Spain Day Tours??

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

On 12/27/2022 at 1:37 PM, Richbutnot said:

We are looking at SDTs for excursions in Alicante, Cartagena and Palma. Each tour requires a minimum of 14 people. Is it common for tours to be cancelled due to lack of participation? Do they give enough notice to book something else? I do not wish to recruit others for the excursion via the roll call.

I'm curious about that too. I'd prefer something concrete, but I know that's not always possible, especially when you're going to be the only ship in port, and it's a small one like those of Oceania, Azamara, etc.

[Coral]

On 12/27/2022 at 12:37 PM, Richbutnot said:

We are looking at SDTs for excursions in Alicante, Cartagena and Palma. Each tour requires a minimum of 14 people. Is it common for tours to be cancelled due to lack of participation? Do they give enough notice to book something else? I do not wish to recruit others for the excursion via the roll call.

They do not confirm the tour until it reaches the minimum requirements. On our ports, it was 10. Once they reach the magic number for the port - they confirm the tour and ask for payment arrangements.

 

Unfortunately, people can cancel up until 48 hours before.

 

I have had cruise line tours cancel on me due to low participation.

[TheCruisingBrewers]

Hey all I just found this tour company for our shore excursions in Spain and it sounds great. Just a quick question, are you able to just book two people into a tour or do you need to fill the bus with people on your sailing. I was not sure just looking at the website.

 

Has anyone used them to see Ronda? I saw that city on the Amazing Race and it looked wonderful. 

 

Thanks in advance….

 

Nancy

[wowzz]

On 1/6/2023 at 1:35 AM, TheCruisingBrewers said:

Hey all I just found this tour company for our shore excursions in Spain and it sounds great. Just a quick question, are you able to just book two people into a tour or do you need to fill the bus with people on your sailing. I was not sure just looking at the website.

 

Has anyone used them to see Ronda? I saw that city on the Amazing Race and it looked wonderful. 

 

Thanks in advance….

 

Nancy

You can book two people on a group tour, but the tour is not confirmed until SDT have 14 people booked. They will then ask you for payment. 

And yes, Ronda is amazing.

[Coral]

On 1/7/2023 at 7:28 AM, wowzz said:

You can book two people on a group tour, but the tour is not confirmed until SDT have 14 people booked. They will then ask you for payment. 

And yes, Ronda is amazing.

In November - 10 individuals was the magic number for the tour to be a go. Not sure if it depends on the port.

[wowzz]

24 minutes ago, Coral said:

In November - 10 individuals was the magic number for the tour to be a go. Not sure if it depends on the port.

I suppose it depends on the length of the tour as well.

[Coral]

4 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I suppose it depends on the length of the tour as well.

We had all day tours. I had 3 of them. All 3 great.

Edited January 8, 2023 by Coral

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, Coral said:

We had all day tours. I had 3 of them. All 3 great.

I'm just hoping enough people sign up.

[Coral]

6 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I'm just hoping enough people sign up.

In Lisbon - Princess only had Sintra or Lisbon, I wanted both (Spain Day tours had a combo tour). Not only that - both tours were full through the cruise line. I posted it on my roll call hoping to get the 10 and I got 50+ individuals signed up for the tour.

 

I hadn't planned on going with them for the two other ports. Though others on my roll call posted that they needed more individuals for the tour to be a go. I compared Princess's price with Spain Day tours and as I was thankful my tour went, I decided to help fellow travel mates and joined the other tours. Very thankful I did as the tours were outstanding.

 

I would post on your roll call and say "we need 4 more for this tour to go" or whatever the number is.

Edited January 8, 2023 by Coral

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, Coral said:

I would post on your roll call and say "we need 4 more for this tour to go" or whatever the number is.

Yup, I've done that. Unfortunately the majority of the  cruisers are Brits, and they do not know about CC or roll calls !

[Coral]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

Yup, I've done that. Unfortunately the majority of the  cruisers are Brits, and they do not know about CC or roll calls !

Sorry!!!

[terrydtx]

We just booked a private all-day tour in Lisbon for just the 4 of us in our group on the Celebrity Apex. The cost pp is half of what Celebrity Shore excursions wanted for a similar group booking in a bus. We also get to set our own itinerary and lunch stops. From what I have read here I think we made a wise choice. With a private tour we also do not have to worry about if SPD get a full bus to go on the tour. 

[terrydtx]

On 12/27/2022 at 12:37 PM, Richbutnot said:

We are looking at SDTs for excursions in Alicante, Cartagena and Palma. Each tour requires a minimum of 14 people. Is it common for tours to be cancelled due to lack of participation? Do they give enough notice to book something else? I do not wish to recruit others for the excursion via the roll call.

Did you look at what they charge for a private tour vs the 14 passenger group tour? See my post #162 about our private Lisbon tour. That tour was less than the Celebrity group tour.

[Coral]

On 12/21/2022 at 5:12 PM, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Hi.  Just wanted to ask you:  Do you remember about how much time you had at Pena Palace?  That's the primary thing I want to see in/around Sintra.  But I want to go up to it for pictures, not just stay in the garden.  And someone mentioned that in one Sintra tour, the guide convinced the group to tour the gardens due to crowds inside the palace.  I don't know whose excursion that was, but just wanted to make sure that if Spain Day Tours says we'll enter the palace, we will.  I do understand that there's an extra cost for the tram and palace, which is OK. Thanks for any info you can give me.  And by chance, you didn't see any lighthouses in Estoril, did you?  And did you have time for drive throughs in Lisbon when you got back to the city?

I don't know if this is answered or not. 

 

We spent the majority of our time in Pena Palace (touring inside and outside). We did not see the garden but it was November. Everyone in our group paid the extra money for the palace and the tram so it seemed seamless for all of us to go. Our guide did tell us that the crowds we were experience were considerably less than the summer and we thought it was pretty crowded.

 

We barely saw Estoril - I like lighthouses and did not see any.

 

We spent quite a bit of time in Lisbon. They took us to the popular exterior sites and then to the shopping area near Terrier de Paco. 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Coral

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

On 1/11/2023 at 12:22 PM, terrydtx said:

We just booked a private all-day tour in Lisbon for just the 4 of us in our group on the Celebrity Apex. The cost pp is half of what Celebrity Shore excursions wanted for a similar group booking in a bus. We also get to set our own itinerary and lunch stops. From what I have read here I think we made a wise choice. With a private tour we also do not have to worry about if SPD get a full bus to go on the tour. 

I don't know if we're prohibited from posting the name of a tour company on here unless we've actually taken the tour.  But if that's not correct, or if there's some other way to let me know who the vendor company was, or how to contact them, I'd be interested in hearing about it. 

[terrydtx]

2 minutes ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

I don't know if we're prohibited from posting the name of a tour company on here unless we've actually taken the tour.  But if that's not correct, or if there's some other way to let me know who the vendor company was, or how to contact them, I'd be interested in hearing about it. 

The title of this thread, Spain Day Tours, that is the vendor. www.SpainDayTours.com

[mevs904]

We will be In Barcelona for 3 nights in April following our Princess cruise.  The Barcelona/Montserrat tour looks very interesting, but there seems to be a lot in the itinerary and I was wondering how much ability there was to get out and walk around and how many of the sites were just drive bys.  I’ve been very impressed with the preponderance of positive posts about this company and was wondering if anyone has had a fairly recent experience with their Barcelona tours.  I did see one mention of this tour, but it was about 5 years old.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[PacnGoNow]

7 hours ago, mevs904 said:

We will be In Barcelona for 3 nights in April following our Princess cruise.  The Barcelona/Montserrat tour looks very interesting, but there seems to be a lot in the itinerary and I was wondering how much ability there was to get out and walk around and how many of the sites were just drive bys.  I’ve been very impressed with the preponderance of positive posts about this company and was wondering if anyone has had a fairly recent experience with their Barcelona tours.  I did see one mention of this tour, but it was about 5 years old.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Montserrat is a great tour.  SDT is our favorite tour company.  We’ve done several tours with them in Spain and had great guides and itineraries.  We really liked this tour, as we had time there to explore a little, walk around on our own.  
The guide gave us the background history and then we explored a little. 

You don’t need a guide here to take you around. 

It was a great tour and I’d go again in a heartbeat. Spain Day Tours also known as Barcelona Day Tours is a very reputable company and very helpful.

 

I’ve booked tours with them in Portugal and Spain.

 

 

 

 

[mevs904]

Thank you PacnGoNow.  I appreciate your response. Yes, Montserrat looks very inviting and we are tempted to book this tour.  We suspect that the ride to and from Montserrat will probably at least an hour each way,  so we were wondering if most of the sites in Barcelona proper were more like drivebys.  It’s advertised as a full day tour so we wonder how much of it is in the car and what the arrangements for lunch are.  I guess our next step would be to email them directly.

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, mevs904 said:

Thank you PacnGoNow.  I appreciate your response. Yes, Montserrat looks very inviting and we are tempted to book this tour.  We suspect that the ride to and from Montserrat will probably at least an hour each way,  so we were wondering if most of the sites in Barcelona proper were more like drivebys.  It’s advertised as a full day tour so we wonder how much of it is in the car and what the arrangements for lunch are.  I guess our next step would be to email them directly.

Yes, they are very responsive.  They cover the major sights in BCN and many you get out and get the history. BCN has so many sights that you need to see.  Ask them how long in each sight and the details.

 

Not enough time to do everything.  It gives you a great feel for the city attractions and of course, the star here is Montserrat.

 

We also did a city full tour with them. We loved spending time and a tour of the inside of Park Guell.  So cool.  Sagrada Familia is also on the city tour and if you want to see the inside, tell them. You can do that at the end of the tour and grab a taxi back to your hotel.  So many choices.

 

.

 

 

[mevs904]

Thanks again, PacnGoNow.  We will almost certainly book one or both of these tours.  Any restaurant recommendations for Barcelona?

[PacnGoNow]

8 minutes ago, mevs904 said:

Thanks again, PacnGoNow.  We will almost certainly book one or both of these tours.  Any restaurant recommendations for Barcelona?

That’s so subjective.  We always asked for local restaurants near where we stayed and really enjoyed them.  Also our SDT guide suggested a great place for seafood.  Could never remember the name.  We did tapas bars and there are so many. Again, lean on your

hotel to suggest restaurants.  

[mevs904]

Thank you.  Will do!

[lisabdh1]

Highly recommend SDT. Just did 3 tours with them last week. Tenerife, Malaga to Granada and Cadiz to Seville. Great communication - sometimes took a day or two to respond but they are super busy. Emilia is awesome and made it quite easy to organize. I had 20-30 people on each tour - the key is to advertise repeatedly on your roll call and other social media sights. The pick ups and drop offs were timely, no worries whatsoever about missing the boat. Guides were friendly and informative. It was amazing and everyone is raving about the tours! Definitely will use them again for our cruise next year!

[cookie384]

Highly recommend Spain Day Tours.  Their communication is excellent and their tour fantastic.  We did a full day tour of the Alhambra from Malaga. 

 

Catherine