Hey everyone

I have read a lot of useful information here from the board. I haven't been able to figure out one thing though.

My wife and I are going to be in Madrid in the beginning of March and everybody we tell says that we definitely have to "ir de tapas".

My question is how do you do this if neither of us drink alcoholic beverages? I am looking for a couple of suggestions of either places where we can go and just purchase tapas or names of non-alcoholic beverages we could buy.

We'll are staying near Sol and are hoping for suggestions in this area.

Thanks in advance.

You can drink pop or water (con or sin gas..with or without carbonation) When I was in Granada (where tapas are often free) I would get tapas, even with a glass of water. I assume that Madrid would be the same. Actually, I recall when my son and I went to a place and we both had Coke, they gave us a tapa that we didn't order. When he and I went "ir de tapas", he was underage, so he drank Fanta or Coke. There are lots of places in the Sol area to try tapas. Enjoy!

This is a good question - and one I can't say I've ever considered. True, people tend to order beer or wine and receive the free tapa - and also soft-drinks/sodas/pop, but I've never heard of ordering water. I *guess* they sell bottled water, but never heard of getting a free tapa with it. Most people who order water tend to order Schweppes tonic water (with ginger ale - check out their cool website, too) - which I tend to like, but I know that others do not. With this, I believe, they'd offer a free tapa.

Now, what areas: You could spend all day/night visiting one bar after another within the gallery of the Plaza Mayor alone. From there, you have another bunch facing the Plaza Santa Ana. In between these two plazas, bordering the Calle de Atocha to the south, you probably have 100 bars with tapas. Another area I like, a little less touristy, are the umpteen bars and terrazas west of Puerta del Sol (Calle de Preciados) and east of the Plaza de Opera/Isabel II, north of the Calle Arenal and south of Gran Vía.

Happy Tapeando!! (they're toasting with frothy glasses of Coca-Cola, of course! )

Saludos, MadridMan

tapas is Madrid, you have the whole city to choose. as water never heard of it with tapas; you can ask for juice drinks, or syrup water base drinks, and will be ok with tapas lol!

You could order non-alcoholic beer, too! They say Madrid (or is the the country as a whole?) drinks MORE non-alcoholic beer than regular beer! And with that, you'd certainly get a free tapa.

Saludos, MadridMan

Vino Mosto!

Mosto, as pedmar reocmmends, is pretty common, too. It's basically a white grape juice and contains no (or a very tiny amount of) alcohol.

Saludos, MadridMan

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't even think of Mosto.

Another question if I can hijack my own thread.