travelbuggie

We are thinking of taking an AHI tour of Spain through our alma mater. (We want a tour so we don't have to deal with major details.) We would like to see what Fodorites who have traveled in Spain think of the tour. It would be May 10-20, 2011 and we are hoping that isn't a time that is too rainy. The itinerary is 3 nights in Barcelona, fly to Pamplona and then stay in San Sebastian 3 nights also seeing Bilboa during that time, then travel by bus to Madrid stopping at Burgos along the way, ending with 4 nights in Madrid including a day-trip to Toledo. We might add a day on to Barcelona (mainly to ensure we don't miss part of the tour if there is some sort of travel delay) and we could add a little more time at the end to tour other areas such as Seville. Any thoughts or comments on the itinerary or likely weather problems? Anyone use AHI tours before?

latedaytraveler

Travelbuggie, the trip looks good to me – not too fast paced. The hotels (looked trip up) appear to be very centrally located which is all important. From my experience, tours offered to alumni groups are more upscale than those offered by basic providers like Globus and Trafalgar. Of course, they are pricier too. I have been in northern Spain but not to San Sebastian which gets rave reviews as a cultural/gastronomical destination.

Sounds like a well- constructed itinerary to me…

CathyM

I'd definitely add a day or even two for Barcelona. There is so much to see and with only 3 days (one likely jet lagged) it's not enough time to do it justice.

This tour will give you a nice feel for each place-enough for the highlights but not an in depth visit.

kimhe

Fabulous time of year to go to all these cities, spring will be there in full but not too hot. Also plain fantastic San Sebastián/Donostia on the Atlantic coast will be way into the beach season.

The article "A different kind of Spain" gives you an idea of San Sebastián and the region: http://marshlands.blogstream.com/

About San Sebastián in New York Times a couple of months ago: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/08/07...tin-spain.html

All about going for the world famous pintxos in food crazy San Sebastián: http://www.todopintxos.com/home/home.php?lang=en
And the art of txikiteo (pintxos crawl): http://thepleasuremonger.wordpress.com/tag/txikiteo/

Ifnotnow_when

If you can add some time to Barcelona at the beginning and add Sevilla at the end you won't be disappointed. Both places are amazing.

Egbert

Sounds good. If you go to Seville it deserves 3 nights minimum, and then you have to go to Granada for one or two nights because if you go all the way to Andalucia you can't miss the Alhambra.

BigRuss

Much better itinerary than the average whirlwind tour.

It's Bilbao, not Bilboa, btw. Not being harsh, many make the mistake (or typo?).

travelbuggie

Thank you all for your thoughts. We will schedule the tour--and add time in Barcelona before the tour and time for both Seville and Granada at the end. Always good and quick responses from Fodorites!