Andalusia 5-Day Guided Tour from Madrid via Cordoba

Posted By : JennyO
The tour was meant to begin at 8.00am and as a result all participant were there early waiting, unfortunately our tour guide Cybellis did not turn up until around 8.30am with absolutely no apology forthcoming.
This marked the beginning of a tour with a tour guide that really lacked enthusiasm for her job, she went through the process but made little if any effort to get to know the clients or to get the group together at all.
Our bus driver was excellent throughout with exceptional skills.
Most towns we visited were absolutely fantastic and the local tour guides were great. In Seville Gloria was exceptional and in Granada Esther had a wealth of knowledge, plus Margarita in Toledo was very passionate. The flamingo show we visited in Seville was very entertaining, we loved it. The only place we visited that was disappointing was Costa del Sol. The hotel we stayed in was enormous and lacked any character both in terms of the rooms and the dining area. I must say the hotels throughout the tour were barely adequate and as we had paid extra for the better class of hotel we were surprised at the level of the accommodation. One saving grace was that in most towns they were close to the old town which was good.
We were disappointed to miss out on the gypsy flamingo show in Granada and this was due to our guide not booking it early enough. In all the places we saw were great, but the trip was let down by our unenthusiastic tour guide and the average accommodation and food provided.
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Posted On : 2023-11-01 10:02:14

Posted By : Eliana_K
First, we bought the tickets from Viator not VPT. It was a scam because VPT said they had nothing to do with the selling of the tickets and what was offered.The tour was delayed for an hour and there was no explanation nor apologies from Cibeles, the guide. In fact she was pretty useless. The only optional tour she offered was probably the one she got commission. The Sacrosanto flamenco show was sold out and she didn’t inform us nor offered anything else. We had to ask about the show. As soon as we arrived at the hotels she would disappear, nowhere to be seen. Probably she went back home as she is from Andalusia. Total lack of respect for clients who don’t eat red meat. The hotel couldn’t provide food for us. Eventually, we were offered frozen vegetables and tinned fruit salad in Granada. Cibeles is definitely in the wrong job and needs training. The local guides Gloria, Esther and Marguerita were fantastic, very informative and excellent rapport. When we bought the tour we chose superior accommodation, therefore we expected excellent service. We didn’t receive that and demand compensation! NEVER will use Viator. It’s a con.
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Posted On : 2023-10-30 05:39:07

Posted By : GHAZI_R
Beautiful tour well organized.
Andalusia is beautiful and rich in heritage
Tour covered all the main cities and famous locations
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Posted On : 2022-10-19 17:31:23

Posted By : Nesreen_K
My wife, sister in law, and I booked this tour in advance, without any prior experience with guided tours. Our guide was Patricia and our bus driver was Luis, from Portugal. We could NOT have asked for a better tour guide or driver. Patricia was informative, patient, helpful, and ALWAYS greeted us with a warm smile. Luis handled driving the oversized bus with ease and skill. He maneuvered through tough conditions and he was quite helpful loading and unloading our heavy suitcases. I recommend this tour to anyone who would like to experience the beauty and rich history of Andalucia....
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Posted On : 2019-10-22 11:44:29

Posted By : AMAL_A
It was a very good opportunity to discuter a destination that I never been before, the Andalusia of Spine. the trip begin from Madrid the rich and colored capital of Spine going in 5 days 4 nights through the Cordoba (Very nice city) heading south, Seville for two 4 stars hotel nights (where the mixed culture of east and west, Arabic and Spine, Christian and Muslim…are mixed perfectly in harmony and beautiful, then south-est to Ronda (superb and mountainous city), then south to Marbella another hotel 4 stars night, following north est to Granada the famous old capital with its Alhambra Palace included in the trip and where we past last 4 stars hotel stay always Catalania group of Hotels. finally return to Madrid. all visits and tours are excellent and explained in three languages English, Spanish and French with excellent guides and driver. I gave excellent 5/5
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Posted On : 2019-10-08 14:53:48

Posted By : Anne_P
My husband and I chose to do this tour, as it was our first visit to Spain, and we thought it would be a good way to visit the places and see the sights we wanted, without the hassle of car rentals and doing all our own planning. It was the best decision we could have made. We also chose the month of May, as we thought the sites would be less crowded, that there would be fewer families, and the weather would be nice. We were right on all accounts. I know these sites can be very crowded, and while there were still lots of tourists, I can’t imagine how packed it would be in the summer months. The weather was incredible, with above normal temperatures on some days.
We lucked out with the best guide we could have had, Ophelia. She was amazing; friendly, knowledgeable and fun. Augustine, our driver, was great as well. Also, there were only 13 people on our tour. How perfect to have such a small group.
The hotel and meals in Sevilla were ok. The meals and the hotels in Granada and Marbella were very good. Generous, impressive buffets and nice accommodations.
I liked the arrangement of driving to the new locations in the morning, seeing the designated attraction upon arrival, and then having “free time” in the afternoons, until meeting for dinner at the hotel.
I noticed that some reviews stated they didn’t like that. We loved the freedom to wander around and explore a little on our own, or with another couple we met on the tour. We found nice little places for lunch and sangrias. We walked along a beach, did a little shopping, and toured one or two places off the grid. Not that we had a lot of time to do that, but we took advantage of every opportunity.
I saw that some reviews stated that they had to sit in designated seating at meals. We didn’t find that at all. We could sit anywhere we wanted to. Some in couples, some in small groups, spread out wherever we wanted to sit. The wait staff in Marbella and Granada were particularly friendly.
We met nice people on our tour. There were 6 English speaking tourists and seven Spanish.This was not a problem at all, and Ophelia managed each group easily. Our entire group laughed a lot, teased each other, took photos for each other and we ended up at our last site taking group photos and singing happy birthday to a member of our party. My husband and I made friends with another couple and spent much of the tour together, which added to the fun.
This tour will forever be a happy memory for us!
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Posted On : 2019-05-31 10:05:58

Posted By : JuliaAnn_G
There were about 18 people on the April tour so we each had our own seat on the bus. The seats reclined a little bit and there were no trays to pull down in front of us. The mix of Spanish and English speakers on the tour kept things interesting. There were people from the USA, Australia, Africa, Phillipines and Spain. Everyone was respectful.
My favorite part of the tour was that the places we saw were great and just what I would have wanted to see if I planned the trip myself. It was fun to see the Muslim architectural influence in the towns, because I had not experienced that in Europe prior to this trip. The least favorite thing was that in Sevilla we had the afternoon free, but the trip itinerary should have warned us that we should have bought palace tickets before we even boarded our plane to go to Spain.
The hotel accommodations were modern and clean. The provided food was average. The hotels were always situated on the outskirts of the historic area so the bus could pull right up to the hotel and unload your luggage. You don't have to roll your luggage through the streets, but are further from historic center
The tour guide on our bus for this trip was a terrific and energetic person. She did not speak the best English- maybe average for a non-native speaker, but understandable enough. Most of the local tour guides spoke English well. Our tour guide helped me "get through" the last 2 days when I ended up with bad diarrhea. She ran out of the hotel at 6 am to get more Imodium so I could get on the bus and make the 2 hour trip to the next destination.(There was no toilet on the bus.) She made sure I didn't delay her other customers meeting other tour guides by more than 15 minutes. So I think she juggled it fairly. Not having a bathroom on the bus would not typically be a problem for me, but there were about 3 people on the bus that would have benefited greatly from it. We sometimes got to a city and started a tour right away and didn't get a chance to go to a bathroom for another 30 minutes. Therefore, she had to take those customers somewhere else right away and then try to get them back to the tour. (In general, bathrooms were sparse everywhere in Spain.) I've been on only one other overnight tour and the guide gave us his cell phone number, which would have been helpful when I was sick that morning. Luckily, the hotel front desk contacted her so she could come to me. I think she did an above-average job
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Posted On : 2019-05-07 11:54:55

Posted By : Linda_M
Our tour was wonderful from the beginning.
Our guide and driver promptly picked us to start our 4 day trip.
All the guides in different cities were excellent and very knowledgeable.
The accommodation was good and very much as promised.

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Posted On : 2019-03-31 12:45:39

Posted By : Sharda

This tour was not very well organized. Everyday there were a new set of travelers - some leaving the tour and some joining the tour. The Hotels were average. The bi-lingual tour was very confusing and a waste of time. If the local tour was either Spanish or English, we could have finished in half the time and had more free time or we could have seen more sites and got more information about the sites. We being vegetarians, we did not get any good food at all except for breakfast buffet. The lunch options were salad and canned spaghetti.

Posted By : drjannoun
Enjoyable trip and well organized.the guide Patricia is so friendly & give us enough information to love Cevilla & sure come back with your company again. We will highly recommend it to our friends in Lebanon.
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Posted On : 2018-09-26 12:01:59