Northern Spain Explorer

We covered a lot of ground in a week! The hotels on this trip far exceeded our expectations and we enjoyed the casual dining options for lunch and dinner throughout the week. There was very little downtime but that wasn't an issue. Donal, out Tour Leader, was great and worked very hard to help us get the most out of the trip. He prepared well in advance of the tour and was always available throughout.

The tour was great. Our tour leader, Renske was really helpful & went out her way to make the tour enjoyable. After dinner on Saturday night she took us to her area’s annual street party- fireworks display, bands, dancing & food. Highly recommend her as a guide.

Thoroughly enjoyed the tour. The tour guide leader Renske was exceptionally good and made the trip particularly enjoyable for us. Renske spent a lot of time helping me sort out the problem with my ESIM card. She was thoughtful, considerate and always gave us the information we needed. Nothing was too much trouble for her.

Explore have clearly taken on board all of the comments made on previous versions of this trip and have now put together a really excellent itinerary. Each day was busy as we covered a lot of ground but there was plenty of free time to wander round the bigger places and we always arrived at each place in plenty of time for a tour and the opportunity to visit things that were of particular interest to the different people on the trip. Our tour guide, Renske, was really excellent. She made everything go very smoothly and did particularly good walking tours on arrival at each city so that we could get our bearings and she could point out the things to see and do. She also dealt patiently with the myriad of queries and the different interests of people in the group. Our trip was occasionally challenging because of the unexpectedly extremely high temperatures that were experienced at the end of June but even that didn’t take anything away from a great trip with a lovely group of people. For me, particular highlights were Zaragoza and Montserrat and also the beautiful Hopital de Sant Pau which was next to the hotel in Barcelona. We would probably never have seen that if we had not stayed in that area and it was also great to be within walking distance of the Sagrada Familia. I think that wherever you stay in Barcelona you will probably always need to use the metro to see some of the sights but it was easy to use (and much cooler than above ground!) and Explore even through in the metro tickets.

I enjoyed the trip but I still feel it needs tweaking! To really enjoy the fabulous places we visited it does need a couple of extra days and I think that 10 days would work better. In my opinion he visit to the anchovy and chocolate factory could certainly be left out! An extra day in both Zaragoza and Barcelona would have been appreciated as there was so much to see in both these cities but we had limited time. Hotels were pretty good - although the Barcelona hotel was not in the centre and although there was a metro to travel on - most took taxis to save time and energy - which of course added to the cost of the holiday. Unfortunately, the heat was relentless and on some days it was up to 39 degrees. I am glad I went a day earlier so I did not have to rush my visit to both the Guggenheim, The Museo de Bellas Artes and old town in Bilbao as we hardly spent any time there and the following day visited San Sebastian. Our Leader was great. She did everything to try and make our trip enjoyable.