Discover Bilbao during an orientation with your Travel Director and view the Guggenheim Museum’s exterior. Frank Gehry’s sculptural building gives the city’s riverside a striking landmark of curving forms and reflective surfaces.

Opened in 1997, the museum became closely associated with Bilbao’s shift from an industrial centre towards a city known for contemporary design. The itinerary describes an exterior viewing, not admission to the museum’s galleries.

Pause in the Basque seaside town of Getaria to see El Ratón, the mouse-shaped headland that defines its coastal outline. Take in the contrast between the sheltered harbour, the compact town and the open Bay of Biscay.

Getaria’s maritime setting is part of the character of the Costa Vasca, where fishing communities occupy inlets beneath green hills. This scenic stop focuses on viewing the distinctive landform rather than a ticketed attraction.

• 6 Dinner (D)
• 17 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Lunch (L)

• Granada: Visit the Alhambra Palace with a Local Expert 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.
• 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
• 4 & 5-star stays
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over dinner at a local restaurant in Barcelona. This hosted gathering offers an introduction to the people sharing your journey and a chance to settle into the Catalan capital.

Barcelona’s dining culture favours conversation around the table, making a restaurant meal a fitting welcome to the city. Enjoy the evening together while getting to know your group.

Explore Barcelona with a Local Expert, travelling along Passeig de Gràcia and through the gridded Eixample district to see the city’s distinctive Modernista architecture. Visit Gaudí’s Sagrada Família and look up at its tree-like columns, branching vaults and stained glass.

The basilica has been under construction since 1882, and its design draws forms from the natural world. If entry is restricted by a special event, the visit instead includes the Art Nouveau Hospital de Sant Pau and an exterior viewing of the Sagrada Família.

See Peñíscola’s 14th-century castle rising above its old town on a limestone headland. The fortress stands between two stretches of Mediterranean shoreline, giving the coastal stop a striking silhouette.

Built by the Knights Templar, the castle later served as the residence of Pope Benedict XIII, known as Papa Luna. Its sea-facing walls also appeared in the film El Cid. This is a chance to view the landmark rather than a stated tour of its interior.

Get your bearings in Valencia as your Travel Director points out the Old City and its surviving medieval gates. See how older streets sit within a city whose boundaries expanded over centuries.

The gateways recall Valencia’s former defensive walls, while the historic centre reflects Roman origins and later Islamic and Christian rule. This orientation offers a useful introduction to the city’s layered past without presenting it as a guided interior visit.

Watch a local chef prepare Valencian paella in a family-run restaurant in the Old City. Learn how the heat of the pan, the rice and saffron-infused stock shape the dish, before sitting down to enjoy the finished paella with a glass of wine.

Paella has its roots in the agricultural landscape around Valencia. Taste the savoury rice and its prized socarrat crust, gaining a closer understanding of the technique behind the region’s best-known speciality.

Explore the Alhambra with a Local Expert, discovering palace spaces, intricate carved plasterwork, courtyards and fountains above Granada. Walk through the Generalife gardens, created around the Nasrid rulers’ summer residence.

Developed under Granada’s Muslim dynasty from the 13th century, the complex uses water, shade and ornament to remarkable effect. Its hilltop setting speaks to the city’s centuries as a Moorish kingdom and its place in Spanish history.

Walk through the Santa Cruz quarter with a Local Expert, following narrow lanes and small plazas in Seville’s historic centre. Visit Seville Cathedral to see its vast Gothic nave and chapels, and view the Giralda beside it.

Santa Cruz retains a street pattern associated with the city’s medieval Jewish community. The cathedral was built on the site of a former mosque; its bell tower began as an Almohad minaret. Together, these places reveal distinct layers of Seville’s past.

Meet students at Seville’s Cristina Heeren Foundation, learn a few basic flamenco steps and watch a performance. The visit gives you a close view of the discipline behind an art form built on the interplay of dance, song and guitar.

The foundation teaches and preserves flamenco while helping young performers develop their skills. Your visit supports its educational work, making the encounter both a cultural experience and a contribution to the next generation of artists.

Explore Córdoba’s historic centre with your Travel Director, seeing the Roman Bridge over the Guadalquivir and the old gateway towers. At the Mezquita-Cathedral, join a local historian to examine its rows of striped arches and later Christian additions.

The mosque originated in the eighth century and was expanded under Córdoba’s Islamic rulers. A cathedral was subsequently built within it, leaving an extraordinary record of changing religious use in one building.

Discover Madrid’s historic neighbourhoods with a Local Expert before visiting the Prado Museum with an art historian. Examine selected works by Velázquez, Goya, Titian and Rubens, with guidance on the people and ideas behind the paintings.

Founded in 1819, the Prado grew from Spain’s royal collections into one of Europe’s foremost art museums. Expert interpretation helps connect its portraits and historical scenes to the courts and societies that produced them.

Join your Travel Director and fellow travellers for dinner at a local restaurant in the heart of Madrid. Share a meal served with wine and take time to talk about the places and experiences you have enjoyed.

The hosted gathering brings the group together in Spain’s capital, where dining is as much about conversation as the food on the table. It is a social evening rather than a scheduled sightseeing visit.

Choose a city tour with a Local Expert in Santiago de Compostela. Visit Praza do Obradoiro to admire the ornate facade of the cathedral, the city’s most prominent landmark and the destination of generations of pilgrims.

The square brings together buildings from different periods around the cathedral’s grand western front. This included Insight Choice activity is an alternative to the guided Way of St. James walk; travellers select one of the two experiences.

Choose a guided walk on part of the Way of St. James near Santiago de Compostela. Follow a route through parks and gardens with a Local Expert, experiencing a small portion of the path associated with the city’s long pilgrimage tradition.

The greenery changes with the seasons, offering a quieter perspective on Santiago’s significance as a walking destination. This included Insight Choice activity is an alternative to the city tour and Praza do Obradoiro visit; travellers select one.

Meet local hosts near Gijón for a homemade farm-to-table meal prepared with locally sourced produce. Learn about Asturian cider production and sample the drink as part of this hosted food experience.

Cider is closely tied to Asturias’s orchards and social traditions, and the meal offers a taste of the region beyond its scenery. The visit supports responsible consumption and production by highlighting local ingredients and the people who prepare them.

Explore Oviedo with a Local Expert, learning about its ninth-century churches and their surviving early medieval art. Visit the Cathedral of the Holy Savior on Plaza Alfonso II and admire its elaborate altarpiece.

Oviedo was a capital of the Kingdom of Asturias, and its pre-Romanesque heritage offers a rare glimpse of Christian architecture from that period. The cathedral and older churches show how the city’s religious landscape developed across centuries.

Visit the Holy Cave of Covadonga, a shrine associated with Pelayo, and see the mountain scenery of the Picos de Europa. The visit combines a place of pilgrimage with views of the national park’s steep peaks and deep valleys.

Pelayo is traditionally linked to a Christian victory at Covadonga in 722, giving the site a powerful place in Asturian history. The surrounding limestone landscape lends the shrine a setting quite unlike Spain’s better-known southern cities.

Walk the cobbled streets of Santillana del Mar, admiring stone houses with carved heraldic details and making your way towards the church square. The village offers a close look at the traditional architecture of Cantabria.

Its compact historic centre has preserved much of its medieval character, with lanes and facades best appreciated on foot. This is a village visit and stroll, offering time to take in the buildings and atmosphere rather than a stated guided monument entry.

Explore San Sebastián with a Local Expert, walking through the Old Quarter and learning about the harbour area. See historic streets and public spaces, including Plaza de la Constitución, while discovering the city’s Basque maritime connections.

The harbour recalls generations of fishing and seafaring alongside San Sebastián’s reputation as a coastal resort. Local guidance adds context to the waterfront and old-town streets, revealing more than their setting beside the bay.

Gather with your Travel Director and fellow travellers at a local Barcelona restaurant for a farewell dinner. Raise a glass together and share favourite memories of the cities, landscapes and regional traditions encountered across Spain.

This hosted meal is a chance to enjoy the convivial atmosphere of dining in the Catalan capital. Its focus is the group experience and a shared close to the holiday, rather than a cooking demonstration or scheduled performance.

Explore Granada’s Albaicín quarter with a Local Expert on an optional walking experience. Discover the district’s lanes and learn why Granada held such an important place in the history of medieval Spain.

The Albaicín preserves the feel of the city’s former Moorish neighbourhood, with a hillside street pattern shaped long before modern Granada expanded around it. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Choose an optional visit to Pilatos Palace to admire one of Seville’s notable historic residences. Explore its architectural elegance and the combination of styles that gives the palace its distinctive Andalusian character.

Also known as the Casa de Pilatos, the residence is celebrated for its blend of Mudéjar and Renaissance design, visible in features such as its courtyards and decorative tilework. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Choose an optional exploration of the Alcázar of Seville and nearby Plaza América. Discover the royal palace complex and see the plaza’s pavilions, built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition.

The Alcázar reflects centuries of architectural change, with Mudéjar craftsmanship among its defining features. Plaza América offers a different chapter of Seville’s design history in its landscaped setting. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Visit Toledo on an optional experience from Madrid. See a historic city set above a bend in the River Tagus, known for its closely packed streets and prominent skyline.

Toledo’s heritage reflects long connections among Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities, earning it a place among Spain’s most culturally layered cities. The itinerary does not specify particular monument entries for this excursion. It is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Explore the ancient city of Segovia on an optional experience from Madrid. See its imposing Roman aqueduct and the storybook profile of the Alcázar, the castle that rises above the surrounding landscape.

The aqueduct is an outstanding reminder of Roman engineering, while the Alcázar evokes Segovia’s later royal history. The itinerary does not specify interior admission to either landmark. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Visit Montserrat Monastery on an optional experience from Barcelona. Set among the mountain’s distinctive rock formations, the monastery is a major Catalan pilgrimage site dedicated to the Virgin of Montserrat, known as the Black Madonna.

The setting brings together religious heritage and a rugged landscape markedly different from Barcelona’s city streets. The itinerary does not specify particular interior visits beyond the monastery excursion. It is at additional cost and bookable on tour.