Highlights of Spain

Insight Vacations (AU) · 9 days
Highlights of Spain
9 Days
From AUD $4342 Was AUD $4825
Trip Type
Group Tour
Activity Level
Easy

Rating


(10 reviews)

Highlights of Spain

Highlights of Spain

Insight Vacations (AU) · 9 days
Duration

9 days

Tour Type

Group Tour

Accommodations

Deluxe

Physical Rating

Easy

Guide Language

English

Experience Overview

See the beautiful world of Spain during this 9-day guided tour. Begin in Barcelona, where a Local Expert will lead you along the city’s narrow lanes to the lively Las Ramblas and the Sagrada Familia, a basilica built by the architect Antoni Gaudi.

Highlights

Dining Summary

  • 4 Dinner (D)
  • 8 Breakfast (B)

Well-being

  • Enjoy the comfort of Insight's luxurious, air-conditioned, 40-seat coach with double the standard legroom and onboard washroom. Our customized luxury coaches are sanitized before the start of your tour and are maintained to very high standards. Physical distancing measures have been implemented on our customized luxury coaches.
  • Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

Additional Included Highlights

  • Personal radio headsets give you the freedom to wander during visits to famous highlights, without missing any of your Local Expert's fascinating commentary.
  • Hotel and restaurant tips are included - you'll never have to worry about how much to give, nor search for foreign currency. We also include all taxes and porterage charges at hotels.
  • We carry your bags for you and promptly deliver them to your hotel door.
  • From time to time, your Travel Director will delight you with an Insight Flourish, which is a local specialty representing the destination.
  • Stay connected with friends and family with our complimentary coach and hotel Wi-Fi (where available).
  • If your arrival and/or departure flights are as per the itinerary start and end dates, then transfers are available at scheduled times. If your flights are outside these times, or you have booked additional nights accommodation with Insight Vacations, you may purchase transfers or make your own way from/to the airport.

Make Travel Matter

  • Barcelona: At La Pau, you’ll sit down to a seasonal Catalan menu in a restaurant built around social impact. Dishes are prepared and served by young people in training, many moving on from care or disrupted schooling. Paid work, mentoring and a clear structure help them gain skills in the kitchen and dining room as they move towards independent living. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities.
  • 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.

Top Rated Highlights

  • Barcelona: Explore Barcelona with a Local Expert 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.
  • Peñíscola: See Peñíscola’s 14th-century castle rising above the old town, set on a limestone headland that divides the shoreline.
  • 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.
  • Seville: Visit Seville Cathedral, completed in the 16th century and recognised 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.
  • Córdoba: In Córdoba, you’ll join your Travel Director for a short orientation that helps fix the city on the map. Walk by the Roman bridge over the Guadalquivir, pass the old gateway towers and step into the historic centre, where whitewashed houses, small squares and hidden patios show how this older part of the city fits together.
  • Córdoba: Visit the Mezquita with a local historian to trace how a mosque became a cathedral. You’ll step into a forest of striped arches and columns from the original Islamic building, then see later Christian additions including the central choir and chapels.
  • Madrid: Explore Madrid’s Old Quarter with a Local Expert who outlines how the district developed from a small medieval citadel into the centre 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.

Authentic Dining

  • 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 flavour and socarrat crust you’ve just watched being made.
  • Madrid: In Madrid, you’ll sit down to a final dinner with your Travel Director and fellow travellers at a local restaurant.

Insight Experiences

  • Granada: Visit the Alhambra Palace with a Local Expert 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.
  • 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.

Insight Choice

  • 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 neighbourhood’s social and cultural history within the wider city.
  • Seville: Take a panoramic drive around Seville to observe the city’s main districts and landmarks, including the riverfront near Torre del Oro, the avenues created for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition and the open spaces around María Luisa Park.

Choice Highlights

    Choose between two carefully selected activities
  • 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 neighbourhood’s social and cultural history within the wider city.
  • Seville: Take a panoramic drive around Seville to observe the city’s main districts and landmarks, including the riverfront near Torre del Oro, the avenues created for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition and the open spaces around María Luisa Park.
Highlights of Spain

Trip Details

Duration

9 days

Transportation

Private

Guide Language

English

Starts

Barcelona, Spain

Finishes

Madrid, Spain

Accommodations

Deluxe

Travel Style

Explorer, Budget

Physical Rating

Easy

Itinerary

1
Day 1: Welcome to Barcelona
Join your Travel Director and fellow travellers for dinner at local restaurant La Pau. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience supports teenagers and young people to transition to their adult life. Learn about local life through the eyes of the youth.

Accommodation: NH Collection Barcelona Constanza
Meals: Dinner
2
Day 2: Barcelona, the City of Gaudí
With your Local Expert, drive along the Passeig de Gràcia, adorned with elegant wrought-iron street lamps and some of the most flamboyant Modernist buildings. Continue through the Eixample district for a visit inside Gaudí’s extraordinary masterpiece, the Sagrada Família*, to see the central nave with its giant, tree-like pillars, spectacular vaulting and the beautiful rainbows flooding in through the intricate stained-glass windows. Enjoy the afternoon at leisure to explore or perhaps join an Optional Experience to Montserrat and The Black Madonna. *Please note that access to the basilica may be restricted for special masses, pilgrim visits or official ceremonies, and we are unable to secure tickets to visit. Should this occur during your tour, you will visit the Hospital de Sant Pau instead, a striking example of Catalan Art Nouveau designed by Gaudí’s contemporary, Domènech i Montaner. Afterwards, join your Local Expert in the gardens surrounding the Sagrada Família and take in the extraordinary exterior of Gaudí’s iconic masterpiece.

Accommodation: NH Collection Barcelona Constanza
Meals: Breakfast
3
Day 3: Along the coast to Valencia
Follow the sunny Costa Dorada, past the rice fields of the Ebro Delta. Stop at the seaside resort of Peñíscola and see the hilltop castle used in the film 'El Cid'. Pass through the famous orange groves to Valencia and see the City of Arts and Sciences. Later see the Old City and take in its medieval charm. Valencia is home to one of the world's greatest dishes, paella. Meet the chef of a local family-run restaurant in the heart of the Old City and learn how to make this local specialty during a cooking demonstration. Later, indulge in the delicious flavours of this classic dish with a glass of wine at your dinner.

Accommodation: Barceló Valencia
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
4
Day 4: Exquisite Granada and Alhambra
Travel south toward Andalucía, passing the castle at Lorca and troglodyte dwellings hollowed out of the soft rock near Guadix. Enjoy distant views of the Sierra Nevada mountains as you approach glorious Granada. This historic city was a Moorish kingdom for almost eight centuries and was the last stronghold to fall to the Catholic monarchs of Spain in 1492. Overlooking Granada stands the Alhambra, one of the most remarkable fortresses ever built. Led by your Local Expert, explore this exquisite palace, built as a citadel by the Moors in the 13th century: a fantasy of arabesque gardens, fountains and stone cut like lace. Later, stroll through the elegant gardens of the Generalife, the royal summer residence.

Accommodation: Gran Luna de Granada
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
5
Day 5: A Scenic Drive to Seville
The morning is at your leisure to explore as you wish. Perhaps join an Optional Experience and visit the Albaicín Quarter with a Local Expert. Here, in addition to falling in love with Granada, you will also uncover its pivotal role in European history. Continue your travels to Seville, past gleaming white villages and olive groves that stretch as far as the eye can see.

Accommodation: Meliá Sevilla
Meals: Breakfast
6
Day 6: Seville, the City of Carmen
Enjoy a relaxed start or choose to join one of two Optional Experiences: visit the serene Pilatos Palace, or explore the Alcázar of Seville and Plaza América. Continue discovering the city with Insight Choice. Join a guided walk through the old Jewish quarter or enjoy a panoramic drive past Seville’s iconic landmarks. Later, marvel at the soaring vaulted ceilings of the Seville Cathedral, the world’s largest Gothic cathedral and final resting place of Christopher Columbus In the evening, take part in a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience at the Cristina Heeren Foundation. This flamenco school supports emerging talent across Andalucía. Try your hand at the dance during a fun lesson, then feel its passion and power in a stirring live performance.

Accommodation: Meliá Sevilla
Meals: Breakfast
7
Day 7: Moorish Córdoba and on to Madrid
Set off early along the Guadalquivir Valley, passing villages and towns studded with Moorish towers and fortresses. Stop in the perfectly preserved Moorish city of Córdoba and see the famous Roman bridge, built in the 1st century BC. Meet a local historian and visit the magnificent Mezquita, a beautiful 8th-century mosque with a Christian cathedral built inside it. Make the most of your time at leisure and stroll the narrow streets of the city. Follow in the footsteps of Don Quixote as you travel through La Mancha and on to the capital, Madrid.

Accommodation: Canopy by Hilton Madrid Castellana
Meals: Breakfast
8
Day 8: Madrid of the Bourbons
Enjoy sightseeing with your Local Expert, as they guide you through the most historic neighbourhoods in the Spanish capital. Your drive continues through the Old Quarter to discover the origins of the city. Visit the renowned Prado Museum with an art historian who will guide you through the collective works of Velázquez, Goya, Titian, Rubens and more. The afternoon is at your leisure to relax at a cafe, shop in the trendy boutiques or perhaps travel to beautiful Toledo with an Optional Experience.In the evening, join your Travel Director and newfound friends at a local restaurant in the heart of the city. Toast your adventures as you enjoy a delicious dinner of regional favourites, served with wine.

Accommodation: Canopy by Hilton Madrid Castellana
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
9
Day 9: Depart Madrid
Today, your remarkable journey comes to an end as you transfer to the Madrid-Barajas Airport. Take a moment to reflect on the unforgettable experiences, meaningful connections and enriching encounters that have shaped your travels.

Meals: Breakfast
Exclusions
  • Flights to and from origin and destinations
  • Airport transfers (unless otherwise stated)
  • Anything else not explicitly listed in tour inclusions
  • Recommended gratuities/tipping
  • Optional activities/tours
  • Personal expenses
  • Travel insurance
  • Visas, meals and beverages not stated in the list of inclusions.
Important Information
Meals

When meals are not included, your tour leader (where available) will be happy to help with restaurant recommendations, bookings, and directions. Please let us know if you have any dietary needs or preferences. We will do our best to accommodate these, though we cannot guarantee that every request can be met.

Luggage

You are responsible for your personal belongings throughout the tour. You will need to carry your own bags between the vehicle and your hotel room. Drivers will assist with loading and unloading luggage from the vehicle.

Mobility

Travellers requiring wheelchair access should contact our sales and service team, who can make enquiries on your behalf.

Fitness Level

This tour requires an average level of fitness. Activities are paced gently and include leisure time. You may be expected to join guided walks of up to one hour, navigate short stairways and mild inclines, and manage your own luggage. You should also be able to board and exit all transport without assistance.

Travellers are expected to be self-sufficient and capable of handling all aspects of their journey. Please discuss your circumstances and support needs with your booking agent to confirm this trip is suitable.

If you are unsure, we recommend consulting your doctor before booking or travelling.

Sightseeing

If a planned site visit is unavailable due to changes in operating hours or holiday closures, the itinerary may be altered, or a comparable activity will be substituted where possible and subject to availability.

Visas

Visa conditions can change. Once you receive your travel documents, check with the relevant embassy, consulate, or immigration office of your destination for the latest information.

  • It is your responsibility to ensure you have the correct and valid travel documents and to comply with all entry requirements.
  • Non-Australian citizens must also confirm visa and identification requirements with the appropriate consulate or visa agency.
  • Certain occupations (for example, journalists, government officials, or those working in charities) may face additional restrictions when applying for visas, which could affect the type of application required.
Departure Dates & Surcharges: See checkout for live dates and availability.

From
AUD $4825

AUD $4,342
(Tour only)
Offer ends 27 Jun, 2026 Per Person Twin
10% Off

Duration: 9 days

Trip Type: Group Tour

Activity Level: Easy

See the beautiful world of Spain during this 9-day guided tour. Begin in Barcelona, where a Local Expert will lead you along the city’s narrow lanes to the lively Las Ramblas and the Sagrada Familia, a basilica built by the architect Antoni Gaudi.

Price based on per person in Double Room for departure 01 Aug 2026

Customer Reviews

Overall Rating
Excellent
4.5
Guide
Excellent
4.5
Itinerary
Excellent
4.5
Accommodations
Excellent
4.5
Transportation
Excellent
4.5
Tour Operator
Excellent
4.5
Food
Excellent
4.5
5.0
Eugene
Traveled, May 2025

05/11/2025

Everyday was more exciting than the last Maria our guide and Bruno our driver were both excellent. Maria always went the extra mile to provide ua with the beat of everything. And Bruno made us feel very safe. I recommend this tour wholeheartedly.

5.0
Anonymous
Traveled, May 2025

05/10/2025

Great itinerary, guide, driver, and local guides.

Tour Operator

Insight Vacations is a premium guided tour operator specializing in immersive, luxury travel experiences across Europe, North America, and beyond. Part of The Travel Corporation (TTC), Insight offers carefully curated itineraries that combine high-quality accommodations, exclusive experiences, and expert Travel Directors who bring destinations to life. With a focus on comfort, cultural authenticity, and personalization, Insight emphasizes “premium escorted journeys,” featuring small group sizes, luxury coaches with extra legroom, and insider access to local traditions, cuisine, and people. Their philosophy is to transform trips into meaningful travel experiences that leave lasting connections with the destinations and cultures visited.

In Business Since 1978