Your itinerary
Day 1
Day 1: Begin Your Journey Over Dinner in Madrid
On your first evening in Madrid, you follow broad avenues lined with ornate façades and wrought-iron balconies as street lamps cast a soft golden glow across carved stonework. On your way to dinner, you may catch the scent of garlic and paprika from cafes and restaurant kitchens. You’ll join your Travel Director and fellow travellers at a local restaurant, sharing plates of typical madrileño food as you meet the people you’ll travel with over the next 15 days.
Meals: Dinner
Day 2
Day 2: Explore Madrid’s Old Quarter and Prado
With your Local Specialist, you’ll drive through Madrid’s narrow, winding lanes beneath granite arches and into arcaded squares, passing high convent walls, red brick and grey slate. As the route curls through the Old Quarter, you hear how Mayrit began as a ninth-century fortress and later became the seat of the Spanish court. Inside the Prado Museum, an art historian leads you through Velázquez’s silvered light and Goya’s dark intensity. Titian glows with luminous colour, while Rubens fills the canvas with muscular drama. You move nearer to the canvases, tracing brushstrokes that become satin, skin, smoke and sky.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 3
Day 3: Medieval Spain: Segovia to Salamanca
In Segovia, your Local Specialist leads you through the medieval streets, where patterned sgraffito curls across façades and Romanesque towers punctuate the rooftops. At the Alcázar, you pause beneath conical turrets poised above two river valleys, where wooded slopes descend towards ribbons of water below. Then you look along the aqueduct’s two-tiered sweep, its unmortared blocks stacked with astonishing precision. Heading west, you watch Ávila’s battlements and round towers encircle the old city like a pale stone crown. In Salamanca, voices echo beneath Plaza Mayor’s Baroque colonnades as you study the carved medallions overhead. Beyond the square, you admire cathedral pinnacles and the intricate stonework of the 16th-century university buildings, washed in sandstone shades of honey and rose.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 4
Day 4: Northern Portugal: Porto and the Douro
Crossing into Portugal, you’ll arrive in Porto, where tiled buildings line the steep banks of the Douro. In Vila Nova de Gaia, you enter the wine stores and pass cask after cask, the faint scent of oak deepening along the corridors. You lift each glass, breathe in its aroma and taste tawny and vintage Ports side by side, comparing their colour, depth and finish. Returning to Porto, you follow the riverfront past multicoloured houses and churches covered in blue-and-white azulejos. Ahead, the double-decked iron span of Luiz I Bridge curves across the Douro, linking Porto with Gaia.
Meals: Breakfast,Dinner
Day 5
Day 5: Journey Through Fátima, Óbidos and Lisbon
At Fátima, you’ll enter the great prayer area, where candle flames flicker beside the Chapel of Apparitions and pilgrims pause as they run rosaries through their fingers. Within Óbidos’s walls, whitewashed houses trimmed in blue and yellow crowd winding passageways, with flowers tumbling from windowsills. You sip locally made ginjinha, letting the sweet-tart warmth of sour cherry rest on your tongue before continuing to Lisbon. This evening, you may choose an Optional Experience at a family-run restaurant, sharing traditional Portuguese seafood as the city settles into night.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 6
Day 6: Lisbon Highlights: Baixa, Belém and Beyond
Travelling through Lisbon’s spacious Lower Town, you’ll pass hand-set black-and-white calçada mosaics on the way to Pombal Square with your Local Specialist. You’ll taste Pastéis de Belém, biting through its crisp pastry into silky custard, made to a secret recipe guarded since 1837. Nearby, the Monument to the Discoveries rises like a caravel setting out to sea, while Belém Tower’s limestone battlements stand at the river’s edge. Inside the National Coach Museum, you admire royal gala vehicles from the 16th to the 19th centuries, rich with gilded carvings, painted panels and deep red velvet. Your afternoon is free, or you may choose an Optional Experience along the Portuguese Riviera to Cascais and Estoril, where surfers ride the Atlantic waves and grand hotels frequented by royalty.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 7
Day 7: Journey From the Algarve to Seville
Crossing into the Algarve, you pause for lunch in a coastal town, where you may notice intricately pierced chimneys rising from terracotta roofs. Over lunch, you sit among whitewashed walls, tiled doorways and carved wooden shutters. Beyond the Spanish border, you watch cork-oak meadows unfurl into broad plains beneath an open sky. By late afternoon, you arrive in Seville beside the Guadalquivir, with the evening yours to enjoy.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 8
Day 8: Gothic Grandeur and Flamenco: Seville in Full
Enjoy a relaxed start, or choose between two Optional Experiences: admire the architectural elegance of Pilatos Palace, or explore the Alcázar of Seville and the graceful pavilions of nearby Plaza América. Later, your Local Specialist leads you through Santa Cruz’s shaded alleys and orange-tree plazas. Inside Seville Cathedral, the world’s largest Gothic cathedral, you lift your gaze through ranks of stone columns to ribbed vaults and jewel-coloured glass, then stand before the tomb of Christopher Columbus. In the evening, your MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience is a private flamenco lesson, where guitar notes fill the studio, handclaps mark the beat and you learn the sweeps and turns of the traditional Spanish dance. Then watch flamenco take over the room in a passionate live performance.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 9
Day 9: Explore Gibraltar and the Costa del Sol
At Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, you explore the limestone Rock with your Local Specialist. Inside St Michael’s Cave, the cavern answers each sound with a low echo as stalactites and stalagmites glow around you. Along the Costa del Sol, the Mediterranean slips in and out of sight between palms, marinas and pale resort hotels as you travel through coastal enclaves long associated with film stars and luxury holidays.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 10
Day 10: Enjoy a Leisurely Costa del Sol Day
With the Costa del Sol yours for the day, you can swim in the glistening blue-green Mediterranean, follow the promenade or choose a table near the shore, where the scent of grilled fish, lemon and olive oil drifts from local restaurants. You might also head to Málaga, Picasso’s birthplace, where family paintings and 19th-century furnishings fill the rooms of his childhood home.
Meals: Breakfast,Dinner
Day 11
Day 11: Andalucía’s Heart: Alfarnatejo and Granada
Among the mountains of Alfarnatejo, you’ll arrive in a village of fewer than 500 people, where pale houses surround the 18th-century Iglesia del Santo Cristo de Cabrilla. At the region’s oldest olive grove, you visit a rural mill and taste a selection of oils soaked into thick, locally made farmhouse bread. In small groups, you enter a local family’s home for lunch, passing dishes of fresh regional produce around the table and sharing the flavours of Andalucía with your hosts. In Granada, your Local Specialist leads you through the Alhambra, a 13th-century Moorish citadel of intimate courtyards, flowing fountains and stone carved into patterns as delicate as lace.
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch
Day 12
Day 12: Valencia Highlights: Old City and Paella
Entering Valencia, you’ll pass the Old City’s ancient gates before the white curves of the City of Arts and Sciences shimmer across long pools of water. In your free time, you might visit the Cathedral and El Miguelete, listening to its great bell mark the hour above the rooftops, or sit with a drink as cafe conversation fills the square. At a family-run restaurant in the Old City, you meet the chef and follow the cooking demonstration as a rich, savoury aroma rises from the wide paella pan. At dinner, you taste the finished dish, warm from the pan.
Meals: Breakfast,Dinner
Day 13
Day 13: Castle, Cellars and Coast: Barcelona Bound
North along the coast, you reach Peñíscola, where a Templar castle crowns a rocky headland and the Mediterranean spreads beneath its pale walls. You may recognise its ramparts from the film El Cid. At Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, you descend into the cava bodegas, where cool vaulted cellars stretch beneath the town and bottles rest in long, shadowed rows. Over a light lunch, you lift a glass and taste cava, its fine bubbles bright on your tongue as you learn how the wine gains its sparkle. Then the journey continues along the Costa Dorada to Barcelona.
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch
Day 14
Day 14: Explore Barcelona and Gaudí’s Sagrada Família
With your Local Specialist, you’ll travel along Passeig de Gràcia, where sculptural street lamps rise beside Modernist buildings whose wrought-iron balconies twist into intricate patterns above coloured tiles and carved stone. Through the Eixample district, you reach Gaudí’s Sagrada Família*. Inside, you wander between giant columns branching like trees, then lift your gaze to soaring vaults as stained-glass colour spills across the central nave. At a local restaurant, join your fellow travellers for dinner, raising a glass to new friendships and two weeks across the Iberian Peninsula. *As construction of the Sagrada Família moves closer to completion, access may occasionally be restricted due to special masses, pilgrim visits or official ceremonies. If tickets are unavailable during your tour, you’ll visit the Hospital de Sant Pau, a remarkable example of Catalan Art Nouveau designed by Domènech i Montaner. You’ll then join your Local Specialist to admire the extraordinary exterior of Gaudí’s basilica.
Meals: Breakfast,Dinner
Day 15
Day 15: Say Farewell to Spain and Portugal
After 15 days across Spain and Portugal, you transfer from Barcelona to Madrid with new friendships, memories of grand cities, shared tables and extraordinary art.
Meals: Breakfast
What’s included
What’s not included
Additional information
Dining Summary
- 5 Dinner (D)
- 14 Breakfast (B)
- 2 Lunch (L)
How You'll Travel
- Business class coach with extended leg room
- Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
- 4 & 5-star stays
Authentic Dining
- Madrid: Join your Travel Director at 18:00 for dinner in a local restaurant and get to know your fellow travellers over a beautiful evening of delicious food and wine.
- Vila Nova de Gaia: Visit the wine cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia, the centre of port ageing and storage since the 18th century. You’ll learn how barrel conditions, blending practices and long-standing shipper traditions define styles such as Ruby, Tawny and Vintage. Examine the link between Douro Valley production and the export houses established along this southern bank of the Douro River.
- Lisbon: In Belém, try pastéis de Belém: crisp layers of pastry encasing custard complete with a dusting of cinnamon. See how the pastries follow a closely guarded recipe, and are still prepared in the same bakery that has produced them since 1837.
- Torremolinos: Visit a rural mill outside Torremolinos to taste olive oils pressed from olives grown on trees that have stood in this region for generations. Try a few varieties with freshly baked bread and hear how harvest timing, soil and tree age influence the flavour.
- Alfarnatejo: Share a home-cooked lunch with a local family in Alfarnatejo. Expect simple Andalusian dishes, seasonal ingredients and an easy conversation around the table. It’s a chance to see how meals are prepared and shared in this part of rural Spain, and to hear stories about the town from the people who live there.
- 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 flavour and socarrat crust you’ve just watched being made.
- Barcelona: In Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, you’ll visit a local bodega set among the vineyards that have supplied cava houses since the 19th century. A light lunch is paired with a tasting of cavas made using the traditional method, showing how bottle fermentation and ageing on the lees influence the wine’s structure and character.
- 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 travelled and mark the end of your journey across Spain and Portugal with one last meal together.
Premium Experience
- 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.
- Granada: Visit the Alhambra Palace with a Local Specialist 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.
Salamanca Historic Centre & University Quarter
Explore Salamanca’s golden heart as you enter the Plaza Mayor, a Baroque stage of arcades and medallions. Navigate sandstone lanes to the academic core, where cloisters and lecture halls speak to a centuries-old scholarly tradition.
With your specialist, examine the University of Salamanca and its Plateresque facades, alive with carved detail. Hear how scholars, merchants, and clergy shaped the city’s intellectual life, and why its honey-hued stone catches the Iberian light so vividly.
Vila Nova de Gaia Port Wine Cellars Tasting
Cross the Douro to Vila Nova de Gaia and visit the port wine cellars where barrels age beneath vaulted timbers. Follow the arc of aroma from oak and fruit as you compare styles—Ruby, Tawny and Vintage—guided by an expert host.
Learn how vineyards terraced above the Douro feed historic shippers, and why blending, barrel time, and bottle age yield different expressions. Each sip links the river’s rugged valley to the city’s long mercantile story.
Fátima Sanctuary Complex Visit
Visit the Sanctuary of Fátima, a pilgrimage site shaped by the reported apparitions of 1917. Walk the vast esplanade, joining a quiet flow of visitors who pause for reflection and prayer.
View the Chapel of the Apparitions and the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, noting devotional details that frame this modern center of faith. Your specialist outlines how the complex evolved to welcome gatherings from around the world.
Óbidos Walled Town Walk & Ginja Tasting
Walk within Óbidos’ medieval walls, following cobbled lanes past whitewashed houses trimmed in blue and yellow. Small chapels and tiled doorways reveal layers of Roman, Moorish, and royal influence in this compact hill town.
Pause to sample ginja liqueur, the local sour-cherry specialty traditionally sipped from tiny cups. The sweet-tart warmth pairs with tales of royal wedding gifts and coastal trade, adding a convivial note to this atmospheric stronghold.
Lisbon Baixa & Belém Highlights with National Coach Museum
Explore Lisbon’s Baixa district, rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake with broad avenues and black-and-white calcada mosaics. Continue along the Tagus to the Monument to the Discoveries and riverside Belém Tower, landmarks of Portugal’s maritime era.
At the National Coach Museum, study gilded state carriages from the 16th–19th centuries, symbols of courtly ceremony. Along the way, sample the original Pastéis de Belém, a warm custard tart that captures a sweet chapter of the city’s culinary heritage.
Seville Cathedral & Santa Cruz Guided Walk
Join a specialist to wander the shaded alleys of the Santa Cruz quarter, where patios brim with orange trees and tiled fountains. Architectural fragments hint at Seville’s medieval Jewish heritage within this intimate maze of lanes.
Enter the vast Seville Cathedral, the largest Gothic church in the world, and view the Giralda tower, once the minaret of an Almohad mosque. Lift your gaze through soaring vaults and chapels that map the city’s passage from Islamic to Christian rule.
Seville Flamenco Lesson & Performance at the Cristina Heeren Foundation
Step into a working studio at the Cristina Heeren Foundation to learn a few flamenco steps with students honing guitar, song, and dance. Handclaps mark the compás as you practice turns and posture guided by emerging artists.
After the workshop, feel the art form surge to life in a live performance. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER experience supports arts education and preserves cultural heritage through training the next generation of performers.
Rock of Gibraltar Tour: St. Michael’s Cave & Barbary Apes
Ascend the limestone promontory on a guided visit to the Rock of Gibraltar, one of the ancient Pillars of Hercules. Inside St. Michael’s Cave, stalactites catch colored light while the chamber answers each footfall with a soft echo.
Step outside for sweeping views where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, and observe the famed Barbary apes in their clifftop habitat. Your specialist unpacks the territory’s strategic role at Europe’s southern gateway.
Andalusian Olive Mill & Grove Visit with Tasting
In the hills of rural Andalucía, visit a traditional olive mill and walk among gnarled trees rooted for generations. Learn how harvest timing, varietals, and stone milling influence aroma and peppery finish.
In the press house, sample extra-virgin oils with warm bread, comparing fruit, spice, and bitterness. The tasting reveals the region’s agricultural rhythms and why ancient groves remain central to everyday cooking and community life.
Alfarnatejo Village Visit & Home-Hosted Andalusian Lunch
Pause in quiet Alfarnatejo, where whitewashed houses gather around an 18th-century church and mountain air carries the scent of thyme and woodsmoke. Meet residents in small groups for a relaxed, home-hosted meal.
Share a home-cooked lunch built on seasonal produce and family recipes, trading stories across the table. This intimate encounter with Andalusian hospitality offers a grounded glimpse of rural life beyond Spain’s headline cities.
Granada’s Alhambra Palace & Gardens with Local Specialist
Enter the Alhambra Palace with a Local Specialist to trace Nasrid artistry in courtyards alive with water and shadow. Carved stucco, cedar ceilings, and calligraphy unfold around reflecting pools and whispering channels.
Move through Nasrid courtyards and garden vistas that frame the Sierra Nevada, hearing how rulers shaped an oasis of geometric harmony. The complex’s layered spaces reveal a dialogue between power, poetry, and landscape that still resonates.
Valencia Old City Orientation & Paella Cooking Demonstration
Get your bearings in Valencia’s Old City as medieval gateways and lively squares sketch a compact historic core. Then step into a family kitchen to watch paella being prepared in wide, shallow pans over even heat.
Learn how saffron stock, rice, and local ingredients build flavor and the prized socarrat crust. Sit down to taste the finished dish, connecting Valencia’s market culture and orchard belt to Spain’s most famous rice tradition.
Peñíscola Castle Headland Viewpoint
Pause on the limestone headland crowned by Peñíscola Castle, a Templar fort whose pale walls rise directly from the sea. The setting frames fishing coves and the curve of sandy shoreline below.
Hear how strategic position and cinematic ramparts placed the town on trade routes and film sets alike. This brief stop balances history with headland views that showcase the Mediterranean light and coastal geology.
Cava Cellars Tour & Tasting in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia
In Catalonia’s sparkling-wine capital, descend into cool cava cellars where bottles rest in long, shadowed rows. Learn the traditional method, with second fermentation in bottle and time on lees building structure and scent.
Sample a tasting flight paired with a light lunch, comparing youthful freshness with autolytic notes of toast and almond. Vineyards and village cellars reveal how growers and riddlers refined a regional specialty into global acclaim.
Barcelona Panoramic Tour & Sagrada Família Entry
Trace Barcelona’s design DNA along Passeig de Gràcia, where Modernista facades and wrought-iron balconies introduce the Eixample grid. Continue to Sagrada Família and step inside its soaring interior, a forest of branching columns and stained-glass color.
Hear how Gaudí fused geometry, nature, and devotion to shape a basilica still evolving. If access is restricted during your visit, your tour will include the UNESCO-listed Hospital de Sant Pau and an exterior viewing of Sagrada Família’s sculpted facades.
Barcelona Farewell Dinner
Gather one final time for a hosted farewell dinner in the Catalan capital. Raise a glass to new friendships while sampling seasonal Catalan cuisine—from seafood stews to market-fresh vegetables—in a welcoming local setting.
Stories from two weeks across Iberia flow as easily as the wine. This relaxed celebration brings the journey full circle, pairing the city’s culinary spirit with a warm send-off.
Lisbon Seafood Dinner in a Family-Run Restaurant
Choose an evening of Atlantic flavors in a neighborhood eatery where families have cooked for generations. Share petiscos and grilled catch-of-the-day as staff present plates with unhurried charm and local wine.
This optional dinner showcases Lisbon’s coastal larder—simple, seasonal, and rooted in tradition. Additional cost applies; bookable on tour with your Travel Director, subject to availability.
Portuguese Riviera: Cascais & Estoril Excursion
Skirt the coast to the Portuguese Riviera, where Belle Époque villas and palm-lined promenades meet the Atlantic. In Cascais and Estoril, pause for photographs as waves break against ochre cliffs and sandy coves.
Your guide connects royal summers, spy-tinged wartime exile, and modern surf culture to this breezy shoreline. Additional cost applies; this experience is bookable on tour and subject to local conditions.
Seville’s Casa de Pilatos
Step into a noble residence blending Mudéjar and Renaissance detail: azulejo-lined patios, coffered ceilings, and sculpted courtyards cooled by burbling fountains. Your guide unpacks the palace’s layered artistry and aristocratic lineage.
Admire galleries of classical statuary and geometric tilework that read like an open textbook of Andalusian craft. Additional cost applies; this visit is bookable on tour and may be paired with other Seville highlights.
Royal Alcázar of Seville & Plaza de América
Explore the Royal Alcázar of Seville, where intricate stucco, carved wood, and lush patios evoke centuries of palace life. Gardens unfold in a tapestry of palms, citrus, and water channels.
Continue to the graceful pavilions of Plaza de América in María Luisa Park, showpieces of the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition. Additional cost applies; bookable on tour with scheduling subject to ticket availability.
Operated By
Insight Vacations
Madrid Welcome Dinner in a Local Restaurant
Savour a convivial first evening as you meet your Travel Director and travelling companions over a hosted dinner in the capital. Taste typical madrileño dishes—from slow-simmered cocido to cured jamón—paired with regional wines in a warm, neighborhood setting.
Hear the stories that shape Madrid’s table culture, where late dining and lively conversation spill across tiled interiors. This shared meal sets the tone for the journey ahead, blending generous plates with easy introductions.
Madrid Old Quarter Walk & Prado Museum with Art Historian
Explore Madrid’s Old Quarter on a guided walk through arcaded squares and 17th-century facades, tracing the rise of Habsburg Madrid. Slip beneath stone arches and along compact lanes as your specialist reveals how Mayrit became the royal capital.
Inside the Prado, step inside the Prado Museum with an art historian to examine Titian’s color, Rubens’ drama, and the light of Velázquez and Goya. Stand close to masterworks, studying brushwork that resolves into silk, skin, armor, and sky.
Segovia Alcázar & Roman Aqueduct Walk
Walk Segovia’s historic core with a Local Specialist, pausing beneath conical towers at the Alcázar of Segovia and tracing lanes lined with facades etched in patterned sgraffito. From its cliff-top perch, the castle surveys two river valleys and wooded slopes.
At the city’s edge, study the Roman aqueduct, a feat of unmortared engineering whose granite arches have spanned nearly two millennia. Learn how Roman infrastructure, medieval power, and royal patronage interwove to shape the city’s skyline.
