Spain · Private and tailor-made
Spain's Masterpieces: Velázquez to Gaudí
Stand before Las Meninas with an art historian before the Prado opens its doors.
By arrangement · How private access worksSuggested length
14 days
Price guide
From $13,972 per person, excl. flights, based on two sharing
Includes hotels, private guiding, experiences and transfers
When
April to June and September to October
or call +1 (727) 699-5439
A planner replies within one business day
American precision with local expertise · Planned from Europe since 2002 · Nearly 17,000 American travelers · Never cancelled a journey
Ana, our art historian at the Prado, meets you before the museum opens, where your dates allow, and by arrangement you stand before Las Meninas while the galleries are still empty. From there this two-week private tour of Spain follows the country’s art and architecture from Madrid to Barcelona. Guernica, Segovia and Toledo come early, with cochinillo, Segovia’s roast suckling pig, for lunch one day. Seville and Roman Carmona lead into the white villages and on to Ronda, high above its gorge. In Granada you walk the Nasrid Palaces, and Barcelona ends with the Sagrada Família and a day for Dalí’s Figueres, Girona or the Costa Brava. Your planner in Madrid can trade any day for another, and you pay only for what you want.
Study Velázquez’s Las Meninas and the Prado’s own Mona Lisa with Ana, Madrid.
Stand before Picasso’s Guernica at the Reina Sofía, Madrid.
Walk the Roman necropolis and the Seville Gate of Carmona, outside Seville.
Cross the Puente Nuevo above the El Tajo gorge, Ronda.
Walk the Nasrid Palaces and the Court of the Lions with Israel, Granada.
Visit the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, the artist’s hometown, on your day north of Barcelona.
“We love to tailor-make trips you’ll talk about for years, built on our local relationships & story-worthy experiences.” – Magical’s American founder, in Europe since 1998, culinary enthusiast & world traveler.
A Journey Designed Just for You
Our resident experts wrote this itinerary as a starting point, and your planner shapes every day around your interests, pace and travel style.
What do our American travelers say?
The 14-day Spain itinerary at a glance
The route uses five bases and thirteen nights: four in Madrid, three in Seville, two in Ronda, one in Granada and three in Barcelona. Madrid, Seville and Barcelona each work as a base for day trips, to Segovia and Toledo from the capital, to Carmona from Seville and to the Costa Brava from Barcelona, so four of the journey’s outings need no hotel change. Granada holds a single night, and the Alhambra fills the morning of day eleven before the flight to Barcelona.
Three kinds of connection link the bases. The high-speed train runs from Madrid to Seville in about 2 hours 30 minutes, on the line Spain opened in 1992. A licensed driver takes the road from Seville through the white villages to Ronda, and from Ronda to Granada in about 2 hours. A direct flight links Granada and Barcelona, about 680 kilometers apart, in about 1 hour 30 minutes, and a licensed driver meets you at El Prat.
The route suits spring and autumn best. Spain’s state weather agency, AEMET, records average daily highs in Seville of about 23°C (74°F) in April and 26°C (79°F) in October, against 36°C (97°F) in July. Madrid averages about 18°C (65°F) in April and 19°C (67°F) in October, and Barcelona about 18°C (64°F) and 22°C (72°F). Summer and winter departures both work with a different daily rhythm, and our team plans the hours around the season.
Licensed guides we work with on this route include Ana and Alicia in Madrid, Leticia in Segovia, Melanie in Toledo, Andrés and Rosario in Seville, Sonia in Ronda, Israel and Rafael in Granada, and Irma and Mariona in Barcelona. Each is a highly educated local expert who cares about the people in their group. We request your guides by name, and your planner confirms who leads each day once your dates are set.
Why the route runs from the Prado to Gaudí
The route reads Spain through its masterpieces, roughly in the order history made them. It opens in Madrid, where the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza stand a short walk apart on the Paseo del Prado, and where Toledo and Segovia hold El Greco, Roman engineering and the Castile of Isabella. It then drops south to Seville’s Almohad and Mudéjar monuments and Roman Carmona, climbs to Ronda, reaches the Nasrid palaces of the Alhambra, and ends with Gaudí in Barcelona and, where it suits your party, Dalí in Figueres. You fly into Madrid and home from Barcelona, so you never double back. Our note on whether to fly into Madrid or Barcelona explains the airport logic in more detail.
Four nights in Madrid give the art a day of its own. Day two belongs to the Paseo del Prado, with Ana at the Prado in the morning and the Reina Sofía or the Thyssen in the afternoon, while Segovia and Toledo each get a full day. Seville’s three nights work the same way, with Carmona as a day out from the same hotel. The trade comes in Granada, where one night and a timed morning entry to the Alhambra make day eleven the fullest day of the trip.
Journey at a glance
Length
14 days
From
$13,972 per person, double occupancy
Route
Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, Seville, Carmona, Andalusia, Ronda, Granada, Alhambra, Barcelona, Monserrat
Your planner adjusts every day to your dates.
Day One
Madrid: Plaza Mayor and the Royal Palace
Your licensed driver meets you at Madrid-Barajas airport and brings you to a hotel in the historic center. In the afternoon your licensed guide walks you through the Madrid of the Habsburgs. Builders completed Plaza Mayor in 1619, and it closes around you on four sides, with 237 balconies above the arcades and a bronze equestrian statue of Philip III at its center. A few streets west stands the Royal Palace, which rose on the site of the old Alcázar after fire destroyed it on Christmas Eve 1734. It holds 3,418 rooms, and the royal family still uses it for state ceremonies. In the evening the Mercado de San Miguel, under its wrought iron and glass roof from 1916, serves jamón, olives and a first glass of Spanish wine, and a flamenco show follows where it suits your party. Logistics: Madrid-Barajas airport to central Madrid by road with your licensed driver, then an afternoon on foot with your licensed guide.
Day Two
Madrid's Art Triangle: The Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen
Three of Spain's great museums stand a short walk apart on the Paseo del Prado, and UNESCO added the avenue and the Buen Retiro park beside it to its World Heritage list in 2021. Where your dates allow, Ana, an art historian, leads the morning at the Prado, which opened to the public in 1819 in a building Juan de Villanueva designed in 1785. She takes you through Velázquez's Las Meninas, Goya's Black Paintings and the El Greco rooms, then to the Prado's own Mona Lisa, a copy Leonardo's workshop painted alongside the original. When the Prado's conservators cleaned it in 2011 and 2012, they removed a black overpaint and recovered the painted countryside behind the sitter. Lunch between museums brings croquetas and a glass of vermouth on a terrace near the Paseo. In the afternoon your licensed guide leads you into the Reina Sofía, a 16th-century hospital building Francisco Sabatini later enlarged, where Picasso's Guernica records the bombing of 27 April 1937, and the collection holds works by Dalí, Miró and Juan Gris. If your party prefers the old masters, the Thyssen-Bornemisza takes its place, with Rembrandt's Self-portrait wearing a Hat and two Chains among the 775 works the Spanish state bought from the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in 1993. Logistics: a walking day along the Paseo del Prado, with Ana at the Prado in the morning and your licensed guide in the afternoon.
Day Three
Segovia and La Granja, the Spanish Versailles
Segovia's Roman aqueduct carries 167 arches through the lower town and stands 28.5 meters at its tallest, and UNESCO inscribed the old town and aqueduct in 1985. Your licensed guide leads you up through Romanesque churches and Renaissance palaces to the Alcázar, on a rocky crag above the meeting of the Eresma and Clamores rivers, with records from 1120. In 1474, on the news of Henry IV's death, Isabella took refuge in the Alcázar, and the next day Segovia proclaimed her Queen of Castile. Lunch brings cochinillo, roast suckling pig with a crisp skin, the Segovian specialty. In the afternoon you reach La Granja de San Ildefonso, the palace Philip V began in 1721 on the model of his grandfather's Versailles, where 26 sculptural fountains fill the gardens and gravity alone drives the water through every one. Logistics: Madrid to Segovia by road, about 1 hour 30 minutes, with La Granja on the same day and the return to Madrid in the evening, licensed guide and licensed driver.
Day Four
Toledo, City of Three Cultures
Toledo sits on a steep rock above the Tagus River, about 70 kilometers south of Madrid, and UNESCO inscribed the old city in 1986 for more than 2,000 years of history. Your licensed guide reads the streets with you, where a cathedral, a mosque and two synagogues stand a few lanes apart. Work on the Gothic cathedral began in 1226, and its sacristy holds El Greco's El Expolio. Samuel HaLevi, a financier to the Castilian king, built the synagogue of El Tránsito in 1357, and today it houses the Sephardic Museum. At Santa María la Blanca, the older of the two, white horseshoe arches rise from 24 octagonal piers inside plain white walls, a Mudéjar building with Almohad roots. The small mosque of Bab al-Mardum dates from 999 and survives as the church of Cristo de la Luz. Before you leave, taste mazapán de Toledo, the almond marzipan with protected geographical indication status. Logistics: Madrid to Toledo by road, about 1 hour each way, licensed driver, with a licensed guide for the day in Toledo.
Day Five
South to Seville
The high-speed line from Madrid runs about 472 kilometers through Córdoba to Santa Justa station. In the afternoon your licensed guide opens Seville through its three World Heritage monuments, which UNESCO inscribed together in 1987. At the Real Alcázar, King Pedro I built his Mudéjar palace in the 1360s, and the royal family still occupies the upper floors when it visits the city. Next door, the cathedral rises on the site of the Almohad great mosque, and the Almohads completed the Giralda, the minaret turned bell tower, in 1198. Inside the tower, 35 ramps take the place of stairs. The Patio de los Naranjos, the mosque's old ablution court, keeps its fountain and its rows of orange trees, and the walk ends in the whitewashed lanes of Santa Cruz, the city's old Jewish quarter. Logistics: Madrid to Seville by high-speed train, about 2 hours 30 minutes, and a licensed driver meets you at Santa Justa.
Day Six
Triana, Paella and the Plaza de España
The Mercado de Triana stands over the foundations of the medieval Castillo de San Jorge, and you see them in its basement. Where it suits your party, a chef meets you among the market stalls to cook a paella together, the rice dish from Valencia whose name means frying pan, and you share the socarrat, the crisp rice at the bottom of the pan. Your licensed guide then walks you through Triana, a quarter with a long tradition of pottery, tile making and flamenco, and back across the river to the Plaza de España. Aníbal González designed the plaza for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, and tiled alcoves run around it, one for each Spanish province. In the evening you take reserved seats for flamenco song, dance and guitar, a tradition UNESCO added to its intangible heritage list in 2010. Logistics: a walking day in Seville with your licensed guide, and a licensed driver for the transfer to the Plaza de España and the evening flamenco venue.
Day Seven
Carmona, Roman and Moorish
Carmona lies 33 kilometers northeast of Seville, and its story runs from Tartessian and Phoenician settlement to a Roman stronghold of Hispania Baetica. Your licensed guide starts at the Puerta de Sevilla, a gate of Carthaginian origin with later Roman additions, which both Moors and Christians reworked in the Middle Ages. Outside the walls, the Roman necropolis, which came to light in 1881 beside the Seville road, holds more than nine hundred family tombs cut into the rock, from the second century BC to the fourth century AD, some with frescoes still on the walls. The town has long traded in olive oil, wine and grain, and where it suits your party, our team arranges a visit to an olive mill and a tasting, with green, peppery oil over fresh bread. Logistics: Seville to Carmona by road, about 33 kilometers, with your licensed driver and a licensed guide, and back to your Seville hotel for the evening.
Day Eight
The White Villages on the Road to Ronda
Today your licensed driver leaves the main road for the white villages, and the day runs at the pace your party sets. Villages such as Arcos de la Frontera, Grazalema and Zahara de la Sierra keep their whitewashed houses, steep lanes and small squares. Arcos sets its old town in a loop of the Guadalete river above sheer cliffs. The road then climbs into the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, to Grazalema, a village whose weavers made its shawls famous from the 17th century, and to Zahara de la Sierra, where whitewashed houses stack below the remains of a Moorish castle. Castilian troops took Zahara in 1483, nine years before the fall of Granada. Lunch comes in a village, and you reach Ronda in the late afternoon, in time for sunset over the gorge with a glass of local wine. Logistics: Seville to Ronda by road, about 1 hour 45 minutes on the direct route and a full day with village stops, licensed driver.
Day Nine
Clifftop Ronda
Ronda stands above El Tajo, the gorge where the Guadalevín River splits the town in two. Builders finished the Puente Nuevo in 1793, and the bridge stands about 58 meters tall over a gorge about 120 meters deep, with the sound of the river rising from below. With your licensed guide you cross into La Ciudad, the old quarter, and walk down to the Arab Baths beside the old bridge, which date from the 13th and 14th centuries. Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles both spent many summers in La Ciudad, and Welles's ashes lie on the country estate of his friend, the retired bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez. The afternoon stays open for the viewpoints along the cliff and a glass of wine from the Serranía de Ronda, where vineyards grow between 600 and 1,000 meters above sea level. Logistics: a walking day in Ronda with your licensed guide, with no hotel change.
Day Ten
Granada, the Last Nasrid Capital
On 2 January 1492, Boabdil surrendered Granada and the Alhambra to the Castilian forces of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the two monarchs lie today in the Royal Chapel, which builders raised between 1505 and 1517 beside the cathedral. Your licensed guide then leads you up into the Albaicín, the hillside quarter UNESCO added to the Alhambra listing in 1994 for its Moorish vernacular architecture. Its cármenes, whitewashed houses with small gardens or orchards, line the lanes up to the Mirador de San Nicolás, where the whole Alhambra faces you across the valley. On the way down, try a pionono, a small rolled sponge cake soaked in syrup and topped with toasted cream, from Santa Fe on the edge of Granada. Logistics: Ronda to Granada by road, about 2 hours, licensed driver, then an afternoon on foot with your licensed guide.
Day Eleven
The Alhambra, then North to Barcelona
The Alhambra sits on the Sabika hill, an outcrop of the Sierra Nevada, and Muhammad I, the first Nasrid emir, began the complex in 1238. Where your dates allow, Israel, one of our licensed guides in Granada, leads the morning. In the Court of the Lions, twelve marble lions carry the fountain of the palace Muhammad V began in 1362, and you hear the water running in the channels between the fountain and the halls around the court. The Alcazaba, the oldest part of the complex, guards the western tip of the hill, and the Generalife, the former Nasrid summer palace, lies to the east among orchards and gardens. In the late afternoon your licensed driver takes you to Granada's airport for the flight north. Logistics: our team books the timed entry to the Nasrid Palaces in advance, and a direct flight links Granada and Barcelona, about 1 hour 30 minutes, with a licensed driver waiting at El Prat.
Day Twelve
Barcelona: The Gothic Quarter, Santa Maria del Mar and the Sagrada Família
Your licensed guide begins in the Gothic Quarter, where stretches of the Roman wall stand among the medieval streets. The carved stone bridge over Carrer del Bisbe looks medieval, yet Joan Rubió built it in 1928. After La Rambla, your guide crosses the old city to Santa Maria del Mar in the Ribera quarter, which rose between 1329 and 1383 to the design of Berenguer de Montagut. The bastaixos, the porters of the old waterfront, carried its stone, and they appear on the main doors. In the afternoon your licensed driver takes you to the Sagrada Família. Construction began in 1882, Gaudí took over as chief architect in 1883, and Pope Benedict XVI consecrated it as a basilica in 2010. Gaudí lies in its crypt, and UNESCO lists the Nativity façade and the crypt among his seven World Heritage works. Dinner opens with pa amb tomàquet, country bread rubbed with fresh tomato and finished with olive oil and salt. Logistics: a full day in Barcelona with your licensed guide, and your licensed driver for the transfer to the Sagrada Família.
Day Thirteen
The Costa Brava, Dalí or Girona
Ferran Agulló gave the Costa Brava its name in a newspaper article in 1908, and the coast runs from Blanes to the French border. Today takes the shape your party chooses. For walkers, a licensed guide leads a stretch of the Camí de Ronda, the 19th-century cliff path the Carabineros used to watch for smugglers, with the smell of salt and pine along the coves. For art, your licensed driver heads to Figueres, Dalí's hometown, where the artist rebuilt the old municipal theatre, burned during the Civil War, as the Dalí Theatre-Museum. It opened on 28 September 1974, and Dalí lies in a crypt below its stage. For history, Girona, 99 kilometers northeast of Barcelona, keeps its medieval Jewish quarter, the Call, and a cathedral whose nave spans about 23 meters, the second widest in the world after St Peter's in Rome. In 1982 the city repainted the houses along the Onyar river in 29 colors. Your driver returns you to your Barcelona hotel in the evening. Logistics: Barcelona to the Costa Brava, Figueres or Girona by road, a full day out with your licensed driver, and a licensed guide where it suits your party.
Day Fourteen
Departure from Barcelona
The morning stays free for a last coffee on a terrace in the Eixample or a walk along Passeig de Gràcia. Barcelona-El Prat airport lies about 15 kilometers southwest of the city center, and your licensed driver collects you from the hotel with time to spare for your flight home. VIP airport assistance, with meet-and-greet and help through the terminal, comes on request. Travelers who want more time in Iberia often extend from Barcelona into Portugal or Morocco, and our team plans those extensions on the same private basis. Logistics: hotel to Barcelona-El Prat airport by road with your licensed driver, with VIP assistance by prior arrangement.
What is the best 2-week itinerary for Spain?
A strong two-week itinerary for Spain covers Madrid, Andalusia and Barcelona from five bases and gives each major site a full day. This route spends days one to four in Madrid with the art museums, Segovia and Toledo, days five to seven in Seville with Carmona, days eight and nine on the white villages road and in Ronda, days ten and eleven in Granada with the Alhambra, and days twelve to fourteen in Barcelona with Gaudí and the Costa Brava. It flies into Madrid and out of Barcelona, uses one high-speed train and one domestic flight, and keeps road transfers between bases to about two hours, except on the white villages day, where the stops are the point.
How many days do you need in Madrid for the Prado and the art museums?
Give Madrid’s art one full day, and give Madrid itself at least three. The Prado fills a morning with an expert, and the Reina Sofía or the Thyssen-Bornemisza fills the afternoon, since all three museums stand on the Paseo del Prado within walking distance of one another. This route adds an arrival afternoon for Plaza Mayor and the Royal Palace and separate days out to Segovia and Toledo, which explains its four nights in the capital. Our guide to the highlights of the Prado and our note on the great Spanish artists of the 20th century help you decide what to put first.
How do you get from Granada to Barcelona?
A direct flight links Granada and Barcelona in about 1 hour 30 minutes, and on this route it leaves in the late afternoon of day eleven, after the Alhambra. The two cities lie about 680 kilometers apart, so the road would take most of a day. Your licensed driver takes you to Granada’s airport, and a second licensed driver meets you at Barcelona-El Prat. Our team arranges VIP airport assistance in Madrid and Barcelona on request, and for the rail legs of a Spain journey our article on Spain’s high-speed trains to Seville explains the options.
This 14-day route, the 12-day or the 16-day?
Choose this route if art matters most to you and you want a full museum day in Madrid, separate days for Segovia and Toledo, and Carmona from Seville. The 12-day private luxury tour of Spain keeps Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Ronda, Granada and Barcelona with two nights in Granada and a day at Montserrat, and it suits travelers with less time who would rather give up Segovia, Carmona and the Costa Brava than shorten a stay. The 16-day Spain itinerary keeps Segovia and the Costa Brava, adds a second night in Granada and two nights in Málaga by the sea, and it suits travelers who want a slower Alhambra day and time on the coast and who are happy to leave out Carmona.
With ten days, our best-selling Highlights of Spain 10-day tour covers Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Granada and Barcelona from four bases. With three weeks, the 22-day private tour of Spain adds the Basque Country and La Rioja. All of them start from the Spain destination page, and our team adjusts any of them to your dates.
Who this journey suits
American travelers who come for art and architecture, from Velázquez, Goya and El Greco to Picasso, the Alhambra, Gaudí and Dalí. Couples on a first trip to Spain who want the classic cities with a slower start in Madrid. Families with teenage or adult children, who share a guide and driver and set their own hours. Friends traveling together as a private party, who want one plan and one point of contact. Returning visitors who saw Barcelona years ago and now want Madrid’s museums and Andalusia in depth. Travelers who prefer to unpack once and take day trips, since Madrid, Seville and Barcelona hold ten of the thirteen nights. Your guide is glad to advise on suitability before booking for anyone who prefers shorter walking days.
The people behind the route
Our team selects top guides based on their experience, knowledge and engaging personalities, not egos. In Madrid, where your dates allow, Ana, an art historian, leads our Prado visits. She builds the morning around the painters you care about, whether your party favors Velázquez and Goya, the Flemish rooms with Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, or the story of the Prado’s Mona Lisa.
In Granada, where your dates allow, Israel, one of our licensed guides, leads the Alhambra morning. He paces the Nasrid Palaces around your timed entry and fits the Generalife and the Alcazaba around the flight to Barcelona later in the day.
What the 14-day journey costs and what it includes
The 14-day route starts from $13,972 per person, double occupancy. The from-price covers thirteen nights in deluxe four-star properties selected for comfort, location and service. Five-star luxury properties are available by request. It includes licensed guides for the visits described, a licensed driver for airport and road transfers, and timed entry to the Alhambra’s Nasrid Palaces.
Four things move the price: the season, the hotel category, the size of your private party, and added experiences such as the paella class in Seville, the olive mill in Carmona, a flamenco evening in Madrid or a guided day in Figueres or Girona. Magical Private Travel maintains excellent ratings on Trustpilot and Google’s independent review platforms.
To shape this route around your dates and your party, speak with our team about your two weeks in Spain.
Frequently asked questions about two weeks in Spain
How much does a private 14-day tour of Spain cost?
This 14-day route starts from $13,972 per person, based on two people sharing a room. The from-price covers the route as written: thirteen hotel nights, licensed guides for the visits described and a licensed driver for every road transfer, with the full list of inclusions set out in your written quote. Four things move the price. The season matters most, since hotel rates rise and fall through the year. Five-star hotels raise it. Party size changes it, because the guide and driver serve the whole party, so larger private parties pay less per person. Added experiences, such as the paella class in Seville, the olive mill in Carmona, a flamenco evening in Madrid or a guided day in Figueres or Girona, add to it. Our team sends a written quote for your dates and party before you commit.
When is the best time to spend two weeks in Spain?
April to June and September to October suit this route best. Spain’s weather agency, AEMET, records average daily highs in Seville of about 23°C (74°F) in April and 26°C (79°F) in October, and about 36°C (97°F) in July. Madrid averages about 18°C (65°F) in April and 19°C (67°F) in October, and Barcelona about 18°C (64°F) in April and 22°C (72°F) in October, so the museum days at the start and the coast day at the end stay comfortable in both seasons. Summer departures work well with early starts in Seville, Carmona and Granada and long lunches indoors in the heat of the afternoon. Winter brings cooler days, shorter light and the quietest hotels of the year, and Madrid’s museums suit the season well. Our team plans each day around the season you choose.
Is one day enough for the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen?
One day covers the Prado in depth and one of the other two at a good pace, and this route plans the day on those lines. Ana leads the Prado in the morning where your dates allow, and your licensed guide takes the afternoon at the Reina Sofía for Picasso, Dalí and Miró, or at the Thyssen-Bornemisza for the old masters. The three museums stand on the Paseo del Prado within walking distance of one another, and a single Paseo del Arte pass covers all three. Travelers who want all three in full often give the third museum the arrival afternoon in place of the Royal Palace, or trade the Segovia or Toledo day for a second museum day. Our team books timed entries for each museum once you settle the plan.
Do we need to book the Alhambra in advance?
Yes, and our team handles it. Every Alhambra ticket including the Nasrid Palaces carries a fixed entry time for the palaces, and the Alhambra’s own ticket office asks visitors to arrive on time for the slot. Visitors buying or collecting tickets at the monument must do so at least one hour before their assigned time, and each space on a ticket allows one entry. On this route the Alhambra falls on the morning of day eleven, before the afternoon flight to Barcelona, so our team books a morning entry as soon as you confirm your dates. Your licensed guide plans the Alcazaba and the Generalife around the palaces. Where your dates allow, Israel, one of our licensed guides in Granada, leads the visit.
Is one night in Granada enough?
One night gives you Granada’s two essentials: an afternoon in the Albaicín and the Royal Chapel on day ten, and a guided morning at the Alhambra on day eleven. The trade is pace. Day eleven runs from the Nasrid Palaces to the airport, and the evening ends in Barcelona. Travelers who want a slower Alhambra day, or a sunset at the Mirador de San Nicolás on both evenings often add a second night, which our team arranges by taking a night from Seville or Barcelona or by lengthening the trip. The 16-day Spain itinerary already holds two nights in Granada, and the 12-day private luxury tour of Spain does the same in less time overall.
Are the guide and the driver the same person?
In Spain they are two different people. A licensed guide leads the visits, and a licensed driver handles the vehicle and the road transfers. Your licensed guide changes from city to city, so your guide in Toledo differs from your guide in Seville, Granada or Barcelona. The driver stays with you on the road days, such as Segovia, Carmona, the white villages, the drive from Ronda to Granada and the Costa Brava, and meets you at the station or airport when you change regions. This split lets your guide focus on the site and your driver focus on the road, and it means the guide in each city knows the city in depth. Where your dates allow, named specialists such as Ana at the Prado and Israel in Granada lead those visits.
Why spend a day in Carmona?
Carmona gives the Seville stay a Roman chapter without a hotel change. The town lies 33 kilometers northeast of Seville, and its Roman necropolis, which came to light in 1881, holds more than nine hundred family tombs cut into the rock, some still painted with frescoes. The Puerta de Sevilla shows Carthaginian, Roman, Moorish and Christian work in a single gate. The town has long traded in olive oil, and where it suits your party our team arranges an olive mill visit with a tasting. Our article on Carmona’s Roman and medieval heritage gives a fuller picture of the day. If your party prefers, the day also works as a second full day in Seville.
What are the options for the Costa Brava day?
Day thirteen takes one of three shapes, and your party chooses before you travel. Walkers take a guided stretch of the Camí de Ronda, the old coastguard path between coves on the Costa Brava, with lunch in a fishing village. Art lovers go to Figueres, Dalí’s hometown, for the Dalí Theatre-Museum, which the artist rebuilt from the old municipal theatre and which opened in 1974. History lovers go to Girona, about 99 kilometers northeast of Barcelona, for the Call, its medieval Jewish quarter, and a cathedral with one of the widest Gothic naves in the world. Some parties combine Figueres or Girona with an hour on the coast. Our page on private Dalí tours from Barcelona describes the Dalí option in more detail. Your licensed driver handles the road in every case.
How flexible is the 14-day route?
The route works as a starting point, and your planner shapes it around your party. Common changes include swapping Ronda for Córdoba between Seville and Granada, adding a second night in Granada, or trading the Costa Brava day for Park Güell and a second Gaudí day in Barcelona. Our article on choosing Córdoba or Ronda between Seville and Granada sets out the trade. The route also extends naturally. Travelers who add Portugal often finish in Lisbon and Sintra, where Luisa, one of our licensed guides, leads the days alongside a licensed driver where your dates allow. Travelers who add Morocco cross from Andalusia, and our Spain and Morocco private journey and multi-country journeys show the combinations. Our team confirms timings, ticketed entries and hotel nights once you settle the shape of the trip.
Does this journey suit families or travelers with limited mobility?
Families travel this route often, because a private guide and driver set the pace around the youngest and the oldest in the party. Teenagers tend to respond to Guernica, the flamenco evening, the paella class, the Ronda gorge and the Gaudí towers, and the three and four-night bases leave room for a free afternoon. Several days involve walking on cobbled streets and slopes, especially in Toledo, Segovia, the Albaicín in Granada and old Ronda, and the Alhambra visit runs on foot across a large hillside site. Your guide is glad to advise on suitability before booking, and our team adjusts walking routes, adds vehicle time between sites, or shortens days where it helps. Our page on accessible travel in Spain sets out how our team plans for travelers who need step-free routes or extra support.
We keep a list of vetted four- and five-star hotels, well located and enjoyed by our past travelers and by our own team.
Examples for each overnight stop on this route. Choose a deluxe boutique hotel or a five-star stay, and your travel advisor matches each night to your wishes, the season and availability.
Madrid
Boutique: Tótem Madrid. A restored 19th-century building on Calle Hermosilla, steps from Serrano’s shops in the Salamanca district.
Five-star: Rosewood Villa Magna. Reopened by Rosewood in 2021 on the Paseo de la Castellana, with a leafy front garden.
Seville
Boutique: Hotel Casa 1800 Sevilla. A 19th-century mansion with a patio and a rooftop pool facing the cathedral and Giralda.
Five-star: Hotel Alfonso XIII. Built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition, a neo-Mudéjar palace of tiles and arches near the Alcázar.
Ronda
Boutique: Hotel Montelirio. A stately old house on the edge of the Tajo gorge, close to the Puente Nuevo.
Also consider: Parador de Ronda. The old town hall and market building on the edge of El Tajo, beside the Puente Nuevo.
Granada
Boutique: Parador de Granada. A 15th-century Franciscan convent inside the Alhambra precinct, with gardens facing the Generalife.
Five-star: Hospes Palacio de los Patos. A 19th-century palace beside a contemporary wing, linked by gardens, with a spa below.
Barcelona
Boutique: H10 Casa Mimosa. A listed 19th-century Modernista building on Pau Claris, on the same block as Gaudí’s La Pedrera.
Five-star: Mandarin Oriental Barcelona. A former bank on Passeig de Gràcia turned into a calm, pale-toned hotel with a rooftop pool.
What's Included
A Very Personalized Itinerary, Just For You and Your Schedule
Hand-Picked Ultra-Luxury & Boutique Hotel Options
Insider Experiences + Inspiring Sightseeing + Magical Upgrades
Private Touring with Your Own Personal Expert Guide
Private Airport & Train Station Luxury Transfers
Full Breakfasts + Food & Wine Tasting Options
Your Choice of Activities on “Design Your Days”®
Expert Advice, Restaurant Ideas & Reservations
24/7 Support & Concierge Service from Spain, Portugal & Morocco
Magical is an award-winning luxury travel agency
Private journeys with soul & stories
Excellent independent reviews
Only five journeys per country, per week
Hidden gems, insider fun & vetted hotels
Your private guide, deluxe vehicle & flexible pace
24/7 concierge-style support
We handle everything — you live the dream
American Precision, Local Soul
This is just placeholder text. Don’t be alarmed, this is just here to fill up space since your finalized copy isn’t ready yet. Once we have your content finalized, we’ll replace this placeholder text with your real content.
Jane Doe
Los Angeles, CA
Our Unforgettable Trips Are Tailored Just For You
Hi from Spain & Portugal,
Along with our local partners across Portugal, Spain, Morocco and beyond we believe that our clients deserve the truly tailor-made private luxury trips, not generic "one-size-fits-all" plans.
Get inspired with our sample trips then get in touch about an expert-made personalized custom luxury itinerary, just for you.
Kind regards,
Dan O'Beirne & the MPT team
Request a Quote