Meet in our Barcelona digs (3 nights) to head out south to Monestre (monastery) de Poblet and Prades. The Poblet monastery looks more like a castle and is quite grand. Prades is known as the ‘red’ town because of the peculiar stone in its construction. We will stop in Cava country to taste some luscious sparkling wines and enjoy a typical Catalan lunch at Cal Blay Vinticinc in Sant Sidurni before returning to the big ‘B’.

Touring to Vilella Baixa-cliff top village then Falser with it’s 12 century castle. Stops at some of your favorite Priorat wineries then lunch at El Cal de Montblanc in Montblanc. Retun to Barcelona, dinner at leisure.

Visit to one of Spain’s most important Roman sites, Tarragona. Visit to the Archeological Museum and the famous Cathedral. Lunch at Degusta with it’s great Catalan-fusion menu. Return to Barcelona where you can enjoy a stroll and dinner at leisure.

We transfer north to Girona-a veritable chocolate box of Gothic churches, museums and galleries. During our 3 day stay in Girona we will travel to Romanesque gems of Ripoli and Saint Joan de les Abadesses, then see Surrealism at its best in the Dali Museum in Figueres and the charming fishing village of Cadaques.

We’ll also hit beautiful Banyoles, medieval Santa Pau and the market town of Olot.

Each day will feature a group lunch or dinner of local cuisine and of course, wines!

Catalonia tours ends. Transport back to Barcelona for those not continuing on part 2 of our trip to Galicia and Santiago de Compostela. For those continuing we will fly (included) to Bilbao to begin Part 2 of our trip.

(8 day tour)

(includes 3 meals daily, wine/cider, local transport, lodging  and admission to sites.)

We set out  from Bilbao to one of the most beautiful areas of Spain, traveling along the coast to Santander and Santillana del Mar before settling into serene Cangas de Onis for 2 nights.

Then we’ll head into the Picos de Europa and some of the most majestic mountain scenery in the world. Constantly imbibing the local cider and munching on some amazing cheeses we pass through centuries of history at Covadonga, the gorges of Los Beyos and Posada de Valdeon. There are bear, lynx and wolves that roam these mountains so keep an eye out!

Passing through charming Oviedo (set of Woody Allen’s Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona) we continue west into Galicia, a different culture and language (Galego-a blend of Portuguese, Latin and Spanish) Galicia is devoted to wine (Albarino mostly) and seafood- the freshest you’ll ever find! We’ll travel along the stunning coast until we end in:

Santiago de Compostela! The end of our pilgrimage is the city of St James, who preached in Galicia before being executed in Palestine.

His body was brought by stone boat to Santiago and subsequently rediscovered by Pelayo, a hermit in 820 AD, who legend says followed a guiding star.

Hence ‘Compostela’—campus stellae—field of stars.

Alfonso II had a church built over the site and pilgrims began coming. Today there are 300,000-400,000 pilgrims who undertake the journey every year, most using the ‘camino frances’ (from France )or the ‘camino de plata’ (from Lisbon).

We’ll stay at one of Santiago’s 4 star hotels and adventure out to main pilgrimage sites as well as dashing to the coast to enjoy fresh seafood and wine!

Our pilgrimage ends with farewells to fellow travellers and a toast to St James! Departure from Santiago at your leisure.