Barcelona Vacation Ideas

We spent two weeks in Portugal and Spain visiting five areas: Porto, Lisbon, the Algarve, Seville, and Barcelona. The trip was great; well planned and with no issues. All of our tour guides were wonderful. Our tours consisted of museums, cathedrals, food tours, city tours, and wine and sherry tastings. We also received several restaurant suggestions in every area we visited and all of them were fantastic. We would highly recommend the agency we used to anyone traveling to these countries.

Wow, what a trip! My mother and I had been talking about seeing Portugal and Spain for many years but with Covid and children on the way, my wife and I could not commit to a good time to travel. We endeavored to travel shortly after the birth of our third child. My parents, my wife and I, and our six week old daughter travelled to Spain and Portugal with the assistance of this travel company. You would think a six week old provides some large obstacles to international travel but thanks largely due to our travel agency, we had nothing but ease and comfort throughout our journey. Our travel company anticipated all issues that we might have and was prepared to make adjustments as needed during our 11 night trip to Spain and Portugal. Everything was seamless, no waiting around or late tours. Our drivers and guides were all professionals who took extra effort to ensure we had time to change the baby or prepare her food as needed. And, if we needed to make any alterations to our plans or had questions about our tour, our travel agency provided a Whatsapp number that I simply needed texted for a quick reply.Firstly, we loved the itinerary. We saw everything that we felt we needed to see in our four cities. In each of them, we had at least one short tour to see the city itself and a longer tour where we ventured out to see a specific site outside the city proper. Each of the recommended sites were special in their own way and certainly worth the extra travel time to get to explore them, the Douro Valley north of Porto, Sintra Castle on the coast of Lisbon, Cordoba outside Seville, and Toledo to the south west of Madrid. There was a lot of moving on this trip but that is to be expected when traveling with an itinerary (a newborn to boot) and not going to a relaxing island.Besides our travel company planning the perfect trip, we had three other issues that worked out in our favor on this vacation. We were fortunate to have the world's easiest baby for one. We also chose to use the Doona stroller (a baby car seat and stroller in one) that worked perfectly for our tours and car rides as well as one way on the plane ride home!! The third was that all of our tour guides, drivers, and even the countries of Spain/Portugal were extremely helpful for those traveling with a small child. We were given extra assistance in the airports, on tours in the rain, and at all of our hotels to make traveling with a baby simple and painless. 

After visiting Madrid and other surrounding cities, Barcelona and Valencia in the past, I was looking for a trip focused on the southern region of Andalusia. This trip was very well organized including the cities visited, the transportation from city to city, the tours offered and the hotels. The private tours were excellent and comprehensive. The hotels were also of the highest quality and the combination of activities throughout the trip were perfect for me. My travel designer was also available 24/7 by email or phone.

My wife and I had a wonderful two week trip to Spain and Portugal. This was our first time in either country and we decided that we wanted to experience a variety of cities to get a flavor of the countries, see culture, history, and enjoy ourselves. We worked closely with Patricia at the travel agency both in developing the itinerary, figuring out the best places to go, and in figuring out the logistics around everything you need to do to make a 2 week, multiple city trip as seamless as possible.Patricia and the agency were terrific. We wanted to develop a broad itinerary with a combination of staying in major cities, having the possibility for day trips, reducing travel time as much as possible, and having exposure to different cultural backgrounds. We visited Barcelona (with a day trip to Girona/Figuera), Madrid (day trip to Toledo), Seville (day trip to Cordoba) and Lisbon. Patricia and team had outstanding local guides lined up in each of these places - tailored to the subject of the particular tour. We saw Dali - we had a Dali expert. We went ebiking, we had the owner of a bike shop who runs a tour business as well. We did Flamenco and tapas in Seville - we had a multi-talented Flamenco dancer who helped us understand the background of the city and its connection to dance and music. The guide choices were terrific.Patricia and team also were very strong logistically. In the process to set the itinerary, Patricia offered hotel choices and when I wanted something a bit different in some places, she had terrific additional options as well. Travel & transfers were all top notch, smooth, and well coordinated. She also helped reservations for dining and recommendations for places as well. When, late in the process, we wanted to add two friends to part of our trip, the process of adding them was seamless and easy. And responsiveness was unbelievable. She and her team were always available via WhatsApp (and responded immediately) to any questions. I always felt that if we needed anything, Patricia and her team were there to help.

Overall, we were very pleased with the service provided by our Spain and Portugal travel agent Senora Redondo. After outlining our preferences, she put together a very comprehensive and detailed itinerary and made all of the arrangements involved down to the last detail. The hotels were generally conveniently located and all were clean and provided efficient and attentive service. The Astoria in San Sebastian and the paradors in De Fuente de and Ribadeo were our favorites. In Santillana del Mar we would have chosen the parador outside the restoration since we prefer visiting real places not overrun by tourists. The other hotels were good overall, but we had great difficulty finding them. Directions from primary roads with good maps or a GPS in English would have been much appreciated. In both Lisbon and in Santiago del Compostella, our rooms were below street level, noisy and lacking privacy unless windows remained closed with curtains drawn. We found the room in the Hotel Inspira Marta cold and austere, like a gray and white concrete prison cell. In addition, the electronics were so complicated that we needed lessons to operate the lights. Senora Redondo arranged for three city tours. Our half-day city tour in Barcelona was disappointing and quite inefficient. The tour started late and our guide was equally disorganized. His explanation of the sites was cursory at best, and he spoke English rapidly and with a thick accent, which made him difficult to understand. Again we wasted hours visiting a restoration instead of authentic sites. We would have preferred an on/off city tour. On the following day we traveled with another company to Gerona and Figueres, which was far better, much more professional. Our guide was efficient, knowledgeable and well spoken. We had a similar positive experience on our Madrid city tour. Our favorite stops were Barcelona, Gerona, Figueras, San Sebastian, Debu, Bilbao, Comillas, Cudillero, Fuente de in Picos de Europa, Rebadeo, Lugo, Porto, Coimbre, Lisbon and Madrid. We visited other towns and cities, but ended up eliminating several of the suggested stops listed on our itinerary as the trip became too hectic partly because we spent so much time finding our way without good directions. Overall, we would give this Spain and Portugal travel agency and especially Senora Redondo a brava for a job well done and would recommend them to friends interested in traveling to Spain and Portugal. We loved our trip. We hope our comments will be helpful.