Spain and Portugal with Odysseys Unlimited
 

Has anyone toured with this company? We are planning a two week trip to Spain and Portugal in Oct. 08.

I was just about to post to ask about this very trip when my search pulled up your entry.
Did you go on this tour in October and how did you enjoy it?
Was this your first trip with Odysseys Unlimited? We've done 3 trips with OAT - they're supposed to be similar.

It depends entirely on the guide. Ours was a young American, and he was awful. His Spanish wasn't very good, and I knew more Spanish history than he did.

We had previously taken a wonderful Odysseys Unlimited trip to Croatia, where the trip guide was a local and fabulous.

The Portugal-Spain trip was a great itinerary, most of the lodging and all of the meals were good (we are adventurous eaters). All of the local guides were wonderful. Doing it again, I would skip Gibraltar, but October is a nice time to go.

My big gripe is that when I completed the OU evaluation afterwards, calmly and with specific details, we heard nothing from the company at all in response to our complaints.

Oh dear- that's pretty much what we heard from a couple who had done the same trip last year. They said the itinerary and lodgings were fine but the guide was very inexperienced - tho I don't think he was American.

Anyone else ever do this trip?

Thought I'd bring this thread up again as we're still considering this trip.

I haven't done this tour nor toured with OU but my question to you is: Do you want to limit yourself to the places this tour takes you. I think it's too many towns, too far apart in 2 weeks. I would not see both Portugal and Spain in a 2 week trip.

We took this trip with Odysseys in March and found it to be an excellent experience. Our itinerary did not include Gibraltar, so it did not seem too rushed for a tour. The food and accommodations were great, and while our tour director was not up to what we have come to expect from Odysseys, she was okay.

We have traveled with both OAT and Odysseys, and our Odysseys experiences were much superior to those of OAT.

lilla - As you can see above, you're the third person we know of who was less than enthusiastic about the OU tour guide in Spain. You'd think they'd get the message.
We're traveling with OU this winter after 4 trips with OAT. It'll be interesting to compare them.
adrienne - there's a post-trip to Barcelona of 4 nights that we would take, and we could even extend the trip and/or arrive early for more leisurely touring.