Madrid Tours in October 2027

A couple of long travel days in the bus but scenery lovely. Hotels were spectacular! Special stops in homes of locals in Morocco and Spain were truly unique and well received by all.

This tour reached all my expectations perfectly. All details were pre-planned impeccably. Our guide, Mercedes was STELLAR. I am sure that she as well our expert chauffeur Javier were what made ALL of us delight in this experience. I know that I speak on behalf of all 18 of us. A huge thank you to all of you involved and I am planning my next trip with you already. Vicky Shemie

I loved every moment of this trip. The food, the cities we visited, for the most part the pace. We had a wonderful group where we all became friends and our trip manager and coach driver were truly the best!

One of the most incredible experiences I have ever had. I traveled a few times on my own, but with Contiki I was able to get the most out of my experience. No hours spent searching for things to do and scrounging to figure out how I would do it all. My travel manager and were amazing and they made the trip even more amazing.

I can highly recommend a recent trip through Andalusia in Spain with Back Roads, called Iberian Inspiration. It is a small group company and is extremely well organised, takes you to interesting locations off the beaten track as well as the main towns of Madrid, Cordoba, Granada and Seville in Spain, finishing up in Lisbon, Portugal. Most of the hotel were gorgeous and the breakfasts each day were amazing, (except for the one in Madrid), but the location was fantastic. Our Guide Julia was exceptional, and so was our bus driver Eduardo. Thank you Back Roads, I hope to join another of your tours one day.

Firstly, I will start with a disclaimer I would like to stay in touch with our guide Malina as a friend. While I was walking the Camino she was a true friend to me. She always had best interests of everyone on the tour at heart. I valued her honest council on the walk and will continue to value it through life. My previous review mentioned how much I appreciated the guide and the taxi being there to meet me at the airport. On this occasion neither was there. The guide was out to dinner with the group. The taxi driver left after 1.5 hours. (There was a long delay in collecting our luggage) . Malina left me a whatsapp message which I was unable to access due to no internet connection on my phone. I was able to get an internet connection on a different device and checked the explore itinerary to get the name of the hotel. I then got a taxi to the hotel. When I phoned explore I was told that both the hotel name and address as well as an emergency number are in the final confirmation email. I would highly recommend writing both down before you leave home. I would say the main reason for having a guide is not to point out all the interesting things and the great views but to prevent things going wrong and to deal with them when they do. I successfully walked the Camino last year, ok I had a few blisters but still completed it. It was difficult for me to accept that I would have to do shorter walks this year because of blisters and the heat. But Malina was correct. She took a difficult decision with my best interest at heart to ensure that I not only enjoyed my holiday but also returned home without any health issues. Instead of walking in the heat which was difficult for me I got the opportunity to fully experience the excellent hotels and interesting places on the journey. Which Camino was best I cannot really answer that question. In both cases I was in groups made up of wonderful people with guides who went the extra mile to ensure that everyone had a great holiday. I had two different holidays the first was walking place to place mainly enjoying the journey in the second I had more time to experience the destination. The main thing that both had in common was the camaraderie of the Camino.