Editorial Methodology

How tours get onto this site

We start from what is actually bookable for eating in Seville on the platforms we work with. From that pool we list a tour when three things hold: the listing is live and taking bookings, the operator states enough about the food to compare it honestly against the others, and it is not a near-duplicate of something already listed.

We do not list every tour that exists. The platforms carry dozens of Seville tapas activities, and many are the same four bars resold under different titles. Listing all of them would make the catalogue longer and the comparison worse. Where a listing survives only because it differs on one real variable — a market that others skip, a diet it can adapt to, a flamenco ticket, a group capped at eight — that variable is the reason it is here, and we say so.

The catalogue these rules govern is the Seville food tours homepage and its comparison table.

Where the numbers come from

Prices, durations, ratings, review counts, inclusions, exclusions, cancellation terms, start windows, group caps and dietary notes are read off the operator's own live listing. The date we read them is printed on the page, next to the traveller rating.

Mercado de Triana's opening hours are quoted from the market's own schedule page, with the stall hours and the bar hours kept separate because they differ and the difference catches people out. Tapas prices are given as ranges in euros with the kind of bar attached, because the same plate costs twice as much on a terrace facing the Cathedral as it does at the counter two streets away.

Climate figures are the 1991-2020 normals for Seville in Celsius, printed with a Fahrenheit reading. Festival dates are the published dates for Semana Santa and the Feria de Abril. Where a value is not stated anywhere we can check, the field says "None stated" rather than a plausible guess.

How often we re-check

Prices and ratings are re-read across the whole catalogue at least every quarter, and sooner for any tour whose page we are otherwise editing. Market hours are re-checked whenever the market updates its schedule, and before every seasonal edit.

This has a limit worth stating: between two checks, an operator can change a price, an inclusion, a start time or a cancellation window without telling anyone. The figure at checkout is the one that binds.

Traveller ratings and our editorial view

These are two different things and we never blend them.

Traveller rating is the operator's own rating on the platform selling the tour, printed with its source, its review count and the date we read it. We do not adjust it, weight it or average it across tours, and the site itself has no rating of its own to give. A 5.0 on 13 reviews is reported as exactly that, with the sample size in the same sentence, because the number means less than the same figure on two thousand.

Our pick is editorial. It is our view against the criteria below, and it is stated as an opinion rather than dressed up as a score.

What our pick weighs

• What actually lands on the table — the number of tastings and drinks the operator commits to in writing, not the adjectives around them
• Group size — stated caps, and whether the operator commits to them
• Time of day — whether the tour runs when Seville is eating, and whether it replaces a meal or precedes one
• Dietary honesty — whether restrictions are handled, refused or fudged, stated before you pay rather than after
• Cancellation flexibility — the deadline, and whether the ticket is pay-later
• Traveller feedback — the pattern across reviews, including the consistent complaints
• Accessibility — how plainly the operator says who should not book
• Value against eating alone — the price against the cost of running the same evening yourself, bar by bar

How affiliate relationships affect this

We earn a commission when someone books through our links, and the rate is set by the platform, not the operator. We have no financial reason to prefer one listing over another, and we make nothing if you book direct — we still say when that would be better, and this site says outright that eating alone is cheaper.

Operators cannot pay to be listed, to rank higher, to change our pick, or to have a criticism removed. Our affiliate disclosure covers the commercial side in full.

What we cannot independently confirm

This is the part that matters most, so it is stated plainly.

We have not taken every tour on this site. We have not inspected kitchens, met the guides, or audited how allergies are handled in practice. We repeat what each operator states about diet and access; we cannot promise how it goes on the night.

Traveller ratings are the platforms' numbers, and we cannot audit how those platforms collect or filter reviews. Descriptions of bars, dishes and routes come from operators' own listings and published reviews, and we write them that way rather than as first-hand observation.

Menus in this catalogue are ordered in advance by the operators. Nothing on this site is a guarantee that a particular dish, bar or market stall will be part of your evening.

Corrections

If something here is wrong — a price, an inclusion, a market hour, a claim about an operator — tell us and we will check it against the source and fix it. Corrections go in without ceremony and the check date moves. Use the contact page.