Walk through San Sebastián’s Old Quarter with a Local Expert and see Plaza de la Constitución, an elegant square surrounded by arcaded buildings. Explore the compact streets at the heart of this Basque coastal city.

Once the site of bullfights, the square retains numbered balconies that recall its former use as a viewing arena. Your guided walk reveals the Old Quarter’s civic history and lively street character beyond San Sebastián’s well-known beachfront.

Join your Travel Director and fellow travellers for dinner at a local restaurant in Barcelona. Share a final meal together in the Catalan capital and raise a glass to the places and people encountered across northern Spain.

Barcelona’s restaurant tables provide a convivial setting for conversation and reflection. This hosted group dinner is a social experience, distinct from an independent evening meal, and offers a fitting close to the tour’s shared discoveries.

• 10 Breakfast (B)
• 3 Dinner (D)
• 1 Lunch (L)

• 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.

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

Insight Vacations

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

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over dinner at a local restaurant in Madrid. Share a table, enjoy wine and sample typical madrileño flavours in a relaxed introduction to Spain’s capital.

Madrid’s dining culture is built around conversation and shared plates, making this hosted evening a chance to get acquainted as well as a taste of the city. Your Travel Director is on hand to introduce the group and answer questions about the journey.

Explore Madrid with a Local Expert, taking in the elegant districts associated with the Bourbon monarchy and the tighter streets of the Old Quarter. See how the capital’s broad avenues contrast with its older market squares and civic spaces.

Trace Madrid’s growth from a small medieval citadel into the centre of Habsburg Spain and, later, a major European capital. Your expert connects the street layout and surviving landmarks to the rulers and communities that shaped the city.

Explore the Prado Museum with a local art historian and examine paintings by Velázquez, Goya, Titian and Rubens. Expert commentary brings out details in the works and the stories behind their subjects, artists and patrons.

Founded in 1819, the Prado became a principal home for Spain’s royal art collections. Seeing its galleries with a specialist offers a deeper understanding of Spanish court painting and its place within the wider European tradition.

Join a Local Expert for a tour of Santiago de Compostela and visit Praza do Obradoiro to admire the cathedral’s richly ornamented facade. Explore the historic centre of a city that has welcomed pilgrims for centuries.

The cathedral marks the traditional destination of the Way of St. James, while the surrounding squares and narrow streets reflect Santiago’s enduring religious and cultural importance. This is one of two included activities available in Santiago; choose it in place of the guided Way of St. James walk.

Walk a scenic section of the Way of St. James with a Local Expert near Santiago de Compostela. Follow paths through parks and gardens, noticing the changing greenery and a quieter side of the pilgrimage landscape.

For centuries, routes across Europe have drawn travellers towards Santiago’s cathedral. This guided walk offers a firsthand sense of that tradition without requiring a long-distance hike. It is one of two included activities available in Santiago; choose it in place of the city tour.

Meet local hosts on Asturias’ Green Coast for a homemade farm-to-table lunch prepared with locally sourced ingredients. Learn about traditional cider production and taste a drink closely associated with the region.

Asturian food draws on the produce of its green countryside and Cantabrian coast. Sharing a meal with the people who prepare it offers insight into local food traditions, while this MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience supports responsible consumption and production.

Explore Oviedo with a Local Expert, discovering its ninth-century churches and surviving wall paintings. Visit the Cathedral of the Holy Savior in Plaza Alfonso II and admire its elaborate altarpiece.

Oviedo was a centre of the early medieval Kingdom of Asturias, and its pre-Romanesque heritage preserves an unusually early chapter of Spanish Christian art. Your expert explains the churches’ distinctive architecture and places the cathedral’s treasures within the city’s long religious history.

Visit the Holy Cave of Covadonga, a shrine set into a rocky mountainside, and see the tomb of Pelayo. Take in the limestone peaks and gorge scenery of the Picos de Europa National Park, with a view of the historic Roman bridge at Cangas de Onís.

Covadonga is closely associated with Pelayo’s victory in 722 and the beginnings of the Kingdom of Asturias. The mountain setting gives the shrine its atmosphere, linking a pivotal local story with one of northern Spain’s most dramatic landscapes.

Stroll through Santillana del Mar, following cobbled streets past stone houses bearing carved coats of arms. Make your way towards the village’s church square and take in the unusually well-preserved historic setting.

Often celebrated as one of Spain’s most beautiful villages, Santillana del Mar is notable for the continuity of its medieval street plan and later noble houses. Its pedestrian-scale lanes invite a closer look at the masonry, timber details and heraldic symbols that tell the village’s story.

Discover Bilbao with your Travel Director and see the striking exterior of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Take in the building’s sweeping curves and metallic surfaces as part of an orientation to this Basque city.

Designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 1997, the museum became a symbol of Bilbao’s urban renewal. The visit focuses on its architecture and the city sights seen during the orientation; museum admission is not specified as part of this experience.

Pause in the Basque seaside town of Getaria to see El Ratón, the mouse-shaped headland that defines its coastal silhouette. Look out over the fishing-town setting and the waters of the Bay of Biscay.

The distinctive rock formation gives Getaria an instantly recognisable profile along the Costa Vasca. This scenic stop offers a focused look at the region’s rugged shoreline and maritime character, rather than a museum visit or guided town tour.

Explore Barcelona with a Local Expert, travelling along Passeig de Gràcia and through the geometric Eixample district to Gaudí’s Sagrada Família. Inside the basilica, look up at branching, tree-like columns and vaulted ceilings, and see coloured light filter through its stained-glass windows.

The route connects Barcelona’s Modernista architecture with the changing shape of the city. If access to the basilica is restricted by a special event, the included visit is instead to Domènech i Montaner’s Hospital de Sant Pau, with time to view the Sagrada Família’s exterior from its surrounding gardens.

Explore Segovia on an optional excursion from Madrid, seeing its monumental Roman aqueduct, medieval streets and turreted Alcázar. The city’s compact historic centre brings several eras of Spanish architecture into close view.

The aqueduct is one of the most imposing surviving Roman works in Spain, while the Alcázar rises above the meeting of two valleys. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the itinerary does not specify entry to the Alcázar.

Sample traditional pintxos in San Sebastián and discover txikiteo, the Basque custom of moving between bars for drinks and small bites. Experience the Old Quarter’s food culture through regional flavours and the sociable atmosphere of its bar counters.

Pintxos are small, often carefully composed snacks that play a central role in local evenings out. This optional experience offers a hosted introduction to the custom; it is at additional cost and bookable on tour.