The holidays are around the corner, which means it’s time to plan the party of the year!
Company holiday parties are the stuff of legends. Depicted in hundreds of films and television shows, we remember and talk about these annual events for years to come, and hopefully for all the right reasons! And here at Devour Tours there’s nothing we love more than an excuse to eat and drink, but that’s not all we do to make merry.
Looking for tips to make the most of your holiday soirée this year? Take a spin around Spain with us as we catch up with Devour holiday parties past, present and future!
1. Best of Barcelona Awards
If everyone knows that Karen from Accounting makes the best cookies and Brad in Sales tells the best jokes, why not use your holiday party as a chance to highlight the well-known but often overlooked talent on your team?
In Barcelona, we did so in the form of TripAdvisor Awards! With hundreds of reviews to choose from, it wasn’t easy. But we managed to match each guide to one of their most memorable, or funniest, five-star reviews on TripAdvisor over the last year.
The Operations Team read each handpicked review out loud. Then, everyone got to guess who the review had been written for. Jaume won the “Tallest Guide” award and Norah was appointed Ambassador of Catalonia—all by guests who couldn’t stop gushing about their favorite expert local guides!
2. Memorable Meetups in Madrid
It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle and forget about all the moving parts—and partners—that make a business successful. That’s why every year in Madrid we visit one of our favorite tour partners, Mercado Jamón Ibérico, after hours.
Each December, the staff at Mercado Jamón Ibérico invites our guide team to a glass of wine and an incredible spread of Iberian delicacies. But the real gift is the opportunity for both companies to connect! Between sips and snacks, guides and staff catch up, swap stories and learn about each other’s lives outside of tours.
3. Switched at Birth in Seville
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that babies are adorable. Following that logic, we can safely assume there is no greater joy at an office party then seeing a photo of your boss as a baby. (The hair, the clothes, those chubby cheeks!)
Team Seville brought baby fever to their holiday party last year in the form of a cutthroat competition: match the mystery baby photo and fun fact to each member on the team! We laughed, we cried, we debated our parent’s wardrobe decisions. And we learned so much more about each other than we knew before.
4. San Sebastian-Style Trivia
Good old-fashioned trivia can turn any affair into a boisterous bash. In San Sebastian, Operations Manager Ania became MC for the evening, quizzing her guide team on local history, culture, food, wine—and of course, the bars and restaurants we visit on tour.
Did you know that San Sebastian has more Michelin stars per square meter than any other city in the world? Or that the Old Town is so jam-packed with restaurants that there’s one for every 25 inhabitants (that’s 200 bars in just 500 square meters!)? It’s both tasty and true! The guides duked it out round after round. Finally, one emerged victorious as San Sebastian’s Trivia Night Champion, winning well-earned bragging rights for the following year!
5. Tapas Challenge
Holiday parties are the perfect opportunity for team building. We love each activity our cities planned for their guide teams, but we’ve got one more party tip that we think is top—or maybe “tapa.” That would be our popular Tapas Challenge Tour for Corporate Groups!
This January, we’ll be putting our money where our tapas go and treating the Devour Tours staff team to an evening of fun foodie challenges at our annual summit in Barcelona. Teams will face off to assemble pan con tomate and blind taste different styles of Catalan cava, among other exciting culinary competitions. May the best team win—and happy holiday party planning from everyone at Devour Tours!
