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Madrid Travel Guide – Vegan Restaurants in Madrid

09.09.17

The final destination on our Portugal/Spain trip was Madrid and Segovia so I have a Madrid travel guide for you today! So, Madrid was one place I wasn’t too excited about since I couldn’t find anything super cool to do. However, Madrid surprised me. Not in terms of things to do, but food! There are the most amazing vegan restaurants in Madrid that you just have to try!

So, let’s just start with Vegan Restaurants in Madrid:

La Hummuseria: This place was definitely my favourite because I’m a huge fan of hummus and this place had the best hummus I’ve ever had. The name was so fitting as most of their dishes came with hummus and everything was so affordable. Ever since we went to this restaurant, Gursheel has become a huge fan of hummus as well and we have been eating hummus daily. Now I just need to find the best recipe ever for hummus so I can start making it at home. Oh, and the decor here was so cool!

Restaurant Viva Burger: This was another vegan restaurant in Madrid that was amazing! It’s a burger place that also had such a cool style. We ordered takeout from here and ate our burgers at our airbnb but, seriously, the burgers were SOOO GOOD!! and we ordered fries as well as a side that came with the vegan garlic mayo dip that was delicious!! Such a great place and I highly recommend! It was a bit pricier compared to the other restaurants we went to though, but if you come during their special hours, you can get a good deal!

B13 Bar: This again was an amazing vegan restaurant in Madrid! This was the first restaurant we went to on our first night in Madrid and we were lined up outside the place at 8pm, so right when it opened we got to pick the first set of seats. This was so useful as 10 minutes later, the restaurant was PACKED! Again, they had such amazing food at such amazing prices. We ate a feast and it didn’t cost much at all. But the most memorable thing was the cake. We got this huge slice of vegan chocolate cake and I still talk about it to Gursheel. It was hands down the best vegan cake I’ve had!

VEGA: This was once again another vegan restaurant in Madrid that I wish we got to stay for dinner. We can during the day and like most restaurants in Madrid, it opened at 8 pm for dinner. We were starving, so we went inside and order some appetizers. Some fancy ones at that. And they were really good that I wished we had stayed longer.

I think those were the main vegan restaurants in Madrid that we got to try and loved. In terms of things to do, there honestly wasn’t much that I would recommend. We did the main touristy things but they were a bit underwhelming compared to what we saw in Lisbon, Seville and the Algarve. We took the transit system around the city from our airbnb (as it was a bit outside the city) and it was pretty easy to navigate and find our way around. Some of the highlights were the following:

Retiro Park: This is the largest park in Madrid and has a huge pond in the middle where you can go kayaking or canoeing. We just walked around the park and tried to find shade as much as possible because it was HOT when we went!

Caixforum Vertical Garden: I was searching for cool things to see in Madrid and this came up. As a plant lover I was pretty excited about this, however, it was a bit disappointing. It was just this one wall that had some plants growing on it. Kind of cool, but I expected something more.

Royal Palace of Madrid and the Royal Botanical Gardens: The Royal Palace is where the Spanish royalty lives and the botanical gardens are in their backyard. This was a nice place to go for an evening walk and is filled with tourists!

I think that’s about all I would recommend. We tried some of the other must see places in Madrid, but I think they were too underwhelming for me to mention. But if you ever do go to Madrid, go for the vegan food. It is a fairly modern city compared to the other places we visiting in Portugal and Spain, so you can’t expect much in terms of some cool historic places. If any of you have ever been and there was something you loved, I would love to hear about it. Let me know in the comments below if you have ever tried any of these restaurants and what you enjoyed the most in Madrid.

Price Break Down (2 days in Madrid):

Food: 61.92 euro

Gas: 48.48 euro (to fill up our rental car, we drove to Madrid from Seville)

Transit: 12 euro

Total: 122.4 euro (half of it on food, hehe)

I really hope you enjoyed these travel guides I did for our Portugal and Spain trip and if you learned anything in this post it is that there are amazing vegan restaurants in Madrid that are must visit!

3 Layer Microwavable Bento Box Review – BPA Free

09.05.17

Bento boxes are so cool! But they’re super expensive for what they are. I mean you can get a whole set of tupperware with the price of just one bento box. That is why I set out to find the best bento box at the most affordable price, and I think I found it! You’re going to love this bento box review!

So, most bento boxes are two layers, which actually doesn’t work too great for Gursheel and I. We usually take fruit, vegetables and a meal to work, so three layers is ideal. This bento box that I found is three layers, ships to Canada and the final price (including shipping and taxes) is less than $32 CAD for 2 boxes! That comes out to be $16 each. Although to get this price, you need to buy 2 boxes and also allows for free shipping. I bought it on Amazon.ca and got it the next day, thanks to the almighty one day shipping!

I don’t know about you but that price is unheard of for a high quality bento box! (My friend bought a mon bento box for $40!) And this bento box is actually much better than others, since it is BPA free, microwavable, leak proof, has a divider and three whole layers! It comes in blue, pink and green, so I bought the blue one for myself and the pink for Gursheel (hehe, I’m kidding)!

I can’t wait to share meal planning ideas revolving around this bento box. So, get your hands on this box before prices increase!

When you go to Amazon.ca and find this box or you can use this link to get there directly: Bento Box, you will find that the price is $16.99 for the blue one and $17.99 for either the green or pink one. However, when you go to checkout, a discount will be applied. For us it was $3.50! I bought another item that I needed with this order so I could get free Amazon Prime shipping (total needs to be $35 for this).

So, now on to the actual bento box review. Since I got this bento box the day after I ordered it, I went right to work to test it out. It microwaves perfectly, but I wouldn’t put the lid on it since it may get ruined (didn’t want to ruin it so didn’t test this out). It also is definitely leakproof, since I put some dhal (lentil soup) in the bottom compartment and shook it around, and nothing leaked!

The other concern I had was it seemed small. The bottom layer is deeper than the top two. I thought our fruit wouldn’t fit, but I tested it out using the largest fruit we usually pack: the honeydew, and it fit perfectly! So, I think the size is perfect!

Anyways, I’m sure it is back to school for a lot of you and I thought I would join in on the excitement on starting fresh. My goal is to start eating healthier because I know how important it is to take care of your body through the food you eat and this bento box is a good way to start. I hope you guys enjoyed this bento box review and if you guys purchase this box let me know what you think? I can’t wait to share healthy recipes and meal planning guides using this bento box!

Kam Travels

Seville Travel Guide

08.31.17

I’m back and with a Seville Travel Guide!

If you could only had one day in Spain or Portugal and needed to decide where to go, Seville would hands down be it! I’ve been to Barcelona in the past, and during this trip went to Madrid, Segovia and Seville, and Seville is definitely my favorite. Walking around in Seville feels unreal and everywhere you go seems majestic. So today, I will talk about our 2 day Seville travel guide!

Starting with the one place I was most excited about: the Royal Alcazar, famous for where the Dorne scenes in Game of Thrones are filmed. You can actually recognize a lot of the scenes from the show at the Alcazar. The Alcazar of Seville is actually the royal palace that the royal family of Spain still uses (but only the upper floors). It is BEAUTIFUL! It has so much beautiful architecture and was original built by the Moorish Muslim kings. Everywhere you go here you will get amazing pictures with the most beautiful backdrop. And Gursheel and I made sure to take a lot! The next few pictures are all from the Royal Alcazar and I love them all!

The cost to enter the Alcazar is 9.50 euro, however if you are a student, it is only 2 euro. I still am an unclassified student at UBC so I got to enter with the student price! Which was definitely a win! Also, you can purchase the tickets to the Alcazar online, which is actually a good idea, since the lines for getting tickets is LONG! Another thing to remember is that the Palace closes at 5pm! Oh, and they have security and metal detectors here, although we wore our kirpans and we were fine to enter. The Alcazar is the one place on the Seville travel guide that you HAVE to go to!

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These were all pictures at the Alcazar of Seville and I hope you will agree with me that the Alcazar is beautiful! Everywhere you go and look you just want to have pictures taken! You can easily spend a few hours here, although the intense heat of Seville does prevent you from being outside for too long.

Right beside the Alcazar of Seville is the famous Seville Cathedral which is stunning! The fee to enter is 8 euro, although for students it is 4 euro. The Cathedral is open till 7 pm, so you can easily spend a few hours here after visiting the Alcazar.

My first impression of this cathedral was Lord of the Rings. You remember that scene from the Fellowship of the Ring where the fellowship is in Mines of Moria and being chased by the goblins in this giant hall. Well that is how it felt being in this Cathedral. It is massive and is the largest cathedral in the world. You can also climb to the Giralda, or the Bell Tower from the Cathedral and it is quite the workout. But once you get to the top you get an amazing view of the city!

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This was the view we got from the top!

Another place I wanted to visit in Seville was the Maria Luisa Park. Gursheel and I actually walked around everywhere in Seville from our airbnb (which was amazing btw) just so we could appreciate the city. However, be warned, you have to walk quite a bit to get in between places and it is HOT! Seville was always 40 degrees if not more everyday we were there!

We walked to Maria Luisa Park and it was far. I think it took us 30 minutes in the heat to get there. But it was well worth it. We took a break in the shade of trees and got some amazing photos as well.

And right by the park is the Plaza de Espana which is a plaza with amazing architectural detail. You may also recognize it from the Star Wars movie.

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Another place that was in the middle of the city that I really wanted to visit was the Metropol Prasol. It is a wooden structure that is the largest in the world. The structures apparently join to form a large mushroom, although I didn’t see the mushroom. You can visit level 1 of the structure for free, although to get the the second and third level you have to pay a small fee. We didn’t get a chance to visit the top, although the small fee of 4 euro makes it an affordable thing to do. I couldn’t find a good shot of this place but you can see a part of the structure on the top right of this picture.

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Everywhere we went to in Seville felt like we were in an old movie and the details of every building we saw were amazing. I’ve never taken this many pictures of myself but I sure am glad I did!

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In terms of vegan food in Seville, there is a lot. My favorite place was Organics because it is all vegan, it is affordable and super yummy and healthy. We also got some delicious vegan gelato from Puro and Bio.

One thing I have to mention in this Seville Travel Guide is that water is essential! So, get yourselves a good water bottle that keeps water cold and you will be golden. Seville is a hot city and water is a necessity. I have a S’well water bottle and it seriously is the best!

Price Break Down (2 days in Seville):

Food: 63.50 euro

Gas: 23.14 euro (to fill up our rental car)

Entertainment: 30.50 euro

Stamps: 2.55 euro

Total: 119.69 euro

Hope you enjoyed this Seville travel guide. Up next, our final destination: Madrid/Segovia!