Spain Day Tours??

[blomo]

On 1/6/2023 at 2:35 AM, TheCruisingBrewers said:

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

We just came back from the Spain Day tour of Ronda and Mijas. You have free time to explore both of these places. We had an excellent escort, Debbie, who suggested places to see and made sure we all got back to the meeting place. She even arranged a taxi for a group of us who couldn’t face the uphill walk back. 
Spain Day was excellent at answering my many questions. I recommend them most highly!! Malaga to Ronda and Mijas- Spain Day Tours. 

[Tom Crews]

Spain Day Tours 5 stars * * * * *

 

I recently took two separate tours with Spain Day tours.  This company was very highly recommended on the cruise critic blogs.   One was from the Port of Cadiz where we went to the Alcazar Palace in Seville.  Second tour was from the Port of Malaga where we went to see the Alhambra Palace in Grenada.  

 

Both tours were extremely well organized.  We received a very detailed listing from Spain Tours detailing what we would see, what would happen next, what to bring etc.

 

A frequent problem arranging private tours that are not through the cruise line is that the tour operators and buses are difficult to find and it may take 45 minutes to round up everybody and get the tour going.

Not so with Spain Tours.  They gave extremely detailed instructions of where they would be right outside the gate of the cruise terminal, they were there on time with clearly Mark signs exactly as they promised to be and both tours went like clockwork.

 

We left on time.  We got back to the cruise ship in plenty of time.  They build in a bit of a cushion so in case they were to have a flat tire they would guarantee you made it back to the cruise ship.  His company is extremely professional and the guys are absolutely first rate.

 

 I've been on almost 20 cruises and used probably 40 different private tour companies and Spain tours is absolutely number one.  The prices are very reasonable and the quality of the tours are excellent.

 

You can book with confidence. There stellar reputation is well-earned and they deliver on what they promise.

 

John and Lisa C
Tampa, Florida
Sailing on Celebrity Cruise lines

[terrydtx]

We have 4 tours booked with SDT on our Apex cruise in September. All are small, under 14 people and less in cost than similar ones offered by Celebrity. In Lisbon we booked with them a private car for 4 of us to do a 7 hour tour with a stop at a Port wine tasting room for only 109 euros per person. Celebrity offered similar tour in a big bus for almost $200pp. All of our tours do not include lunches, which we prefer, but allow us to choose the time and place for lunches on our own. Our other ports we have booked with them include Cadiz, Cartegena and Mallorca. After our experiences last year in Italy and Greece, we no longer will book any cruise line shore excursions. We paid a premium for most of them and the ones that included lunches were too late in the afternoon (2-3pm) with below average food. I suggest for Spain and Portugal anyone look at SDT and elsewhere do a little research and find 3rd party shore tours on your own.

Edited May 2, 2023 by terrydtx

[Barley928]

Spain Day Toursv is the best company out there.  Every tour is fantastic.  From first inquiry the communication is to notch.  I cannot praise then enough 

[Host Bonjour]

On 1/15/2023 at 2:39 PM, 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.

 

This is correct, and thanks so much for keeping Cruise Community guidelines in mind. 🙂

 

Community members are able to mention a tour company name in response to an inquiry from a member if they have taken a tour/used the company's services.

 

If a tour has been booked, but not yet experienced, please refrain from posting a recommendation until after you have completed the tour. 

 

While we realize that pleasant booking experiences add to the satisfaction of an excursion, it's information that is very helpful and worth including in a comprehensive review (which we L♥️VE) posted upon returning home.

 

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Colleen

[May B]

On 5/4/2023 at 4:46 PM, Host Bonjour said:

 

 

One important reminder: please do not post your private email addresses in public posts, to protect your privacy and online safety/security. Please utilize the private message feature on this forum instead. 

 

Colleen

I did not think private messaging has been activated. Please advise.

[grimpil]

We did a post cruise tour in Barcelona with Monserrat  (April) with SDT and it was amazing. Marta was our guide and her narration was clear, interesting and entertaining. I really feel like we saw all the best things possible in one day. Timing and meeting places were clearly presented and everyone was on time at every stop. The van was very comfortable and the driver was excellent. (the road going up to Monserrat was an experience)

[Coral]

On 5/4/2023 at 1:46 PM, Host Bonjour said:

 

 

 

One important reminder: please do not post your private email addresses in public posts, to protect your privacy and online safety/security. Please utilize the private message feature on this forum instead. 

 

And thanks everyone for all of your incredible contributions to the Cruise Critic community: you are the excellence!

 

Colleen

I agree - I don't think private messaging is enabled for most posters on CC. Please let us know.

[bermuda_fm]

Well let me tell you Spain Day tours was the best!!  Had such a good time on both Valencia and Alhambra tours, way better than what I heard from fellow passengers who took ship tours.  When I come back to Spain again with friends later this year and in 2024  will def book with them again.

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by bermuda_fm
Sp

[terrydtx]

24 minutes ago, bermuda_fm said:

Well let me tell you Spain Day tours was the best!!  Had such a good time on both Valencia and Alhambra tours, way better than what I heard from fellow passengers who took ship tours.  When I come back to Spain again with friends later this year and in 2024  will def book with them again.

 

Great to know, we are using them for our September Celebrity Apex cruise in Lisbon and Spain. On this cruise we are doing all private tours for all ports, so tired of being ripped off by the cruise companies and stuck on big crowded busses. Our private 7 hour long Lisbon Tour for just the 4 in our group with SDT cost us $125pp, a similar one with Celebrity in a big bus cost $189pp.

 

Last year on two cruises in Italy and Greece we did a mixture of ship and private tours and every private tour was way better than the ship's tours. One thing we learned was to not book any tours that include lunch, the couple of ship tours we did last year did lunches late in the afternoon at places we would not have chosen on our own. SDT will let our group chose our lunch times and we can choose our places to eat, but they will help with recommendations for locations. 

[Ayres]

We used Spain Day Tours on our rrecent cruise to visit Santiago De Compostela from the port of La Coruna. They were marvellous especially as our ship's arrival and departure times changed.

Our guide Fernando was friendly & knowledgeable about the area. He guided us through Santiago and even showed us the highlights of La Courna on the way back to the ship. 

The transportation was clean & comfortable with plenty of room for our group of 12.

I would highly recommend Spain Day Tours

 

 

[Chatman]

Just completed a 9 dat cruise on Celebrity Infinity to Spain and Portugal. Used Spain Day Tours in Barcelona, Majorca, Malaga, Valencia and Cadiz. All of them were really excellent. Comfortable transportation, knowledgeable guides and well worth the money. Would definitely book them again.

[terrydtx]

We also like SDT, but they have been super slow on sending email confirmations for paid tours. We paid for our September Apex tour on May 18 and saw the payment on our CC but 10 days later we are still waiting for the confirmation. They need to be more prompt with confirmations.

[Dancepheeb]

we did and they were great 

 

[M&Gtravelfans]

We have used Spain Day Tours on two separate cruises that included ports in Portugal and Spain.  We were beyond happy with this company.  All the tours were great and small groups, which we love. The tours go to the greatest place at each port. The guides all were great and so was the transportation.  As in all port cities in Europe there is a lot of walking on uneven surfaces and lots of walking which we were made aware of when we booked the tours. They get you back in plenty of time for departure.

 

I highly recommend Spain Day Tours. They respond quickly and the price for all the tours we have taken are great. Much, much less than the cruise ships shore excursions and not large groups.

 

[Lisajs]

We had a fabulous experience with Spain Day Tours in Balboa Spain.  First the group was no bigger than 20 people; which compared to the tours we did with our cruise ship was much smaller.  The bus was in prefect condition and waiting for us just as explained in the email from Spain Day Tours.  The best part was our guide.  I wish I could recall his name!   He was very knowledgeable about all thing Balboa.  His personality was was easy going and fun. His English was perfect and he was great at speaking loud enough for us all to hear. We were also timely getting back to our ship in plenty of time.  I will use Spain Day Tours whenever I am luck enough to find myself in Spain again!

[HEARTCC]

We used Spain Day Tours when we did a transatlantic cruise from NYC to Civitavecchia last April. Their guides in Lisbon, Cadiz, Malaga and Barcelona were on time for pickup from and return to the port. The semi private groups were smaller than the ship’s shore excursion group and the cost of the tours was a lot cheaper. I like that the company assured us that we’ll get back to the ship on time and that they’ll take take us to the next port if we’re late. It also promised to issue a refund if the ship cancels the port.  However tickets for visits to the Alhambra in Granada, Royal Alcazar in Sevilla and Sagrada Familia in Barcelona are not refundable. Our cruise was originally for 2020 and we arranged these tours for then, so we got refunded for the tours but not the tickets when the 2020 cruise was cancelled. Spain Day Tours was very fast with the refunds and communication with them in English was not a problem. We will happily book with them again and highly recommended them.

[SoBaycruiser]

On 5/2/2023 at 8:00 AM, Tom Crews said:

Spain Day Tours 5 stars * * * * *

 

I recently took two separate tours with Spain Day tours.  This company was very highly recommended on the cruise critic blogs.   One was from the Port of Cadiz where we went to the Alcazar Palace in Seville.  Second tour was from the Port of Malaga where we went to see the Alhambra Palace in Grenada.  

 

Both tours were extremely well organized.  We received a very detailed listing from Spain Tours detailing what we would see, what would happen next, what to bring etc.

 

A frequent problem arranging private tours that are not through the cruise line is that the tour operators and buses are difficult to find and it may take 45 minutes to round up everybody and get the tour going.

Not so with Spain Tours.  They gave extremely detailed instructions of where they would be right outside the gate of the cruise terminal, they were there on time with clearly Mark signs exactly as they promised to be and both tours went like clockwork.

 

We left on time.  We got back to the cruise ship in plenty of time.  They build in a bit of a cushion so in case they were to have a flat tire they would guarantee you made it back to the cruise ship.  His company is extremely professional and the guys are absolutely first rate.

 

 I've been on almost 20 cruises and used probably 40 different private tour companies and Spain tours is absolutely number one.  The prices are very reasonable and the quality of the tours are excellent.

 

You can book with confidence. There stellar reputation is well-earned and they deliver on what they promise.

 

John and Lisa C
Tampa, Florida
Sailing on Celebrity Cruise lines

We have the Alhambra trip booked with SDT in Malaga and our ship will dock in Seville within walking distance of the Alcazar Palace.    I know they are both on everyone’s top 10 list.   Will the Alcazar just be more of the same or is it worth seeing both?

[HEARTCC]

Alhambra should NOT be missed!

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

I tried to book something with SDT for our cruise last month.  However, they did not get the minimum for the tour to be a go, so I had to make other plans.  However, I was kind of expecting that, as it was early in the season, my Roll Call wasn't very active, our ship was there a little bit later than was probably ideal, and the ship only held 650 cruise passengers.  But at least SDT notified us in time to look for something else.  (I ended up taking a ship's excursion.)

 

I haven't been to the Alcazar in Seville.  But if I were cruising on a ship that goes all the way up (down?) to Seville (Oceania?), I would likely just pass on the Alcazar and do some other things in Seville.  For something different, we once went to the "mushrooms" in Seville (forget what it's called - modern art installation).  And for something more traditional, we really enjoyed the Plaza de Espanya. So I vote for the Alhambra but not rush to the Alcazar.

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by IWantToLiveOverTheSea

[Aus Traveller]

On 5/7/2023 at 9:48 PM, grimpil said:

We did a post cruise tour in Barcelona with Monserrat  (April) with SDT and it was amazing. Marta was our guide and her narration was clear, interesting and entertaining. I really feel like we saw all the best things possible in one day. Timing and meeting places were clearly presented and everyone was on time at every stop. The van was very comfortable and the driver was excellent. (the road going up to Monserrat was an experience)

We probably did the same tour - Montserrat and also Barcelona where we had a city drive and toured Park Guell and the Sagrada Familia. I have a large group (35) in three 12-seat vans (very comfortable). Marta was the guide in my van and she was excellent. The tour was great and the company was easy to deal with.

[Cruisingmarmi]

On 12/4/2022 at 7:24 PM, mchell810 said:

I have recommended SDT several times on these board and have had mostly positive experiences with them; nevertheless,  I feel I need to post about the mixed service I received last month especially  bc when I gave this feedback SDT offered me a discount on a future tour and asked me directly not to post my experience on social media.  That act seemed like a red flag to me:  I can't help but wonder how many other less-than-stellar reviews have been suppressed in this manner. Overall we were happy with our tours; however, there were some hiccups. 

 

For our Barcelona City tour the driver guide was knowledgeable and friendly.  I was disappointed in that he didn't bring us directly to the entrance for Sagrada Familia -- as had been promised.  As a result, we had to find the right line on our own through the crowds. 

 

We had planned another tour with SDT to Monserrat, but we never met the numbers for a small group.  The SDT rep offered us a private tour (for twice the price) which we turned down.  Then, just 2 days later he suddenly said he had another couple interested so the small group tour was back on, so I cancelled the booking I had made with the cruise line.  Just one week later -- 2 days before our tour -- the rep emailed to say the other couple dropped out and he could only do the tour as a private tour at that higher price.  Yes, it's possible the other couple dropped out, but it all felt too coincidental to me.  I refused the private tour (again) and luckily was able to book the tour with the cruise line as soon as we boarded. 

 

Finally, we had a private tour from Seville to Cordoba.  For this, we had excellent service from SDT.  The driver waited patiently when our ship was late in docking; his car was immaculate and the ride to/from Cordoba was very smooth.  Once in Cordoba the guide was very pleasant and knowledgeable.  He made a point of ensuring we visited all the things I had mentioned when organizing the tour.  This day was everything we wanted; SDT delivered beautifully.

 

Bottom line: I still recommend SDT, but I would NOT say they are flawless.  When setting up tours for this trip I only looked at SDT, next time I am in Spain I am likely to explore what other companies have to offer as well.

 

Do you get out of the vehicle on the Barcelona City Tour a lot, or is it a lot of 'drive by' sight seeing? I like to be able to see and take pictures, which is hard to do through a window. 

[mchell810]

5 hours ago, Cruisingmarmi said:

Do you get out of the vehicle on the Barcelona City Tour a lot, or is it a lot of 'drive by' sight seeing? I like to be able to see and take pictures, which is hard to do through a window. 

 

Yes, we did get out of the car for the city tour.  There was a viewing point up near the stadium and other stops were we could get out including Park Park Guell. 

[Cruisingmarmi]

26 minutes ago, mchell810 said:

 

Yes, we did get out of the car for the city tour.  There was a viewing point up near the stadium and other stops were we could get out including Park Park Guell. 

Thanks! 

[klfrodo]

On 6/9/2023 at 8:29 AM, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

I tried to book something with SDT for our cruise last month.  However, they did not get the minimum for the tour to be a go, so I had to make other plans.  However, I was kind of expecting that, as it was early in the season, my Roll Call wasn't very active, our ship was there a little bit later than was probably ideal, and the ship only held 650 cruise passengers.  But at least SDT notified us in time to look for something else.  (I ended up taking a ship's excursion.)

 

 

This experience is what I'm anticipating.

My question is, how long before you ships scheduled departure did SDT notify you that they were not going to be able to meet the minimum required? I'm sitting at 47 days. I have e-mailed them and asked a general question or two and their response was cordial but not definitive.