Madrid, Spain Tour
9-Day Madrid Pickleball Trips
TRIP LOCATION:
Madrid, Spain
Includes day trips to:
Toledo
Segovia
El Escorial
TRIP DATES:
June 6 – 14, 2024
September 2 – 10, 2024
TRIP PRICE:
Starting at $3,650
Pricing and Payment:
- Double Room – $3,650 (per person when sharing a room)
- Single Room – $4,350 (solo traveler with private room)
- Tour Deposit – You can make a 20% initial deposit to reserve a spot on the tour. The initial deposit will be deducted from your grand total (listed above).
- Final Payment – After placing your initial deposit, your full payment is due two months prior to the trip dates.
- Currency – All prices are in United States dollars (USD)
Cancellation Policy (% of trip price per person that is non-refundable):
- 91 + Days prior to arrival – Non-refundable portion of the deposit ($200)
- 61 – 90 Days prior to arrival – 30% of the Total Price
- 31 – 60 Days prior to arrival – 60% of the Total Price
- 0 – 31 Days prior to arrival – 100% of the Total Price
Travel Insurance:
We strongly encourage all travelers to invest in travel insurance to both minimize your financial risks of traveling and provide you with peace of mind to fully enjoy the your trip. Travel insurance can provide many helpful resources including refunds or assistance for any of the following situations that may arise before or during a trip:
- You need to cancel your participation on the tour
- You need to cancel or change a flight
- Lost baggage during the trip
- Stolen items during the trip
- Medical costs during the trip
If you would like to compare policies here are two well-known travel insurance providers to consider: Travelex Travel Insurance and Travel Guard. You can also use InsureMyTrip.com to compare multiple companies’ plans.
Pickleball Tour Details
What's Included:
- 8 nights in a handpicked 4 or 5-star hotel
- Access to pickleball courts and locker room facilities
- Pickleball instruction and participation in all organized pickleball activity
- Transportation to and from the pickleball sports center (pickleball courts)
- Buffet breakfast every morning
- 4 gourmet dinners
- Private deluxe motor coach for day trip excursions
- Day trip to Segovia & El Escorial
- Day trip to Toledo
- Professionally guided tours in each city we visit
- Guided tours of the museums and other historical sites (palaces, cathedrals, mosques)
- Bilingual tour director
- Flamenco performance
- “Bienvenido” welcome reception
- “Hasta Luego Fiesta” farewell dinner and party
What's Not Included:
- Airfare, lunches, half your dinners, tips, drinks, personal spending
Where we're going!
The Madrid pickleball trip is based in the city of Madrid, capital city of Spain. This is an ideal location for a pickleball vacation because of its warm weather, rich culture and history, gastronomy, music, art, festive atmosphere, and its friendly people.
Madrid will be our home base for the pickleball trip. Spain’s capital city is a dynamic and historical metropolis that never sleeps. From Madrid we’ll take three incredible day trips, always returning to sleep at our hotel in Madrid . On our day trips we’ll take guided tours of the following cities: medieval Toledo – the former capital city of Spain, Segovia (UNESCO World Heritage Site), and El Escorial, (UNESCO World Heritage Site).
Pickleball is scheduled for at least every other day throughout the tour, and includes both pickleball instruction as well as open play and competition with the locals. Fortunately pickleball continues to grow throughout Spain, offering a unique opportunity to play with the Spaniards on your pickleball vacation.
Brief Itinerary Madrid Tour
Day 1: Madrid Arrive to hotel, optional pickleball and reception
Day 2: Madrid Morning pickleball, walking tour of “Old Madrid” and welcome dinner
Day 3: Toledo Day-trip to Toledo in luxury coach, dinner in Madrid
Day 4: Madrid Morning pickleball, afternoon free, dinner and Flamenco show
Day 5: Madrid Morning pickleball, tour of the Royal Palace
Day 6: Segovia & El Escorial Day-trip to Segovia and El Escorial in luxury coach
Day 7: Madrid Morning pickleball, afternoon free, dinner on your own
Day 8: Madrid Morning pickleball, afternoon free, “Hasta Luego Fiesta” farewell dinner
Day 9: Madrid Departures, arrive same day to US or Canada
Full Itinerary Madrid Tour
Day 1 – Welcome to Madrid!
- Morning: Arrival to Madrid-Barajas International Airport. A transfer is included from the airport to the hotel in the heart of the city, near the Prado museum and the great fountain of Neptune. You can relax at the hotel and nearby cafés or stroll along the tree-lined boulevards just outside of the hotel to begin to get to know this picturesque and vibrant city.
- Lunch: On your own
- Afternoon: Pickleball courts will be available for optional afternoon play. Later, we will get together for a warm and friendly “Bienvenido” Welcome Reception at the hotel.
- Dinner: On your own
Day 2 – Tour of Madrid
- Breakfast: At the hotel restaurant
- Morning: We leave for the pickleball courts at 9:00 and play from 9:30 to 12:30. Showers and lockers available at the courts.
- Lunch: On your own at the hotel or one of many local restaurants nearby.
- Afternoon: We explore Madrid by foot with a guided walking tour of “Old Madrid”. We stroll through the city’s historic center to visit Puerta del Sol, San Miguel Market, and Plaza Mayor, where events have been held since the 17th We complete our walking tour in “Plaza Santa Ana”, a lively historical square housing one of Madrid’s most famous theaters along with a wide range of restaurants and “tapas bars” to choose from – and only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. Along the way back to the hotel you can enjoy some of Madrid’s major sights and avenues illuminated at night.
- Dinner: We will get together for a “Bienvenido” Welcome Dinner in a restaurant 5 minutes away from our hotel.
Day 3 – The Old Capital of Toledo
- Breakfast: At the hotel restaurant
- Morning: After breakfast we head south on a one-hour luxury coach ride to the medieval city of Toledo, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the capital of medieval Spain until 1560. We take a guided walking tour through the cobbled streets and admire the city’s well-preserved medieval architecture and burnished steel swords which have been crafted here for centuries. You’ll get a first-hand experience of the co-existence of the three cultures, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, through our visits to the Cathedral, the Sephardic Jewish Museum and the Santo Tomé Church, housing El Greco’s famous painting, ‘The Burial of the Count of Orgaz’. During the tour, hear about the work of baroque artist El Greco in Toledo and see examples of Toledo’s signature Damasquinado metalwork, delicately etched with gold.
- Lunch: On your own at a local restaurant. We’ll suggest several options so you can savor the Toledean fare.
- Afternoon: Free time to shop and enjoy the winding streets and varied sites on your own. Return to Madrid in the evening.
- Dinner: On your own
Day 4 – Madrid – Flamenco Dinner Show
- Breakfast: At the hotel restaurant
- Morning: We leave for the pickleball courts at 9:00 and play from 9:30 to 12:30.
- Lunch: On your own
- Afternoon: At your leisure to explore more of Madrid, shop, or just relax in a centuries-old square to absorb the charm of this city and its people.
- Dinner: Tables are reserved for dinner and a fiery evening of Spanish dance and music! Get ready for throbbing guitars, lamenting solos, colorful dancers and the emotional, rhythmic stomp of flamenco.
Day 5 – Madrid – The Royal Palace
- Breakfast: At the hotel restaurant
- Morning: We leave for the pickleball courts at 9:00 and play from 9:30 to 12:30.
- Lunch: On your own
- Afternoon: Get a taste of Spanish Royalty as we take a guided tour of the grand Palacio Real, or Royal Palace, which for centuries has been the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family. Even though the current King, Felipe, lives in the humbler Palacio de la Zarzuela, the monumental 18th century Royal Palace is still used for ceremonial events. It took 26 years to build the palace and there are approximately 2,800 rooms of which only 50 are accessible to the public. Our guided tour reveals lavish halls, banquet rooms, the throne room, royal armory, luxurious tapestries, the impressive courtyard and a showcase of architectural styles. The Palacio Real is renowned for its collection of classic Spanish art and boasts many paintings from Velasquez, Goya and Caravaggio. It’s an enlightening look into the life of the Spanish Royal Family of past centuries.
- Dinner: On your own
Day 6 – El Escorial and Segovia
- Breakfast: At the hotel restaurant
- Morning: After breakfast we drive 40 miles north to the imposing El Escorial where we enjoy a guided tour of the 16th-century architectural masterpiece completed in 1584 as a residence for the King of Spain and a monastery for the Hieronymite monks. Conceived by King Philip II and designed at the height of Spain’s international power, the structure’s floor plan was actually inspired by descriptions of the Temple of Solomon. Set at the foot of Mount Abantos, the enormous gray-granite complex is the resting place of 500 years of Spanish kings. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is the most important architectural monument of the Spanish Renaissance.
- Lunch: After our tour we drive 40-minutes to the city of Segovia for lunch together where we’ll enjoy Segovian specialties such as the roast suckling pig.
- Afternoon: After lunch we’ll explore Segovia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on a guided walking tour. Straddling the city, the remarkable Roman aqueduct is one of the largest in Europe – an engineering masterpiece constructed without the use of mortar and still standing today. See the outstanding Romanesque exteriors of San Martin, San Millan and San Esteban as well as the circular Templar church of La Vera Cruz. We stroll through the charming, narrow streets of the old Jewish Quarter before visiting the Plaza Mayor, a picturesque square surrounded by many of Segovia’s most important buildings, including its Gothic Cathedral, an imposing 16th-century church. The last stop on your tour is the Alcazar, a skyline-dominating, hill-top castle whose romantic design was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle.
- Evening: We continue our journey by coach for a late evening arrival in Madrid.
- Dinner: On your own; we’ll provide you with many suggestions for enjoying the local fare.
Day 7 – Madrid
- Breakfast: At the hotel restaurant
- Morning: We leave for the pickleball courts at 9:00 and play from 9:30 to 12:30.
- Lunch: On your own
- Afternoon: On your own to explore, shop, or visit any of the city’s many attractions that may have caught your eye throughout the tour.
- Dinner: Dinner on your own
Day 8 – Madrid – “Hasta Luego Fiesta” and Farewell Dinner
- Breakfast: At the hotel restaurant
- Morning: We leave for the pickleball courts at 9:00 and play from 9:30 to 12:30.
- Lunch: On your own
- Afternoon: On your own to explore, shop, or visit any of the city’s many attractions that may have caught your eye throughout the tour.
- Dinner: We get together for the lively “Hasta Luego Fiesta” celebration and farewell dinner.
Day 9 – Madrid – Departure Flights
- Breakfast: At the hotel restaurant
- Morning: After breakfast, bus transfer to the airport for departure flights. Arrive same day to US or Canada.
Important information about the itinerary: Circumstances beyond our control may require us to adjust itineraries or other details. We regret any inconvenience this may cause and will make every effort to provide equally appealing alternatives when adjustments need to be made. We appreciate your understanding.
