vjb

The last couple of episodes Diamond Princess and Niew Statendam have been disappointing.  They concentrate too much on the captain and below deck.  Niew Statendam is a new ship and I would be more interested in seeing more of the public rooms, entertainment and activities.  The same with the Diamond Princess too much time spend on the bridge and engine room

We really like to travel independently. When you travel with 30 people you're only a fast as your slowest passenger. It's also not as personal as we like our tours to be. I am going to try using a British gentleman - Peter at Seville Concierge. He is going to meet us at the train station and give the 4 of us a tour for 100 EU He has received very good reviews on trip advisor and has been very prompt in responding to e-mails. Very easy to deal with. It's a very reasonable price for a tour that will be approximately 6 hours.:)

Thank you. cberge. we've made arrangements with a tour guide to meet us in Seville

I don't know what your budget is but we found prices for hotels in Rio to be extremely expensive when we were researching for our trip.

We managed to get a very good price for the Arena $251.65 per night. It's a 4* hotel right across from Copacabana beach and on trip advisor it's rated among the top hotels in Rio. Read the reviews. Bear in mind that in south America their standards and ratings are often not as high as North Americans are used to. We also feel somewhat safer in Rio staying in a somewhat better area of town. The rate of $251.65 includes a full breakfast. It's more than we would generally spend on a room but I like the location and looks of the hotel.:) We booked it through Expedia but check out other sights to see what offers the best rate.

We did check Spain Tours. They were very nice and pleasant to deal with but we have decided that we really want a tour with just the 4 of us so we're going to take the train into Seville and a tour guide will meet us at the train station with a tour for just the 4 of us - 100 EU for 4

:)We're going to take a tour once we get to Seville. We really wanted to do a tour with just the 4 of us.

Large groups aren't really our thing.

Thank you for your suggestion

We're going to be in Cadiz on Nov. 5 and are looking for a good tour guide. So far the quotes that I've received for a party of 4 have been very expensive.