• Bookings in accommodation and restaurants are expected to exceed 80% again during the holidays.
• Easter Week in Sotillo de la Ribera, a Festival of Regional Tourist Interest, is a new attraction for tourists on the Ribera del Duero Wine Route.

Aranda de Duero, 19 March 2024

Easter is looking very favourable for the establishments on the Ribera del Duero Wine Route, which in the last few days prior to its arrival are approaching a very high percentage of occupancy. Most of the accommodations are close to 80% of reservations and the restaurants assure that they expect to reach the maximum of their capacity during the festive days. Restaurants along the Route, such as Molino de Palacios in Peñafiel or El Viso in Gumiel de Mercado, already have reservations of around 70% and expect them to increase in the days leading up to the festivities due to last minute requests. David Izquierdo, chef at El 51 del Sol, in Aranda de Duero, comments that “they are at full capacity”, reaching 100% reservations on some days.

For their part, the tourist offices continue to receive calls interested in the celebrations of the season and bookings for the activities they manage. Many of the leisure establishments and museums say that they are experiencing a slight delay in bookings compared to other years. However, forecasts point to maintaining the numbers of 2023, which closed at over 80% occupancy on average.

In recent years, many tourist services have been booming during the four days of Easter. A clear example is Peñafiel Castle which, in anticipation of the visits that are concentrated from Thursday to Sunday, opts to limit access to cars, providing tourists with a bus that allows them to reach the door every 20 minutes.

Easter Week in Sotillo de la Ribera, a Festival of Regional Tourist Interest

The heritage value of Easter Week in Ribera del Duero has increased this year with the recent granting of the designation of Fiesta of Regional Tourist Interest to Sotillo de la Ribera for its Easter Week. This village, with around 500 inhabitants, has had this tradition for more than four centuries and its distinguishing features include a procession in which around 16 bonfires are lit along the route, Roman soldiers accompanying the procession and the singing of a Miserere in Latin. The organisers point out that this designation is “an important step towards consolidating the conservation of the tradition, attracting more tourism to the municipality and providing more economic resources for its maintenance“.

Easter Week in Sotillo de la Ribera joins the Bajada del Ángel in Peñafiel and Aranda de Duero, which are Festivals of National and Regional Tourist Interest, respectively. This particular tradition takes place on Easter Sunday and is celebrated in very few Spanish towns. In it, a boy or girl dressed as an angel descends through a pulley mechanism to remove the Virgin’s mourning cloak, announcing the resurrection of Christ. In Peñafiel it takes place in the well-known Plaza del Coso square and in Aranda de Duero it is held in front of the church of Santa María.

Attached files:
Easter Week celebrations attract more wine tourists on the Ribera del Duero Wine Route