Spain Vacation Review: Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Nerja, Prado Museum, Alhambra, Sagrada de Familia, Mezquita

My vacation in Spain was amazing. I absolutely loved the country and it was the most enjoyable vacation I have taken in many years. 

In all, everything I wanted to see in Spain lived up to expectations and then some. What a beautiful, wonderful, hospitable, and vibrant country. I highly recommend a visit. 

This Spain travel company was an excellent partner for arranging my vacation in Spain. I am a very experienced traveler in Europe, having lived and worked in Italy as a tour guide for many years, but I had somehow never gotten around to visiting Spain. I was traveling for the first time with a partner who has never been abroad so I was looking for an agent who could help me arrange private transfers between cities, and make things feel easier for my partner, and less stressful for me so I didn't feel like I was working, but rather actually on vacation. 

The Pros:

My travel comapny was able put together an itinerary that got me from Barcelona through Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, and Nerja in just two weeks. It was a lot of logistical effort which they handled expertly, and this was the primary reason I wanted to work with an agent as opposed to planning it myself, since I am unfamiliar with Spain. They also were able to get me tickets I had asked for to see a soccer match in Madrid that I was unable to obtain on my own through my own best efforts. (And they purchased me great seats). We had several tours arranged, and the Gaudi tour in Barcelona was exceptional. The guides were knowledgable and passionate. The tour of the Mezquita in Cordoba was quite good as well. 

After receiving the itinerary from this company, I priced out an identical itinerary using all the same hotels, transportation, and tours, and I found the price this company quoted me was hundreds less that I would have paid if I had done the arrangements myself. So not only did they save me a lot of hassle, I saved a lot of money as well working with them. 

The Cons:

My only issue with this company is that we had pre-selected the hotels we would stay at, and when I received my vouchers from the agency two of the hotels were not the ones we had selected. I understand if the original choices were booked or unavailable, but I would have preferred the agency notify us of these changes, and have given us the opportunity to select the new hotels ourselves. I did not make a fuss, as it really wasn't that big of a deal and I wanted to maintain our relationship in case I needed them. (which I did for the soccer tickets)

There were some issues with the third party vendors they had selected for us as well, but I can't say I would consider that entirely the fault of this company. Two times during our trip our pre-arranged private car transfers were not there to pick us up. Calling the car service and the travel agency did not get us timely assistance and I was forced to hire a taxi at the last minute both times. Fortunately street taxis are easily available throughout Spain, and very cheap. Our travel company did reimburse me for the taxi fare, but surely the pre-paid private cars cost more than a taxi on the street. And it was quite inconvenient. 

The tour we received to Toledo was terrible, but I understand that my expectations might be different since I was a tour guide for many years myself. It was a full day tour, but we spent only about 3 hours touring the historic and beautiful city which warranted a bit more exploration than we were given time for. The rest of the tour included a long lunch which was the worst meal we ate in Spain. (And this was universally agreed upon by the entire group.) It was also at a restaurant on the outskirts of the town and reachable only by the tour bus, so we couldn't simply leave and explore the town or even find something else that was actually edible. The smarter people opted out of the lunch, but our travel company included it in the tour for us, so we went since it was paid for already, and I thought it might be decent, since when I was a guide I only arranged decent if mostly unspectacular meals. Then they took a long detour at a tourist trap souvenir shop. We would have been better off with a private tour or even just transport to and from the city. Even if you do enjoy this kind of slow paced tour and take it, do not take either of the meal options. The only good thing was that they returned us to Madrid two hours earlier than they said they would, and that gave us more free time in Madrid. 

We were also provided an audio guide for the Alhambra in Granada from a third party agency in the city, and we were dismayed when the battery died in one of our units about 15 minutes after we arrived at the Alhambra. The agent had showed us how we could re-charge the unit via USB at their kiosk in the city, but where exactly where we supposed to find a USB port to charge it at the Alhambra? That was ridiculous. 

In all, I do want to say I enjoyed my vacation in Spain immensely and I would partner with this company again, and recommend them to others. I did speak to my agent there about my concern about tours in the beginning and she was a little nervous about booking me on them, so I cannot fault her at all. It was my choice to take a chance on them, and I don't regret those choices considering how beneficial the guides were in Barcelona and Cordoba. I think I would be willing to spend a little more money next time to ensure those things were customized more to my satisfaction, but your average tourist, not withstanding the episodes with the taxis, would have probably thought they had just been on the trip of a lifetime. Our travel company did everything they could to provide everything I asked for.