The Hotels

NH Ribera del Manzanares, Madrid
(http://www.nh-hoteles.es/nh/es/hoteles/espana/madrid/nh-ribera-del-manzanares.html)

We were booked into this hotel for one night at the start of our tour. Our initial impressions were that the hotel looked modern and clean and had nice views over the Manzanares river. We arrived at 11:30 in the morning on a group transfer and were told that there weren’t enough rooms for all of us, so we agreed that the others could have the available rooms and we would check in later. Over 6 hours later, after walking around in 30c heat, we arrived back at the hotel to find out that they still didn’t have a room for us. Despite the fact the check in was from 3pm, they didn’t have any non-smoking rooms available and told us we could either wait for 1½ hrs for a non-smoking room and use the showers in the gym to freshen up, or take a smoking room instead. We didn’t want to take either option but they were extremely unhelpful and could offer no other alternatives so we chose the smoking room as we were so hot and tired. The room itself was actually very nicely decorated, so it was a shame that this was ruined by the underlying smell of smoke. We also had a lot of trouble with the shower which intermittently spat out boiling hot water. The food at dinner and breakfast was quite good though, and the location was pretty good too, so this could have been a really good stay if it hadn’t been for the room problems. We later found out that we weren’t the only people who had had room problems – so this is clearly an issue at the hotel and this would definitely stop us from staying there again.

Hotel Dom Luis, Coimbra (http://www.bestwestern.es/hotel-dluis)

We had an overnight stop here at the beginning of our tour as we were traveling between Madrid and Lisbon. The hotel is on the outskirts of Coimbra so not really the best location if you want to be close to the town centre. Our room was a good size with a very nice view of the town, but it was in need of refurbishment and we were a bit worried that the door out to the shared balcony couldn’t be locked. Dinner and breakfast were ok but nothing to get excited about. This hotel would be ok for a cheap overnight stop but otherwise I think you’d be better off staying elsewhere in Coimbra.

Hotel Roma, Lisbon (INVALID URL

We stayed here for 2 nights in the middle of our tour of Spain and Portugal. The hotel is quite a way from the centre of Lisbon, but only a few minutes away from the nearest metro station. Our room overlooked some railway lines, which wasn’t a problem if we kept the windows shut, but would have been pretty noisy otherwise. There was air conditioning though but I still think that the noise would be pretty unbearable in summer. The food at breakfast was ok but there were lots of other groups staying there at the same time so it got pretty hectic at times. Overall, this isn’t a bad hotel but I think we’d prefer to stay somewhere a bit more central/quieter next time.

Hotel Don Paco, Seville (INVALID URL

We stayed here for 2 nights in the middle of our tour of Spain and Portugal. The hotel is close to the Metropol Parasol but about 20 mins walk from the Cathedral and Alcazar. We were given a room directly above the main entrance which overlooked a busy square so it was noisy but bearable with the windows shut. There was air conditioning though but I still think that the noise would be pretty unbearable in summer. Other reviewers had previously mentioned that the hotel buffet should be avoided, we had it included as part of our package one night and thought it was fine, as was breakfast. Overall, this isn’t a bad hotel but I think we’d prefer to stay somewhere a bit more central/quieter next time.

Hotel Praga, Madrid (http://www.hotelmadridpraga.com/en)

We stayed here for 2 nights at the end of our tour. The hotel is on the outskirts of the city centre and a 15 minute walk from the nearest Metro station, but there is a bus that stops right outside the hotel. Our room was a good size, but the walls were very thin and we could hear lots of noise from the room next door. Luckily it looked out onto an internal courtyard, which was ugly but quiet. The food at breakfast was pretty good, probably the best of all the hotels on tour, but we really didn’t like the location of this hotel so would only stay again for a very cheap deal.

The Tour

Day 1 – We arrived at our hotel late morning but the welcome meeting with our guide Vitor wasn’t until 6:45pm so we walked up to the Royal Palace and spent a few hours wandering around the central areas of Madrid. We stopped for chocolate and churros at the Chocolatería Valor at Calle Postigo de San Martín – highly recommended! The welcome meeting lasted over an hour and included various bits of information about the tour itself and general information about travelling in Spain and Portugal. It turned out that there were 38 of us in our tour group, mainly from the USA, Canada and Australia, with a few Brits. We didn’t get to know everyone during the tour, but everyone we spoke to was very nice and we didn’t have any of the usual tour issues of people being consistently late or getting lost.

Day 2 (6:30 wake up, 8:00 departure) – The first stop of the day was the fortified town of Avila, where Vitor gave us a short orientation tour and then some free time. It is a very pretty town and we enjoyed visiting it and would probably go back again another time. We then headed to Salamanca where Vitor pointed out the main sights before giving us time for lunch and exploring. We found a café on Calle Libreros for a cheap lunch before visiting the University, Cathedral and Plaza Mayor. Unfortunately the weather had turned a bit windy and cold by this point but we did enjoy wandering around Salamanca. We then got back on the bus for the long drive to Coimbra, which was made longer by a road diversion. We were pretty tired by the time we arrived at the hotel so were happy to just have dinner and then head straight to bed.

Day 3 (7:00 wake up, 8:30 departure) – After checking out from the hotel, Vitor took us on a short orientation tour of Coimbra. We had stayed in Coimbra before so we split off from the group to do some exploring of our own before getting back on the coach to head to Fatima. Neither of us are religious, but we still found Fatima to be an interesting place. We were there on Easter Sunday so there were lots of services going on but we were still able to walk around and see everything. It started to get a bit cold towards the end though, so we were happy to be taken to a nearby shop/restaurant for lunch. Our final stop for the day was the fortified town of Obidos, a lovely place that we would have been happy to have spent more time at. Luckily the weather held just until we got back on the coach but I did feel sorry for Juan Carlos, the driver, have to drive through such heavy rain to get us to Lisbon. After we had settled into our hotel, we headed straight to the nearest Metro station and bought some 24hr travel passes (6 euros per person for 24hrs), which turned out to be a great idea as we got lots of use out of them.

Day 4 (7:15 wake up, 8:30 departure) – We were picked up at the hotel for our Lisbon tour with a local guide. To be honest, this was a bit of a disappointment – first we were driven briefly around the city centre while the guide tried to point out the main sights, then we were taken out to see the Belem Tower, the monument of Henry the Navigator and the Jeronimos Monastery. We had far too much free time at both the tower and the monument and then a very short guided tour of the outside of the monastery, as it is closed on Mondays. Luckily, we had already bought 24hr travel passes and were able to head straight into town after the tour, but there was apparently nowhere to buy tickets and passes near the monastery so the rest of the group had to go back to the hotel with the tour guide. It was nice to see the monastery etc, but we couldn’t help feeling that it would have been better if we had been given a walking tour of the city instead. In the afternoon, we used our travel passes to see as much of the city as possible, including the castle and Bairro Alto districts. We felt like there was much more to see in Lisbon and we will definitely go back there again sometime.

Day 5 (7:15 wake up, 8:45 departure) – This was a travelling day and the only stop we had was for an early lunch at a lovely local restaurant near the border. We went past a number of fortified towns so it was a shame that we couldn’t have visited at least one of them. At least it meant that we got to Seville early which gave us time for a trip to the Metropol Parasol.

Day 6 (8:00 wake up, 9:15 departure for optional tour) – There were no excluded excursions on this day so we did our own tour of Seville, visiting the Alcazar (very busy) and the Plaza de España. We also did a night time trip to the Metropol Parasol, which was a lot of fun. We enjoyed Seville but are unlikely to go back in the near future as we felt that we had seen most of the things that we were interested in.

Day 7 (6:45 wake up, 8:15 departure) – This was another travelling day, broken up by a visit to Cordoba where we had a couple of hours to look around. We went straight to the Mezquita, which turned out to be a good idea as we had to queue to buy tickets and then queue to get into the building itself. The Mezquita is a very impressive place and well worth visiting but the huge number of tour groups made it difficult to see everything easily. Afterwards, we wandered around the streets for a bit, but in hindsight we would have been better off going to get some food as the lunch stop ended up being at a motorway service station at 2pm. The rest of the day was spent travelling to Madrid, which was a really long way so we were glad to finally arrive at our hotel.

Day 8 (7:15 wake up, 8:30 departure for optional tour) – The morning was free so we headed over to the Retiro Park for a walk, followed by a trip up to the Casa de Campo on the Téléferico cable car, which was good fun. We then rushed back to the hotel to get there in time for the 3pm city tour, only to end up being stuck in a traffic jam on the coach which was taking us back to where we had just come from. The guide was pretty rubbish so we decided to ditch the tour and go for a final chocolate and churros at Chocolatería Valor before walking back down the Manzanares river to our hotel (via a couple of bars).

Day 9 – Up early and back to the airport to catch our flight back to the UK. Overall we really enjoyed this tour and the places we visited and it’s certainly given us some ideas for future travels. We’d recommend it to anyone who wants to cover a lot of ground in a short time and doesn’t mind the long coach journeys (I should mention that the coach was actually very comfortable with loads of leg room).

We decided not to do any of the optional excursions as we thought they were very expensive, but most of the rest of the group went on at least one of them. The cost of the optional excursions as at April 2014 was:

A Real Portuguese Evening (Lisbon) – 55 euros
Sintra & Portuguese Riviera (Lisbon) – 48 euros
Dinner & Flamenco Show (Seville) – 60 euros
Splendours of Seville – 35 euros
Moorish Cordoba – 33 euros
Madrid by Night and Tapas – 38 euros
The Majestic City of Toledo – 47 euros

Restaurants

Artis Wine bar, Lisbon (http://www.facebook.com/ArtisWineBar) – We found this place in the Rough Guide and thought we would try it out while we were in the area. This turned out to be an excellent idea as we had one of the best meals of our holiday here. Particular mention has to go to the Patatas Bravas and the Chorizo in Flaming Brandy. Service was good and the price was excellent – but it’s only a small place so get there early or be prepared to queue. We would definitely go back. If you like rock music then try the Rock & Nubbe Rock Bar at no 34 on the same street.

Tapas Bar 52 (El Gordo), Lisbon – We came across this tapas bar in the Bairro Alto and it seemed quite busy with locals so we thought we would give it a try. Like many other reviewers, the waiter immediately brought some food to our table without explaining what it was or even giving us a chance to turn it away. When he came back to take our order we asked about the prices of the things he had brought and told him to take two of the things away, which he did fairly begrudgingly. The food we ordered was actually quite nice, but the portions were really, really small, and so our bill ended up being nearly double what we had paid for much nicer food at Artis Wine bar the previous night. They also added on a beer that we hadn’t ordered, although they did at least remove this when we queried it. All in all a bad experience, we would not go back!

La Cantina Mexicana, Seville – This place is every bit as good as the reviews suggest! We turned up a bit before the normal opening time but were welcomed in straight away and told to enjoy a drink and peruse the menu while the kitchen got ready. Based on the menu and the helpful advice of Oscar, we chose a selection of tapas, all of which turned out to be lovely. We also really liked the décor of the restaurant and the selection of Mexican music playing in the background. The service was fast and the bill was amazingly cheap. Definitely worth a visit!

La Taberna de Dominguez (Marques de Vadillo), Madrid (INVALID URL – This was just down the road from our hotel (Praga) and was recommended by our tour guide. The menu is quite extensive so we were glad to see that they had an English translation available (my Spanish is not very good). The food was really tasty and well-priced – we particularly enjoyed the open sandwiches and the patatas bravas – so we ended up going twice. We would definitely go back.

Wow - wonderful post(s) full of information.


I always fancied doing one of these coach tours, but my OH doesn't like being regimented and won't entertain the idea.
Sanji x

Many many thanks Corinne, what an excellent read and, I agree with Sanji really informative. Did you take a note book to jot things down as there's a terrific amount of detail?

really interesting - as are all your reports.
If you get back there- Toledo is a beautiful place to visit. that is the joy of these tours- they give you opportunities to return to visit areas you really enjoyed.
As for the weather- we went to Barcelona one Easter( and visited Segrada Familia on Easter Sunday). The weather varied exactly as you found. One day freezing and sitting downstairs on the open topped bus, the next day sunning ourselves at Parque Guell

Sounds as if this a great tour, Corrine. For anybody who has more than a day to explore Seville then the Cathedral and the Giralda are worth a look at and the views from the top of the Giralda make the effort of getting up there worthwhile. I was also fascinated by the Casa de Pilatus and the whole of the Barrio Santa Cruz.

SM

Thanks all. I don't take a notebook with me but I did print off a copy of the itinerary and made a few notes on that. I don't think we would go back to Madrid again as the major museums are art related and we're just not that interested in art. Lisbon was great and I was pleased to see how close the airport is to the city which would make it easy for us to do a city break there sometime. We probably could have fitted in the Cathedral and Giralda in Seville but we were a bit footsore and tired by then - these tours don't give you much time for relaxation!

Can I just add my thanks to you Corinne for yet another excellent informative and well written review, we appreciate the time you take to do this

Graham

Thanks for the information Corinne!!! Very useful, I'm already thinking about my summer holidays and this sounds like a great option!