Insight Vacations

• 3 Dinner (D)
• 9 Breakfast (B)

• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays

• 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.

Taste a seasonal Catalan menu at La Pau, where young people prepare and serve dinner as part of a programme combining paid work with mentoring. Share the table with your Travel Director and fellow travellers while gaining a local perspective on life in Barcelona.

This social-impact dining experience helps participants develop kitchen and hospitality skills as they move towards independent living. It is a meal with a purpose as well as an introduction to Catalan food.

Explore Barcelona with a Local Expert, travelling along Passeig de Gràcia through the gridded Eixample district towards Gaudí’s Sagrada Família. Inside the basilica, look up at branching stone columns and watch coloured light filter through its stained-glass windows.

The route reveals how Catalan Modernisme reshaped the city. If access to the Sagrada Família is restricted, the visit instead includes the Modernista Hospital de Sant Pau and a guided view of the basilica’s exterior.

Choose to visit the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, whose curving titanium-clad forms have become a symbol of the city’s renewal. Explore contemporary art by Spanish and international artists while taking in Frank Gehry’s distinctive building beside the Nervión River.

Opened in 1997, the museum helped transform perceptions of this former industrial centre. This is one of two included Bilbao activities; the alternative is sightseeing with a Local Expert and a funicular ride to Mount Artxanda.

Choose to explore Bilbao with a Local Expert and ride the funicular to Mount Artxanda. From above the city, take in panoramic views of the river and surrounding hills, with Bilbao’s older neighbourhoods and newer architecture spread out below.

The viewpoint gives a clear sense of how an industrial city has reinvented its waterfront and public spaces. This is one of two included Bilbao activities; the alternative is a visit to the Guggenheim Museum.

Admire La Concha Bay from Monte Igueldo, where the sweep of San Sebastián’s beach and seafront comes into view. Join a Local Expert for a guided walk through the Old Quarter, a compact district of lively streets and historic squares.

At Plaza de la Constitución, look up at the numbered balconies: they recall the time when the square hosted bullfights and its rooms were rented to spectators. The tour pairs the city’s coastal setting with its Basque urban heritage.

Experience a progressive pintxos dinner in San Sebastián’s Old Town, enjoying a variety of small, carefully presented bites with locals. Try Txakoli wine, the lightly sparkling Basque white traditionally served alongside the region’s food.

Pintxos are central to the city’s social life: counters display savoury combinations that invite conversation as much as appetite. Dining in the atmospheric streets of Lo Viejo offers a direct taste of the culinary tradition for which San Sebastián is known.

See the Cathedral of Burgos, the city’s great French Gothic landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Take in its elaborate exterior, including the slender spires that rise above the surrounding streets.

Construction began in the 13th century, when Burgos was an important centre on the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral’s scale and intricate stonework speak to the city’s medieval wealth. This is a view of the landmark; interior entry is not specified.

Explore Madrid’s historic neighbourhoods with a Local Expert, tracing the capital’s origins through the compact streets and squares of its Old Quarter. See how the district grew from a medieval settlement into the centre of Habsburg Madrid.

Market squares and civic buildings reveal the layers of a city that expanded with the Spanish court. Your expert’s commentary connects the old street pattern with the grander capital that developed around it, giving context to Madrid’s present-day character.

Visit Madrid’s Prado Museum with an art historian and examine works by Velázquez, Goya, Titian and Rubens. Expert guidance brings out details in the paintings and explains their links to royal patronage and the wider European artistic tradition.

Founded in 1819, the Prado grew around Spain’s royal collections and is now one of Europe’s major art museums. The specialist-led visit offers a focused way to appreciate both individual masterpieces and the history behind the collection.

Walk Segovia’s historic centre with a Local Expert, discovering a city shaped by Roman engineering, medieval streets and royal power. View the Roman aqueduct, whose imposing granite arches once carried water into the city, and see the fortified Alcázar.

The aqueduct has stood for nearly two millennia, while the Alcázar’s documented history reaches back to the 12th century. Together, these landmarks show why Segovia’s old town and aqueduct are recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Share a farewell dinner at a Madrid restaurant with your Travel Director and fellow travellers. Enjoy regional produce paired with local wines in a setting designed for conversation and a final toast together.

Spanish dining is as much about time spent around the table as the food itself. This hosted evening offers a chance to savour that convivial tradition and compare impressions of the cities, art and landscapes encountered across Spain.

Explore the French Basque town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz with a Local Expert and visit the church where Louis XIV married Maria Theresa of Spain in 1660. Its streets and harbour offer a different perspective on the Basque coast, just across the border from Spain.

The royal wedding helped seal a peace agreement between France and Spain, giving this seaside town a place in European history. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

See Madrid illuminated at night on a drive along its grand avenues and past its fountains. The evening lighting gives the capital’s broad streets and monumental public spaces a different character from their daytime bustle.

This suggested outing is a scenic introduction to Madrid after dark rather than a museum or walking visit. It is presented as an optional evening activity; any additional cost and booking arrangements should be confirmed on tour.