Eating tapas in Ronda

Here in Ronda, being one of Spain's most popular tourist destinations, we have maybe 150 or more bars and restaurants, with a lot of them concentrated in the city center where all the tourists tend to be dropped off.

If you live here and make the mistake of speaking English in any of these establishments we get confused for tourists, and then charged extra. It's shameful an they shouldn't be allowed to do it but they do and they get away with it as well.

I've often thought of creating a webpage naming and shaming the bars and restaurants that have two prices but the effort of doing it is too much and of course I'd probably get sued.

The best approach that expats follow is to avoid the central city tapas bars, pizzerias, and other restaurants and to go somewhere else where the staff don't see as many tourists, usually that means finding a bar that Rondeños frequent.

The feeling of being fleeced when you live in a city isn't nice, and the attitude of many of the local business owners to tourists and expats is that we have loads of money so why not double the bill?

It's actually reached the stage where we are no longer willing to be taken advantage of and we're standing our ground more often, I for one expect the same price and quality of service that locals pay, and since I'm making an effort to speak Spanish I believe this is the least I should expect.

Expats who successfully integrate into Spanish society are the people who don't put up with that sort of discrimination, and in most cases tourists wouldn't be able to pick them out of the crowd. That is my aim while I live in Spain.