Feedback for local trip planner for Spain - Totally Spain & Portugal

Rick Steves Spain forum is full of very knowledgable people who will gladly help you plan your trip. Real advise from real experts.

Brad

Since this is your first post, welcome to the forum.

Do a forum search and you can find lots of advice on trip planning here.

Thank you Brad & Chris. I will ask my questions in separate posts.

I know most members here are DIY planners. I myself have always planned my own trips, after reading RS Guides for the country/region to visit and following on its recommendations. This time one of my family member has a wedding to attend in Barcelona in mid-October We decided to make it a family trip. So I have a very short fuse to make my arrangements. RS recommended hotels have been sold out! Hence my search for a professional trip planner / travel agent with local expertise and connections.

I have already created itinerary based on RS Spain Guide, starting in Barcelona, and covering Granada, Seville and Madrid. Finding hotels at all these places seems quite a daunting task given only 5 weeks time for the trip. So, if anyone has suggestions for local travel planner or travel agency that can help me with hotel & transportation arrangements, it would be of immense help.

Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

CDM

I am a DIY Rick Steves planner too, but I have run into R. Steves hotels being full for the time I plan to travel as well. Also I planned a trip to New Zealand, where there are no R. Steves guidebooks.
Not a perfect solution, but I have had some success using Google Maps for location (hopefully near R. Steves hotels) and Tripadvisor.
I also use the R. Steve's guidebook to plan which sights I consider intriguing and consider the hotel's location.
To use Tripadvisor, look beyond the average ratings and read the reviews, both good and bad. Word searches can be helpful; for example, looking for "bugs", "A/C", "temperature" & "scam" can be very insightful.
After I come up with a few good hotel choices, I check whether they are on Booking.com and compare rates with the hotel's website.
Good luck!
-Bruce

Thank you Bruce for your advice. Will follow-up.

Rick Steves hotels are frequently sold out. There are like 100x more Rick Steves readers than hotel rooms on any given day so they book up. Just use Booking.com and google reviews to find hotels. That's what local planner will likely do and they'll be less careful.

Transportation connections should be the same as in the book. Take public transit when you can and you'll be fine. Busses are a great way to get around.

I have never used a travel planner myself but I often use Rough Guide books along with RS guide books. I am finding the Rough Guide Spain book helpful. More to your question, I know that the Rough Guide web site offers trip planner assistance. I believe you fill out some information online and they they send you several quotes from several different planners. This might give you some options to compare to the service you asked about.

Thank you Chris & CD for your feedback and suggestions. I will follow up on those.

~ CDM

I would imagine many of his hotels are full with Rick tour groups at that time. We did Barcelona & Madrid last year in Oct & this year doing the Andalusia tour. I did just book before & after tour hotels at Marriotts using points a few days ago. Have you looked at any of the American chains especially in the larger cities? Just a thought if all else fails.
Have a great trip

Thank you SA for your suggestion.

I am a frequent guest with most big US chains - Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and IHG. I have checked all them, but so far only the designer ones & 5* properties have availability. Their pricing is way our of my budget - almost $1,000 per night!!

I guess I will have to look at the local chains and boutique ones.

~ CDM

Have you actually checked Booking.com to see what is available?

We rarely if ever stay at RS recommended hotels-they are just not our style

Check NH hotels-a very nice European chain
The Cordoba NH was super nice in a great location

If you tell us your itinerary/ locations we can probably recommend plenty of places

I always find RS travel forum most helpful. After our first trip to Italy I was able to plan everything for our last 5 trips to Italy, Sardinia and Sicily; totally relied upon the advice of this forum. However, we have never been to Spain so this what I did:

I had limited time to plan. So, I checked out the advice of this great forum which guided us to Where? When? and How to make the most of our vacation. With that information I used Tour Tailors that planned out trip. I told them where I wanted to go, what I wanted to see and how long we wanted to stay and the preference of type of accommodations. I also gave them a budget. They were able plan everything, hotels, tours, trains, rental car (for 5 days). they pick up and drop off at hotels, airport and train stations. Catarina was so helpful. We did an initial Skype and discussed my thoughts. She gave me a tentative plan and we tweeked it as needed. The process was great. Good communication.
We leave on Sunday Sept. 13 and return on Sept. 30. It won't hurt to consult with them. Good Luck.

Hello CDM,
I have used the Rick Steves office for in person consultations in the past for an hourly fee. Their experts sometimes also offer zoom consultations for a fee currently. Their planners requested an outline of my plan first to facilitate planning. I will be in Spain for October as well but heading North to the Basque region. Enjoy the journey!

Are you going the 3rd week in Oct? That looks pretty booked up. If not a quick look I saw Sheratons & the AC Marriott brand for under $1000. Like way under that amount. I too was surprised at the cost of hotels from a year ago. Luckily I have points to cover the two nights I need in Madrid in Oct. Good luck on your search

Thank you Lorie, Nancy and SA. Very useful info. I will remember Tour Tailors as well as RS Consultants for future trip planning.

For this one, we have opted to take a 8-day/9-nights trip by Insight Tours that matched our dates as well as the starting & ending points: Barcelona -- Valencia -- Granada -- Seville -- Cordoba -- Madrid, with an optional half-a-day visit to Toledo.

They cover about about 75% of the places & experiences in a 12-day RS tour.

We plan to augment that by spending 3 days pre- and post-tour in Barcelona and Madrid on our own. For those days, I need to find hotels in these two places - Oct 15-17 in Barcelona and Oct 25-28 in Madrid. Madrid seems to be tougher nut to crack!

My budget is $350 per night. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Cheers,

CDM

CDM....
Your itinerary is almost exactly what we are doing in 36 hours. I can share my experience when we return on Sept. 29 but, it will probably be too late. From what I have read, you can't go wrong. Have a wonderful trip.
Lorie

Good luck. I did see a Sheraton for those dates. Looks like most hotels are sold out.

Oct 25-28 in Madrid. Madrid seems to be tougher nut to crack!

Booking.com shows 76 properties- Madrid city center Hotels with AC under your budget for those dates. Most with rating 8+

This may not be what you need in Madrid but my wife and I stayed in an apartment looking over Plaza Mayor. It has a rooftop terrace. It is expensive but the view is worth €100 in my opinion.
There are five flights of stairs to climb. It has a couch where a third person can sleep.
You can search Booking.com under the name Plaza Mayor private terrace apartment. It also has a three night minimum..

Thanks ChristineH and mbosteder for your feedback.

Cheers, CDM