Travel Review: Spain Family Vacation, Madrid, Barcelona, San Sebastian, Asturias, Bilbao, Tapas Cooking Lesson, Ebiking, Wine Tours

My wife and I with our two daughters, ages 14 and 10, just completed a delightful two week tour of northern Spain. We decided to travel to Spain for the first time in May, which is a bit close to the August high season, making it very difficult to reserve good quality lodgings.  In May we were very fortunate to be matched to this travel agency and her team via the Zicasso site.  

After speaking with our agent about our interests and budget, she recommended an overall plan for where to stay and when.  She offered a selection of activity options from museums to food and wine tours to hiking to ebiking to just relaxing in beautiful surroundings.  She identified apartments still available and in good locations.  

After an iteration or two we settled on a detailed itinerary and booked.  We ended up going north to avoid the intense summer heat of the central and southern regions.  We started in Barcelona, flew to San Sebastian, drove to Asturias and Bilbao and then flew back home.  With outstanding private and semi-private guides lined up by our travel agent we took in Gaudi, Dali, an historic food market, tappas cooking, pintxos bars, ebiking, and a scenic coastal hike. We very much enjoyed dinners at several restaurants recommended and reserved by our travel team.  

On our own we shopped, dined, took in museums, walked and walked, relaxed in our very nice apartments booked by our travel company, went to beaches, took in amazing Asturias coastline, and met interesting locals along the way.  

The pacing of and selection of places and activities suggested by our travel agent worked very well for us. We came home refreshed and  relaxed.  Our daughters have an enriched perspective of life outside our US home and a desire to return to Spain.
 
Our travel company met our expectations for a high quality specialized travel agency.  Their recommendations were all excellent.  They were responsive to questions. They were organized and communicated well. Their local partners providing us tours and lodging were top notch. They were accommodating for special requests. And when the inevitable unexpected happened to potentially disrupt plans they and their partner responded swiftly to get us back on track.  

We look forward to our next Spain adventures and will not hesitate to use this agent and her team again.