Spain’s Fascinating Highlights Tour in October

What to expect on this itinerary
Including Architecture Week, culture parades, authentic flamenco events, and the annual saffron festival, there is truly something for everyone during this 7-day Spain tour. During the month of October, festival life in Spain is more vibrant than ever, even into the late-night hours. Step inside the grand complex of Madrid’s Royal Palace, take part in the Autumn Festival, and relax on the pristine beaches of Nerja.
Customizable Itinerary
Madrid – Architecture Week
As your plan coasts along the tarmac at Madrid's Barajas International Airport, you will be welcomed by the warm sunshine and rolling plains of central Spain. After collecting your belongings, your guide will greet and transfer you to your accommodation. You will settle in to your accommodation before venturing into the city to witness the celebrations of Architecture Week. With an expert guide, you will explore the beauty Madrid's architecture has to offer. You will begin in the opulent halls of the Royal Palace before continuing to the Gran Via and more.
What's Included:
Madrid – Autumn Festival
Consuegra – Saffron Festival
Seville – Seville Guitar Festival
Cadiz – Festival of the Virgin of Rosario
Nerja – Beach Outing and Festivities
Marbella – Departure
Trip Highlights
- Step inside the golden halls of Madrid's Royal Palace and behold fascinating facades throughout the city during Architecture Week
- Stroll through Parque El Retiro in the nation's capital before taking part in the Autumn Festival and sampling the city's most delectable tapas
- Venture to the charming town of Consuegra and indulge in the region's prized saffron spice
- Clap to the impassioned beat of Sevilla's flamenco dancers and attend the city's Guitar Festival
- Snap photos of Marbella's charming cobblestone streets before setting out to the streets to celebrate the Annual Feria
- Luxuriate along the beaches of Nerja before dancing the night away as festival events continue
- Marvel at the intricate parade floats in Cadiz during the Festival of the Virgin of Rosario and tour the beautiful Baroque cathedral
Detailed Description
You can experience the many festivals of charming cities and the lively atmosphere of the locals when you travel to Spain during the month of October. You will surely be enamored by the country’s laid-back lifestyle, welcoming culture, and endless festivities.
You will begin your seven days of festival-hopping in the illustrious capital city of Madrid. Here, the hurried pace of life is marked by speedy mopeds that circle central plazas and weave in and out of traffic. The high-speed action stalls to a lull in the early afternoon hours because locals partake in a siesta, which is a nap. As you tour the city, you will visit the Royal Palace, Parque El Retiro, and the Reina Sofia Museum. You also witness many of Madrid's stunning facades during Architecture Week. In the evening, you will venture to the Plaza Mayor to sample an array of delectable tapas paired with a glass of cana.
After enjoying major metropolitan life, you will head to the quaint town of Conseguera. If you book this trip in October per our recommendation, you will visit this city during its iconic Saffron Festival. You will learn the vital role the spice plays in Spanish cuisine before sampling some saffron-induced staples, such as Spain's rice medley known as paella.
The charm and beauty of southern Spain are truly unparalleled. You will see just why when you explore the elegance of Sevilla, Marbella, Nerja, and Cadiz. First, in Sevilla, you will listen to the soothing strums of Spanish acoustic melodies as they fuse with the syncopated beats of flamenco music. When you venture to the cities of Nerja, Cadiz, and Marbella, you will experience the true vibrancy of festival life paired with the immaculate landscapes of white-sand beaches.
Starting Price
$2,800 per person (excluding international flights)
Your Zicasso trip is fully customizable, and this sample itinerary is a starting place for your travel plans. Actual costs are dynamic, and your selection of accommodations and activities, your season of travel, and other such variables will bring this budget guideline up or down. Throughout your planning experience with your Zicasso specialist, your itinerary is designed around your budget. You can book your trip when you are satisfied with every detail. Planning your trip with a Zicasso travel specialist is a free service.
What's Included
The starting price is based on travel during the low season for a minimum of two travelers staying in shared 3-star accommodations. Please inquire for a custom trip quote based on your travel preferences and travel dates.
Verified Traveler Reviews
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Zicasso’s travel specialist and her team were fantastic. They were very responsive and quick to make changes when our arrival flight was delayed a day. The experiences were tremendous and the meeting times and contact points with various guides and drivers in several cities were well organized and seamless.
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It was the first time we’ve used a travel company and there’s no going back to doing the planning ourselves! Zicasso’s travel specialist designed a trip around our needs and preferences. We enjoyed excellent private tours, wonderful boutique and unique hotels, and many of his recommendations for restaurants and other things to explore. He went above and beyond to check in with us on how it was going, even arranging a takeaway breakfast for our early-morning flight!
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Zicasso’s travel partner created a beautiful trip for our family. It was a last-minute international trip and they planned everything for us, and responded to all our specific requests and changes with grace and patience. They pulled everything together so quickly. Their local knowledge and connections to the people and places that we wanted to go were incredible.
All our accommodations were incredible and the tours and tour guides were interesting and custom-built for our needs. The communication with them was clear, fast, and responsive. They were a great travel company and I highly recommend them.
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My husband, our two adult sons, and myself had the pleasure of going to Spain for 11 nights. We didn’t know much about the country, so we relied on Zicasso’s travel specialist to guide us. From the start, she explained the history, culture, food, etc.
We traveled to Madrid, Granada, Seville, Barcelona, and Costa Brava! We also took day trips to Toledo and Córdoba. We had excellent tour guides and drivers. Our trip flowed nicely, as we were on the go a lot of the time.
It was a trip of a lifetime for our family. We looked forward to the tapas, paellas, Jamón Ibérico, gazpacho, empanadas, rabo de toro, and, of course, the seafood every evening. The Spanish people were great and some we’ll never forget!
We learned so much about the ancient and early history, including the Roman conquest through the Medieval and early modern history. We were taking in this information all week, including the Prado Museum, the Picasso Museum, and the Dalí Theatre-Museum!
A simple family moment was sitting on our rooftop in Seville by the pool looking out at this beautiful city, which was difficult to leave!
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We visited Madrid, Toledo, San Sebastián, Bayonne, Biarritz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Hondarribia, La Rioja, Barcelona, Montserrat, and the Penedes (Cava) region.
We loved our private guides, private wine tastings, and day trips outside of the big cities.
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We had been planning a two-week trip to Spain for most of 2024, researching the different regions, the available transportation options, and the logistics of trying to fit everything we wanted to do and see into two weeks. Once we felt comfortable having an informed conversation, we contacted Zicasso. We had used them for a prior trip to Italy in 2021. We were provided with two quality companies to assist us with planning our trip. Both companies provided us with proposals and itineraries based on our interests.
We chose this Zicasso travel company and could not have been happier with their attention to detail, communication, and customer service. We originally were working with one representative and, over the summer, we received an email introducing our new travel consultant. She immediately contacted us to introduce herself and to let us know that she was there should we need anything before, during, or after the trip. We had a pre-trip video meeting with her to answer some minor logistics questions. Two weeks later, we landed in Spain.
All of the companies selected for our trip, from drivers, guides, and cooking instructors to wineries were fantastic! Travel is more than the things you see and do; it's also about the people you meet while traveling. We thoroughly enjoyed everyone we met. They made us feel welcome and tailored each experience to what we were interested in.
Since our travel consultant lives in Madrid and our final stop was there, we made plans to get together for a drink to discuss our experiences. As we were discussing the trip with her, we realized we were having a hard time picking just one experience, one guide, or one place that was our favorite in each city.
We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted from this trip to Barcelona, Granada, Córdoba, Seville, Ronda, Madrid, and Toledo. The travel company listened to our interests and took to heart what we hoped to get from the trip. They designed and executed a fantastic two-week itinerary based on our budget. We are already thinking about a trip to Northern Spain in the future and our first call will be to the same travel company.
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