Tour Overview
Welcome to Spain! Explore two of Spain’s most fascinating cities on this exciting 8-day adventure to Madrid and Barcelona. Begin in Madrid where you will enjoy a privately guided tour of the main attractions of the city as well as a private guided tour of the magnificent Royal Palace, and private tours of some of the most internationally renown museums. Take a private excursion to Toledo to see the awesome 13th century cathedral. Tour El Escorial an extraordinarily important historical monument. See the main sites and attractions of Barcelona with a privately guided tour of the city. You will also visit the Picasso Museum, where some of the painter’s earliest works are housed in the remarkable setting of a pert Gothic and part Roman Palace. For many visitors a trip to Montserrat is the highlight of their visit to Spain. Not only is Montserrat of significant religious importance but also the natural beauty surrounding the monastery is simply breathtaking. Enjoy a tour of this breathtaking monastery. Stop for a private guided visit of a luxury wine resort, see a traditional flamenco show. Visit the Caves of Codorniu and have a private tour of the underground cellars including cava tasting. See an amazing, privately owned Finca vineyard and taste the wines, and explore the town of Stiges with your guide.Day by Day Itinerary
Day 1: Madrid, SpainToday when you arrive in Madrid, you will be met at the airport by an iExplore Representative and driven to your hotel. The capital of Spain, located in the heart of the peninsula and right in the center of the Castilian plain 646 meters above sea level, has a population of over three million.
A cosmopolitan city, a business center, headquarters for the Public Administration, Government, Spanish Parliament and the home of the Spanish Royal Family, Madrid also plays a major role in both the banking and industrial sectors. Most of its industry is located in the Southern fringe of the city, where important textile, food and metal working factories are clustered. Madrid is characterized by intense cultural and artistic activity and a very lively nightlife.
The remainder of the day is at your leisure.
Overnight: Madrid Day 2: Madrid
Enjoy a buffet breakfast at your chosen hotel before meeting your bilingual guide for a private tour of Madrid. You will take in the main attractions of the city, including Retiro Park, Plaza Mayor, Puerta de Alcala, Palacio de la Zarzuela, the Austrian District and Cibeles. Retiro Park was once a royal garden and is now Madrid’s most popular park. As much a place for open-air entertainment and people watching as a backdrop for a stroll, the Retiro is a mirror of the capital’s many faces. With its stucco façade as pink as blush, Madrid’s recently restored Plaza Mayor has never looked better- quite a compliment considering it is more than 370 years old! This big, elegant, stone-paved square continues to be the center of social life in what was commonly known as the Madrid of the Austria’s- that is, the medieval capital as it was when the Habsburgs of Austria occupied the Spanish throne in the 16th and 17th centuries. An imposing five-arch monument, the Puerta de Alcala was built as an eastern gateway to the city to honor Charles III in 1778. Today’s granite gateway has dark shades of history: an inquisitorial burning place used to stand nearby, and the monument itself still bears bullet holes from the 1921 murder of the Prime Minister Dato as he drove home from the senate. Puerta has found a new lease on life- taken up as a symbol of the city’s new tolerance. Now with its gloomy past forgotten, it is splendidly floodlit at night. After your visits to the Palacio de la Zarzuela and the Austrian District you will depart for a private visit of the magnificent Royal Palace, the former residence of Spanish kings. Some 16 of the original 80 or 90 rooms can be visited. The accessible areas of the palace today include three salons reflecting the tastes of Charles III (Rococo), his daughter in law Maria Luisa (Rococo- Romantic) and the Queen Regent (Second Empire). Among these is the splendid Sala Gasparini, a fantasy of coordinated chinoiserie in embroidered silk, scalloped stucco and matching furniture. The Royal Collections on view include Flemish and Spanish tapestries from the 16th to 19th centuries, porcelain from Sevres and Limoges, along with quantities of silver plate from just about everywhere. Visitors are most charmed by the collection of timepieces ordered by the clock-crazy Charles IV. You will have time to have lunch around the Plaza Mayor (not included), full of little bars and restaurants. After your lunch, you have a privately guided visit to some of the best museums in Madrid: the Prado Museum, which for many visitors is one of Madrid’s main attractions. Here you can view works by Spain’s three great masters, Goya, Velazques and El Greco. The Thyssen- Bornemisza Museum, Madrid’s second outstanding fine art museum. The Thyssen Collection is widely considered to be the greatest collection in private hands after that of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.
The Reina Sofia Museum, which features works by Spanish artists from the turn of the 20th century to the present. Two museums visits are included and your guide will help you decide which to visit based on your preferences. Afterwards you will be returned to your hotel for the evening.
Breakfast
Overnight: Madrid Day 3: Madrid- Toledo- Madrid
After breakfast at the hotel you will depart with your guide for a private, full day excursion to Toledo. Toledo is one of the Spanish cities with the greatest wealth of monuments. Known as the “city of the three cultures” because Jews, Arabs and Christians lived together here for centuries. Behind its walls, Toledo preserves an artistic and cultural legacy in the form of churches, palaces, fortresses, mosques and synagogues. This great diversity of artistic styles makes the old quarter of La Mancha a real open-air museum, which has led to it being declared a World Heritage Site. Visit the 13th century cathedral, the church of Santo Tome, where you wills see El Greco’s large canvas of ‘The Burial of the Count of Orgaz’. You will also see the city’s oldest and largest synagogue, the 12th century Santa Maria la Blanca Synagogue. You will return to Madrid in time for dinner. Our guide will let you know of any performances (Musicals, Zarzuela or Opera) held at the famous Teatro Real. (Not included.)
Breakfast
Overnight: Madrid Day 4: Madrid- Barcelona
Your guide will meet you after breakfast, about 9:30 to take you for a visit to one of the biggest buildings in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site: El Escorial. It is very different from the other palaces in the Madrid area and may be totally unlike any other man-made structure on earth. Its sheer power overwhelms visitors with its 16 inner courtyards, 86 staircases, 1,200 doors and over 2,500 windows. El Escorial is extraordinarily important as an historical monument and has memorable highlights. For many the most interesting part of the visit is the Library, with some 50,000 volumes and manuscripts, it is said to rank second only to the Vatican in quality. Under the altar of the cathedral-sized Basilica, the Royal Pantheon holds the remains of 23 kings and queens of Spain. Later, you will be driven to Madrid’s Airport to proceed to our next city: Barcelona. (The flight is not included in the tour price.) When you arrive in Barcelona, you will be met and driven to your hotel. The evening is at your leisure. There are a few restaurant recommendations at the end of this itinerary and we can make reservations and request a special table for you!
Breakfast
Overnight: Barcelona Day 5: Barcelona
This morning depart the hotel with your guide for a private guided tour of the main attractions of Barcelona, including: La Sagrada Familia, the Gothic Quarter, the Picasso Museum, Montjuic, Olympic Area, La Pedrera, Casa Batllo and Parc Guell Discover the masterpieces of Catalonia’s most famous architect, Gaudi: the Casa Mila with its wave-like façade and the impressive but unfinished Sagrada Familia Basilica. The Parc Guell is part of the garden suburb Gaudi worked on from 1900 to 1914 but never finished. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Gaudi’s most colourful works. You will also visit the Picasso Museum, where some of the painter’s earliest works are housed in the remarkable setting of a pert Gothic and part Roman Palace. Tour Montjuic, the lofty setting of the 1992 Olympic Games, which has superb views of the city, with the added attractions of two world-class museums and the Poble Espanyol.
Breakfast
Overnight: Barcelona Day 6: Barcelona- Montserrat- Barcelona
The Benedictine Monk retreat at Montserrat offers you some of the most spectacular mountain views of Catalonia. You will learn about the holy grotto where visitations by the Virgin Mary were reported, the World famous Montserrat Choir Boys recitals along with details on the mountain walks with breathtaking views.
For many visitors a trip to Montserrat is the highlight of their visit to Spain. Not only is Montserrat of significant religious importance but also the natural beauty surrounding the monastery is simply breathtaking.
Your private, guided visit includes the surroundings of the sanctuary where you will admire the monuments, façade and exterior sculptures. Stop at the Montserrat Museum where you can explore the magnificent building designed by Puig and Cadafalch and the collection of paintings of important figures like El Greco, Picasso, etc.
You will stop to enjoy lunch in the Montserrat Restaurant, complete with spectacular views.
On the way back to Barcelona we’ll stop for a private guided tour of a winery and a luxury wine resort, complete with tasting.
The wine resort is a unique and welcoming place offering exclusive accommodations and wine-related leisure activities. The hotel and winery are located on a 16th century estate atop a gentle hill at the foot of Montserrat and surrounded by incomparable natural beauty. This part of the country enjoys a mild, Mediterranean climate typical of the Penedes Region. Taken together, they make for optimal conditions for the cultivation of the white and red grapes that go into our wines. A stroll through the vineyards or watching the sunset from the gardens will make a fond memory.
After our visit to this fantastic winery resort, we will return to Barcelona.
In the evening, you will experience a true Flamenco Show with dinner at what is considered to be one of the best flamenco clubs in Spain. Decorated by the finest craftspeople from Granada with reproductions of authentic Arabic- Nasrid Art.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Barcelona Barcelona
After a buffet breakfast at the hotel, depart with your guide for a private guided excursion to Codorniu in the Penedes wine region. You will have a private guided visit of the Caves of Codorniu, located in Sant Sadurni d’Anoia. These are the biggest wine cellars in the world, covering 30km and set on five levels. Built by the architect Josep Maria Plug, a genius of the modernist style, they were declared a national monument by King Juan Carlos I.
Codorniu is the story of a wine producing family that dates back to the 16th century. It is a story therefore, of a region and its progress, of the people of the area, and of their creative and innovative abilities and their talent for constant improvement. Cava has been produced in Sant Sadurni since 1872 by Josep Raventos, founder of the Codorniu empire, who carefully studied the wine making techniques of Dom Perignon and made Catalonia’s first bottle of cava. It is an important part of life in Catalonia: baptisms, weddings, even routine Sunday dinners are occasions for popping corks. On the day Franco died, Cava was given away free in Barcelona. Learn with us how to appreciate a Codorniu cava. Next we visit an amazing privately owned Finca vineyard. It is a vineyard of the 14th century and is in a place where vineyards, olives, the carob tree and flocks of sheep have always lived together. The previous owners of the vineyard stopped producing wine in the 1980’s however, the grapes continued to grow until the 1990’s when the vineyard was completely abandoned. In 2000 Nuria Avino commenced renovating part of the house and began the recovery of the old vineyards, which consist of the grape varieties of xarello, ull of llebre, carinyena I sumoll, a truly ampelografic treasure. This was the start of a wine project of replanting terraces of the vineyard. All of this was done with only one goal in mind, to produce wine on the property, just as had been done in the past. Enjoy the wine tasting here. Next, we have a delicious gourmet lunch at one of the leading seafood restaurants in Sitges, situated on the promenade, overlooking the sea. It is the ideal place to savor its exquisite seafood and rice specialties with excellent views of the sea and Stiges’ famous church. After lunch, take a walking tour around Sitges before returning to Barcelona. We can recommend any performance in two landmarks in Barcelona- The Palau De La Musica or Teatro Liceo, for the last night before returning home. Musicals, opera, etc. Ask your iExplore Adventure Consultant for more information.
Breakfast, Lunch
Overnight: Barcelona Day 8: Depart Barcelona
This morning after breakfast you will be driven to Barcelona Airport for your flight home.
Breakfast
