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- 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 travelers at a local restaurant, sharing plates of typical madrileño food as you meet the people you’ll travel with over the next 15 days. Locations Visited: Madrid ES.
- 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 gray 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 color, while Rubens fills the canvas with muscular drama. You move nearer to the canvases, tracing brushstrokes that become satin, skin, smoke and sky. Locations Visited: Madrid ES.
- 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. Locations Visited: Madrid ES, Segovia ES, Avila ES, Salamanca ES.
- 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 color, depth and finish. Returning to Porto, you follow the riverfront past multicolored 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. Locations Visited: Salamanca ES, Porto PT.
- 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. Locations Visited: Porto PT, Fátima PT, Obidos PT, Lisbon PT.
- Day 6 Lisbon Highlights: Baixa, Belém and Beyond Traveling 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. Locations Visited: Lisbon PT.
- 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. Locations Visited: Lisbon PT, Seville ES.
- 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-colored 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. Locations Visited: Seville ES.
- 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. Locations Visited: Seville ES, Gibraltar GI, Costa del Sol ES, Torremolinos ES.
- 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. Locations Visited: Torremolinos ES.
- 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 flavors 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. Locations Visited: Torremolinos ES, Alfarnatejo ES, Granada ES.
- 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, savory aroma rises from the wide paella pan. At dinner, you taste the finished dish, warm from the pan. Locations Visited: Granada ES, Valencia ES.
- 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 recognize 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. Locations Visited: Valencia ES, Barcelona ES.
- 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 colored 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 color spills across the central nave. At a local restaurant, join your fellow travelers 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. Locations Visited: Barcelona ES.
- 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. Locations Visited: Barcelona ES, Madrid ES.
Name: Best of Spain and Portugal - End Madrid, Winter
Brand: Trafalgar
Quality: Superior First Class
Tour Type: Escorted
Start City: Madrid
End City: Madrid
Location Summary: Madrid, ES
Segovia, ES
Avila, ES
Salamanca, ES
Porto, PT
Fátima, PT
Obidos, PT
Lisbon, PT
Seville, ES
Gibraltar, GI
Costa del Sol, ES
Torremolinos, ES
Alfarnatejo, ES
Granada, ES
Valencia, ES
Barcelona, ES
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Highlights
- Dining Summary - 5 Dinner (D). 14 Breakfast (B). 2 Lunch (L).
- Whats Included NOT IN USE - Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day..
- 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 travelers over a beautiful evening of delicious food and wine.. Vila Nova de Gaia: Visit the wine cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia, the center 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 flavor. . 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 flavor 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 traveled 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..
- Top Rated Highlights - Madrid: Explore Madrid’s Old Quarter with a Local Specialist who outlines how the district developed from a small medieval citadel into the center of Habsburg Madrid. You’ll see the compact street grid, market squares and civic buildings that shaped the early city, and trace how each layer of expansion created the foundations of the modern capital.. Segovia: Walk Segovia’s historic center with a Local Specialist who explains how the city developed at the meeting point of Roman, medieval and royal influence. View the Alcázar, a fortified complex documented from the 12th century, and examine the structure of the Roman aqueduct, whose towering granite arches carried mountain water into the city for almost two thousand years.. Salamanca: Explore Salamanca’s central streets and squares with a Local Specialist, tracing the city’s rise as one of Europe’s early university centers. Study the sandstone facades around Plaza Mayor and the university buildings founded in the 13th century, including examples of Plateresque detail that mark the city’s architectural identity.. Obidos: Walk inside Óbidos’ medieval walls, you’ll follow a street pattern that reflects its origins as a Roman settlement later granted as a royal wedding gift in the 13th century. You’ll move through lanes lined with whitewashed houses and small churches, and sample ginja, the local cherry liqueur traditionally served in small cups. . Fátima: Explore Fátima with a focus on the Sanctuary complex established after the reported apparitions of 1917. Here, you’ll also be able to view the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Chapel of the Apparitions and the broad esplanade built for large pilgrimage gatherings. . Lisbon: Explore Lisbon with a Local Specialist, focusing on the Baixa district rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake and the broad Pombaline layout that shaped the Lower Town. Continue through the Belém Quarter to view landmarks linked to Portugal’s maritime era, including the Monument to the Discoveries and the Belém Tower, both positioned along the Tagus. . Lisbon: Visit the National Coach Museum to examine its collection of royal carriages dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. Used for state ceremonies and diplomatic events, you’ll view coaches that illustrate the shifts in artisanship, decoration and court protocol across several European courts. . Seville: Visit Seville Cathedral, completed in the 16th century and recognized as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Walk through its vast nave and chapels and view the Giralda, originally built as the minaret of the 12th-century Almohad mosque. The cathedral’s scale and layered construction show how the site developed from Islamic to Christian use.. Seville: Join a guided walk through the Santa Cruz quarter, following a street pattern shaped by Seville’s medieval Jewish community until the 14th century. You’ll navigate narrow lanes, enclosed courtyards and small plazas reflect the district’s earlier layout, with surviving architectural elements that point to the neighborhood’s social and cultural history within the wider city.. Gibraltar: With your Local Specialist, explore the Rock of Gibraltar, one of the pillars of Hercules, affording magnificent views and see the meeting of the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Spanish Sierra. Visit St. Michael's Cave and see the Barbary Apes.. Alfarnatejo: Visit the beautiful, quiet town and walk the town center. . Valencia: Get your bearings in Valencia’s Old City as your Travel Director points out the surviving medieval gateways and the street grid shaped by centuries of expansion.. Peñíscola: See Peñíscola’s 14th-century castle rising above the old town, set on a limestone headland that divides the shoreline.. Barcelona: Explore Barcelona with a Local Specialist who sets out the city’s shape from street level — the long run of Passeig de Gràcia, the sharp grid of the Eixample and the way the skyline shifts as the Sagrada Família comes into view. The route ties together the city’s Modernista detail and its ongoing architectural change..
- MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® - Seville: The Cristina Heeren Foundation promotes the teaching and preservation of flamenco and is supported by a TreadRight Foundation grant. Meet students, learn a few basic steps and watch them perform, gaining insight into how the school trains young artists in guitar, singing and dance. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education..
