Luxury 2- Week City Highlights Tour of Spain and Portugal

Settle in at your accommodation’s comfortable restaurant for breakfast prepared by a recognized chef before you get ready for an adventurous day across Barcelona to explore the city’s best sights and highlights. The tour, customizable to suit your preferences, will showcase the phenomenal wavy facade of Casa Milá, unravel the artistic legends of Casa Batlló, and share panoramic views atop Montjüic. You will enter the world-famous Sagrada Familia to admire the meticulous works of Antoni Gaudi up close and stroll the fairytale avenues past elaborate sculptures and mosaics of Park Güell before the day is done.

Spanish history and beauty are not limited to Barcelona’s borders, and there will be much to uncover during today’s day trip to the coastal shores of Costa Brava. A drive over the Spanish countryside's rugged green mountains will lead you to the charming, white-washed Indiano Colonial-style village of Calella. After a peaceful galavant through town, you will continue along the promenade of Llafranc with fragrant flowers to your right and sweeping seascapes to your left. Finally, the looming castle walls of Begur and medieval alleys of Peratallada will show you to the aromatic and colorful Gardens of Cap Roig.

Relish a free morning in Barcelona to explore the city as you please and at your leisure. You may shop the lavish stores that fill the Passeig de Gràcia or view the otherworldly, bejeweled and embellished music halls of Palau de la Música. You may wander down to the coast and tuck into a light bite and warm, bold coffee brewed at a stylish café on Barceloneta Beach. Later on, you will be whisked away to a glamorously restored former monastery stationed in Spain’s Andalusian city of Granada.

Your expert guide will meet you after breakfast for an insider’s tour of one of the world’s greatest memories of Moorish and European heritage, the Alhambra. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is a stately rose-tinted complex set against a backdrop of flourishing fields and rising mountains, a spectacle owing to its poetic Moorish descriptions as a “pearl set in emeralds”. You will wander the landmark’s breathtaking botanical Generalife Gardens and applaud the Nasrid palaces’ opulence and grandeur before you set off for Sevilla and spend the evening tucked away in a charming Spanish casa.

Sevilla boasts medieval complexes and grand palaces seemingly lifted from the pages of fantasy stories. In fact, you will recognize the Alcazar’s preserved royal rooms as the Martell residence on the Dornish peninsula of the hit show Game of Thrones. Your tour of Sevilla will lead to baths below the castle, Jewish heritage sites peppering the Barrio de Santa Cruz, and the ambitious towering spires of the Cathedral Santa Maria de la Sede. In the evening, you will indulge in the fabulous flavors of Spanish cuisine on a lavish tapas tour to the city’s many coveted and celebrity-owned tapas bars.

You will wake up, savor breakfast, and transfer to the Santa Justa Train Station to catch a fast train to Cordoba, a floral paradise known for hosting the renowned Festival de Los Patios every year in May. All throughout the year, travelers can admire the colorful hanging flowers and floral pots punctuating the city’s white-washed homes’ balconies and terraces. Your cultural immersion in Cordoba will continue within the decorated Moorish halls of the Cordoba Mosque-Cathedral before you pursue the Jewish Quarter and indulge in a traditional garlic-filled gazpacho soup. Next up will be the Iberian highlight of Madrid.

Madrid is a massive capital bragging elegant boulevards, manicured parks, and rich collections of European art that you will be thrilled to discover during today’s private city highlights tour. Your journey will begin with panoramas of the Opera House of Madrid as you stroll the lush lawns of the Royal Palace gardens. Madrid's cultural charms and historic gems may be found in and around the city’s light-flooded Plaza Mayor before you visit the country’s most famous museum, the Prado Museum. Inside, you will come across emblematic works of art that trace back millennia of European artistry.

The ancient city of Toledo is planted amongst Spain’s proliferating countryside, and within its historic borders, you will flip through tales of knights and nobles who once marched these legendary towns. Your private tour of Toledo will introduce you to the fantasy of former civilizations as you visit revered churches, mosques, palaces, fortresses, and synagogues immaculately preserved in the hillside city. Highlights such as the Cathedral of Toledo, Monastery of San Juan Los Reyes, and the Burial of Conde Orgaz by El Greco will take you back to the Middle Ages today.

The final few days of your European highlights tour will be spent in the picturesque cities of Portugal, with Lisbon being the preferred destination for your first two nights. Lisbon’s colorfully painted city sits on the banks of the Tagus Estuary below the looming olive-green hills, and the cosmopolitan Portuguese capital boasts a skyline of historic buildings and contemporary hotels. After checking into your lavish suite, you will tour Old Lisbon from the tranquil Jardim das

Amoreiras aqueduct to the Principe Real Gardens before you step inside the elegant Church of São Roque edifice and wander the historic Rossio Square.

You will escape Lisbon’s hustle and bustle this morning for the quiet tree-hugged avenues meandering through the luxuriant forest of Pena Park. Inside the thriving greenery, you will find hidden caves, medieval monuments, and serene water features that make for an ideal stop to breathe in the crisp, fresh air. Your tour will continue up the slopes of the Sintra Mountain to the lofty viewpoints of Pena Palace, affording unparalleled spectacles of the Portuguese coastline and access to the decorated hallways and multi-colored facade of the iconic hilltop palace.

The medieval capital of ancient Portugal, Coimbra, stands between Lisbon and your next destination, Porto. Should you wish to make a stop here during your travels today, you will adore the weighty historic atmosphere that oozes from the hillside city’s century-old towns and baroque districts. After a light lunch at a chic café, you will continue to the exquisite coastal city of Porto for your final nights in Portugal. You may spend your afternoon freely wandering along cobbled streets past inviting restaurants emanating rich culinary fragrances and along the riverside promenade for spectacular sunset views.

Your specialist guide will collect you from your lobby in the morning for a private highlights tour of Porto, beginning at the docks where modest little boats sail across the sparkling waters with barrels of wine in tow. After wandering the riverside neighborhood, you will escape to the Douro Valley’s bucolic countryside and spend your day sipping on sensational Portuguese vintages produced from the prolific vineyards growing in the region’s rich soil. Explore wine cellars, taste an assortment of immaculate pairings, and appreciate the unspoiled views as you unwind on the last afternoon of your vacation.

If you wake up early enough, you may catch glimpses of the sunrise pouring golden light across the waters and ochre-roofed buildings of Porto while the sounds of locals opening their stalls and stores chimes from the streets below. Your private transfer will show you to the Porto Airport as soon as you are finished with breakfast, have done any last-minute shopping at gorgeous boutique stores, and have captured one or two more photographs to remember your trip by. Until you return to European shores, you will say your “adeus” for the time being.