Cosmos Tours

The Best of Spain & Portugal Reviews

15 The Best of Spain & Portugal reviews from past travellers that booked with Global Journeys.
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AVG. RATING 4.00 / 5
15 Reviews
5 Star
27%
4 Star
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First trip with cosmos 0 , NSW, Australia, Apr 2023
We truly enjoyed this trip, our first with Cosmos. Special thanks to Ines Turro our tour director, very knowledgeable and accommodating. Unfortunately we missed Alhambra complex due to some technicality but Ines tried to make it up with a mini tour. Our tour group was a happy bunch, still keeping touch after our tour, sharing pictures. Would love to ...read more book for another holiday when time permits.
Grand cathedrals 3 , TAS, Australia, Sep 2019
I was disappointed by the Alhambra, the main reason for booking this trip, as the blue and white mosaic tiles that are shown on television were nowhere in evidence, although the gardens were lovely. On the other hand there was a lot of interesting tile-work in the cities on houses and other buildings, and the cathedrals and other churches were extremely ...read more impressive. There was also a lot of very boring driving hours on the coach with endless fields of olive trees.
Memorable trip to Spain and Portugal 7 , NSW, Australia, Aug 2019
This Cosmos tour far exceeded my expectations. Being a cheaper tour I wasn't expecting too much, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It was very professionally organised and the tour director, Jorge, went out of his way to ensure everyone's needs were met. The driver, Teles, was also amazing and we all were in awe of his driving skills and he returned ...read more us safely without incident.

Being a solo traveller I chose to pay the single supplement. With the exception of one hotel, I was very happy that I wasn't given a tiny room every night. The hotels were of a good standard and the included breakfasts were varied and plentiful. It was nice porterage was included at the hotels. The hotels were all quite well situated, except for two, but they were very close to public transport. The included dinners were reasonably good but the one in Porto was excellent.

I chose two optional tours , Cascais and Sintra, which was good as you got to see something more than the city. The other was the Douro River cruise. This was a nice way to end the day and the meal was quite good also. Other travellers really enjoyed the Flamenco Show and the Fado night. If you take the Madrid optional tour it doesn't leave you any free time to explore the city unless you stay on after the tour ends. Some travellers complained of this. On the whole the the included excursions were very good however the Generalife Gardens at the Alhambra were quite rushed. I would have liked more time here as, to me, it was the highlight of the tour. I didn't really like the city tour of Lisbon or Madrid as you mainly just drove around looking out the window of the bus. You could go back but there wasn't really enough time.

Our tour group were a great mix of Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Americans and a few Indians. Everyone got on fantastically and it made it a wonderful and memorable holiday. Many thanks to Hannah at Global Journeys for all her help and organisation. I will definitely use Global Journeys and Cosmos again when I travel.
Wonderful tour of Spain and Portugal 2 , WA, Australia, Jul 2019
This was the 3rd Cosmos that we have done and as usual it was very well planned and executed. Everything was taken care of, the hotels were good and we saw as much as we could in the time period. The tour Director and Driver were great. Loved seeing Madrid, Porto and Salamanca and all of the stops in between. The walking tours of the old cities were ...read more amazing - so much history. Thank you to Jemma at Global Journeys - always there to help along the way. We will be organising our next one in the next 10 months or so. Thanks again.
The best of Spain and Portugal with Cosmos 7 , QLD, Australia, Oct 2018
First of all I highly recommend Georgie and Global Journeys for their attention to detail and pricing, we are a repeat customer and wouldn't even try using someone else for our bookings. The tour itself was very well organised and we were very satisfied with the destinations and sightseeing. The accommodation was good and mostly well positioned in the ...read more areas that we wanted explore. In a couple of cases where the hotel was not centrally located there was public transport right outside the door. I would recommend this tour.
Disappointed   29 , VIC, Australia, May 2018
The Cosmos “best of Spain & Portugal” is a fast paced budget tour. It was a good way to cover off the highlights of both countries however, there are fairly significant compromises made to do so. Most hotels were located quite a distance from the city or town centres which were very inconvenient for seeing the places we were staying at and meant extra ...read more costs in taxi/transport fares.

The tour group were almost all retirees aged 65 plus. This meant that walking tours were slow going. Something to keep in mind for younger travellers. All the local experts we had on our walking/city tours and the bus driver were fantastic. However, the tour director could have been more informative of the towns we were visiting by giving us more detailed and accurate information, providing recommendations on restaurants and memorable or unique experiences we could have. I was also concerned by the fact that the tour director wrote our names on the gratuities envelope we gave her at the end of the tour.

I enjoyed all the stops at the towns in Spain and Portugal but found we had to choose between seeing the town and having a relaxing lunch. There wasn’t time to do both - only 1.5-2 hours at each town we visited. My biggest disappointment of the tour was that the included visit to Alhambra did not in fact include seeing the Palaces which are the main part of Alhambra. We were simply taken around the Alhambra grounds and gardens and I felt this was highly misleading of Cosmos to claim this as an included visit. I would have preferred to pay to experience Alhambra the way it should be.

The towns of Cordoba and Seville were lovely with a good amount of free time. The optional Flamenco show in Seville was also amazing. In Lisbon, the guided tour was mostly on the bus with two small photo stops at Belem Tower and another monument. The optional dinner and Fado show was average. For almost $90 (57 euro) whilst the music was beautiful the dinner was average - vegetable soup, cod, and only a slice of pineapple for dessert. Not worth the money paid.

Also the optional excursion to Sintra meant that we had very little time to see Lisbon properly. And this brings me to the second biggest disappointment of the tour - the excursion to Cascais and Sintra. Sintra is a picturesque town but with only two hours in the town we did a guided tour of the medieval palace and had a small amount of free time. We were not taken to Pena Palace which is supposed to be the most beautiful palace in Portugal and the one on all the postcards for Sintra. There is also a Forest in Sintra which has the ruins of a Moorish castle, something the tour guide did not explain at all. We had stopped at Cascais for lunch but with very little to see and do here, this time could have been better spent at Sintra.

In Porto, the guided walk and included Porto tastings was great. I skipped the optional tour to Guimareas to spend more time in Porto and I’m glad I did. Porto is a beautiful little town. The optional river cruise and dinner were also exceptional and a definite highlight of the tour. Overall, I will not choose Cosmos again. I have done five budget coach tours before with other companies and this was disappointing in comparison.
Best of Spain & Portugal 4 , VIC, Australia, Sep 2017
Very Lucky to have such an experienced Tour Director and we felt so safe with our driver. The history and commentary were exceptional. Lovely people on our tour bus through Spain and Portugal.
Thank you Yvonne and Global Journeys for organising my trip. 3 , WA, Australia, Aug 2017
Although I have been on many organised overseas trips , I had never before booked with an online agent. I have to say my worries were unnecessary. Global Journeys and especially Yvonne Brooks made it all simple, and everything went smoothly with our booking. Any worries or questions, email or phone, and it is answered/resolved quickly & promptly. There ...read more was no extra effort required on my part as compared to using the traditional shop based travel agent. The bonus is the great discount we got from Global Journeys. We had a most interesting trip to Spain and Portugal on our Cosmos trip. Tip: We went at the middle of August and it was really hot. Try September if you can. Thank you Yvonne.
Thoroughly enjoyed our tour with Cosmos 3 , New Zealand, Jun 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed our tour with Cosmos through Spain and Portugal. Booking with Leanne was easy - she was very quick to reply to any of our questions. Our tour guide Enrique Long was exceptional, his knowledge of the 2 countries was amazing and his organizational skills made for a very happy bus load of tourists. 41 in total. We would definitely travel ...read more with Cosmos again as it is excellent value for money.
The best of old Spain & Portugal 3 , VIC, Australia, Mar 2017
Cosmos made it affordable to see most of Spain and the highlights of Portugal. The itinerary was good, if fairly intense. The highlights were, understandably, the historical parts of each city, reaching back hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of years. Special local experiences were "optional extras", fun but overpriced for the content. As in all ...read more coach tours, enjoyment depends to a great extent on the personality of the tour director. Ours was a serious teacher, rather than a friendly leader. Our driver was excellent, and needed to be, in narrow, twisting roads. Our booking, with Georgie at Global Journeys, was easy and economical. Thanks.
Tour was exactly to our expectations 1 , NSW, Australia, Sep 2015
This tour was exactly to our expectations based on previous experiences with Cosmos and careful reading of tour details. We had a wonderful time. Tour guide and local guides all passionate and interesting.
Most enjoyable tour 2 , New Zealand, Jul 2015
We found Global Journeys great to deal with. The advice and the price were both very good. The tour was most enjoyable. Spain and Portugal were both stunning and while one can't see everything in thirteen days, Cosmos certainly planned this tour well. Our tour guide, Vitor Luciano was excellent and the other guides that joined us, were also very good. ...read more Our bus was near new and very comfortable. We considered this this tour very much value for money. Our actual overall rating is very good plus.
A truly remarkable highlight tour 0 , NSW, Australia, May 2015
A truly remarkable highlight tour of Western Spain and Portugal made all the more enjoyable by an outstanding guide/tour director, Angel Diaz. To fit so much in in the time available and still not feel rushed is a credit to the organisers and Angel. Any tour depends on co-operation from all involved. We were fortunate to have a wonderful group who ...read more were particularly punctual and happy to socialise. Well done Global Journeys!
Very happy with this tour 0 , NSW, Australia, Mar 2015
There is so much history in Spain and Portugal, so many museums and beautiful buildings. The coach ride from one city to another city is so so , but every city has it's own charm. I was very happy with this tour.
Much better than I expected 0 , Australia, Sep 2012
This was my first tour ever!! It was much better than I expected. Right from the booking through process, till we finished the tour, the whole process was very easy and user friendly. I loved that there were optional tours as well that you could choose to do. The bus driver, the tour director and all the local guides we met were very friendly, courteous ...read more and informative. My only suggestion would be to review some of the hotels, not because they were not up to standards but because of renovations happening inside the hotel or around the hotel. It kind of takes away from your holiday experience. Another suggestion would be to pace your payment schedule. I would have loved to do the Jewels of France as well while I was on holiday there but both payments were due at the same time and absolutely no leeway to pay later! So you guys missed out on a sale! (Ed. Dam! Sorry but that I'm afraid is out of our control). Overall, still a great experience and thank you!
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