An avid traveler that searches actively for small group and thoughtful itineraries, I can’t imagine how I overlooked Amber Roads before this first trip to Northern Spain. It is well paced, with exceptional food and accommodations and engaging guides. Start here and set the bar high for your next travel plans.

A Great trip. Sean was a fantastic guide. He was very knowledgeable, clear, understandable and always helpful. Our accommodation was all 5 star. Northern Spain is a beautiful part of the world and we totally enjoyed being shown it. In particular we enjoyed the “side” trips. The trip across the river estuary with all the mussel platforms was most interesting & the mussels were great. The cheese tasting ( with wine) was interesting and the visit to the winery & wine museum captivating. The pace of the trip was good & we had sufficient time to ourselves to see & do things that interested us.  We enjoyed the food especially the dinners. The lunches were good quality but very large & we would have liked some tapas instead. The group was 13 strong which was a really good size of lovely people. We can recommend this trip most highly.

Thank you Amber Road once again for a wonderful tour to Galicia and the Basque. It was a real treat to travel the Spanish coast and witness “green Spain” first hand. Highlights for us were seeing the incredible Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. experiencing first hand the incredible beauty of La Rioja wine region, all the beaches and being treated to a sojourn to France at the end. All the hotels were wonderful and of course we enjoyed travelling under the guidance of Sean, whose passion for and knowledge of all things Spanish really augmented the experience. This was our seventh tour with Amber Road.

This was my fourth tour with Amber Road. This tour was particularly enjoyable as we had a very amiable group of 17. This area of Spain is incredibly green and has the most amazing mountains that come right down to the sea. Our luxury hotels were a delightful mix of old world style and modern and in very good locations. I enjoyed some of the smaller towns where we stopped – charming Comillas, Santillana del Mar where we had lovely cakes at a 4th generation family business, and La Guardia, where we tasted wonderful wines. And then to add to all of that was our most congenial tour guide, Sean. He brought enthusiasm to each day’s adventure, as well as an encyclopedic knowledge and obvious love of all things Spain. Having my college degree in history, I so enjoyed the stories he told us of medieval Spain. If you are looking for a tour that is unique and enjoyable Galicia and the Basque Country will fit the bill very nicely.

We really enjoyed the Galicia & the Basque Country Tour with Amber Road. This was our 9th tour with Amber Road and as usual was a fantastic adventure. The beautiful Northern Spain scenery, the delicious meals and nice central accommodations all enhanced the trip. We have found in the past that most Amber Road clientele travel well together. This trip was no exception. As an added bonus, it was fun having Sean Retana as our guide again. The quality of the tour was enhanced by his enthusiasm, knowledge, and genuine love of Spain. His storytelling as we traveled along the highways was quite enjoyable. Sean went out of his way several times to ensure we had a wonderful trip – going so far as to organize birthday celebrations for three in our group.
We highly recommend Amber Road Tours. Having traveled extensively in Europe we have found them to be of top quality. Their itineraries, guides, and accommodations are spot on. You can’t go wrong selecting any of their many trips – all are unique and enjoyable.

Having loved my trips in central and southern Spain, I was curious to explore the north. It turns out that this verdant, hilly region is a wonderfully handsome and unspoiled part of the country; the mass tourism that afflicts many beauty spots elsewhere in Spain is yet to arrive. Even the lovely coast and the beaches are uncrowded! One explores distinctive cultures that offer rich and ancient histories, fine monuments and museums, and delectable local cuisines without having to fight mobs of other tourists. The bigger cities are models of elegant urbanism; strolling through the older sections is an unmitigated pleasure. The luxurious hotels, both ultramodern and historic ones, offer splendid accommodations. The quality of our adventures was enhanced by the enthusiasm and knowledge of Sean, our energetic and outgoing guide. I was very glad to have headed up north! (But do bring a rainproof jacket with a hood; the rain in Spain seems to be concentrated along the northern coast.)

This was our fifth tour with Amber and our first trip outside of Italy. We found the itinerary a great combination of unusual, out of the way places and the more traditional towns like Bilbao and St. Sebastian. The hotels were wonderful and accessible for exploring on our own and the planned meals were all great. Sean proved to be a very conscientious guide with a good knowledge of all things Basque and Spain in general. The small group allowed us to spend time with our fellow travelers and meet people from diverse parts of the world. We truly enjoyed their company throughout the 12 days.

This was our 4th Amber Road Tour and although Northern Spain is different it was every bit as good as our previous tours to Italy. The winning combination of exceptional hotels conveniently located, a knowledgeable and helpful Tour Guide and small groups of friendly people from different countries made this another wonderful experience. We also appreciated the support of Lisa Sample in planning our trip before and after the Tour. We look forward to our next Amber Road Tour.

This was our second Amber Road Tour and we enjoyed it every bit as much as the first. Travelling in a small group is important to us and Amber has been excellent in keeping the group number to a size which allows for a good mix of companions without crowding. Sean, our tour guide, was helpful, good humoured and a fountain of knowledge; our tour bus was comfortable and Jose’, our driver, very good . The hotels we stayed at were in the best possible location, historically or architecturally interesting, and made us feel very privileged to be staying there.
In all, we very much enjoyed the balance of new and interesting experiences and free time and look forward to our next tour!!

This was our 6th tour with Amber Road and our first one outside of Italy. Once again, it was the perfect combination of the quality we have come to enjoy coupled with the delight of unexpected surprises. Increasingly we tour with repeat Amber Road travelers adding to a spirit of camaraderie over shared travels and an ease at joining into a new adventure together. In our experience, this was the first time everyone had traveled with Amber Road at least once (many multiple times). We were a lively compatible group from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the US. The pace, sites visited, food, and fabulous hotels were well selected and we were guided expertly and convivially by our leader, Sean. We were anticipating our time in Bilbao and San Sebastian ahead of time but an added delight was the sailing of the Ria Arousa Estuary and our time in Oviedo. While we were visiting Ribadeo, a couple stopped to welcome us, telling us that they had never seen a tour group in their town and were delighted we were there! Thank you for another wonderful holiday and a brilliant itinerary.

Our congratulations to Lisa for the Tour that she has constructed with, for us, the perfect balance of the cultural highlights of Northern Spain and more relaxing informal activities. The hotels were all excellent – quality and location superb. Each hotel magnificent in its own very different way. Our Tour Manager Sean was, well Sean ! He was as informative and helpful as we have come to expect – displaying his excellent knowledge and understanding of Spanish history and culture whilst also a more sensitive nature when dealing with Tour members. Perhaps for us Santiago was the highlight of the Tour and I would encourage Tour members to consider walking a small final section of the Comino and then to see the Botofumero in use at a Pilgrims Mass.

I really enjoyed this adventure.  Galicia and the Basque Country have their own identity, so different from Mediterranean Spain. Land and seascapes, history, art, fabulous seafood, handpicked hotels and add a top notch guide with the perfect genetic mix – what is there not to like ?

Our tour of Galicia & the Basque Country is our 5th Amber Road tour, so quite obviously we are very impressed with Amber Road as a tour operator. This tour confirmed the quality of experience that Amber provides. There is absolutely nothing that we can fault, from the booking and payment process through to that final car that took us to our departure transport. If we could single out just one thing that makes us a repeat customer, it is probably the variety of experiences offered in each tour. For this tour we feel we were given ample opportunity to take in the cultural highlights of northern Spain, to experience the wonderful geography and scenery, the magnificent buildings of the major towns and, of course, the culinary delights. The boat tour on the Ria de Arousa is certainly something one is unlikely to encounter as an independent traveller or on other mass market tours. We loved the visit to the subterranean bodega in La Guardia. Our random encounters with local festas added to the totality of our experience The hotels were magnificent- who could not love staying in a room overlooking a beautiful cloister in Santiago de Compostela. Our tour guide, Sean, was knowledgeable, fun, passionate, generous in every way and unfailingly courteous and considerate to all.

WOW ! What a trip. We stayed in the best hotels in each town and the included meals were fabulous. I had no idea northern Spain was so much like Switzerland or Colorado. We had a friendly group of travelers from five countries. Sean the guide is wonderful. One reason I signed up for this trip was Sean was my guide last year for Andalucia. This was my second tour with Amber Roads.

This was my fourth Amber Road tour so I’m obviously delighted with this excellent tour company. I travel solo and Sean, the tour manager, is very inclusive about ensuring single travelers are fully incorporated in all tour activities. It was a pleasure to go to a less visited part of Spain. Sean was so well informed and passionate about Spanish history and current conditions. His expertise made the tour a great learning experience. The hotels were a wonderful part of the tour experience. All were beautiful and well located. The sailing trip in the Arousa Estuary was a great part of the trip, a very special Amber Road event. Gaudi’s El Capricho was also a highlight that you won’t find on other tours. In all, an excellent tour in every respect.