Sometime the best way to get new ideas for unique Spain Private Tour Itinerary Ideas is to see what others have said. Here are some typical comments and questions.
Hi Rachel & Ariel! I was in contact with you last year about a possible luxury Spain trip but due to family health issues we postponed until now. So glad to finally move on this!
So truth is I have been trying to organize a private Spain tour for my family of 4 but have found it very difficult. And now in light of the logistical issues posed by RENFE trains and internal Spain air flights,
That is why, having Magical Spain handle all the planning, removing the stress, wasted time and availing of your local experts and experiences now seems MUCH more enticing.
I wondered if the following would be feasible on a luxury private Spain trip with drivers and all organized so we just show up in Madrid and enjoy Spain like a King for 10 to 12 days…. BTW can we meet the King of Spain? 🙂
So here´s my ideas, let me know what you think….
Of course, you´d be handling all the planning & booking + top guides, local experiences with great Spanish food, tapas, wines, olive oils ect.., an experienced English-speaking driver to drive us in an adequately sized vehicle (e.g. a Mercedes eight or nine passenger vehicle) that had adequate room for us and our luggage to discover the heritage of Spain and especially Andalucia.
In the case of our trip to Spain, if we had a driver meet us at the airport when we arrived in Barcelona, we could spend a couple days in Barcelona with private guided tours and then take the highway on the Mediterranean coast south, perhaps stopping at Tarragona and other sites, then overnighting at Valencia; see Valencia and then drive to Granada and the Alhambra
then drive down to Gibraltar; perhaps take the day ferry to Tangiers (if time permits); then to Cadiz; then to Seville; then to Córdoba; then to Toledo; again with private guided touring and then end up for several days in Madrid (where we would see Madrid and then have the driver take us to the airport so we could depart on our outbound flight). At some sites, it also make sense to use a local guide and the driver would have our itinerary and instructions on how to rendezvous with the local guide. In other cases, we were capable of going through the sites on our own without a guide.
My son has now agreed with me that Morocco should be a separate trip, not part of this trip (perhaps with the exception of Tangiers, if feasible).
Having Magical Spain handle all the planning and availing of your local experts and experiences now seems MUCH more enticing.
Also with you doing all the work, we will enjoy the moments and AVOID the mass market tours and tourist traps. So we now see the value in investing more in a private luxury tour of Spain would make matters much easier logistically for us as we would have the flexibility to choose sites along the way that best met our interests; we would have the same driver and vehicle for the entire trip; and we would avoid worrying about the logistics, stress and delaytrain schedules and/or internal air flight schedules and the baggage limitations the internal trains and internal flights impose.
On these past trips, the tour company gave for the driver/vehicle, the hotels; and the tour company was compensated on an agreed basis. Also, I would not want any meals included, since it is much more straight forward for me to pay those as the trip unfolds, and it makes more sense to pay admissions as incurred, unless advance reservations or multi-site passes are appropriate.I was hoping to be able to arrange this type of arrangement with a deluxe private tour company for my trip to Spain.
I suppose we would not necessarily need the same driver at the start of the trip to see Barcelona, or at the end of the trip to sightsee in Madrid, but if the driver were English-speaking and knowledgeable it could well make sense to use the same driver within Barcelona and within Madrid as well.
I’m not insistent on any particular itinerary, just one that works and gives us the flexibility to choose what sites and museums and the like that are of interest to us along the way. I’m sure that you and your firm have many excellent suggestions for sites for people with historical, cultural/arts and scenic interests, and can suggest where we should stay along the route. (One interest I may not have mentioned – my son has found historical craft demonstrations, like glassblowing in Venice or pottery making in Turkey, of interest.)
Would this be feasible? What would be the approximate itinerary plan for the English-speaking driver, including the vehicle and the driver’s expenses? (I realize this will be more expensive than a combination of internal trains, internal transfers by vehicle, and internal flights; but it would also be (from my point of view) much easier and more consistent with what we have done on other trips in Europe. I do find that having one driver and one vehicle for a trip has the benefit of continuity and gives us greater flexibility.)
On my past trips to Europe (England, France, Germany-Austria-Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, Turkey) I have been able to get a driver with a suitable vehicle, have suitable hotels booked, get suggestions for sites along my route or in the cities we visited, and get some advance reservation/purchase site passes or site tickets (where necessary or helpful or more economical).