7-Day Spain Tour: Cordoba, Seville, Granada, Valencia, Barcelona and Zaragoza from Madrid

My wife & I recently traveled to Spain with Julia Travel. Our excursion began in Madrid where we spent two nights prior to joining our group. We were met promptly at Madrid airport by shuttle driver who was great (sorry I can’t remember his name) & arrived at the hotel around 4:00 pm. We were exhausted with the flight (where we had a bad experience on Norwegian Airlines) but the hotel staff was awesome. Our first day in Spain started with a three hour sightseeing tour of Madrid that began at another hotel. Honestly the coordination between the tour group & us lacked organization. We braced ourselves for a challenging vacation which was disappointing. I run restaurants in Los Angeles & my wife is a college professor so we’re both very busy working long hours & aligning our schedules to travel in not an easy task. The following morning we were told our Tour Group Leader would meet us at the hotel – given the previous day’s challenges, we were skeptical. However, everything changed when we met our guide Jaime Crespo. From the moment we met Jaime, we were impressed. He has the immediate impression of putting people at ease. Jaime was friendly, knowledgeable & has a great sense of humor. After picking up the rest of the group at the aforementioned hotel, we were off to Cordoba then two nights in Seville. We had a connection with Jaime joking around while also asking him many questions which he gladly answered. Some members of our group were challenging yet Jaime never once was rattled or showed any signs of frustration – believe me I would have been. Whether we were on the bus, walking tours or whatever else, Jaime was amazingly consistent. In Seville he suggested a few “out of the way” restaurants & encouraged us to see certain sights while the group was on their free time. Jaime’s generosity continued thru Granada & then the highlight of our trip – Valencia. We fell in love with Valencia & might possibly retire there. Jaime shared that he used to spend summers in Valencia when he was a kid while his passion was clearly evident. We ended our tour in Barcelona & honestly by that time we felt like we made a new friend with Jaime. When the tour officially ended in Barcelona, we stayed an extra day to visit Figueres. Although the tour guide for our day trip was nice enough – it wasn’t the same without Jaime. If you ever book a tour with Julia Travel – please request Jaime Crespo as your guide. To sum it up – our Spanish excursion simply wouldn’t have created the lifelong memories, laughter & wonderful experience without Jaime. He’s one in a million & if you’re fortunate enough to experience his guidance, you will understand exactly what I’m saying. Thanks so much Jaime!

It was a very well planned guided tour. One of the best we have undertaken. However They left us alone in Barcelona. I feel we should have been taken around the famous city a bit more . Guides were very knowledgeable and they took real good care of us.Thank you

We enjoyed all the cities we visited. We think it is unnecessary to offer 2 grades of hotel. There was very little difference in the standard, both 4 star. In 2 cities the superior grade was closer to the inner city but each day we wasted time visiting 2 hotels, finding,loading or unloading luggage and waiting for passengers. The guide was non strict enough about times. We changed buses and drivers after 5 days as the 1st driver had done his hours. The secondbus had no wifi and was not a coach. On our way to Granada our guide announced that the local tour operator did NOT have tickets for us to enter Alhambra Palace and that we were doing a night tour of the Generalife Gardens. ALL TRAVELERS were very angry and disappointed. We felt we had been cheated out of visiting the number one tourist place in Spain and had no come back to the local tour operator. I visited their office in Madrid and they felt that Viator had misadvertised the tour!!!! The local guides were very good and our tour guide very friendly. There were some long days of travelling but I guess that was necessary to cover all the cities. At the end of the tour we were staying in an airbnb address so were dropped off at the first hotel, not where we had been picked up the first day , which was what was stated on the itinerary. This resulted in a long walk , asking directions. All that aside, we had a good time and saw many places, enjoyed the countryside, vines and olive trees.