We had a wonderful time on our tour of Central Spain. 9/26-10/6. Our tour guide Enrique was personable, very knowledgeable, and accommodating. When Jim and I landed at the Madrid Airport on 9/26/23 at 6:30 am only one of our suitcases arrived. It was the largest one of our two and packed with all my clothes , shoes, etc. Read More...
Central Spain Small Group Tour Overview
Our Madrid & Central Spain tour takes you on a scenic journey through the regions of Castilla La Mancha, Extremadura, and Castilla León. In Toledo, we’ll visit the magnificent Gothic Cathedral and Santo Tomé Church, home to stunning paintings by El Greco. In Trujillo, we’ll explore the wealth brought back from the Americas, and in the medieval town of Cáceres, we’ll admire its Moorish towers. Mérida, famous for its Roman ruins and art, will also treat us to a traditional paella lunch. Our next stop is Salamanca, known for its breathtaking squares and the finest tapas. We’ll stroll the cobblestone streets of Zamora and enjoy lunch in an 11th-century castle. In Segovia, we’ll marvel at the ancient Roman aqueduct and the fairytale-like Alcázar before arriving in dynamic Madrid, where we’ll stay at the Villa Real Hotel and visit the renowned Prado Museum.
Madrid & Central Spain Itinerary
Day 1
Toledo sits strategically atop a cliff, with the river Tagus encircling it on three sides. Established as a Roman settlement in 192 BC, it rose to prominence in the 6th century as the Visigothic capital and religious heart of the country, marking the beginning of the deep-rooted alliance between the Church and the State—a defining feature in Spain’s history.
In the early afternoon, we’ll transfer from Madrid’s airport and city center to Toledo, nestled in the region of Castilla La Mancha. Here, we’ll spend two nights in the Palacio Eugenia Montijo, a former Renaissance palace.
We’ll begin with an orientation walk, followed by a welcome dinner.
Day 2
During Moorish rule, Toledo experienced a unique period of coexistence among Arabs, Jews, and Christians, fostering a vibrant cultural exchange. When the city was reclaimed by Christians in 1085, it rose to become one of their most prominent centers, known as the “soul of Spain.”
Although Muslims and Jews were permitted to stay, Christian authorities quickly asserted control, converting mosques into churches and later establishing monasteries and convents. Their grandest project was the Gothic Cathedral, built on the site of the former Great Mosque, symbolizing Christianity’s permanent return.
Our morning tour with a local guide will lead us through the winding historic streets, the Jewish quarter, and several landmarks including a synagogue, mosque, and the Cathedral, along with the stunning El Greco painting in Santo Tomé.
El Greco, born on Crete, was a distinctive artist of the Spanish Renaissance, known for his elongated and often intense, religious figures. Nicknamed “El Greco” for his Greek origins, he moved to Toledo after training in Venice and Rome, where he spent the remainder of his life creating dramatic works. In the afternoon, we’ll visit the Santa Cruz Museum to view 30 of his remarkable paintings. Evening free for leisure.
Day 3
We’ll begin our day with a guided exploration of colonial Trujillo, our first destination in Extremadura. The town’s history took a notable turn when Spanish conquistadors, like Francisco Pizarro, returned from the Americas and invested their newfound wealth into building impressive homes and enhancing their hometowns as a tribute to their achievements. Lunch is included.
Later, we’ll head to Cáceres, where we’ll stay at El Parador, a former 16th-century palace, for the next two nights. Cáceres has a complex history: it was a prominent city during the Roman era, saw decline under the Visigoths, was revitalized by the Moors, and later reclaimed by Christians in the 13th century, thriving further after the Americas were discovered. Today, it boasts Roman walls, 30 Moorish towers, and stunning Gothic and Renaissance buildings. The impeccably preserved medieval center earned the city a UNESCO World Heritage designation in 1986. Evening at leisure.
Day 4
Enjoy a free morning in Cáceres before we depart midday for a traditional paella lunch.
Mérida was founded by Roman soldiers retired under Emperor Augustus, resulting in an incredible collection of Roman ruins—the largest and best-preserved in Spain. With a local guide, we’ll explore these remarkable sites, including the amphitheater (still used for concerts), the Aqueduct of Miracles, the Temple of Diana, and Spain’s longest Roman bridge.
We’ll also visit the National Museum of Roman Art, which houses stunning mosaics, sculptures, and exhibits showing daily life in a Roman settlement.
Evening is yours to relax back in Cáceres
Day 5
Today, we journey through the heart of bullfighting country and ascend the Sierra mountains to the secluded village of La Alberca. This charming town is known for its well-preserved 14th-century architecture, with thatched roofs, blooming balconies, and cobblestone streets. La Alberca is famous for its top-quality Jamón Serrano, made from local pigs fed exclusively on black acorns. After touring Casa Sátur, a traditional village home, enjoy some free time to explore the quaint streets and try local treats like the sweet honey almond turrón.
We’ll arrive in Salamanca by early afternoon and settle into our hotel, the former convent Palacio San Esteban, where we’ll stay for the next three nights. Evening at leisure.
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Madrid, Spain’s capital and largest city, serves as the heart of the country’s political, economic, and cultural life. It’s home to the monarchy, the parliament, the Royal Palace, and celebrated museums. With history stretching back to the 9th century, Madrid combines historic architecture with modern skyscrapers, a vibrant nightlife, and a dynamic culture.
Our day begins at La Catedral Almudena, then we’ll head to Plaza Oriente to tour Madrid’s Royal Palace. Once the residence of Spanish royalty, the palace showcases famous artwork, the ornate king’s dressing room, and the world’s most complete collection of Antonio Stradivarius string instruments.
We’ll wrap up the morning at Mercado de San Miguel, a historic market transformed into a culinary hub. In the afternoon, we’ll stroll through the Botanical Gardens at Retiro Park before exploring Spanish art and culture at the renowned Prado Museum, featuring masterpieces by Velázquez, El Greco, and Goya.
Our day concludes with a farewell dinner in the city center, with one more taste of Spanish gastronomy at it’s very best!
Day 10
Tour concludes.
Principal Towns & Villages
Days 1-2 Toledo
Days 3-4 Trujillo, Càceres, Mérida
Days 5-7 La Alberca, Salamanca, Zamora
Days 8-9 Segovia, Madrid
Included
9 nights' 4 and 5 star hotel accommodations
Tourist accommodation tax
All breakfasts, 2 dinners and 3 lunches, beverages included
All ground transportation and porterage Days 2-9
All activities and admissions listed in Highlights
Full time professional tour manager
All activities and admissions listed under Highlights
Highlights
City walking tours with local guides in:
Toledo Trujillo Cáceres Merida Salamanca Segovia Madrid
Santo Tomé and Cathedral in Toledo
Santa Cruz Museum Toledo
Casa Pizarro Trujillo
Torre de Bujaco Cáceres
Roman theater and amphitheater at Mérida
National Museum of Roman Art at Mérida
Casa Sátur home tour La Alberca
Casa Lis Museum and University in Salamanca
Cathedral and Museum at Zamora
Royal Palace, Madrid
Prado museum Madrid
Activity Level
This tour involves moderate walking, with some uphill sections, especially in Toledo and Trujillo. Plan to be on your feet for a few hours each day. Age is not a factor as long as you’re in decent physical shape and enjoy walking. However, the tour may not be suitable for individuals with mobility concerns or issues involving the knees, back, heart, or weight-related challenges. If you have any mobility limitations, this may not be the ideal tour for you. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Map Central Spain
Getting There
Tour begins: Madrid
On arrival, a taxi, from the Madrid Barajas airport to the meeting point in the city center is just 30 euros and should take approximately 25-30 minutes. Departure to Toledo at (14:00).
Tour ends: Madrid
On departure, a taxi, from our city center hotel to the airport is just 30 euros and should take approximately 25-30 minutes.
How to get there: Book a round trip ticket into and out from Madrid
Pre tour: If you choose to arrive to Madrid early, sipmply take a taxi to your city center hotel. For arrivals to Madrid on Day 1 of the tour, your flight should arrive to the airport no later than 11:00.
Suggestions:
Combine with: Madrid Tapas Tour
This is the perfect introduction to Spain’s gastronomic diversity. Walk Madrid’s beautiful old town with a local guide and sample an array of tasty tapas dishes and Spanish beers, wines, and more. Our tour is one of the most entertaining ways to indulge in local culture and your guide will share fun and interesting stories about Spain and its people along the way!
Tour Dates
Sept 16-25, 2026
Price: $4200 USD
Single Supplement: $800 USD
Read What Our Previous Travelers Say
This was a trip for the ages. Everything was near perfect. First, a shout-out to our fellow travelers! What an amazing and wonderful group of people! The towns we visited had such interesting and painful histories. We really came to appreciate who the Spanish people were over the course of the trip. Such resiliency in the face of great challenges. A highlight was our local guide Marco. Read More...
This tour was my first, and recommended by our friend, Pam Montague, who also attended. The most important aspect of the tour, was our guide, Enrique. His knowledge and passion were extraordinary and the size of the group was small, so we got to go to places not normally on tour agendas. I left Spain with history of culture, art, architecture, and experienced a wide selection of incredible culinary delights! Read More...
My tour of Madrid and Central Spain exceeded my expectations. The hotel rooms were well appointed and the food was incredibly delicious. Enrique, our tour guide, and our local guides shared their knowledge of the history, architecture, and people of the cities we visited. I found the tours to be very informative. The highlight of the trip was a guided tour of the Prado Museum. Enrique provided me with a unique and informed perspective on approximately several dozen paintings. It was the richest experience I’ve had by a docent.
Just arrived back from our farewell dinner after spending 9 days in Central Spain. Oh my gosh what an amazing trip. Enrique was amazing, fun, informative. I have traveled a fair amount and this truly was my favorite trip. We spent 10 hours exploring Madrid today, seeing the palace and the Prado. The food was exceptional and I loved our day on the farm. Amber tours does not disappoint.
Amber Road Tours does not disappoint. Our tour guide Enrique’s pride in and historical knowledge of his country was truly outstanding. I would love to see the rest of Spain. Enrique provided so many personal touches like our amazing afternoon at the Prado Museum. The hotels were great and each meal was a feast. We had a good balance between guided expeditions and free time. I appreciate the small group experience. This was, indeed, a cultural journey!
I really enjoyed my journey on the Madrid and Central Spain tour with Sean who was a really great tour director. The pace of the trip was good the experiences that we had along the way were wonderful. I especially enjoyed the picnic lunch that we had with the local products outside La Alberca, including the special efforts for me to be able have something tasty to eat that contained no pork. Read More...
This tour was a wonderful introduction to Spain, a country I have wanted to see since childhood. Sean was a fabulous tour director who set a good pace where we were able to see and be informed about so much history of Spain and the cities and towns we visited, which was balanced with just enough free time for us to explore on our own. Sean was knowledgeable, fun, informative, kind and happy to help with anything and so unbelievably patient. Read More...
This was an amazing tour! Sean, our guide, was excellent: knowledgeable, personable, and professional. The hotels were very good, our bus drivers were great, the pace was much more relaxed than other tours I’ve taken, and we had so many amazing experiences that time and space will not allow me to list them all here. Suffice it to say that every day was wonderful. Read More...
Well organized program with varied and thoroughly interesting itinerary from start to finish. Sean was an excellent and convivial guide, well versed in all things Spain: which he willingly shared during our visit. Local guides were all very informative and responsive. All lodging was conveniently located and accommodations were very comfortable. Provided meals were very good with the chef prepared meal and organic farm lunch particularly enjoyable. Read More...
This was our second trip with Amber Road Tours and we were not disappointed. Sean was an excellent, courteous, upbeat tour guide who helped us understand the history, culture, art and the natural beauty of this region. Our accommodations were centrally located with comfortable rooms and the planned meals were also interesting with regional specialties we might not have tried otherwise. Read More...
Great tour- accommodations excellent – as were restaurants. Guides very informative and entertaining, Group of 8 and everyone very friendly and comparable. This is our second trip and will not be our last.
Having enjoyed Sicily with Amber Road in 2014, it was an easy choice to take the AR ‘double’ of Central Spain/ Andalucia for our first foray in Spain, and we are so glad we did! For Central Spain our group was a great team of 8, and together with our guide Sean Retana, we started in Toledo, which has so much to see, before embarking on a circle which took us through the flat endless plains of rugged La Mancha, to Caceres,Trujillo,and Merida, then pushing up through the Sierras into true ‘bull country’ and La Alberca,before descending to the university town of Salamanca. Read More...
Shortly after returning from the Central Spain Tour we were asked “What was the favorite part of your trip?”. A question that proved quite difficult to answer. As with our previous tours with Amber Road, Central Spain was filled with memorable days and nights. From the unique and quiet village of La Alberca to the sobering Valley of the Fallen, to the streets of Madrid every day had its own set of highlights. Read More...
The May Central Spain tour was exactly what I’ve learned to expect from prior Amber Road Tours: small groups, a great itinerary, fabulous tour leader, ample free time and great hotels. Sean, the tour leader, is very passionate about his country, a veritable encyclopedia of Spain’s history and art, extremely helpful and has a great sense of humor. This was my first visit to Spain and it did not disappoint. I loved it all. Thanks for another great trip!
Amber Road Tours was recommended by some dear friends and we decided to join them for this trip. We were not disappointed in any way and had a wonderful time. This itinerary was most interesting and we enjoyed seeing the beautiful countryside as well as the many Midieval cities and churches. Our accommodations were all lovely as were the meals and the plentiful pouring of great Spanish wine. Read More...
This was our 3rd tour with Amber Road and nothing disappointed us. There is nothing we can fault with this tour company. We have read the comments of our fellow travelers regarding this tour and hardly feel we can add to their superlatives. We fully endorse their glowing comments. Read More...
This was our first tour with Amber Road Tours and we were very pleased. Close friends recommended Amber Road as a great small tour company. We liked the size of only 20 people and thoroughly enjoyed the itinerary. The lodging and food was all very good. Sean our tour guide was excellent. He is passionate about his country and it comes through in his detail descriptions of the places we visited. Read More...
Our second Amber Road adventure was even more fulfilling than we had hoped. We were continually surprised and delighted by the sights, sounds and tastes that Spain had to offer. Our hotels were uniformly excellent, and the meals and wine were outstanding. Two highlights were perhaps one of the world’s largest paellas for lunch one day, and our final dinner at the oldest restaurant in the world! It was also exciting to know we were in many places seldom visited by non-Spanish tourists. Read More...
Excellent tour. Sean was our guide. He was very good & was really fun. He was knowledgeable but sometimes liked to push his own take on things – like bullfighting. His tour of the Prado was really excellent where he did just enough & gave superb explanations. Thanks Sean. Read More...
I wasn’t as prepared for this trip as I have been for others with Amber Road but I still had a great time. Someone asked me for the highlight of the trip. That was easy. The night we arrived in Salamanca Sean took us for a short walk. My first sight of the facades of San Esteban and the Cathedrals was with a darkening sky, rising moon and brilliant spotlighting. It was just beautiful. Read More...
We would highly recommend this tour. The itinerary was well thought out and a good balance between travelling and sight seeing, and organised activities or free time. We stayed in high quality, character accommodation in areas of the old cities which allowed us to walk the narrow streets after dark, soaking up the atmosphere and seeing the local sights by night. Read More...
The tour is packed with great historical sites and dramatic landscapes. Our enthusiastic tour leader, Sean, also added several interesting stops off the beaten path. I learned a lot about Spanish history, current lifestyles, agricultural practices, economy, food, wine and much more. We benefitted greatly from Sean’s vast knowledge of Spanish history and life which he imparted to us with great zest.
We were part of Amber Road’s first tour of Spain and we were quite excited about being ‘first cab off the rank’. If we had had any concerns they would have been quickly put aside by the personality, knowledge and pure enthusiasm of our tour guide, Sean. Thank you Sean, nothing was too much trouble, you went way above and beyond to make our tour the best it could be. Read More...
This tour was very enjoyable and was a great success. The reasons for this are simple – we had an enthusiastic, warm and knowledgeable guide and a small party of travellers – less than 10 – which meant that we all gelled together quickly and easily. I am aware that some of my fellow ART travellers had some minor issues but that is to be expected with a first tour in a new country. For my part I have no complaints as the positives far outweighed any negatives, perceived or real.
*Amber Road Tours' Spain trips are now exclusively operated by Fernweh Travel and Tours.
These itineraries remain unchanged, preserving their original integrity and amazing experiences!
