Travel Review: Luxury Spain Family Vacation, Granada, Seville, Toledo, Valencia, Barcelona, Seville, Alhambra, The Prado

I would have liked to stay in a parador – perhaps the one in Granada, but I didn’t know enough to request that in advance.  

We missed seeing the other museums in Madrid other than The Prado because we did not have time.  When we found out the Royal Palace was closed we probably should have asked for some time at the museums.   

Toward the end of the trip I downloaded a copy of Iberia by James Michener on my iPad and started reading that, finishing it when I returned.   It should be required reading before a trip like this which covered a lot of traditional Spain (Andalusian), particularly the portions dealing with the highlights and struggles of the various cultures in Spanish history.   It helped answer the question why Spain devolved into a second rate power after it was the center of world science, philosophy and exploration at one time.

I would also try to plan the trip for May when the weather is more agreeable.   We hardly had any rain, but it was cloudy and misty on our trip thru the white villages; otherwise fairly hot – almost unbearable one day in Sevilla, although it was dry heat.    

I modeled my original trip request on the itineraries of several major tour companies.   Carla wisely suggested eliminating Valencia from a 10-12 day trip, but the trip we settled on was a whirlwind nevertheless - only two nights in all cities and one in Cordoba.  Rather than eliminating another city we should have extended the trip a few more days – maybe a night in Ronda, another night each in Barcelona and Madrid.

If Erin weren’t with us I would have brushed up on my Spanish at little more.

What could be improved?

I would have appreciated help with the overseas transportation.   When we book with any other tour company, the travel is either provided or there is a help desk.    Travel insurance is usually also provided at a great discount but not when you do it on your own.   

I had some issues understanding how to configure my phone for use in Spain. Our travel company was helpful but in a limited way.   They should provide a tip sheet on using phones -  similar to the one Rick Steves has.  

I thought the hotel in Barcelona was fine but would have appreciated a more central location closer to the Bari Gotic.   

There is some confusion about how to pay for transactions in Spain (including the tour itself) with an American credit card – whether to pay in Euros or Dollars.  I had to make that choice to pay our travel company as well as in every restaurant (they ask).    After reading about this a bit I decided it was cheaper to pay in Euros which I did.    But I am not convinced how much I saved doing it that way if any?   I would think a tour operator dealing with Americans would be able to know more about this than I.   A savings of even several percent is a lot of money for a trip like this.  

What was disappointing?

There were a number of tourist sites that were unexpectedly not available:  The Royal Palace in Madrid had an official reception that day, the great cathedral in Toledo was closed for a Corpus Christi celebration (although we were forewarned about that), and a synagogue in Cordoba was closed one day, but we did see it early the next morning before departing.   The guide in Barcelona was supposed to give us a Gaudi tour but we really only toured the Seguria Familiar basilica and saw the outside of another building; but the rest of the Barcelona tour was fine – seeing things we hadn’t the last time we were in the city.  Park Guell was a disappointment because our guide did not plan to get tickets to the more interesting sections and there was a long waiting list.  

Finally, at our last hotel checkout we were asked to pay a city tax – not a lot of money, but I was sure the travel company had paid in advance for everything; so that was unpleasant.