As a follow-up to the last post on local guides, let’s take a closer look at our experiences in Spain this past spring.
How many tours on this trip?
4 tours
Why so many?
This was the most we’ve ever done. When planning our day trips from Madrid to Toledo and Sevilla to Granada we knew a) we wanted to make the best use of our time, and b) there was a risk of walking around and saying “ok I guess we ‘saw’ everything” and coming home. Yuck.
The group tours in Sevilla we so highly recommended and cheap we decided to take two of them!
Tours at a glance
Toledo – private, full-day, 220€
In Toledo, the city is the sight. It’s history of 3 faiths and as the former capital of Spain is what we were there to learn about. We needed a local guide to give us the context and we were so glad we did.
We seemed to have the city to ourselves as we crossed from Christian to Muslim to Jewish quarters learning about the storied history of the city and what it’s like to live there now (our guide was born and raised there). Our son asked a lot of questions, particularly about the iconic tiles embedded into the street and buildings in the Jewish quarter. After the river-on-three-sides view of the city, those tiles are what he remembers most. Our guide dropped us off at a perfectly charming but economical restaurant for lunch and we finished the tour strong with a bus ride around the city. Beautiful.
Sevilla – 2 group tours, 90 min each, 10€, 15€ per adult
In Sevilla, we new we wanted to take a walking town to get to know the city but then found another to take us through the Alcazar. Sense a pattern here? Tours, particularly group tours are great ways to be introduced to a city, and when the knowledge deficit is too great, you get help. For us it was our lack of context for Moorish influences in Sevilla.
The other travelers were happy to see young children on the tour (truly), many of them grandparents themselves. They were astonished when we showed up for the afternoon tour as well. We straggled behind in a few spots, had some minor meltdowns but snacks helped. Overall the kids did great and we learned a lot.
The tours were also very economical and under 90 minutes each. Great for us. Great for the kids.
Granada – private, ½ day 130€
At the Alhambra, in Granada, we had a 3 hour bus ride on either side of this tour (!) so we wanted to spend our time wisely. Also, we were only beginning to understand the Moorish and architecture and history so we wanted an expert to connect all the dots for us and answer our questions. The Alhambra is also enormous and a curated path through all the sights therein was an excellent use of our time and energy.
Our guide was lovely and while a little scripted took us through the history and times of the Alhambra. Such an amazing complex filled with beautiful gardens, fountains, aqueducts(!), and architecture like you wouldn’t believe. Truly a golden age for Andalucia.
The kids were able to run around quite a bit (no cars, lots of space) while we listened to the guide and took the secret shortcuts and great camera angles to each place we saw. The guide’s name was Margarita which made the 2 year old think she was in the Velazquez painting we saw in Madrid (“It’s Mah-guh-eeeetah, dad!).
The weather was perfect. The pace was perfect. The surroundings sublime. We really want to go back and spend more time in Granada next time we’re in Spain.
Any regrets?
None. We followed standard protocol with each tour:
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- align to your family’s travel principles
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- do your research
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- email the guide/tour company beforehand
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- ask a lot of questions
- go with what feels right for you family
Costs were an concern for Dan (usually are) but in comparison to many other options they were reasonable and were easily worth it in terms of value of each experience.
Zero regrets confirmed.
Talk soon,
Dan & Betsy
Family conversation topic: Use our tour experiences as examples. Would you do any of the ones we did? What would make them better suited for your family?