Highlights of Spain and Portugal Reviews

This tour fulfilled all our expectations, the Trafalgar tour guide Rita was outstanding in her duties as was the coach driver Mario. Tour highlights were the day in Segovia, Roman aqueduct and castle, also the Be My Guest at a Portuguese stud ranch, sea food dinner along Tagus river, and not forgetting Hazel having Happy Birthday sung in Portuguese ...read more by Rita and Mario. The tour group were a mix from Australia, USA, UK, India, all mixed well, 43 on the coach. Booking all went smoothly thanks to Jemma.

First of all – excellent organisation of the booking by Global Journeys – 5 stars. I have booked with Global Journeys on a number of occasions and have had positive experiences every time. Great service. Will definitely continue to use them in the future.

Unfortunately, although the Highlights of Spain and Portugal itinerary was excellent, I feel ...read more that I can only give the tour a score of 3 (maybe 3.5) stars, due to the fact that our group did not get to experience a visit to the Alhambra, which meant that we missed one of the major highlights of the published tour. On the first day of the tour, we were advised that Trafalgar had not been able to secure tickets to the Alhambra. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Trafalgar had chosen to run two parallel groups starting on the same date and following the same itinerary? Our group had 48 people and the other coach probably had about the same number. This was extremely disappointing, as I had booked this tour 11 months prior to the departure date and was looking forward to seeing the palaces, gardens, fountains, courtyards etc of the Alhambra.

Apart from that, the tour was interesting and enjoyable. The Travel Director, Tiago, was friendly and efficient and our coach driver, Amaro, was excellent. There were lots of varied ‘cultural’ experiences, informative visits to historical sites, plenty of ‘foodie’ experiences (loved the authentic pasteis de nata - creamy Portuguese custard tarts), and great scenery, particularly in the Algarve region of Portugal. The Regional Meal in Granada was highly enjoyable, and the Be My Guest lunch at the traditional Lusitano Stud Ranch was delicious. The information about the Lusitano horses was very interesting. The majority of hotels were of a very good standard. The Local Specialists who took the included tours were extremely knowledgeable. Due to the large size of the group (48), it would have been better to halve the group and have two guides for each of these tours.

A good variety of ‘optional experiences’ was available and they were an enjoyable way to extend the variety of experiences available on the tour. I participated in all of the ‘options’ and particularly enjoyed visiting the Alcazar of Seville, the coastal region of the Algarve, Sintra and the world heritage site of Segovia. The ‘options’ that included meals were expensive, while the others were reasonably priced. This is a very comprehensive tour and the pace was quite busy, which was to be expected, given the nature of the itinerary. I would recommend this tour and hope that in the future, other travellers do not have to experience the disappointment of not being able to visit the Alhambra.

Fantastic trip through southern Spain and Portugal. Both Tour Director Jorge and Driver Marcos were excellent and professional in their approach. We really enjoyed the culture, food and places we visited across these two beautiful countries. Learnt a lot of the history that we were previously not aware of!

Tour was a mix of Americans, Canadians and Aussies. A good crowd. Cannot comment on our coach driver Sergio as he didn’t interact with us. He did his job well. Our guide Anna was very friendly and did her job well. Only thing was if you hadn’t done a group tour before she made out you were missing out on things if you didn’t do all the extra options. ...read more You have to look at all the things you are going to do in the day as well. Because some days were so full and as soon as you were at your hotel you had to be ready for your next paid excursion. Not a lot of time if you want to look around local area. Some hotels not in town areas so you have to make your own way around. Trafalgar didn’t seem to have anything organised for the people to get around if you didn’t take paid excursions.

Professionally run tour. Great bunch of people. Tour leader and driver were great. I must say it was as i expected with Trafalgar.

Booking with Global Journeys was a very convenient way to organise this trip. All Arrangements worked smoothly. The trip to Spain was an excellent way of seeing a lot in a limited time the group of 47 was large with quite a few Americans so some interesting discussions on the new President occurred at mealtimes. We were fortunate to be there in the ...read more spring many flowers both wild especially poppies and cultivated roses at the Allhambra. The Feria in Seville was amazing. To go to Fatima 3 days before the Pope was eye opening. For us the Allhambra was fantastic.

Hola! We had never been to Spain or Portugal before and had only a remnant memory of long forgotten history lessons. Fortunately Krista, our young, dynamic tour guide and our “mother” for the trip, gave us timely history lessons and all the relevant information along the way. Our fellow passengers were an interesting and friendly bunch from a variety ...read more of countries and cultures and ranged in age from 18 to 86 with the majority in their 60’s . They came from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, USA, Bahrein and South America and Krista was soon able to meld us into one happy family. Immediately after our Trafalgar Tour we caught the train to Barcelona then boarded the Norwegian Spirit for a cruise on the Mediterranean stopping at many iconic ports for shore tours.

After the cosy family feel of the coach trip I felt lost in a sea of strangers on the ship. The staff looking after the shore tours seemed to lose interest in travellers after they had signed up for their expensive shore excursions and had little customer focus. Sure they had large numbers of people to get off the ship to go to a variety of destinations and they were successful at doing this but they seem to overlook that every single passenger has different expectations and physical abilities and each needs special treatment. But maybe Krista had set such a high standard of customer care that any other treatment would seem very ordinary.

We were in Spain in late August early September and it was hot! It was 35 degrees every day but everyone quickly became acclimatised, drank plenty of water. There was one occasion, however, when one person collapsed from dehydration when we went to a bull farm for a BBQ. He was quickly attended to by a kiwi nurse and Mexican doctor from our group until the ambulance arrived and quickly re-joined the group. While it was hot during our tour we had only 5 minutes of light rain and even that was more than usual for the time of year. So if you are travelling at this time of year leave your jumpers and raincoats at home. All of the walking tours were conducted at Spanish pace and every bit of shade was utilised. The air conditioner on the bus was good and our driver, Sergio, had plenty of water available.

The good news about travelling at this time is that the locals are on holidays and, while there are lots of local and international tourists, the roads tend to have less traffic and we encountered virtually no traffic delays.
We saw so much on this trip that it’s hard to pick favourites without listing everything mentioned in the Trafalgar brochure. My favourite town was Lisbon but there is always something to see and do in most towns and, naturally, there is never enough time to see and do everything. We were reminded about Spain & Portugal’s rich and varied history from the Moors to the Spanish Inquisition and the days when both countries explored and dominated large parts of the world. We heard lots about Christopher Colombus and saw his final resting place and went to Cadiz where Columbus set off to see the world. We were reminded about Vasgo De Gama and other fearless explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries and saw various memorials to them. I was a little disappointed then, considering the importance of the sea in the history of these countries, that we didn’t go to any maritime museums. We did go to yet another church when in Lisbon which I later learned was immediately adjacent to the maritime museum. We had free time the following day but we were advised by someone that the museum was closed on Mondays.

We were happy with all of the hotels although there was crowding on two occasions when several different tour groups all descended on smallish dining rooms at the same time for breakfast. While some of the hotels were a little way out of the city centre they were usually close to public transport and the hotel staff generally gave good advice on its use. We find that it is always a good way to immerse oneself in a new place by using public transport.
Sergio, our driver, gave us a smooth and safe journey.Our guide Krista was always cheerful and available to help anyone with problems and certainly did all she could to ensure that everyone got the best holiday. We loved this trip and would recommend it to our friends. I have booked several holidays through Global Journeys and it is always the first website that I look at when planning a trip and have advised many friends to do the same. Georgie at Global is a pleasure to deal with and is always prompt with her correspondence and good advice.

The tour was thought out very well - we visited many Spanish beautiful cities and villages. However the hotels, we stayed with, were located quite far from city centers, what significantly reduced our possibilities to explore those places. In the most important ancient cities, like Toledo and Cordoba, we stayed only for couple of hours, that definitely ...read more was not sufficient to get a feel of the place. At the same time significant time was allocated for launches and other breaks. Our opinion was that tour organisers should have concentrated more on sightseeing, rather than on dinners. The tour director was a great person, but not very knowledgeable, so he could not provide a real important and interesting information about the visited places. Over all the tour was good, but not as great as our previous tour with Trafalgar around Scandinavia.

Overall, everything was well organized and minor hitches handled well. It was clear that the company had put a lot of thought into providing a satisfying experience for travellers. Our tour director, Nieves Franco was wonderful - professional, lovely sense of humour and genuinely caring and helpful. Our driver Fernanado was also excellent. I particularly ...read more loved a couple of the 'off the tourist track' stereotypical experiences- such as 'Be my guest' and having quaint little restaurants with singers performing just for us. The food in some of the restaurants was excellent, while others were OK. The accommodation varied a bit with many hotels a very good standard and others a little lacking. Same with the breakfast experience. [Lisbon's breakfast experience was very mediocre]. Access to Wifi was highly variable, with the connection too weak at times. Overall, these were not major problems. I had a great time and our group was generally a great bunch of people. I will definitely consider travelling with Trafalgar again.