9D8N Lisbon, Seville & Madrid (6790)

Check into your hotel. The rest of the day is free to start exploring lively Madrid. Tonight, meet your Tour Director and fellow travelers.

Visit fortified Avila with its intact medieval city walls, then stop in Salamanca. Be sure to spend some time wandering around Salamanca's Plaza Mayor, considered the most beautiful square in Spain. Journey into the valley of the Serra da Estrela on your way to Coimbra in Portugal.

Enjoy an orientation tour of Coimbra, strategically situated on a hill overlooking the Mondego River. Continue to Fatima to visit the Sanctuary, a catholic pilgrimage site where the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children- Francisco, Jacinth, and Lucia-on May 13, 1917. On to Obidos, a fortified city still flanked by towers and bastions overlooking the countryside dotted with windmills. Overnight in Lisbon.

Henry the Navigator made Lisbon the 15th-century "Mistress of the Seas." You'll see his monument, the Belem Tower, the Moorish Citadel, the impressive Black Horse Square, and other highlights on your guided city tour. Spend the afternoon at leisure in the Alfama's tile-decorated streets, or discover the Portuguese Riviera by joining our optional excursion.

Drive into the Alentejo through the countryside, famous for its cork production. Cross the border at Vila Verde into Spain and journey into Andalusia, enjoying quite different scenery as you skirt the Sierra de Aracena on your way to delightful Seville.

Seville is the city of passionate flamenco and one of Spain's most colourful and vibrant cities. Enjoy an included sightseeing tour with all the main highlights, including the iconic Plaza de Espana, located in the centre of the Parque de Maria Luisa. The park was designed in a "Moorish paradisical style," with a half mile of tiled fountains, pavilions, walls, ponds, benches, and exhedras; lush plantings of palms, orange trees, Mediterranean pines, and stylized flower beds. Numerous buildings were constructed in the park to provide spaces for the Ibero-American exhibition World Fair of 1929.

Travel to Cordoba, Spain's most Moorish city with its Mezquita, which is rightly known as one of Islam's greatest pieces of architecture outside the Arab world. Continue through the very heart of La Mancha, famed for its castles and windmills, to Madrid. This evening, why not join the optional traditional tapas dinner and highlights of Madrid?

Enjoy free time in Madrid, or join the fascinating optional trip to Toledo. The splendid setting of this old walled city above the Tagus River was made famous in El Greco's painting-even now, it's like a great open-air museum of Spanish history and art. Later, join the included Madrid city sightseeing. As the capital of Spain and situated 2,180 feet above sea level, the Spaniards call Madrid the nearest thing to Heaven.

Your holiday ends with breakfast this morning.