Highlights of Spain

Spain doesn't do anything quietly. The architecture announces itself. The food demands your attention. The history is everywhere you look. Highlights of Spain is built so students feel all of it. Barcelona opens the tour with a walking tour through the Gothic Quarter, a visit to Parc Güell, and an optional flamenco evening. Day three brings the City Challenge — a structured street-level exploration that sends students into the Gothic Quarter with a mission — followed by a market visit and a cooking class that doubles as lunch or dinner. A high-speed AVE train transfer carries the group south to Granada, where the Alhambra waits. A City Challenge on arrival sharpens students' attention before the palace complex rewards it — one of the world's great architectural achievements, and worth every bit of the anticipation. Seville follows with panoramic sightseeing, a guided visit to its soaring Gothic cathedral, and a walking tour through neighbourhoods that feel centuries removed from the modern world. The road to Madrid passes through Córdoba for a guided visit to the Mezquita — one of the world's most extraordinary examples of Moorish-Christian architectural fusion — before the capital closes the tour with the Royal Palace and the Prado. Extend into Lisbon for three days in Portugal: a sightseeing tour taking in Castelo de São Jorge and the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, a walking tour of the city, and a full-day excursion to Sintra — including the extraordinary Quinta da Regaleira, with its initiatic well and romantic palace grounds.