Iberian Discovery & Morocco Reviews

Great holiday, really enjoyed Spain, Portugal and Morocco. My wife and I had a great time. The hotels were great (except Morocco!). The included tours were great along with optional tours and dinners.

An excellent introduction to some of the Spanish and Portuguese cities. Accommodation was generally good, the Monastery hotel in Salamanca was the best and the least up to standards is the hotel in Madrid. Tour Director was very helpful and knowledgeable and the scenery is amazing. The best places for us were the Costa de Sol coast of southern Spain ...read more and the cities of Toledo, Seville, Salamanca and Granada.

My experience of booking through Global Journeys was exceptional. Yvonne got back to me immediately with queries and everything went very smoothly. We have only used Insight in the past for coach tours and believe they have the edge over Globus in terms of accommodation, provided meals etc. Insight usually have guides with professional knowledge such ...read more as historians. We met some guides on this trip that had anecdotal knowledge at best and gave misleading information rather than admit they did not know. We had been on a river cruise just prior to this trip and they provided historians with a great deal of knowledge and cultural insight. If you are interested in the history and culture it is important to you. The tour was too hectic with time spent in the most interesting places rushed and limited. Distances between these places was great and too much time spent sitting in a bus rushing to the next destination. We drove almost past Gibraltar after Morocco (Gibraltar only offered as optional excursion) which meant another 4hrs unnecessary travel on the bus the next day to go back. Most people felt they would have preferred to pay a little extra and have it included.

Many of the optional tours were poor quality eg. in Tangiers, Portugal and Gibraltar. They seemed to be struggling to fill in the time. The hotel in Madrid had extremely poor service at all levels, including not being able to cope with the numbers of people at breakfast. El Mina in Tangiers was lovely but we were not there long enough to enjoy it. The other hotels were a mixed bag. We certainly loved the things we did see and had time to appreciate. Fortunately, we spent time in Barcelona alone prior to the trip starting so were able to experience that great city without the rush. The other travelers were great. Mainly Americans but a smattering of Australians and Canadians. The bus was very new and comfortable. Would we use Globus again? Probably not. We would however go on another coach trip because our prior experiences have been great (Egypt on one and Eastern Turkey on another, both with Insight). Overall, we really had a good holiday and thanks to Global Journeys for their excellent service. We will certainly use your company again.

Overall very happy with the tour although we would have liked more time in some places and felt some of the destinations were added just for the sake of stretching it out. The costs for additional touring and dinners were, in some cases, excessive and some of these should have been included in the base tour cost. A couple of the dinners were a waste ...read more of time and money, however shows like the Fado (in Portugal) and Flaminco (in Spain) were excellent and good value.