A motorcycle tour of Barcelona was an adventurous trip highlight. Photo: Traveler Laura McCann

Traveled July 31-August 15th
We wanted to take an epic family trip to somewhere we all had never been. Since the youngest just graduated college, we figured it’s now or never to travel as a whole family. I am an artist and always wanted to see the museums of Spain, specifically the Prado. However, we didn’t want to just sight-see and eat our way through Spain. My husband and I love to hike, so we tossed around the idea walking on the Camino de Santiago. The girls begrudgingly agreed, so we configured a trip with 2 big cities on either side of a more rugged, hiking adventure.

Juan was great about listening to what we liked to do, keeping the girls in mind—making compromises with not “too much” hiking or “too many” museums, with fun adventures like a motorcycle tour through Barcelona and a paella-making class with a private chef.

We have never really travelled with guides and were a bit leery of it. However, all of the guides we had were fabulous! Great people and super knowledgeable about their subject. We had a few of them more than once, and we looked forward to seeing them because they were so enjoyable to be around. They also were accommodating to our needs if we wanted to switch something up a bit.

We were booked into gorgeous hotels when possible: in Madrid, The Urso; in Santiago, The NH Collection; and in Barcelona, The One. All beautiful hotels in great locations with great breakfasts. The hotels on the trail were booked more for convenience of where they landed, taking into consideration the miles we needed to walk. What you would expect in a rural town. Small and clean and just fine. Nothing fancy.

All in all, an epic vacation that we will all remember forever as pretty near perfect.
Stand-outs for me were The Prado Museum, The Reina Sophia Museum of Modern Art, and just walking around Madrid, which is gorgeous! The train ride to Santiago and walking through Galicia to get back to Santiago, where we stayed for an extra day on Juan’s recommendation to just take in the gorgeous medieval city that it is. Then a short flight to Barcelona and the motorcycle tour, The Picasso Museum, The Gaudi tour, paella-making, Montserrat, and the Joan Miró museum. So much crammed into 2 weeks. The girls were worn out, but better than sitting on their devices half the day.

Would definitely recommend Juan and Marta for a trip to Spain.

My family (me, my wife and 2 daughters, ages 9 and 11) used Juan’s company to help plan a 10-day trip to Spain in June, 2025. We spent 5 days in Madrid and then 5 days in Mallorca. We LOVED our trip. For both parts of the trip we had the team arrange our transfers to and from the airport as well as serve as our primary source of transportation on Mallorca. Their drivers were excellent: kind, courteous, and professional.

Juan helped tailor our Mallorca visit perfectly. He helped us find a family-friendly resort with a beach, pool, and free buffet breakfast. The best parts of Mallorca were our 3-day excursions also put together by Juan’s team. We had a private tour of Palma and Sóller the first 2 days. These were highlighted by an incredibly knowledgeable and experienced guide, Inma. She educated us on the history, traditions, and the architecture of the island. Our third day trip, however, was our highlight. We rented a boat with a captain and spent 8 hours exploring the coves around Alcudia. Our captain made us homemade tapas while we snorkeled and used their paddleboard. Definitely a memorable time!

Visiting in June was not too crowded and before the summer rush. The entire vacation, we were in daily contact with the team. They were constantly checking in and making sure everything went smoothly. We highly recommend a visit and to check out Juan’s company.

Our first meeting with Juan over Zoom to plan our trip started with him wanting to know what our preferences, goals, and favorite activities were. He was extremely helpful and making suggestions about how to plan our days to make sure that we saw and had time for all the major attractions and
still leaving time for Café relaxation time and exploring. At the end of these discussions, we were provided with a detailed tricolor day-by-day outline of what our trip would entail. After review, we and Juan made some final alterations.

We opted for private tour guides and transportation. Our Madrid tour guide, Enrique, was nothing less than remarkable. His knowledge of Spanish art and history and his ability to wind these into a fascinating story made our visit to the Prado and the Sophia extraordinary. Our guide to the local wineries and private lunch was memorable. As well, our guides in Seville were excellent. The arranged transportation was well beyond expectations as we were provided with Maybach Mercedes limousines. If we needed a last-minute change, Marta was easily accessible and quickly adapted our plan. Everything that was planned by Juan, and executed by his guides and drivers who exceeded our expectations at every turn. I can’t imagine how Juan and his team would not meet the criteria for a WOW List travel experience.

Our trip planner Juan​ did an amazing job planning an unforgettable Spain trip for my family which included me, my husband, daughter (22) and son (19). We started planning our trip in October 2024 for our trip in May 2025. We spoke to Juan several times to share our expectations of the trip; most communications thereafter were done by email. He was responsive and generally came back with our proposed/updated itinerary within days of our conversations, which included day-by-day schedule, transport, hotel, and high-level local guided tour information.

After months of anticipation, May 2025 finally rolled around. We spent 15 days in Spain staring in Madrid. We traveled south to Cordoba, Sevilla, Ronda and Granada by car, and then flew north to San Sebastian and ended the trip in Barcelona.

Our local coordinator Marta was amazing! We received a daily text from Marta with information (driver and guide contact info, meeting location, etc.) for the following day. Marta was extremely responsive when we had questions. We did have a slight misunderstanding with the rental car, but Juan and Marta were quick to remedy the situation.

For the local guides, we were so impressed with each one of them. They were mostly from the local area, possessed a deep understanding of their region’s history and culture, and were flexible in tailoring the day’s itineraries to our interests. We also did a few amazing hikes. The Las Alpujarras hike (with small villages nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada) in Granada was especially memorable, with our guide Jamie showing us villages that were settlements of the Moors over 500 years ago. After the hike, we had an amazing lunch in a tiny village where we had the best gazpacho!

Thank you to our planning team for making our vacation interesting, fun, and very importantly, stress-free!

Thanks to a last-minute flight cancellation, we had the opportunity to spend three nights in Madrid. Wendy hooked us up with Juan, who quickly set up a wonderful visit that gave us a real sense of Madrid across history, architecture, culture, art, and special sites. Enrique was our walking guide the first two full days and we enjoyed a bike around the city the last morning. We enjoyed a really good meal and flamenco performance one evening also.

I was impressed by 1) the quick response and total professionalism of Juan, 2) the knowledge and fun of Enrique, 3) the hotel choice—Urso is luxurious and classic.Our airport transfers were smooth and enjoyable.

I would HIGHLY recommend Wendy and confidently label this visit in Madrid as a WOW!