Spain Vacation Review: Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, Madrid, Seville, Cost del Sol, Local Wine & Cuisine

Take trains only.  Spain's high-speed trains are wonderful, extremely easy to navigate and pleasant.  Our flight from Seville to Valencia saved about an hour overall but was highly stressful and involved getting up earlier to wait at the airport for a flight that is almost always delayed.  Simply have your hotels call a taxi cab to train stations or the airport when you depart.  Having a limo driver pick you up for a 10-15 minute ride is a silly, wasteful expense unless you're into that sort of thing.  Less pre-arranged special excursions. Especially in slower season, it is unnecessary to have everything set, including dinner reservations unless there is a very special restaurant that requires advance notice regardless of time of year.

TRAVEL COMPANY COMMENTS:

Thank you very much for the feedback. We are so glad that our client and his wife enjoyed “a memorable trip” in which their “Travel arrangements went smoothly” and they “appreciated the itinerary with were solid, well-located [hotel] choices….with  “mostly excellent” guides.

It is always our goal and driving purpose to ensure our travelers have memorable and trips with unforgettable experiences to cherish years to come. Indeed, we always strive to exceed all expectations on trips, and whilst we have managed this with every client for the last 15 months (nothing below a 5* from our traveler reviews), it is with great sadness that we read our client's rating.

This is especially so, as the only feedback we received during the trip from our client was all highly flattering. From the welcome call on arrival in Spain to additional conversations throughout the trip when our client wanted to make changes, we only received praise. Indeed, the guides and drivers echoed this sentiment by forwarding messages informing us that our clients had only wonderful things to say about the trip. Good communication is very important to us and helps us to make sure that everything goes smoothly.  We were very often in correspondence with our client during the pre-planning and the trip itself.  The feedback we received from our client, our guides and driver was all very positive and satisfactory and if we had known at the time that anything was not to their liking, we would have certainly taken steps to improve the situation at the time.

In the other comments here, we appreciate the positive feedback on the high speed trains in Spain, undoubtedly we have one of the best networks in Europe and even the world.  We always prefer to recommend high speed train instead of domestic flights to avoid the hassle that traveling through airports can cause. For this client's trip we recommended trains whenever logistically possible with the exception of the route from Seville to Valencia, a city that our client wanted to visit. On this route, there is one train a day; and that leaves in the late afternoon. With the full consent of our client, we thus proceeded to book the morning flight to allow them to enjoy the afternoon in Valencia.

In our open and friendly conversation with our client after the trip, he made it clear that he and his wife had enjoyed their trip very much but felt there were a few items why the trip did not reach “perfect status”. We did not provide an item by item breakdown of the trip costs, but this is not just our policy, but a policy of all Zicasso agents, as explained on the Zicasso web site. We did provide many optional upgrades and always offered to modify the content until he was satisfied. In fact, prior to him confirming the trip, we repeatedly changed and tweaked the trip content to get down to an overall cost that our client was willing to pay. He did not to give up some of the “exclusive” arrangements that were in place for him.

Linked to the above, our client objected that the private transfers between the hotels and train stations were “short” and he could have easily taken a taxi. We are sorry he felt the drivers were an unnecessary expense but of course we never insist on private drivers for transfers or indeed any other service. Our clients can keep modifying the trip until they are happy with the content. Before traveling, our client was perfectly happy with private drivers and didn’t request to exclude them.

Our client was constantly advised that restaurant reservations for every night of the trip were not only unnecessary, were also not recommendable… as sometimes travel requires a little spontaneity or flexibility. Against our advice, our client insisted on booking tables every evening and so the comment/criticism that “it is unnecessary to have everything set, including dinner reservations unless there is a very special restaurant that requires advance notice regardless of time of year” is a little harsh.

This was the first time this client had booked with a travel specialist and not made his own arrangements via websites on internet. We always roll out the red carpet for our travelers and do everything in our utmost power to honestly give them the trip of a lifetime. Our client acknowledged that he and his wife enjoyed some incredible private tours and activities with people whom he could have never have booked over the internet. They made them feel welcome and shared many very special moments with the couple, allowing them to get a real sense of Spain, its culture and hospitality.

As we always do, we went the extra mile to ensure a trip where our client perceived the value of working with a travel company that works very closely with suppliers but also hotels. For example, we were able to arrange early check-ins without any additional cost for his hotels when he arrived early in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona. The check-in at the hotel in Madrid on New Year's Day was also possibly the most difficult date of the year to ensure that a room is prepared ready for an early check-in.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to arrange this “memorable trip” for our client and his wife and we were delighted to hear that they wish to return to Spain in the near future to discover more.