Spanish Heritage - End Barcelona, Classic Group
Spanish Heritage - End Barcelona, Classic Group
This 18-day guided tour takes you from Barcelona to Madrid - stopping at every charming town in between. Walk the narrow lanes of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter with a Local Expert, weaving your way to the lively Las Ramblas, where street performers put on shows. Paella was created in Valencia, and you will indulge in the savory rice dish after a private demonstration from a local chef. Stomp your feet in Seville during a flamenco dance lesson, then relax as the professionals put on a private show for you and your fellow travelers. Walk across the 2,000-year-old Roman bridge in Cordoba, then meet a local historian at the city’s 8th Century mosque with a Christian cathedral inside it. In Madrid, walk with a Local Expert through the city’s Old Quarter to the Prado Museum, where an art historian will reveal the stories behind the masterpieces of artists such as Goya and Titian.
Dining Summary
This 18-day guided tour takes you from Barcelona to Madrid - stopping at every charming town in between. Walk the narrow lanes of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter with a Local Expert, weaving your way to the lively Las Ramblas, where street performers put on shows. Paella was created in Valencia, and you will indulge in the savory rice dish after a private demonstration from a local chef. Stomp your feet in Seville during a flamenco dance lesson, then relax as the professionals put on a private show for you and your fellow travelers. Walk across the 2,000-year-old Roman bridge in Cordoba, then meet a local historian at the city’s 8th Century mosque with a Christian cathedral inside it. In Madrid, walk with a Local Expert through the city’s Old Quarter to the Prado Museum, where an art historian will reveal the stories behind the masterpieces of artists such as Goya and Titian.
Dining Summary
- 1 Dinner (D)
- 17 Breakfast (B)
- 5 Dinner with Wine (DW)
- 1 Lunch with Wine (LW)
- Choose between two carefully selected activities
- Seville: Join a guided walk through the Santa Cruz quarter, following a street pattern shaped by Seville’s medieval Jewish community until the 14th century. You’ll navigate narrow lanes, enclosed courtyards and small plazas reflect the district’s earlier layout, with surviving architectural elements that point to the neighborhood’s social and cultural history within the wider city.
- Seville: Take a panoramic drive around Seville to observe the city’s main districts and landmarks, including the riverfront near Torre del Oro, the avenues created for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition and the open spaces around María Luisa Park.
- Choose between two carefully selected activities
- Santiago de Compostela: Join a city tour with a Local Expert and visit Praza do Obradoiro to admire the cathedral facade festooned with architectural frills.
- Santiago de Compostela: Embark on a scenic walk on part of the Way of St. James with a Local Expert, through parks and gardens that transform with the seasons.
- Personal radio headsets give you the freedom to wander during visits to famous highlights, without missing any of your Local Expert's fascinating commentary.
- Hotel and restaurant tips are included - you'll never have to worry about how much to give, nor search for foreign currency. We also include all taxes and porterage charges at hotels.
- We carry your bags for you and promptly deliver them to your hotel door.
- From time to time, your Travel Director will delight you with an Insight Flourish, which is a local specialty representing the destination.
- Stay connected with friends and family with our complimentary coach and hotel Wi-Fi (where available).
- If your arrival and/or departure flights are as per the itinerary start and end dates, then transfers are available at scheduled times. If your flights are outside these times, or you have booked additional nights accommodation with Insight Vacations, you may purchase transfers or make your own way from/to the airport.
- Valencia: Spend time with a chef in a family-run kitchen to see how Valencian paella is built from its base - the heat of the pan, the saffron stock, the type of rice and the order ingredients go in. Afterwards, sit down to eat the finished paella, tasting the layered flavor and socarrat crust you’ve just watched being made.
- Barcelona: Your final evening brings the group together around the table in Barcelona. It’s a chance to share dinner in the Catalan capital, reminisce over the days you’ve traveled and mark the end of your journey across Spain and Portugal with one last meal together.
- Seville: Join a guided walk through the Santa Cruz quarter, following a street pattern shaped by Seville’s medieval Jewish community until the 14th century. You’ll navigate narrow lanes, enclosed courtyards and small plazas reflect the district’s earlier layout, with surviving architectural elements that point to the neighborhood’s social and cultural history within the wider city.
- Seville: Take a panoramic drive around Seville to observe the city’s main districts and landmarks, including the riverfront near Torre del Oro, the avenues created for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition and the open spaces around María Luisa Park.
- Santiago de Compostela: Join a city tour with a Local Expert and visit Praza do Obradoiro to admire the cathedral facade festooned with architectural frills.
- Santiago de Compostela: Embark on a scenic walk on part of the Way of St. James with a Local Expert, through parks and gardens that transform with the seasons.
- Granada: Visit the Alhambra Palace with a Local Expert and walk through its courtyards, carved plasterwork and palace rooms from the Nasrid period. You’ll see how water channels, gardens and intricate detail define the complex, and how this hilltop site shaped Granada’s cultural and political story for centuries.
- Madrid: Visit the Prado Museum with an art historian who places key works within their historical setting. With your historian’s expert guidance, you’ll examine paintings by Velázquez, Goya, Titian and Rubens, noting their connection to royal patronage and the broader European tradition. Learn how the museum, founded in 1819, became a principal repository for Spain’s royal collections and major works from across the continent.
- Seville: The Cristina Heeren Foundation promotes the teaching and preservation of flamenco and is supported by a TreadRight Foundation grant. Meet students, learn a few basic steps and watch them perform, gaining insight into how the school trains young artists in guitar, singing and dance. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education.
- Gijón: Meet locals for a delicious Farm-to-Table meal of locally sourced produce that has been prepared just for you. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.
- Barcelona: Explore Barcelona with a Local Expert who sets out the city’s shape from street level - the long run of Passeig de Grcia, the sharp grid of the Eixample and the way the skyline shifts as the Sagrada Família comes into view. The route ties together the city’s Modernista detail and its ongoing architectural change.
- Peñíscola: See Peñíscola’s 14th-century castle rising above the old town, set on a limestone headland that divides the shoreline. From this viewpoint, you can take in how the fortress once controlled movement along the coast and how its walls still define the outline of the medieval quarter below.
- Valencia: Get your bearings in Valencia’s Old City as your Travel Director points out the surviving medieval gateways and the street grid shaped by centuries of expansion. The walk contrasts the tight lanes of El Carmen with the broad lines of the Turia riverbed, now home to the City of Arts and Sciences, a reminder of how the city blends long history with confident modern design.
- Seville: Visit Seville Cathedral, completed in the 16th century and recognized as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Walk through its vast nave and chapels and view the Giralda, originally built as the minaret of the 12th-century Almohad mosque. The cathedral’s scale and layered construction show how the site developed from Islamic to Christian use.
- Córdoba: In Córdoba, you’ll join your Travel Director for a short orientation that helps fix the city on the map. Walk by the Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir, pass the old gateway towers and step into the historic center, where whitewashed houses, small squares and hidden patios show how this older part of the city fits together.
- Córdoba: Visit the Mezquita with a local historian to trace how a mosque became a cathedral. You’ll step into a forest of striped arches and columns from the original Islamic building, then see later Christian additions including the central choir and chapels.
- Oviedo: Led by your Local Expert, see 1,000-year-old wall paintings in some of Europe's oldest churches. Admire the incredible altarpiece, one of the finest in Europe, when you visit the Cathedral of the Holy Savior.
- Picos de Europa: Visit the holy cave of Covadonga and see the tomb of Pelayo who is celebrated for winning the Battle of Covadonga against the Muslim Moors in 722 and later became the first King of Asturias.
- Picos de Europa: Venture into this magnificent national park to admire the stunning picturesque scenery and rocky trails.
- Santillana del Mar: Step back in time when you visit this perfectly preserved and 'most beautiful village in Spain.'
- Bilbao: See the spectacular modern Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry and sites of this Basque region gem during your orientation with your Travel Director.
- Getaria: See the rock known as El Ratón or the mouse.
- San Sebastián: Led by your Local Expert, enjoy a guided walking tour of the Old Quarter including Plaza de la Constitucion.
- Pamplona: The city is home to Cafe Iruña, a favorite of Ernest Hemingway.
- Enjoy the comfort of Insight's luxurious, air-conditioned, 40-seat coach with double the standard legroom and onboard washroom. Our customized luxury coaches are sanitized before the start of your tour and are maintained to very high standards. Physical distancing measures have been implemented on our customized luxury coaches.
- Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.
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Jun 12, 2027 through
Aug 07, 2027
Aug 4, 2027
12:00 AM GMT
17 Nights
from
$7,095.00
(USD)
Per Person
Airfare not included, Various departures
|
9170819
|
May 06, 2027 through
May 29, 2027
May 26, 2027
12:00 AM GMT
17 Nights
from
$10,475.00
(CAD)
Per Person
Airfare not included, Various departures
|
9170812
|
Jun 12, 2027 through
Aug 07, 2027
Aug 4, 2027
12:00 AM GMT
17 Nights
from
$9,695.00
(CAD)
Per Person
Airfare not included, Various departures
|
9170818
|
