Music Lovers’ Flamenco Tour Through Andalusia

In the morning light, Seville is bathed in a blanket of red. Cafe terraces emerge from the shadows, their facades shimmering across broad squares. The cathedral spires peek above scarlet roof tiles and provide an historic start to today's tour. Light pours through biblical scenes made of stained glass, illuminating Gothic walls and shining onto steps leading to Christopher Columbus's crypt. Next you visit the Alcazar, a complex of 13th century allure that's always iconically photogenic. Lounge on a terrace and indulge in the view, before visiting Seville's third UNESCO World Heritage Site, the old city archive. Enjoy a local lunch before heading into the rolling valleys of rural Andalusia.

This afternoon is all about the history of flamenco, starting in the village of Utrera, home to the world's first ever flamenco festival. Impromptu performances fill the village square with song and the ambiance is one of being lost in time. Continue to Jerez de la Frontera and the Andalusia Flamenco Centre, packed full of sounds and artwork celebrating the local art form. Both Jerez de la Frontera and Utrera host numerous summer flamenco festivals which can be incorporated into this itinerary dependent on your vacation dates. Of course, flamenco is most alive in the historic venues. Tonight's performance is at Lagar de Tio Parilla, a tiny bar that combines great food with distinctive cantina songs.

Flamenco dancers move like a blur, giving off an impression of one continuous movement as they twirl to the music. With a Spanish guitarist providing the serenade, today is spent learning the basics of flamenco dance. The full-day dance class takes place in the Triana neighborhood, tutored by a former professional dancer. Flamenco is about fun and improvisation. There's no stiff moves or exacting steps to learn; the day is about feeling the rhythm and allowing your body to flow. It's about melting into the sounds of the guitar and losing yourself to a soulful serenity. Lunch will be included. For this evening's entertainment, enjoy a table at one of the bars on Betis Street, taking in a very modern and expressive form of flamenco.

Cordoba's cityscape glimpses at the exotic. Minarets rise above the old fortress walls, a mosque dome shines as church bells chime, and the relics of the East are sprinkled amongst the memoirs to Rome. You take a break from flamenco today, enjoying time at leisure to explore the mystical streets of this living World Heritage city. Almost every facade dates from the 7th to 13th century, and the old town's size is ideal for peaceful exploring. While the Great Mosque of Cordoba leaves the most elaborate memories of Moorish times, duck into the alleyways and there's always something transported from a faraway land.

In the early evening you take a short drive to Puenta Genil, a town that epitomizes the gypsy folk side to flamenco music. It's here that fandangos dominate the stage, bringing unusual dances and melodies to the mountain air. Tonight's performance is by the Zangano Folk Group, their act charting the development of flamenco and local fandango over five centuries. Hear the tempo increase and watch the dancing change as you journey through the ages, each century complimented by a food course and a glass of wine.

Cordoba's charms are ever-impressive on a relaxed morning. Take it slow and continue your wanderings around the old town, seemingly hundreds of terraces beckoning you forward. Your Cordoba flamenco tour starts in the early afternoon at Casa Santos, a famous tavern filled with posters and paintings, and serving quite possibly the finest Spanish omelette on the planet. Now it's time to play. Jose Reyes Maldonado's guitar workshop bursts with odes to the greats and the sporadic 12 beat plucking of flamenco. Take a one hour Spanish guitar lesson inside the historic walls. The lesson is tailored to your experience (or lack of). For budding guitarists, this part of the itinerary can be expanded and it's possible to have multiple Spanish guitar lessons.

The evening flamenco performances have so far been of the traditional and local variety, taking place in small atmospheric venues with scents of history. Tonight's is different. First see the virtuoso performances of Plaza de la Corrdera and watch the Las Tendillas clock tick seven, the hour marked by a Juan Serrano guitar seguiriyas rather than a chiming bell. Now enter the ornate Gran Teatro Theatre, a vast concert hall alive with the classical flamenco performance. With over a dozen performers on stage, the music flutters and flickers amidst countless tones. This venue is a classic royal music hall, full of velvet and lavish seats. It's the grandest of Andalusia's flamenco venues.

In the mountains of Grenada lies Spain's Renaissance history. Ubeda's pastel tones line streets that spill along the hillside. Occasionally there's a gap, an open space where history once stood. But such a gap only serves to elevate what remains. Graceful roofs slope towards Vazquez de Molina Square, four palaces and two churches facing each other over a square of terraces. Baeza is equally resplendent, such a concoction of 16th century architecture in such a tiny Spanish town. In the late afternoon you drive to nearby Granada, capital of the region and proud displayer of Andalusian history.

Tonight's flamenco is unusual in the extreme. Wander into the Sacromonte Caves, traditional home of local gypsies who developed an emotional style of flamenco favored for weddings. Some guess that this style has been practiced since Moorish towns, meaning almost a thousand years of musical history lives in these caves. Enjoy dinner at Restaurant Flamenco Cave before a succession of vivid dresses twirl and dozens of dancers offer one of Andalusia's most authentic performances. Expect the tangos to continue well into the night.

Granada's rows of vines cascade across rugged valleys, the grapes emanating from historic estates with centuries of history. Today is spent on a full day wine tour, visiting three or four of Granada's finest wine estates and farmhouses. The landscape is more lunar than Spanish, the sunbaked slopes ideal for creating sweet and fortified wines. This is where the country's sherry is produced.  The tour will be geared towards your personal tastes and includes a lavish lunch banquet at one of Granada's oldest wineries. Another historic treat greets you back in Granada. Pena de la Plateria is the oldest flamenco club still in existence, and it continues to draw excited crowds every night of the week.

Today you reach Spain's coastline, the whitewashed houses of Almeria standing above a harbor of enchantment. Climb the steps to the town's fortress and gaze across the Alboran Sea to Morocco, allowing the eye to wander across the palms to the welcoming beach. The rest of the day is at your leisure and your chauffeur can transfer you to a number of tranquil beaches either side of Almeria. This Eastern region of Andalusia is home to improvised guitar and you hear the strumming in the city's numerous squares. While eating fresh fish and chips and soaking up the salty air, tonight's flamenco is one of public expressionism that gives the city its indelible air of fiesta.

Continue the journey along the coast, a succession of coastal villages making for potential stops as you head west towards Algeciras. Malaga is a sprawling city, the flamenco neighborhood of El Palo hidden amongst modernity. Get closer and the marengo songs are whistled by fishermen along a harbor of al fresco dining. Enjoy a local lunch before visiting a shrine to Malaga's flamenco, the Pena Juan Breva. Now converted to a museum, this venue illustrates the working class roots of flamenco. It's an art form sung on the ships and danced in the fields, a social outlet born out of challenging circumstances, much like the development of blues music in the plantations of Southern America.

As the guitar thrashes away and the dancers stamp to the beat, you can hear a frustration and energy to the flamenco here. Five, six, seven, and down the feet stamp on eight as the guitar whips into a frenzy and the performers pour with sweat. After the graceful beauty of Seville and Cordoba, tonight's flamenco performance is more like a rock gig, the performers collapsing in exhaustion as the tavern voices their approval. Singers and guitarists playing here are usually those who have the highest visibility and fame outside the Andalusian region.

A quiet day to finish, starting in coastal Algeciras and a unique walking tour tracing the life of Paco de Lucia, one of the all time legends of Andalusian flamenco. With an expert guide offering the chronicles, de Lucia offers a means of discovering a seaside town lost in time and forgotten by the world. Continuing the same theme, you trace a journey along the coast and then through the mountains of Cadiz, taking the Bajani route and connecting tiny villages built from medieval stone. Squares are named after local heroes, posters fill cafes, and statuesque busts remember the legends who wowed what are now deserted towns. Stopping at half a dozen villages, today immerses you in the Spain of the 18th century; one of crumbling farmhouses and churches perched far above the valley. Complete the vacation where you started, in Seville's Triana, where your guide can book a prime table at any of the district's historic flamenco taverns.

The melodies of guitar continue to ring through your mind as you're transferred to the airport for your departure flight.