Small Group Tour: 2013 Andalusian Southern Explorer

See and do exactly what you feel like today with your 24 hour Madrid Card. The Card is an electronic smart card offering free admission to more than 40 museums in and around Madrid, including the major ones. Your ticket can be used on the 'Madrid Vision' sightseeing bus, allowing you to get on and off the bus as many times as you wish for a day. The card also entitles you to visit the Planetarium, a guided walking tour from the "Discover Madrid Program", use of a Cable Car, visit Faunia Biologic Park and Imax Cinema. You can also benefit from discounts in more than 100 establishments including shops, restaurants, shows, rent a car and leisure centres for adults and children. You will also obtain a guidebook with information on the museums and establishments that are included on the scheme and a map of the city. Exchange your voucher for a Madrid Card at: Madrid Tourist Board, Plaza Mayor 27 between 9.30am and 8.30pm or at Metro Travellers Information Centre. Your pass is valid from 9am until 7pm.

Meet up with your tour companion and fellow travellers of your small group tour this afternoon. The rendezvous is at 14:00pm at the Hotel Vincci Capitol, Gran Via 41, 28013, Madrid, Spain.

Enjoy a half-day tour of Spain’s impressive capital, Madrid, including a visit to the Real Palace.

This evening you will enjoy a welcome dinner with the rest of the group in a traditional Spanish restaurant.

Today you will head south out of Madrid to Toledo, the former capital of Spain before the south of the country was reconquered from the Moors. Toledo is brimming with hundreds of years of history and is still known locally as the “Imperial City”. You will see the magnificent Cathedral as well as the Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca, the Jewish Quarter and the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes. After the tour concludes you will return to Madrid.

You have the afternoon free to enjoy the many pleasures this wonderful city has to offer.

Bid farewell to Madrid this morning and travel south across the vast plains of Central Spain and the La Mancha region, famous for its fairy tale castles, delicious wines and, of course, Don Quixote. This region produces some of Spain’s finest cheese, Manchego. You will stop in Valdepeñas where you visit a local bodega to sample wines and tapas before you continue to the beautiful city of Cordoba, where you stop for the night.

Enjoy your first taste of the rich North African architectural heritage left in Andalusia with a walking tour of Cordoba. Visit the Mezquita, or Mosque, of Cordoba. This UNESCO World Heritage building was originally born as the Christian Visigothic Church of St. Vincent in around 600 AD, but was converted into a Mosque by the Moorish conquerors between 784 and 987 AD. Today, the Mezquita has been reconverted into a Christian place of worship and is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Cordoba. Afterwards you head to the Jewish Quarter for a visit to Cordoba’s historic Synagogue.

This afternoon you leave Cordoba and head for Seville, the largest city in the Andalusia region and your base for the next three nights.

In the morning you will enjoy a walking tour of this fascinating and vibrant Spanish city. Highlights include Seville’s impressive Cathedral and the Alcazar, a Royal Palace that was originally built as a Moorish fort.

In the afternoon you will have some free time to explore Seville at your own pace.

Enjoy an unforgettable Andalusian dinner and flamenco show tonight.

Visit today is of Jerez de la Frontera, a city whose roots date back to Roman times and, which is now most famous for being the hub of sherry wine production in the area. After lunch continue to Cadiz, the oldest continually-inhabited city on the Iberian Peninsula. Cadiz has an impressive Old Town and was the departure point for many of Christopher Columbus’s expeditions to the New World. Return to Seville.

Bid farewell to Seville and drive south-west into the towering mountains that overlook the southern Spanish Coast. You arrive in Ronda, a beautiful town perched on the edge of a deep canyon cut out by the River Guadalevín. Ronda is most famous for the three bridges that span this canyon, one of which dates back to Roman times. There will be time for you to enjoy this pretty city at leisure this afternoon.

This morning you head further west to the unforgettable city of Granada. Granada was the last stronghold of the Moorish Empire in southern Spain until it finally fell to the Catholic Kings in 1492. Surrounded by the snow-capped peaks of the imposing Sierra Nevada, it is said that the last Nasrid ruler of Granada, Boabdil, loved his city so much that he wept as he left looked back at it as he fled back to North Africa.

This afternoon your guide will introduce you to this fascinating city which you will then enjoy at your leisure.

Visit the magnificent Alhambra, a breath-taking Moorish palace and fortress perched on top of a steep hill adjacent to the city centre. A true tribute to the beauty of North African architecture in Andalusia, the Alhambra is a huge network of beautiful rooms, patios and gardens, which enjoy fantastic views out over the mountains above and down onto the city below.

You will have the afternoon at leisure.

Tonight you will enjoy a farewell dinner in one of the city’s top restaurants with your fellow travellers.

Leaving Granada behind you travel towards the Mediterranean coast. You will stop en route in the beautiful village of Frigiliana, a tangle of narrow cobbled streets lined by whitewashed houses, typical of this mountainous region of Spain. Afterwards you wind your way down to the coastal city of Malaga, where your tour ends.

Your Small Group Tour ends this afternoon upon arrival at Hotel Petit Palace Plaza Malaga at approximately 4:00pm. Bid farewell to your Guide and fellow travellers as you close the chapter on this part of your travels.

Enjoy your private airport transfer.