Family-Friendly Tour to Spain and Portugal in December

Overall, the trip and our travel agency were great. With one exception, all of our guides/tours  were good to excellent. Our tour guide in Segovia was the best (I apologize for not being able to remember her name at this point, but she was fantastic!). Our tour of the palace in Madrid was the worst tour, mostly because it was a large group and the guide had to do both the Spanish and English versions. In the future, I would not agree to that sort of tour - it wasn't worth it.

All of our private drivers were good. The best was our driver from Grenada to Seville. It was nice that on at least some of the longer drives, the drivers spoke excellent English and thus were able to tell us about the areas we were driving through. And every one of the drivers arrived on time.

The hotels were as expected with two exceptions. The hotel in Seville gave us an upgrade and we had one of the nicest hotel rooms we have ever stayed in in an European city. The hotel itself was also the nicest of all the ones we stayed in. On the other hand, our room at the hotel in Madrid was one of the worst. The room (301) was small (though the bathroom was  nice), had one window high on the wall that faced a brick wall (so no natural light), and was apparently situated just above the hotel rubbish bins. By the end of the day, the room stunk! The hotel has a good location, but there is no way we would ever stay there again. The locations of all the Spanish hotels were good. The hotel in Lisbon was not a great location and would not stay there again for that reason, though the hotel itself was very nice and had great public spaces.

Great trip! We had great hotels in good locations to be able to explore the cities we visited. It was well planned and the travel company took care of everything including a flight issue we had going from Madrid to Lisbon.

Our Zicasso tour agent organized an incredible trip to Portugal and Spain, which included the cities of Lisbon, Sintra, Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona. She engaged experienced and knowledgeable tour guides in each of the cities, which made our trip enjoyable. We were able to learn about the culture and history of each of the cities from our tour guides.

She secured reservations for four-star hotels, in-country transportation, tickets to museums, and entertainment, all of which were wonderful.

We have many beautiful memories from our trip, thanks to our agent. She was resourceful and responsive before and during our trip. We would recommend this tour company and would use them again for travel to Portugal and Spain.

This travel company organized a 3 week trip through Spain and Portugal for my wife and me in late September and early October. We couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

We started in Barcelona (side trip to Montserrát) and worked our way to San Sebastián (and Bilbao), Madrid (and Toledo), Granada, Málaga, Ronda, Sevilla, and then to Lisbon (and Sintra, Casçais, Estoril). Our travel company arranged 4 star accommodations and activities for us at each destination. The hotels were mostly boutique style - smallish and well appointed, with excellent service and very nice rooms in great locations.

Each stop included a private guide for 3-5 hours, longer for the day trip excursions. These proved to be the difference maker. The private guide experience has so many intangible benefits. It allowed us not only to see the sights but to learn about history and culture and people in a more intimate way. The guides were all high integrity people — punctual, professional, thoughtful, and knowledgeable — and most of them were born and raised in the city or region we were visiting. They looked out for us and took their time to ensure we were having a great experience. They offered recommendations on how to spend the rest of our time in the city and places to eat. We never felt rushed or burdensome. Our stupid questions were met with patience. We laughed a lot and learned a lot. 

It was clear that our travel agency was staying on top of our travels and reconfirming arrangements with service providers ahead of us as the trip unfolded. With the dozens and dozens of detailed arrangements, pretty much everything came off without a hitch. That said, you can often tell the character of a company in how they deal with things that go wrong. We had one minor hiccup in Sevilla when a service provider failed to arrange a horse carriage ride for us. The provider was incredibly apologetic and offered us a meal in the way of making amends, which we accepted. I emailed out travel agency that evening to make them aware and was surprised the next day when our travel agency had booked another carriage ride for us. This minor incident spoke volumes about this company and the quality of the providers they do business with. 

We are eternally grateful to our travel agency and team for making this a trip of a lifetime. Thanks!

This travel agency arranged a wonderful trip for my son and I through Lisbon, Sevilla, Corboda, Toledo and Madrid.  I didn't have a lot of time to research and plan the trip, but they asked the right questions and arranged everything so that we would get a taste of the local area, food, customs and history, all through excellent tour guides and lists of other attractions and restaurants.  Our agent was very responsive and concerned, checking in with us periodically, and taking immediate action when there was a problem at one hotel.  I knew that someone had our best interests in mind throughout.  I highly recommend this company to help arrange your trip.  They will set your mind at ease and provide you with an experience full of amazing memories.