Best of Spain Tour: Barcelona, Madrid, Seville & More

Our travel agency planned a two week, multi-city trip for us, covering Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, Seville, the White Villages and Barcelona.  They arranged in-country hotels, transportation, drivers, guides, restaurant reservations and tours.  They did an excellent job on all fronts:  Professional, friendly, thoughtful and thorough.  Highly recommended.

Our travel agency's expertise, organization and guidance of our tour of Spain was exceptional. This travel planner is a great listener and thoroughly reviewed our profile to tailor the trip to our specific interests: architecture, museums and gastronomy. We traveled to Barcelona, San Sebastian, Madrid, Sevilla, and different towns in Andalucía. In addition to fantastic walking, museum and food tours (Tapas, Pintxos and Txakoli), Our travel planner arranged day trips to Dali Museum (Figueres), Bilbo Guggenheim, Toledo, Cordoba, and Granada. Our tour guides were all local, certified guides with expertise in art history, Spain’s history and local foods.  The guides were extremely knowledgeable and friendly. They freely offered suggestions for dinner and activities on our free day in each city.  Our travel planner encouraged us to self-drive from Sevilla to the Costa del Sol region. Our drive through the mountains was spectacular with acres of sunflowers and beautiful white villages.  We stopped in Ronda and spent the afternoon exploring the city with its breath-taking ravines and gorge spanning bridges.  We would not be able to self-drive without this travel agency loaning us their Wi-Fi Away device that allowed us to use Google Maps to guide us to various places.  In addition, he emailed us our detailed itinerary with times, guides’ name, and description of our activities. At our first hotel, we found our full travel package neatly organized with several envelopes containing our train/plane tickets, maps for each city and side trips, restaurant suggestions by city/town and another copy of our itinerary. Our travel planner kept in contract via text to welcome us and gentle reminders to bring our passports to Alhambra. He was available to us 24/7 as he was during our planning process. People inquire “What was your favorite city or place?” and we can’t pick just one:  it is like asking which of your children do you love the most.  We are already thinking about where to travel next with this travel agency, perhaps back to Spain and on to Portugal or Morocco. Thank you again to our travel planner and your entire staff for an unforgettable trip.

I would give the company 5 stars because the trip worked out wonderfully. However, Nuria, the original Spain travel agent I dealt with, was on maternity leave when I went to do my final details including recommendations where to eat dinner, hotel questions, etc. I worked with Patricia on the reservation andAntonio on the dinner arrangements and both turned out to be very good but I felt that Nuria should have told me she was going on maternity leave and that Iwould be working with Patricia. It was not until I had sent 3 emails to Nuria that Patricia answered back.Also, I found that the 5 star hotel in Bilbao was definitely not a 5 star (i.e. no evening turndown, small rooms - finally got the room we wanted after the third try, no doorman at the door when we arrived). I think they should have suggested the other 5 star hotel even though it was very modern and I prefer old world because of the amenities. On the other hand, the hotel in San Sebastian, the 5 star was closed for renovation so we stayed at the 4 star Villa Soro,was more than a 4 star and the people were wonderful. The hotel in Barcelona, Casa Fuster, was excellent.The drivers were all on time and the guides we had were very good especially in Figueres/Girona, San Sebastian and Bilbao. The driver who took us fromSan Sebastian to Bilbao along the coast road and spent the day with us was wonderful. He had also driven into the Basque country the day before. I emailed the company he works for to tell him so.

I cannot say enough fabulous things about the luxury tour company. It exceeded every expectation my husband and I had for customer service, care, attention to detail and planning our 12-day tour through Spain in mid-January.

We are seasoned world travelers and have been on many amazing and wonderful adventures. We've had great experiences with many tour companies, but none compare to the level of expertise and excellence of this tour company.

We simply told our trip planners that we wanted to go to Spain, and didn't know exactly where or what to do or see. They took it from there -- all by email, though they certainly were available any time by phone had we wanted to talk. We prefer email. They asked about our interests, what level of accommodations we wanted, how physically active we wanted a tour to be. They then emailed a sample itinerary. We tweeked it some. And voila. They planned a trip for us that was magical and memorable on all levels.

We were greeted at every stop by a driver and taken wherever our schedule directed. All of our plane and train travel in Spain was arranged. All we needed to do was show up. When we arrived in Barcelona, as well as Madrid a week later, there was a taxi strike. We worried how we would get to a soccer (football) match in Barcelona. Our young woman guide for two days simply said, "Don't worry about it. I am your eyes and ears, and I will take care of it." And she did. A driver picked us up, delivered us to the stadium, and waited for us at a nearby location until after the match, when he ferried us back to our hotel.

On our day in Barcelona that was planned for all things Gaudi, it was raining quite hard. Our guide that day did some quick thinking and as I told him, took lemons and made lemonade. He and our driver took us to a small company town outside of Barcelona that Gaudi had designed. In fact, the small church there that he designed served as a first impression of his large cathedral in Barcelona. Then our guide took to a former hospital that exhibited fascinating architecture and history. By the time we finished touring it, and following a delightful lunch, the rain had let up enough for us to visit more Gaudi designs.

Our guides arranged for us to visit a private Gastronomic Society in San Sebastian, which was so much fun, and our lunch was outstanding. They also got us into the private home/office/studio of two art restorers in Sevilla. After the duo showed us the type of art (old paintings and statuary) they restored, and how they did it in their studio, they invited us to their personal upstairs apartment for some refreshments and lively conversation about Spain, Sevilla, politics and food. So delightful and interesting.

Our entire trip was like this. Each and every guide at every stop was bright, knowledgeable and personable. Our trip planners laid pearls here and there along the way -- small delights and pleasures -- that surprised us and kept us totally engaged in the history, culture, food, wine, art and joy of Spain.

This tour company is 100% responsible for making our trip the amazing adventure it was. We look forward to returning next year. This tour company will plan our trip through Northwestern and Southern Spain and then to Portugal.

If you're interested in traveling anywhere in Spain or Portugal, and you want luxury and the trip of a lifetime to deposit into your memory bank to warm you when you're too old to walk the cobblestones, call or email this tour company immediately. Or email me. I'm very happy to share more details of our heavenly trip.

P.S. Our 12-day holiday covered: Barcelona; San Sebastian; Bilbao; Sevilla; Cordoba; Madrid; Toledo. We took two flights and one high-speed train during that time.