Spain Vacations in August

The trip was 5 star in every way. All of the drivers were on time at the airports, train stations and hotels. The accommodations were all wonderful and centrally located. The tour guides in every city were superb. The itinerary was 2 days in Barcelona where we enjoyed a tour of the city by bicycle and a wonderful tapas class, a high speed train to Sevilla where we stayed for 2 days and picked up a car. We drove all through Andalucia visiting Ronda, Granada(Alhambra) and the beach town of Nerja. We dropped the car off in Malaga and took the train back to Madrid where we spent a day in Toledo and closed with dinner and the finest Flamenco show in all of Spain. Our travel representative prepared a wonderful journey for my wife and me. I would recommend this travel agency with a grade of A+............Harold S

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.

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!