Spain
The Best of Spain: Barcelona and Madrid
Program No. 21336RJ
Find out what makes Barcelona and Madrid two of Europe’s most unique cities as you discover bold architecture, world-renowned museums, ancient monuments and celebrated cuisine. Olé!
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10 days
9 nights
16 meals
8B 1L 7D
1
In Transit to Program
In Flight
4
Monastery & Museum of Montserrat
Barcelona
5
The Picasso Museum, La Pedrera
Barcelona
9
Madrid, Reina Sofia Museum
Madrid
10
Program Concludes
In Flight
At a Glance
Gaudí and Picasso. Flamenco and Tapas. Mediterranean chic and capital-city grandeur. There are no other cities in the world like Barcelona and Madrid. Join us to learn about what’s new in these two dynamic cities and reflect on what’s been around since antiquity, from fanciful architecture to wind-swept Roman ruins. With special insight from our local experts and plenty of time to discover on your own, you’ll get the most of these two bold European cities.
Activity Level
Let's Go!
Very active program; walking around 3-4 miles per day; cobblestones and many unavoidable stairs, steep slopes. Public transportation and subway with no elevators used each day of the program.
Looking for the same great program but at a slightly more leisurely pace? Check out "Spain at a Slower Pace: The Best of Barcelona and Madrid" (#22311).
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Learn about the incredible fairy tale-like curved roofs and bright colors of one of the world's most intriguing parks and heritage sites: Parc Guëll.
- Attend expert-led lectures and gain insight into Spain's fascinating historical and artistic roots.
- Explore two of Europe’s most renowned art museums in Madrid with top-notch instructors.
General Notes
Program includes independent time to explore the city and several meals on your own. Group Leaders will provide directions for self-directed excursions. Suggestions for free-time activities provided on site. Hotels differ depending on departure date. You may be interested in a slightly more leisurely version of this program, "Spain at a Slower Pace: The Best of Barcelona and Madrid" (#22311).
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Ulises Diaz-Ropero
Ulises Diaz-Ropero is originally from Toledo and is fluent in Spanish, English, and an intermediate level of French. He is an avid traveler and has visited many countries on four different continents. Ulises completed a Master’s degree in ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental Studies in London before becoming a world music artist in the thriving music scene in London. For the last five years, Ulises has been pursuing a career in education, leading educational travels as well as teaching Spanish to adults.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Ulises Diaz-Ropero
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Ulises Diaz-Ropero is originally from Toledo and is fluent in Spanish, English, and an intermediate level of French. He is an avid traveler and has visited many countries on four different continents. Ulises completed a Master’s degree in ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental Studies in London before becoming a world music artist in the thriving music scene in London. For the last five years, Ulises has been pursuing a career in education, leading educational travels as well as teaching Spanish to adults.
Sonia Formoso
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Sonia Formoso is of Swiss-Spanish heritage and is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian. She has 14 years of experience leading education travel programs under her belt. Sonia studied at the Universities of Lausanne, Switzerland and Madrid Complutense, where she earned degrees in politics, social sciences and communication. She brings her signature energy, enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge to every Road Scholar program she leads.
Paola Camusso
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Paola Camusso was born in Lima, Peru but moved to Europe when she was 19 years old; she has lived in both Paris and Madrid. She has a master's in marketing and multimedia communications. For the past ten years, she has led students and adults from the USA, Canada, Australia and Latin America throughout Europe. In addition, Paola has led groups in Machu Picchu and the Andes last year. She is fluent in Spanish, English and French, and runs a successful clothing company.
Elena Lomban
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Elena Lombán was born on the Atlantic coast of Galicia, Spain. After living in the U.S. for several years, she began leading educational programs in 2006. She is an English teacher and licensed Galicia expert, passionate about education and travel while sharing her knowledge of linguistics, literature, history, and art. Fluent in Spanish, Galician, English, Italian, and French, Elena has traveled throughout Europe and North America. She loves the thrill of meeting Road Scholars for each new learning adventure and living life to the fullest.
Silvia Riera
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Silvia Riera was born and raised in Barcelona, where she developed her passion for arts and the Catalan culture. In addition to Spanish and her native tongue, Catalan, Silvia is fluent in French, Italian, English and Portuguese. Silvia has lectured about modernism and Gaudi since 1988. Beyond arts, Silvia is — like most Barcelonians — a big fan of FC Barcelona, the world-renowned soccer team.
Cecilia Ceriani
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Cecilia Ceriani has been an art teacher and critic for nearly three decades. She holds degrees in art history and English philology from the Complutense University of Madrid. Cecilia spent four years in South America as an art critic and book reviewer for newspapers in Montevideo and Buenos Aires before returning to her native Spain in 1986. Since then she has been lecturing on Road Scholar programs and at the U.S. Cultural Center in Madrid and writing for respected Spanish publications.
Mayra Noguerales
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Mayra Noguerales was born on the Canary Islands and moved to mainland Spain as a teenager. At 16, she moved to the US, and after four years in several states, headed to the UK to finish her university degree. Returning home, she moved to beautiful, historic El Escorial and became an educational Group Leader. Mayra enjoys time in her workshop creating all types of arts and crafts. Her passion and most rewarding experiences come from meeting people and sharing her knowledge of Spain and Portugal.
Clarisa Gonzalez Ortiz
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Clarisa Gonzalez Ortiz believes educational travel as therapy and change is a fundamental part of life. She works for personal wellbeing through travel via the study of languages, Gestalt therapy, and animal assisted therapy. Clarisa is a tourism and travel expert, official guide of the Balearic islands, therapist, and pet therapist. Her hobbies include reading, sailing, and music.
Natalia Garcia-Huidobro
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Natalia Garcia-Huidobro, a Madrid-based program leader, dancer and choreographer has been leading educational programs in Spain and across Europe since 2018. Originally from Chile, she occasionally lectures for Road Scholar groups on the Art of Flamenco. As a professional performer and event producer, she brings a unique perspective to every program that she leads; offering participants an enriching experience through her love of the arts, culture, and local traditions.
Suggested Reading List
(29 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
The Best of Spain: Barcelona and Madrid
Program Number: 21336
Cadogan Guide Barcelona & Catalonia
This savvy guide combines practical details and maps with illuminating background on history, culture and sightseeing.
Food and Wines of Spain
This classic collection of 400 recipes, interwoven with cultural commentary and culinary history, is a pleasure to read, but prepare to become hungry.
Duende
Duende is Webster’s captivating memoir of the years he spent in Spain pursuing his obsession. Studying flamenco guitar until his fingers bleed, he becomes involved in a passionate yet doomed affair with Lola, a flamenco dancer....
The Shadow of the Wind
Set in the brooding atmosphere of post-WW II Barcelona, this gripping story-within-a-story has it all: murder, doomed love and a mysterious book which draws the young hero, Daniel Sempere, into the city’s dangerous underworld.
An Englishman in Madrid
Anthony Whitelands, an English art historian, is invited to Madrid to value an aristocrat's collection. At a welcome lunch he encounters Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder and leader of the Falange, a nationalist party whose antics are bringing the country ever closer to civil war.....
The Shadow of the Wind
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. ...
A Concise History of The Spanish Civil War
A full-blooded account of this pivotal period in twentieth-century European history. Paul Preston vividly recounts the struggles of the war, analyses the wider implications of the revolution in the Republican zone, tracks the emergence of Francisco Franco's brutal (and, ultimately, extraordinarily durable) fascist dictatorship and assesses the way in which the Spanish Civil War was a portent of the Second World War that ensued so rapidly after it.
Love and Revolutionary Greetings: An Ohio Boy in the Spanish Civil War
Follow the story of a boy name Sam Levinger who travels to Spain in 1937 to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Based off of letters home to his mother, this story will captivate and educate it's readers of the American involvement during the Spanish Civil War.
Barcelona Map
A detailed city map, laminated and folded for easy reference.
A life of Picasso
Richardson draws on his close friendship with Picasso, his own diaries, the collaboration of Picasso's widow Jacqueline, and unprecedented access to Picasso's studio and papers to arrive at a profound understanding of the artist and his work. (4 volumes)
Ghosts of Spain
Tremlett captures the Spanish character, history and modern politics in this masterful portrait, interweaving the story of his love for the country (where he has lived for 20 years) with interview, anecdote and observation.
Two Catalonias
A must see documentary on the divisions in Catalan Politics and the independence movement
Antonio Gaudi, Master Architect
This lavish little collection of Gaudi's work captures the evolution, imagination and exuberance of one of the most influential architects of the 20th century.
The Arts in Spain: From Prehistory to Postmodernism
A representative anthology of examples of painting, architecture and sculpture providing a critical overview of Spain. From Iberian and Roman beginnings, the book traces the development of the arts in Spain, examining the magnificent Islamic and Christian foundations at Cordoba and the Escorial, the idiosyncratic masterworks of El Greco, the Golden Age of Zurbaran and Velazquez, the art of Goya, and the innovative works of Picasso, Dali and Miro, and revealing that many of the most characteristic Spanish artistic currents had their origins at the dawn of history.
Gaudi: The Life of a Visionary
A chronological journey covering the life and works of Gaudi
Hotel Florida
Madrid, 1936. In a city blasted by civil war, six people meet and find their lives changed forever...
The Hive
A daringly irreverent depiction of decadence and decay in Franco's Spain written by the 1989 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Camilo José Cela.
Homage to Catalonia
Orwell's portrait of the Barcelona uprising and the spirit of a city at war is a classic, an observant and heartfelt report from the streets.
The New Spaniards
John Hooper's fascinating study brings to life the new Spain of the 21st century
Cathedral of the Sea
Set in fourteenth-century Barcelona, Cathedral of the Sea is a thrilling historical novel of friendship and revenge, plague and hope, love and war.
Made in Spain
Spanish Chef and philanthropist Jose Andres introduces the cuisine of Spain in this 13 episode series available on Prime.
Catalan Cuisine: Europe's Last Great Culinary Secret
An introduction and a guide to the food, wine, and customs of Catalonia featuring recipes and cooking techniques
Catalonia: A Cultural History
Michael Eaude traces the checkered history and unique monuments of Catalonia through the ages
The History of Spain - Land on a Crossroad
Professor Emerita Joyce E. Salisbury of the University of Wisconsin unfurls a broad and fascinating panorama of Spanish history, spanning the centuries from the first Neolithic settlement of the peninsula to Spain’s 20th century Civil War in this documentary series.
Winter in Madrid
A vivid and haunting depiction of wartime Spain, Winter in Madrid offers an intimate and riveting tale and a remarkable sense of history unfolding
Barcelona
This big, thoroughly enjoyable cultural history of the city touches on architecture, art, religion and literature from Roman outpost to the present.
Gaudi, A Biography
A vivid account of the architect and his work.
España - A Brief History of Spain
Bestselling author and journalist, Giles Tremlett delves into the rich and varied history of Spain, from prehistoric times to today, in a brief, accessible and enjoyable account.
Goya
Hughes brings us the story of an artist whose life and work bridged the transition from the eighteenth-century reign of the old masters to the early days of the nineteenth-century moderns.