• 2011 Dates: July 5-8; July 6-9, July 7-10 July 8-11 July 9-12; July 10-13 and July 12-15  
• 4-star hotel, bullfighting tickets, balcony, breakfast in Pamplona's most exclusive private club, and dinner included.
• Price: July 5-8 $1989.00/person (double occupancy); all other dates $1669/person

Discover Rioja and the Running of the Bulls (6 nights / 7 days) 

• 2008 Dates: July 2-8 and July 9-15
• Experience three unforgettable days of cycling the Rioja wine region followed by three days at Pamplona's San Fermin "Running of the Bulls" Festival 
• Run with the bulls or enjoy the spectacle from our private balcony
• Live like royalty in Olite, a castle hotel that once belonged to the kings of Navarra
• Enjoy gourmet meals with regional delicacies prepared by our local hosts
• Price: $3650.00/person (double occupancy)

Detailed Itineraries

1. Just the Festival 

Day 1:  Following check-in to the modern AC Hotel Cuidad in Pamplona, enjoy an optional walking tour/orientation of the city with your guide followed by a traditional tapas lunch in a local pub (a favorite of Spyn’s owner and longtime festival goer, Ryan King). This guided tour will help you familiarize yourself with the town before the festivities begin. See the bullpen where the bulls are kept overnight before the daily runs. Walk the ½ mile course through the center of Pamplona to pick your spot along the route.   Learn that the Running of the Bulls is actually a deeply religious festival dating back to the 16th century. After a quick explanation on how to properly dress for the festival (knotting the scarf and sash just so), stroll through town to soak up some of the incredible energy before a relaxed dinner in the AC Ciudad’s excellent restaurant. 

Day 2:  After a full buffet breakfast in the AC Hotel’s modern dining room, the group will depart around 10 a.m. to see Pamplona ’s unforgettable opening ceremony (July 6th tour only). At noon July 6, an opening ceremony is held in Pamplona ’s main square in front of city hall (pictured below). For both tours you have the option of staying with your guide for some live explanations of the various events leading up to the opening ceremony or simply choose your spot, share a drink with some friendly locals, and get swept away in festival fever. Free night in Pamplona for dinner but your guides will gladly recommend a charming local eatery.

Day 3: Today marks the event that Pamplona has prepared for the entire year: the bull run. Called an “encierro” in Spanish, the runs are held every day starting July 7 and ending July 14. Twelve bulls run through the streets while thousands of festival goers try to avoid them at all costs. (Click here to see Spyns’ president Ryan King on NBC talking about the bull run.) Every year Spyns reserves the town’s best balcony, a 2^nd floor wraparound balcony on Rua del Mentidero overlooking the bull run’s most dangerous corner: a 90-degree turn up Estafeta street. Before the run, listen to an expert explanation of the bull run from our local guide while enjoying fresh coffee and pastries…or perhaps even a glass of champagne and orange juice. Three rockets announce that the bulls are running and it takes them just minutes to travel the entire ½ mile course. Watch (in complete safety) as the bulls topple the runners on their way to the bullring. After the run, enjoy a private gourmet breakfast at the exclusive Nuevo Casino – a member’s only club built in the 18th century overlooking the Plaza del Castillo (Pamplona's central square). In the afternoon, watch an outdoor concert, join in some folk dancing or a parade, or simply watch awestruck as Australians jump off the fountain on Navarreria street (a dangerous annual tradition) before heading to the evening’s bullfights. 

Day 4: Today rise early with your guide and run with the bulls or simply sleep in before another gourmet breakfast. Over breakfast, listen to the runners relive their moment of glory  before packing up, saying your goodbyes, and transferring to Pamplona train station and your final destination.  

2. Discover Rioja and the Running of the Bulls

Days 1 and 2: Transfer from Bilbao, home of the controversial new Guggenheim Museum, to the La Rioja province, Spain’s most famous winegrowing region. Nestled in the hills of this proud province is Villa Abolas (pictured here), a former manor house owed by the village noble and now transformed into a luxury inn where our friends Jose Luis and his wife Merche will teach us the sights, sounds, and rhythms of life in a small Spanish town. Two days of riding, gourmet meals, and wine tasting are the best way to start your holiday. A Spyns favorite is the ultra modern Ysios winery near the medieval village of Laguaridia.  

Day 3: Riding east the vines eventually give way to the crisp mountain air and the coniferous forests of Basque country. Although technically citizens of Spain, the Basque are a nation within a nation having maintained their own language and culture. After a gourmet lunch, choose a rigorous ride through the hills and valleys to your own castle hotel in the sleepy town of Olite. Or simply choose a shuttle to visit the small villages and churches that dot the famous pilgrimage route to di Compostello in Galacia.

 Days 4 & 5: Shift from the sleepy tranquility of Olite to the frenzy of the San Fermin “running of the bulls” in Pamplona. In a festival first made famous by Ernest Hemmingway, watch in awe as the small streets of this Basque village transform into a charging mass of bulls chasing mad festival goers before the evening bullfights. For two days and two nights, you will witness and yes maybe even choose to be a part of this ancient and death-defying tradition. Combine old world traditions with ultra modern amenities from the tranquility of the AC Hotel Pamploma, just minutes from the city centre but far enough away from the revelry to get a good night’s sleep.

Day 6: Choose to watch another of the daily runs or simply sleep in and have another hearty breakfast before your shuttle to Pamploma’s train station and your final destination. Olé. 

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR TO BOOK THIS TOUR CALL888.825.4720OR EMAIL info@spyns.com



Pamplona - Surviving the Run

The 'encierro' or The Running Of The Bulls is the single most characteristic event of the Fiesta of San Fermin, held in Pamplona every year from July 6-14. Each of the festival’s bull runs is held at eight o'clock each morning from the 7th to the 14th. It consists largely of young men (although women also run) who run in front of the bulls to lead them from their pen in the center of Pamplona through town and into Pamplona ’s bull-ring. The run usually lasts from two to three minutes - although stray bulls often turn back so the run may last much longer.

The length of the run is some 830 metres (about half a mile) and you don't have to sign up anywhere to take part. The entire length of the course is gated so to run you need only show up at one of several entranceways before they are closed at 7:30 a.m.  

The run began as part of moving bulls from the edge of town to the bullring. During the mid 1800s, runners began to join behind the herd on their journey. Eventually locals started running in front of the bulls. Hemingway wrote about this death-defying tradition in the 1930s and thereafter the festival gained worldwide fame. In the early morning light, brass bands representing each district of Pamplona fan out to wake the citizenry for another run. City workers work diligently to set up wooden fencing along the ½ mile course. Police quietly but firmly clear sleepy revelers (often slumbering in the streets) from the course. The street-cleaners then move in to mop up the accumulated rubbish and dirt caused by the night-long partying.  Anyone not running must stay behind the double-fences that line the route. Only first-aid teams are allowed between the double fencing. One practical reason for this is, that the runners have the space to jump over the fence should they need to. So now that the fencing has been shut in, the only way to enter is at the gateway at the Town Hall or at the gateway of the Plaza del Mercado. 

Many runners who gather at the bottom of Santo Domingo , the start of the run, crowd together and sing a homily to the image of San Fermin which is placed in a sepulcher on the wall decorated with the scarves of the peñas (city districts). The song goes like this: "A San Fermín pedimos, por ser nuestro patrón, nos guíe en el encierro dándonos su bendición" ("We ask San Fermín, as our Patron, to guide us through the Bull Run and give us his blessing").  

A rocket called the Chupinaxo goes off at the moment the pen is opened and  a second rocket goes off to let everyone know that all the bulls are now running. This is the moment of truth in the encierro; the bulls run like the wind. It is impossible to race them or even keep up with them for very long. The proper way to run is to start off slowly when the bulls are still a good distance behind, and as they draw nearer start running as fast as you can, before they get too close, stay in front of them for a short distance and then get out of the way as cleanly as possible. Be careful not to cross the paths of other runners. Look for a gap in the fence to slip through or jump over, or a space against the wall of the street. Each bull weighs about 600 kilos – roughly 1 ton - and has two sharp horns. So you have to be careful not to get pushed over or knocked down by other runners. The crowding is particularly dense on the opening and closing weekends where the number of visitors to the Fiesta more than doubles.

Each section of the run has its own particular characteristics and seasoned runners often choose to run the same section. In Santo Domingo , the first part of the run, the pace is very fast. Particularly risky is the corner of Mercaderes where most of the television footage is shot. This is a 90-degree corner where bulls and bodies often slam into the fence. There is a long straight run up Estafeta Street which ends at the bull-ring. Once in the bull ring, a third rocket goes off signaling the “all-clear” and a final rocket is set off when all the bulls have been safely locked into their pens.

Between that first and last rocket only a few minutes have elapsed but the memories (and war stories) last a lifetime. The day after the fiesta ends, some die-hard locals who refuse to face the fact that the Fiesta is over will run in front of the early-morning bus which comes up Santo Domingo street.