Andalusian Highlights: 6-Day Guided Tour from Madrid

Gostei muito dos passeios por lugares históricos fantásticos, das visitas guiadas, de viajar com pessoas de outras nacionalidades, a maioria era da América Latina e da qualidade dos hotéis. Apenas não curti ficar em Torremolinos por não ser uma cidade histórica, apenas com um hotel enorme, cheio de turistas, portanto, barulhento, e uma praia comum, teria sido melhor termos ficado em Málaga que é bem próxima e mais interessante.

After reading some of the negative reviews about Viator's Andalusian Highlights 5-night tour, and after researching several other tour companies, we opted to think "that won't happen to us" and we booked the tour through Viator. Viator is a tour aggregator therefore they contracted with a company in Spain for this tour called VPT or Web Tour Spain, S.L. Pro's: Cities covered were great. Sites visited were also great. Perfect for 5 nights. Bus was clean and modern. Local tour guides at the sites contracted by VPT were also very good. Hotels were excellent, definitely 4-star. Food was also good. Con's: English speaking? Hardly, there were only three English speakers on the tour? Not VPT's fault? Well, they moved all the other English speaking tourists to another bus. Our tour guide was not interested in the trip and said so. Most of the travelers were from South America and were not happy and let the guide know it. He had a lot to contend with as MANY of the travelers were quite rude. Not VPT's fault, but they were rude because they felt they had been cheated. Again, the tour guide's attitude reflected that he didn't want to be there. Worse yet; upon the start of the tour we were informed by VPT that our tickets had been canceled by Viator. We purchased 3, and only two had been cancelled ??? They made us pay again, this time $400 more. Before the tour we had attempted to clarify some of the sites to be visited and what tickets are included. BE CAREFUL, things like the Alhambra in Grenada are stated on-line and in the brochure as "tickets optional". Well, after calling to Spain and spending $30 for the call and understanding that tickets were included or would be included at a price...they were not. Do not believe what you read, you do not go inside, which was comments made in previous reviews, thus our call because the advertisement made it sound like tickets would be optional. Our experience with the Viator call center was challenging. Language was an issue. The call center is in the Philippines and trying to reserve two rooms for a total of three people (a double for two and a single for one) was incredibly difficult. We knew we'd pay more but just making that reservation was almost impossible. Last but not least, "who" cancelled our trip? Naturally neither company would admit who and we were refunded only the original $1,700 and not the $2,100 we had to pay on the bus! Read carefully and ask lots of questions!

The places you see on this tour are hit and miss-Seville,Codorba and Granada are must-see, Marbella and Toledo and Ronda are nice but I did not find anything unique or special. Toledo is actually a disappointment if you have already seen Seville and Córdoba. The real reason for the two star rating is the absolutely terrible quality of food and restaurants where the tour organizers in our case it was VPT travels based in Madrid took us . I actually had stomach cramps probably from something I ate in the hotel buffet on the last day -- luckily I had small portions, so it did not get any worse. Our local tour guide at Toledo I think her name was Margarita was one of the most unprofessional tour guides in my experience- did not use a microphone/headset, did not even care to see if all members of the group were able to keep up with her and her explanations in English were very brief and mostly incomprehensible. It was a big disappointment especially because our Madrid tour escort advertised her as one of the best ! Amongst other things this tour did not feel like a vacation- on most days we had to wake up at 6 o'clock which is earlier than I wake up on a usual work day back home - after the first three days we were left wishing for the tour to end so that we could get a break from the tight and tiring schedules. This trip is not worth the money spent- you can do the main highlights Seville,Córdoba,Granada on your own with a little bit of planning and at a much cheaper price. As advice to viator, I have taken many trips from you in the past in Europe/Asia and have never been as disappointed as this one- you should try to see if you can link this tour with more professional and better tour organizers especially for your English speaking customers---and please make dinner/lunches optional . Currently those prices are included in the cost of the trip but given the sickening quality of food that was served, my guess is one can get much better quality food at the local cafes and restaurants at a lower cost.