My mother, an active 70 year old, is travelling to Spain with Globus Tours for nine days in December. Highlights: Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Torremolinos, Jerez, Seville, Cordoba. Has anyone travelled with Globus and would care to share their experience of Spain? How is December in Spain? We live in the Northeast US. Comments/observations appreciated.
Thank you.

I took a Globus tour in 1999. I was NOT Spain however, but, many of the "policies" will be the same. They were very professional. A lot will depend on the quality of your tour guide and ours was wonderful. They also use local guides for many of the city tours. The bus was very comfortable. Globus has...or at least HAD a policy of having a few less seats than some of the other tour groups to make for more leg room.

Be sure to ready the brochure carefully. Anything in "bold type" you actually go inside, if it's not hightlighted it's a drive by. She will also be offered addtional tours and those should be listed in her travel documents. She can decide at the last minute if she wants to go on any of them, she does not have to think about it before departing.

They will list the hotels, although they DO reserve the right to change. We stayed at all the hotels listed. You could do a search on them and see where they are located. They are generally NOT in the city center, but we were always close to transportation so getting into the city centers when we had free time was not a problem. I think the hotel selection has to do with price, accommodating 40 some odd people all in the same place, and convenience for getting the bus in and out.

We had a good group of people..ages from a 13 year old with her parents, a couple of 20 somethings, and then 40's, 50's and 60's. There was one quite elderly couple. Some of the people really bonded so she may meet someone to pal around with if she wants. So maybe someone else can tell you about Spain. My experience with Globus was good, I have seen some less than stellar reviews but I would think that would be expected with a company that size and the number of people booked with them. We actually had two couples that just hated EVERYTHING!!! They were really funny. Hope your mom has a wonderful trip.

Madrid will possibly be below zero with snow. Cordoba, Granada and Seville several degrees above. Torremolinos and Jerez should be warm, maybe upto 17.C. (there has been cases of notably warmer and colder weather, even with snow on the south coast 23 years ago.) Wrap up well.

Most tourist stuff will be shut, except maybe Torremolinos and Jerez which will have lots of pensioners who winter there and things will be open.

Snow in Madrid is more likely on Feb-March.

I took a Globus tour of Switzerland, it's fun! Nice hotel rooms in good locations.

Not all meals are included, some are "optional" meaning you have to pay if you want to go with the group. Make sure your mom understands it.

Also, teach her to pack clothing not by type, like underwear in one bag, shirts in another, but for one day in smaller clear zipper bags. This way she won't have to unpack everything, just one bag a day.

Kaneda,

Why do you say that "most tourist stuff will be shut"? Probably on Christmas Day but other days shouldn't be affected as far as I know.

I wouldn't worry about businesses being shut, it's a tour, and the local guide knows what's opened what's not.