel agencies. Regarding a map of Jerez, I agree, I should get one. Does the Junta de Andalucia have one, similar to the ones for Sevilla, Cordoba, et al that I could get at a tourist info bureau? I thought those showed parking areas. We may plan to visit Sandeman instead of the two biggies to stay in the general vicinity of the Real Escuela. I know that GB and Domecq are some distance away from the school.

Eric: You are in for a treat! The horse show is fabulous. Truly a ballet, choreographed with music and costumes. The riders and horses are truly talented. We thoroughly enjoyed the show. One caveat, no pictures. My husband started to film on our camcorder and I was taking stills. We were nicely told by one of the usherettes that no pictures were allowed. We were able to buy some postcards in a small gift shop after the show, but it was mobbed and you couldn't really enter it, but instead asked for things at a window. Found out later there was a paperback book about the Andalusian horses, their history, the show, etc. Was disappointed we hadn't seen it and requested one. We visited a Sherry bodega by the name of Real Tesoro and enjoyed it. We had a charming English-speaking young woman take us on the tour. Very nice tasting room and best of all we managed to get three bottles and two glasses home without breaking anything! Think of the visit everytime we enjoy a glass of Sherry. Can't help with ticket info or directions, but if you have other questions will be glad to help if I can. Joanne

Regarding lenguages, they at the Horse Show Information Office ( 956 31 80 08 ) do speak English so you are not likely to have any problem to book the tickets from the USA. It is a reservation via credit card and there you pick them up when arriving and pay for them as well. Another option if you are going to tour Andalusia long before coming to Jerez, I have been certainly told that almost any big travel agency in Sevilla, Malaga, Granada, etc (not only in Jerez ) would be able to book them for you without extra charges.

Joanne, Your description of the horse show makes this sound like it will be a great experience. How would one acquire the paperback book you mentioned? I looked for the bodega you visited at the www.sherry.com website. I couldn't find one named Real Tesoro, but I'm guessing it is a product of José Estevez, S.A. on Ctra. N-IV south of Jerez. Was that the one you visited, and if it was, did you have to make reservations in advance? --Eric

Eric: If memory serves, the book on the Andalusian horses was 8 X 10 size and about an inch thick, and I suppose you would ask for it at the window of the gift shop. Wish I could remember the title (I think it was available in English). You're right, Real Tesoro is Jose Estevez, S.A. related. Information taken off the brochure I kept follows: Bodegas Marques del Real Tesoro Open all year including weekend and Bank holidays for arranged visits. Arranged visits for lunch or dinner. Carriages for hire. Visits and tasting Reservations: Public Relations Department Ctra. Nacional IV, Km. 640 11408 Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz) Spain Tel. +34956-321004 - fax +34956-340829 e-mail: [email protected] They have a stable which we toured (tack room and carriage house too) after a short orientation on arrival. Then on to the cellars and bottle shop. The tour was very similar to those in the Wine Country here in California. Hope this helps. Just let me know, if I can help further. It's a joy to help someone who obviously goes about travel plans as you do! Joanne

Eric: Didn't mention it before, but we took a day tour with VisiTours (arranged by our hotel). It was a small bus (approximately 20-25 people). We drove directly to Jerez, visited the bodega; went to the horse show (tickets included); drove to Puerto Santa Maria (a charming small town) where we had lunch (not included in tour); we then boarded a boat and went to Cadiz where we met the bus, had a stop at the beach, a short tour of the city and return to Seville. Ordinarily we like to travel on our own, but frankly this sort of all inclusive tour was great. We lucked out with a wonderful tour guide and were able to see both of the things we were interested in in one day, with Cadiz included. Would have enjoyed looking around Jerez longer, but guess you can't have everything. This saved the headaches of ticket procurement, car rental, etc. Joanne

Joanne: It's starting to look like just you and me on this thread. Thanks for all the info. Now that you mentioned Visitours, I have this in the proper context. Sounds like it was a very full day. You probably were based in Seville, sans car, and this made perfect sense. And I also understand why you visited the bodega you did -- it's more conveniently located (right off the N-IV) than some of the others. The use of the term "arranged" in the brochure quote seems to indicate that this bodega caters only to group (i.e. tour) visits. Any indication that walk-ins are welcome? We will have a car and be driving from Seville to Jerez on that Tuesday, and then on from there. That's why I was thinking of Sandeman, which is in the general vicinity of the Real Escuela, for our bodega visit. Eric

Eric: Sandeman seems to make better sense with your schedule. I honestly have no idea if the bodega we visited would be amenable to a "drop in" visit as opposed to a "tour group." You might e-mail them and ask. It's late (waited all day for this site to reopen) and I don't have the bus info at my fingertips, but will repost tomorrow and give you directions for Italica. Joanne

Sometimes there is a show, most days its just schooling you see (lungeing etc) check first.

Eric: Tried to e-mail you direct but the message bounced back unable to send: Assuming this is your real e-mail address you should get this a lot sooner than my trying to post on Fodor's. I have been having a difficult time pulling up posts I want, so thought this would work better--hope you don't mind. I have my brochure from Italica (all in Spanish) in front of me. The town I couldn't think of is Santiponce. We went to the main bus station in Seville and took the bus to Santiponce. When we reached the first stop in Santiponce we started to get off, when some of the locals shouted "Italica?" We said "si" and they told us to stay on board thankfully, as we would have had a very loooong walk if we got off earlier. My Spanish isn't fluent, but reading the back of the brochure for directions, hours, etc. I think you are out of luck (that's a shame) because I think it says in summer (verano) they are open 9:00 to 6:30 martes a sabado (Tuesday to Saturday think). Slightly shorter hours on Sunday. There are some footprints impressed in the ground that I would love to find out the significance of. No guide book was available at the site and the brochure contained no info about them. When we went to Ephesus there were similar footprints in front the Celsus Library which indicated directions to the brothel. There was a tunnel from the library to the brothel as well, so that erudite Roman gentlemen could fake going to the library and actually end up in the arms of a prostitute! You were correct--we did not have a car on this trip. We flew to Madrid, stayed there for several days and then took the AVE train to Seville. We stayed in the Santa Cruz area at the Hotel Dona Maria which is steps away from the cathedral. I've seen negative comments about the hotel on this forum, but we loved it. We had a very large room (for European standards) nicely furnished, good closet space, the bathroom was superb with a great shower (not always the case) and we thought the location was unbeatable. We walked to the flamenco show. We strolled to a nearby restaurant almost every night for our helado fix and sat on the steps of the cathedral to eat our cones. We climbed the bell tower and were there when they sang out the time. We loved Plaza de Espana (beware of Gypsy women selling carnations) with all the tile and little bridges. We took a carriage ride one evening which was very enjoyable. We hated to leave Seville and wished we had more time there than we allotted for Madrid. Took the train back and did a day trip by train to Toledo. Flew home from Madrid. We had planned to return to Spain this year and coincidentally were asked by me husband's sister and her husband to accompany them for their first trip to Europe. His parents were both born there and they planned to visit both towns and had relatives to see and visit. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a decent airfare to Spain and we ended up going to France instead, which was much more economical. Sadly money is A BIG OBJECT. We had a good trip though, stayed in Paris for a couple of days (we had been there before) and then picked up our rental car and drove to Provence, staying in Arles. We returned our car in Avignon and trained back to Paris. Weather was horrendous, but we saw an awesome 2000 year old Roman bridge, stayed in a hotel across from a Roman theater and next door to a colliseum. Loved the French countryside and if we are fortunate enough to return to France someday would bypass Paris. I'm rambling. I do that a lot when talking about travel (especially in Europe). So will close for now and hope that this reaches you. Again, if I can help further please e-mail me. Best regards, Joanne

We did the 12:00 show at the Real Escuela and then a tour of the Sandeman Bodega immediately afterward. We were there in mid-March and walked up and purchased tickets for the show and later for the tour. Sounds like that may not work for you if you are going at a busier time. The show was quite good - a little long if anything. The Bodega is right around the corner, however, we had didn't realize this and went around the other way so made a short walk long - still not too long though. When we were there they had tours every 15 minutes or so - alternating with German, English, Spanish. As far as driving directions - I would get some really good ones before you go. We almost gave up on finding the Real Escuela (signage was abysmal) and just happened upon it. We came from Ronda and were heading to Seville that night. Unfortunately, I could not even try to recreate how we got there or out of there - it was all sheer luck and some basic instincts about what direction we were headed. Good luck - let me know if you have any other questions - looks like Joanne has answered them in fine fashion!

Joanne, Thanks for the long post. I will try to e-mail you directly (surprised your attempt bounced back, it shouldn't have). Mary, Did you enjoy the visit to Sandeman? If it's that close to the Real Escuela, it sounds like the best option for us since we would be able to park once and then do both things. The day before I started this thread I had e-mailed Gonzalez Byass ([email protected]) and asked them when the English tours were. After a week I had given up, and surprise, I found a reply in my inbox. Here are the times of the English tours: 11.30, 12.30, 13.30, 16.30, 17.30, 18.30. The reply suggested the 'afternoon', read post-siesta, times. So, the only way to go there on the same day as the show at Real Escuela is to enjoy a leisurely lunch after the show and go at 16.30 or later. Eric