Escorted Tours and Guided Holidays in Spain
Spain is really several countries in one: the Moorish south, Catalonia with its own language and cooking, the green Basque coast, the wine country along the Ebro and Duero, and the high plains around Madrid. Our holidays take one region at a time, usually five to eight days based in one or two hotels, so you see a place properly rather than through a coach window.
You fly out and a tour manager and coach meet you at the other end. Timed entry to the Alhambra, the Mezquita or the Prado is arranged and paid for before you leave home.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Spain Tours
Our Spanish tours include return flights and airport transfers, hotel accommodation, an English-speaking tour manager throughout, all coach travel needed for the itinerary, and the entrance fees for every listed excursion. Meals vary: some tours are half board with wine and water at dinner, others include breakfast plus a set number of evening meals and lunches. Each tour page lists exactly which meals are covered, and we would rather you checked that page than assumed.
More than on a coach tour of the English countryside, less than a walking holiday. The Alhambra takes several hours on foot across terraces and gardens, Córdoba and Girona are cobbled, and Granada and Ronda are hilly. Coaches drop as close as local traffic rules allow, and there is usually free time when you can sit in a plaza rather than walk. If stairs or distances are a concern, ring us and we will talk you through a specific itinerary honestly.
Almost all of our Spanish holidays fly out, then use a private coach at the destination for the whole tour. Flights are around two to three hours depending on the airport, and rather longer to Lanzarote. A couple of the wine tours are also offered in a coach format. Ask us how a particular departure is travelling and which UK airport it uses, as that varies between tours and dates.
Yes, and a good number of our travellers do. Open Group departures are scheduled tours that individuals join, so you will be with others from the start and the tour manager handles the arrangements. Prices are quoted per person sharing a twin or double room, and a single supplement applies for sole occupancy — the amount is shown on each tour page, as it depends on the hotels used.
Yes. Gardening clubs, U3A branches, church groups and groups of friends regularly take a whole departure as a Private Group. Our Spanish itineraries are costed on a group of around 25 travelling together, so a club of that size fits neatly. Dates, pace and the balance of guided visits to free time can be adjusted, and interests such as gardens, art or wine can be given more weight. Tell us roughly how many you are and when you would like to go.
Inland Andalucía can be, honestly. Seville and Córdoba regularly reach 40°C in July and August, which is hard work when you are on your feet in an old town. Spring and autumn are far kinder for the south, Madrid and the wine regions. The northern coast around Bilbao and San Sebastián stays greener and cooler, and the Costa Brava is pleasant through the summer with sea breezes.
Andalucía: Seville, Córdoba and Granada
The south is where most people start, and with good reason. Andalucía was under Moorish rule from the eighth century to the fifteenth, and the buildings left behind are extraordinary: the Real Alcázar in Seville, still a working royal residence; Córdoba's Mezquita, with its forest of red-and-white arches; and the Alhambra above Granada, where entry is by timed ticket and daily numbers are capped.
Our Andalucian tours usually run to seven days with three nights in Seville and three in Granada, breaking the drive between them at Córdoba. Along the way there is Ronda on its gorge, Jerez de la Frontera for a sherry bodega and the dancing horses of the Royal Andalusian School, and a working olive oil mill in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Distances are manageable and the towns are compact, though the old quarters are cobbled and Granada in particular is built on a hill.
Catalonia, Girona and the Costa Brava
Catalonia packs a great deal into a short journey. Inland there is Montserrat, the serrated mountain with its Benedictine monastery, and the cava cellars of the Penedès. North of Barcelona the coast turns rocky and pine-covered around Tossa de Mar and Cadaqués, where Dalí kept his house, and a boat runs down from Roses along the cliffs.
Girona itself is the quiet pleasure: Roman walls you can walk, coloured houses hanging over the Onyar, and a cathedral staircase of ninety-odd steps. In May the whole old town is filled with flower installations for Temps de Flors, and the coastal botanical gardens at Marimurtra and Cap Roig are at their best.
Barcelona features on several itineraries for Gaudí, Miró and Picasso, and has its own page if you want the city in more detail.
Madrid, Toledo and the Golden Triangle of Art
Three of Europe's great collections sit within a few hundred yards of each other on the Paseo del Prado. The Prado holds the Velázquez and Goya rooms and the Bosch triptychs; the Reina Sofía has Picasso's Guernica; the Thyssen-Bornemisza fills in everything between, from early Italians to Hopper.
Our Madrid tours pair the museums with day trips out onto the plateau. Toledo, an hour south, keeps its Arab, Jewish and Christian monuments inside the walls, and El Greco's Burial of the Count of Orgaz still hangs in the church it was painted for. Ávila is ringed by the most complete medieval walls in Spain, and Aranjuez has a Bourbon palace with formal gardens along the Tagus.
Madrid has its own regional page for anyone wanting longer in the city.
Wine, pintxos and the northern table
Northern Spain suits people who like to eat and drink well and take their time over it. Our Rioja tour is based in Logroño, with tastings at Eguren Ugarte and Marqués de Riscal, whose cellars sit beneath Frank Gehry's titanium roof at Elciego, plus the hill town of Laguardia and the old bodega quarter at Haro.
In Ribera del Duero you stay at Finca Torremilanos, a working winery outside Aranda de Duero, and visit Valladolid and Burgos with its cathedral.
Further north, Bilbao is the base for the Basque country, where the evening ritual is pintxos — small plates lined up along the bar, eaten standing, one bar after another. Catalonia has its own version with a tapas dinner and cava tasting.
