SPAIN

EXPERIENCE SPAIN LIKE A LOCAL IN SOME OF OUR MOST LOVED SPOTS

This is just a small sample of major sites, often visited on our trips, as many flights fly directly into Barcelona and Madrid from North America and beyond. Please don't forget, we always recommend the more under-discovered spots in Spain on any itinerary, such as: Cordoba, Segovia, Ronda, Malaga, Gibraltar, Nerja, Almeria, Burgos, Pamplona, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Tarragona, Girona, Santiago de Compostela and the different routes of the Camino de Santiago, Lugo, Vigo, Santander, Zaragoza, Teruel, Albarracin, Alcala de Jucar, Sagunto, Peñiscola, Morella, Alicante and all the wine regions, just to name a few!

Welcome to Spain and part of the ‘cradle of western civilization’. You will be walking the lands of many important people in history like Hannibal, Roman Emperors, the Conquistadors, the Catholic Monarchs, Goya and Picasso, Football and acting legends like Messi, Iniesta, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz. 

MADRID

A popular and easy arrival and/or departure city as one of the best places to start your trip or finish your trip in Spain. It is the geographic center of the Iberian Peninsula and the heart of Castilian Spain. as well as our country’s capital of course. Madrid has something for all types: Real Madrid for sports fans; the Prado and Reina Sofia museum for art lovers; el Retiro park for the laid back; some of the most interesting people-watching: and historical monuments with that quintessential Spanish character. Madrid as a modern city is also one of the best places for nightlife in Europe and the financial and urban metropolis of Spain.

BARCELONA

My personal home for 5 years, it would be hard to recommend coming to Spain and not getting to Barcelona for first-time visitors. Barcelona is the other most popular place to start or finish your visit to Spain, as it has one of the best offerings of direct flights to Spain from Europe, the United States and the East. Barcelona has so much to offer that I set up visits to Spain based out of Barcelona as you can easily spend 5 days just in this city and still want for more. I combine France trips with Barcelona stops often, as the border is only 2 hours away. Although one can debate if Barcelona is real Spain or not, what is not debatable is that it’s been the fastest-growing European hot spot since it was hoisted on to the world stage in 1992 with the Barcelona Olympics and its Bohemian personality and 20th-century Modernista style architecture make for one of the most beautiful cities in all of Europe.

SEVILLA

Sevilla is one of the most visited and ‘symbolic’ of all Spanish cities. Just wandering the Santa Cruz quarter offers a plethora or interesting sights. Get ready to see the largest of all Gothic Cathedral’s with Christopher Colombus’ tomb, the Moorish Alcázar and the old Jewish quarter. One of my most favorite cities in all of Spain, you can spend just 10 days in the Andalucia area, based out of Sevilla for a good few days.

GRANADA

The most magnificent and powerful cities of Al’Andalus under the Moors and the last city to fall back into the hands of the Christians in the Reconquest in 1492. Today, it still is considered the most beautiful emblematic ancient Moorish capital. Granada is ‘pomegranate’ in Spanish and the fruit is thus a symbol on the shield of Fernando and Isabel. Granada still feels very much off-the-beaten-path with its beautiful windy mountain roads and vistas. No visit is complete without a trip to the famous UNESCO Alhambra palace, but beware, tickets must be booked far in advance!

SALAMANCA

Salamanca was an ancient Roman city and later became the focal point of the western world’s education, on par with Cambridge in medieval times. It is still a proud university town, with the best literature studies in the country. Miguel de Unamuno, the 20th-century writer and philosopher was the most well known ‘Salmantino’ of the last century and several Hollywood movies have been filmed in one of the most typical plazas of Spain, the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca, for its quintessential old Spain feel. A delightfully small city with some of the best and cheapest tapas traditions still standing.

TOLEDO

The first old capital of ‘united Spain’ with Roman, Visigoth, Moorish, Jewish and of course, Catholic history, Toledo is known as the city of 3 religions. A hill-top town with narrow, steep and windy streets, it overlooks the longest river on the Iberian peninsula, the Tajo or Tagus, that runs through Portugal as well. Toledo has something to discover around every corner and nowhere else in Spain do you feel like you have gone back to medieval times and early Castilla.