Payment of bespoke trip to Andalusia | 27th of March – 16th of April | 3 pax
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Description and schedule of services
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27th of March. Arrival to Málaga airport and private transfer to your accommodation in Marbella
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Time TBC: upon arrival of your flight to Málaga airport, collect your luggage, head to the arrivals hall and meet your personal driver there. He will be holding a sign saying “Golding family – Genuine Andalusia”. Then be transferred in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan to your accommodation in Marbella.
Time TBC: arrival to your accommodation in Marbella and end of services for the day.
Overnight in Marbella. Coral Beach Aparthotel (not booked through Genuine Andalusia).
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28th of March: Day at leisure in Marbella
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All day: enjoy a full day at leisure at your resort in Marbella.
Overnight in Marbella. Coral Beach Aparthotel (not booked through Genuine Andalusia).
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29th of March: Day trip from Marbella to Ronda to enjoy its history, breath-taking beauty and wine scene.
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9:30am: meet your personal driver at your accommodation in Marbella and be transferred in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan to Ronda old town.
10:30am: upon arrival to Ronda, meet your personal local host and enjoy a private guided tour of its bullring (the oldest in Spain). This tour will allow you to learn about the origins and evolution of bullfighting in Spain, while you see the different sections of the bullring, from the pens where the bulls are kept before the fight, to the arena where the actual fight takes place, from the chapel where the matadors say their prayers before the fight, to the areas where the audience and the bullring authorities sit. You will also be explained about brave bull breeding and about how different bullrings choose different bulls with different characteristics for their fights.
After your tour of the bullring, enjoy a private walking tour of Ronda old town with a special focus on its history, most representative landmarks, viewpoints and picturesque locations.
This private walking tour of Ronda old town will give you an excellent overview of the Hispanic-Muslim origins of the city and of the transformations that it started to experience in 1485 when it was conquered by Christians. It was then when many wealthy military orders settled down in Ronda in order to defend its strategic location near the straits of Gibraltar and very well connected to the main Southern Spanish cities.
These new inhabitants erected many noble residences and funded the construction of impressive religious constructions too. In the 18th century Ronda experienced a time of maximum splendour and its main landmark was built: the majestic New Bridge, which you will visit during your tour.
Ronda has also stunning nature in its surroundings and your tour will take you to the best viewpoints. This will allow you to understand why this whitewashed gem attracted so many romantic travellers in the 19th century during their Grand Tour and the impact that their written, drawn and painted portraits of Andalusia had in the international perception of Spain in the following decades until today.
1:30pm: end of your tour of Ronda and free time for lunch at leisure and to maybe explore the town a little bit further on your own. Recommendations of places to eat will be given and a table will be booked for you if you wish.
3pm: after lunch, reconnect with your private driver and be transferred to a selected local winery in the surroundings of Ronda.
3:15pm: upon arrival to the winery, start a private tour aimed at understanding the very particular local wine scene, where winemakers share a common approach to winemaking based on quality vs quantity. Ronda has proved to be an excellent area for the cultivation of very many different grapes from different parts of the world and this is allowing for the production of excellent wines, often organic and biodynamic, that you will get to taste at the end of your private tour.
4:45pm: end of your private tour of the winery and private transfer back to your hotel in Marbella.
6pm: arrival to your hotel in Marbella and end of services for the day.
Overnight in Marbella. Coral Beach Aparthotel (not booked through Genuine Andalusia).
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30th of March: Day at leisure in Marbella.
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All day: enjoy a full day at leisure at your resort in Marbella.
Overnight in Marbella. Coral Beach Aparthotel (not booked through Genuine Andalusia).
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31st of March: Day at leisure in Marbella.
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All day: enjoy a full day at leisure at your resort in Marbella.
Overnight in Marbella. Coral Beach Aparthotel (not booked through Genuine Andalusia).
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1st of April: Day trip from Coral Beach Aparthotel to Málaga (with a stopover at the airport) for a culture and art tour of the city, finishing at Westin La Quinta.
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12pm: private transfer from Coral Beach Aparthotel to Málaga airport in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan with a dedicated driver.
12:45pm: arrival to Málaga airport and dropoff of Andrew for his flight to England.
12:50pm: private transfer from Málaga airport to Málaga old town.
1:15pm: upon arrival to Málaga, enjoy some free time for lunch at leisure before your introductory history and art tour of the city.
3pm: meet your personal art and history expert there to start a private walking tour of the city that will take you to visit its Hispanic-Muslim fortress (Alcazaba) and its two most important art temples: the Picasso Museum and the Thyssen Museum.
Your tour will start with an introduction about the origins and evolution of the city while you are taken by your guide to visit first its main Roman and Hispanic-Muslim landmarks: the Roman Theater and the so-called Alcazaba. This will allow you to travel back in time in order to understand the important settlement that Málaga was in the Roman and Hispanic-Muslim periods and the evolution of the city after the Christian conquest until the present times.
Then you will continue on with a private tour of the Picasso Museum. There and led by your local host, you will learn about the life and work of this iconic local artist through some of the most representative paintings that the museum collection has.
After the Picasso Museum and to top up your history, architecture and art journey, you will be taken to the Thyssen museum which features an important part of the collection of Spanish art collector Carmen Thyssen. This museum focuses mostly on the Spanish art pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries collected by her. This will give you a very good overview of Spain’s modern history through selected art pieces.
6:30pm: end of your tour and private transfer to your new accommodation in Marbella.
7:30pm: arrival to your accommodation in Marbella and end of services for the day.
Overnight in Marbella. Westin La Quinta (not booked through Genuine Andalusia).
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2nd of April: Day at leisure in Marbella.
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All day: enjoy a full day at leisure at your resort in Marbella.
Overnight in Marbella. Westin La Quinta (not booked through Genuine Andalusia).
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3rd of April: Private transfer from Málaga airport to Marbella for Andrew
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9:10pm: upon arrival of your flight to Málaga airport, collect your luggage, head to the arrivals hall and meet your personal driver there. He will be holding a sign saying “Andrew Golding – Genuine Andalusia”. Then be transferred in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan to your accommodation in Marbella.
10:30pm: arrival to your accommodation in Marbella and end of services for the day.
Overnight in Marbella. Westin La Quinta (not booked through Genuine Andalusia).
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4th of April: Day at leisure in Marbella
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All day: enjoy a full day at leisure at your resort in Marbella.
Overnight in Marbella. Westin La Quinta (not booked through Genuine Andalusia).
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5th of April: Private transfer from Marbella to Seville and introductory evening flamenco and tapas tour of Seville old town
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10:30am: be met by your personal driver at your hotel in Marbella and be transferred in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan to your hotel in Seville.
1:15pm: upon arrival to your hotel in Seville, enjoy some free time to check-in, to freshen up and to have lunch at leisure before your introductory flamenco and tapas tour of the city.
6:30pm: meet your personal local host by the reception desk of your hotel to start a guided walk towards a selected flamenco venue. This introductory walk is aimed at learning about the origins of flamenco music in Southern Spain and also about its evolution throughout the centuries. This will set the context for (and enhance your appreciation and enjoyment of) the flamenco performance in a small and intimate venue that will follow, with 4 people on stage (one singer, one guitarist and two dancers).
7:30pm: start of the flamenco performance.
8:30pm: after your flamenco performance, enjoy a tapas tasting tour through Seville old town. Along the journey, you will be taken to 2 – 3 different bars where Sevillanos like to gather with relatives and friends and where you will be immersed into the local culture through its gastronomy and wine. Along the tour you will taste a selection of 6 – 9 local dishes to share and up to 4 drinks per person (wine, beer, refreshments, water). This tour will also make an excellent opportunity to learn about the iconic wines from SouthWest Spain.
10:30pm: after your tapas and wines adventure, be escorted back to your hotel stopping along the way for a sweet local treat.
11pm: arrival to your hotel and end of services for the day.
Overnight in Seville. One deluxe double room for double occupancy and one superior room for single occupancy, both with breakfast included at hotel Casas del Rey de Baeza (4*)
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6th of April: Seville World Heritage Sites walking tour
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10am: be met by your personal local guide at your hotel in Seville to start a private walking tour that will take you to visit its impressive World Heritages Sites: the Alcazar, the Cathedral with its Giralda tower and the Jewish quarter.
You will start your discovery journey by visiting the Alcazar, which is a massive complex of palaces erected in different periods and of breath-taking gardens of different styles. The Alcazar has stunning historical constructions featuring a very particular crossover between Hispanic-Muslim and Christian architecture styles, called Mudejar. This style became very fashionable in Spain in the 14th and 15th centuries amongst the Christian nobility and it reached its maximum splendour in Seville. Another essential part of the Alcazar is the famous house of Trade, which once hosted the offices from where all the commerce with the new world was managed. After enjoying these inner areas, you will be taken to the gardens, which are an exquisite sample of European gardening dating from the 17th until the 20th centuries.
Then you will be taken to visit the Cathedral, which is the largest gothic temple in the World and where Christopher Columbus is buried. The Cathedral of Seville was built on a vast extension of land where previously a Mosque had been erected. An important part of the Mosque was preserved and it is now a part of the Cathedral. This makes it a unique construction featuring styles as diverse as Hispanic-Muslim, Gothic, Renaissance, Neoclassical and Baroque. A most important part of the Cathedral is its bell tower known as la Giralda. During your tour you will be taken to the top in order to enjoy the wonderful views of Seville that one can admire from there.
To finish the tour you will visit the quarter of Santa Cruz, with its countless quaint corners, narrow streets, cosy squares, houses of traditional Southern Spanish architecture and Moorish urban planning. It is in this quarter where an important part of the Jewish Sephardic community of Seville lived in the medieval times and you will learn about what life in the quarter was like then and how it has evolved until becoming what it is today.
1:30pm: end of your tour and rest of the day at leisure.
Overnight in Seville. One deluxe double room for double occupancy and one superior room for single occupancy, both with breakfast included at hotel Casas del Rey de Baeza (4*)
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7th of April: Day at leisure in Seville
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All day: enjoy a full day at leisure in Seville.
Overnight in Seville. One deluxe double room for double occupancy and one superior room for single occupancy, both with breakfast included at hotel Casas del Rey de Baeza (4*)
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8th of April: Day trip from Seville to Jerez to enjoy the history, architecture and food and sherry scenes of the city
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9am: private transfer in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan with your own personal driver from your hotel in Seville to Jerez old town.
10:15am: upon arrival to Jerez meet your personal local host to start a private walking tour of the old town with a special focus on its Hispanic-Muslim origins and on the transformations that it experienced (architecture, urban-planning, social composition and overall character) with the Christian conquest in the 13th century and later in the 18th and 19th centuries when the local wines (sherries) became probably the most fashionable drinks in the world. Your tour will also include a private visit to the local market in order to understand not only the essential proximity service it is for the local community but also the important role it plays in the social fabric of the city.
11:45am: end of your introductory walking tour in a selected sherry bodega and private visit aimed at learning about the aging process of the different types of sherry. This will be followed by the corresponding tastings and by some basic notions about the art of pairing food and sherry.
1:15pm: end of the visit to the sherry bodega and short walk to a selected sherry and tapas tavern.
1:30pm: arrival to the sherry and tapas tavern and tapas and sherries lunch there. Further notions about the art of pairing food and sherry will be given through a pairing lunch including a selection of 5 – 8 dishes to share and up to 4 sherries per person.
3:15pm: after lunch, reconnect with your driver and be transferred back to your hotel in Seville.
4:40pm: arrival to your hotel in Seville and end of services for the day.
Overnight in Seville. One deluxe double room for double occupancy and one superior room for single occupancy, both with breakfast included at hotel Casas del Rey de Baeza (4*)
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9th of April: Private transfer from Seville to Córdoba
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10:30am: meet your private driver at your hotel and be transferred in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan to your hotel in Córdoba.
12:15pm: arrival to your hotel in Córdoba and end of services for the day.
Overnight in Córdoba. 2 dreamer’s double rooms (one of them for double occupancy and the other for single occupancy) with breakfast included at Hotel Palacio del Bailío (5*)
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10th of April: Half-day trip to the archaeological UNESCO site of Medina – Azahara
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10am: meet your personal driver at your accommodation and be transferred in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan to the archaeological site of Medina – Azahara.
10:25am: upon arrival to Medina-Azahara, meet your personal local expert there to start a private walking tour of the site aimed to understand the massive palatial complex that it once was, the different parts it featured, their functions, the relationships between the people who inhabited it, its defensive system, the political role it played during the caliphate of Córdoba and the reasons that led to its decay and abandonment.
1:15pm: after your tour of Medina-Azahara, reconnect with your driver and be transferred in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan back to Córdoba.
1:45am: arrival to Córdoba old town and end of services for the day.
Overnight in Córdoba. 2 dreamer’s double rooms (one of them for double occupancy and the other for single occupancy) with breakfast included at Hotel Palacio del Bailío (5*)
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11th of April: Day at leisure in Córdoba
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All day: enjoy a full day at leisure in Córdoba.
Overnight in Córdoba. 2 dreamer’s double rooms (one of them for double occupancy and the other for single occupancy) with breakfast included at Hotel Palacio del Bailío (5*)
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12th of April: Private transfer from Córdoba to Granada
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9:30am: be met by your personal driver at your hotel and be transferred in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan to your hotel in Granada.
12pm: arrival to your hotel in Granada and end of services for the day.
Overnight in Granada. One superior double room for double occupancy and one standard double room for single occupancy, both with breakfast included at Hotel Villa Oniria (4*).
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13th of April: Introductory tour of Granada old town and of the quarter of El Albayzin
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10am: meet your personal local host by the reception desk of your hotel to go on a 3h walking tour of Granada old town that will allow you to discover, learn about and experience the beauty of two different quarters of the city. These are two key areas in the history of the city that also stand out for their beauty and authenticity.
You will start visiting the first quarters that developed in Granada after the Christian conquest of the city in 1492. It is in these areas where the Cathedral of Granada was erected and in one of its chapels, the so-called Royal Chapel, you will visit the tombs of the monarchs that were responsible for the conquest of the city (Isabel of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragón). Their tombs are an exquisite sample of Spanish renaissance sculpture.
Near this chapel, you will also visit the palace of la Madraza: a unique building that originally was a medieval Quran School and that later was used as a residence. During your visit, you will see beautiful evidence of its original use and of the one that followed.
Later, you will be taken to the iconic quarter of el Albayzín, located on top of a hill and overlooking the Alhambra. El Albayzín was the part of Granada where regular people would live: people whose social scheme inside the walls of the palatial areas of the Alhambra was rather unclear.
The quarter of Albayzín is a UNESCO site and it treasures some of the most beautiful corners and views of the Alhambra that the city of Granada has to offer. Your local host will share the most special ones with you, while you are explained about the architecture and infrastructures that the quarter had in the medieval times and of which you will see beautifully preserved evidence.
1pm: end of your tour and rest of the day at leisure in Granada.
Overnight in Granada. One superior double room for double occupancy and one standard double room for single occupancy, both with breakfast included at Hotel Villa Oniria (4*).
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14th of April: Tour of the Alhambra and El Generalife
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9:30am: be met by your personal local host at your hotel and be transferred by taxi to the top of the hill of la Sabika, where the Alhambra and el Generalife are located.
9:45am: upon arrival to the Alhambra, be taken on a private walking tour of this palatial city which is the most exquisite example of the Hispanic-Muslim architecture. The Alhambra was the city where the Hispanic-Muslim sultans used to live with their army, their court and some selected artisans. Because of this, it has several parts, all of which you will get to visit during your tour, while you understand the role that each of them had. Later you will visit the summer palace or Generalife. This is the place where the sultans would go to escape from the hustle and bustle of the Alhambra. It was a place designed for relaxation and contemplation and because of this, it has the most beautiful gardens and some of the nicest views that the city of Granada has to offer.
1:15pm: end of your tour of the Alhambra and rest of the day at leisure.
Overnight in Granada. One superior double room for double occupancy and one standard double room for single occupancy, both with breakfast included at Hotel Villa Oniria (4*).
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15th of April: Day at leisure in Granada
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All day: enjoy a full day at leisure in Granada.
Overnight in Granada. One superior double room for double occupancy and one standard double room for single occupancy, both with breakfast included at Hotel Villa Oniria (4*).
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16th of April: Departure from Málaga airport
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Time TBC: private transfer from your hotel in Granada to Málaga airport.
Time TBC: arrival to Málaga airport and end of the trip.
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Pricing
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The price of this bespoke trip for a private group of 3 people is 12890 Euros.
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This price includes
– 11 nights accommodation with breakfast included in Seville (4 nights), Córdoba (3 nights) and Granada (4 nights) as per mentioned above.
– All private transportation services mentioned above in a modern and comfortable Mercedes minivan with a dedicated uniformed driver.
– All private tours and experiences mentioned above with a personal local host (a fully licensed, knowledgeable, personable, kind, flexible and interactive guide).
– All entrance tickets and admissions for each of the sites included in the guided tours.
– Private visit to a selected local winery in Ronda representative of the wine scene of the area with the corresponding tastings there.
– Access to a selected flamenco performance in Seville with 4 people onstage (two dancers, one singer and one guitarist).
– A tapas dinner in Seville old town including a selection of 6 – 9 dishes to share, up to 4 drinks per person (wine, beer, refreshments, water) and a sweet local treat to finish.
– Private visit to a selected sherry winery in Jerez representative of the artisanal sherry scene of the area with the corresponding tastings there.
– A pairing tapas and sherry lunch in Jerez including a selection of 6 – 9 dishes to share and up to 4 sherries per person (or beer, wine, refreshments or water).
– Taxi ride to get from your hotel in Granada to the Alhambra for your tour of the site.
Petrol, parkings, tolls and all expenses of your driver and of your guides.
– 24h assistance during your trip.
– A list of recommended things to do and see and of places to eat in each of the places where you will be based.
– All taxes.
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This price excludes
– Your accommodation in Marbella.
– Any flights.
– Any meals not mentioned right above.
– Anything else not mentioned right above.
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Confirmation and payments
In order to confirm this bespoke trip we require a 30% deposit of the grand total no later than the 5th of March via credit/debit card. The final 70% must be paid via the same method no later than 15 days prior to the start of the trip.
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Grand total of this bespoke trip: 12890 Euros.
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30% deposit needed no later than the 5th or March to confirm the trip: 3867 Euros.
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Final 70% needed no later than 15 days prior to the star of the trip: 9023 Euros.
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Cancellation policy
– If you cancel your trip more than 15 days prior to scheduled start, we’ll charge 30% of the full cost of the trip.
– If you cancel your trip between 15 and 10 days prior to scheduled start, we’ll charge 50% of the full cost of the trip.
– If you cancel your trip between 9 and 4 days or less prior to its start, we’ll charge 70% of the full cost of the trip.
– If you cancel your trip 3 days or less prior to its start, we’ll charge 100% of the full cost of the trip.
– Please note that partial cancellations won’t result in partial refunds (a partial cancellation would be a cancellation of one spot in the trip or a cancellation of part of the trip).
*If the travel restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic didn’t allow for this trip to happen, we’d give you a full refund deducting only the bank charges involved in the refund. Please note that the restrictions we’ll take as official will be the ones imposed by the corresponding government/s for the general vaccinated traveler coming to Spain from your country of origin and not your specific personal circumstances.
