15-Day Best of Spain & Portugal - End Barcelona, Classic Group, Summer 2027

Highlights

• Madrid: Join your Travel Director at 18:00 for a Welcome Dinner in a local restaurant and get to know your fellow travelers over a beautiful evening of delicious food and wine.
• Vila Nova de Gaia: Visit the wine cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia, the center of port ageing and storage since the 18th century. You’ll learn how barrel conditions, blending practices and long-standing shipper traditions define styles such as Ruby, Tawny and Vintage. Examine the link between Douro Valley production and the export houses established along this southern bank of the Douro River.
• Lisbon: In Belém, try pastéis de Belém: crisp layers of pastry encasing custard complete with a dusting of cinnamon. See how the pastries follow a closely guarded recipe, and are still prepared in the same bakery that has produced them since 1837. 
• Torremolinos: Visit a rural mill outside Torremolinos to taste olive oils pressed from olives grown on trees that have stood in this region for generations. Try a few varieties with freshly baked bread and hear how harvest timing, soil and tree age influence the flavor. 
• Alfarnatejo: Share a home-cooked lunch with a local family in Alfarnatejo. Expect simple Andalusian dishes, seasonal ingredients and an easy conversation around the table. It’s a chance to see how meals are prepared and shared in this part of rural Spain, and to hear stories about the town from the people who live there. 
• 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 flavor and socarrat crust you’ve just watched being made.
• Barcelona: In Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, you’ll visit a local bodega set among the vineyards that have supplied cava houses since the 19th century. A light lunch is paired with a tasting of cavas made using the traditional method, showing how bottle fermentation and ageing on the lees influence the wine’s structure and character. 
• Barcelona: Your final evening brings the group together around the table in Barcelona. It’s a chance to share dinner in the Catalan capital, reminisce over the days you’ve traveled and mark the end of your journey across Spain and Portugal with one last meal together. 
• 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.
• 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: Explore Madrid’s Old Quarter with a Local Expert who outlines how the district developed from a small medieval citadel into the center 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.
• Segovia: Walk Segovia’s historic center with a Local Expert who explains how the city developed at the meeting point of Roman, medieval and royal influence. View the Alcázar, a fortified complex documented from the 12th century, and examine the structure of the Roman aqueduct, whose towering granite arches carried mountain water into the city for almost two thousand years.
• Salamanca: Explore Salamanca’s central streets and squares with a Local Expert, tracing the city’s rise as one of Europe’s early university centers. Study the sandstone facades around Plaza Mayor and the university buildings founded in the 13th century, including examples of Plateresque detail that mark the city’s architectural identity.
• Obidos: Walk inside Óbidos’ medieval walls, you’ll follow a street pattern that reflects its origins as a Roman settlement later granted as a royal wedding gift in the 13th century. You’ll move through lanes lined with whitewashed houses and small churches, and sample ginja, the local cherry liqueur traditionally served in small cups. 
• Fátima: Explore Fátima with a focus on the Sanctuary complex established after the reported apparitions of 1917. Here, you’ll also be able to view the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Chapel of the Apparitions and the broad esplanade built for large pilgrimage gatherings.  
• Lisbon: Explore Lisbon with a Local Expert, focusing on the Baixa district rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake and the broad Pombaline layout that shaped the Lower Town. Continue through the Belém Quarter to view landmarks linked to Portugal’s maritime era, including the Monument to the Discoveries and the Belém Tower, both positioned along the Tagus. 
• Lisbon: Visit the National Coach Museum to examine its collection of royal carriages dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. Used for state ceremonies and diplomatic events, you’ll view coaches that illustrate the shifts in artisanship, decoration and court protocol across several European courts. 
• Seville: Visit Seville Cathedral, completed in the 16th century and recognized 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.
• 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 neighborhood’s social and cultural history within the wider city.
• Gibraltar: With your Local Expert, explore the Rock of Gibraltar, one of the pillars of Hercules, affording magnificent views and see the meeting of the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Spanish Sierra. Visit St. Michael's Cave and see the Barbary Apes.
• Alfarnatejo: Visit the beautiful, quiet town and walk the town center. 
• 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.
• Peñíscola: See Peñíscola’s 14th-century castle rising above the old town, set on a limestone headland that divides the shoreline.
• 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.
• 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.