ATTENTION

Tired of doing what all tourists do every time you visit a place?

A trip through sensations allowing you to see, feel, enjoy the center of Spain  and revealing its really wonderful Power.

Hello ! My name is Carlos de la Prida.

Me too I love travelling as well, In my experience, when you get to a new place you start by exploring its streets, its corners , searching for photographic spots or for those locations recommended by a guide, a friend or a web site.

Looking around you find yourself among persons of different nationalities, all doing the same as you, as if more and more cities and tourist areas are becoming increasingly similar in their shops, streets.

The magic seems to be lost, as trips are being constantly standardized, aimed at tourist sales rather than at enabling the traveller to experience a fascinating connection to the place itself.

Once as I sat inside a starbucks overlooking the Gran Vía (one of the most visited streets in Madrid) and watched the countless tourists passing by, I realized that even if their visit was a pleasant one, Madrid can offer much more. Travelling is not just moving to a different place, you may have been to a place without really knowing it.

Travelling is feeling, understanding, connecting with a place.

As a lover of Madrid, Spain and the World, I started thinking ...

• How could I make other travellers truly perceive not only Madrid but the wider Heart of Spain?

• Through its streets perhaps? Its Museums? Its people? That would help, but it´s not enough.

• Through its sounds? Its history? Its gastronomy? That would help , but there is something else ...

• Through its secrets perhaps? Undoubtedly there are secrets to be revealed which would help you to understand better the soul of this place, but ...

SpainRoute is born

There and then I realized that even if my questions and answers could help, the answer was not to be found in words but was something to be experienced, felt and enjoyed.

That's why I decided to create Spain Route, a trip designed to attune you with the heart of Spain from its center Madrid.

After more than 3 years researching places of interest, gathering information, checking hotels and gastronomy – among other features. Spain Route is born, a trip full of sensations, emotions and stories where you get to know The Heart of Spain in way you would have never imagined.

As in a story or a movie, you will also discover its deepest secrets, often jealously guarded by its rulers that turned Spain into one of the most powerful nations in the world.

EXCLUSIVE

However, this cannot be a trip for everyone, it is a unique offer for several reasons:

• You will not be staying in large hotels with hundreds of tourists. You will be staying in charming small-sized hotels, in a magical valley not yet overcrowded by tourism, where accommodation is very limited and in high demanded.

• You will not have a guide but a host who will receive, accompany you and will look after your stay and group. Even before starting your trip you will be contacted to know more about you – whether you are celiac, vegetarian, and so on --, so as to be able to prepare your stay.
  
  

  "In brief, a more personalized, friendly and direct relationship, for a journey of sensations"

Feel Free but Cared For

• Right from the start everything is designed for your comfort: airport pick up, transfers, facilitating your accommodation and related needs…

• But also giving you options to explore, feel, move at your own pace, without the need to rush behind a guide.

• On Spain-Route, a daily tour is offered to you, with every tool being provided, you are accompanied and looked after, yet letting you go about reassured at your own pace.

Imagine what it would be like to getting up to live a new adventure, a new sensation every day.

Your friends will want to experience what you have experienced.

Have you ever thought what it would be like to be by a lake at the top of a 1,200 meter- high mountain? Smelling the breeze caressing your face… An hour later, being in the middle of a valley surrounded by those same mountains, and on the same day visiting a medieval castle, or a cave abundant in stalactites and stalagmites with colors and shapes you have never seen before.

Where shall we travel to the next day?

To a large city, a palace, another place?

What could we feel there?

What emotions will await us?

You may be wondering how this trip has been designed.
 The answer is simple.

The challenge was to convey the features that make the heart of Spain unique, so that you feel your heart beat attuned with its own, and learn to value this wonderful place inside your self.

We have visited valleys where emperors used to heal their bodies and – as they believed – their souls; we have researched how and why each town was built, every city, every monument; we have touched, felt and admired them, we have lived them…

We have sought for a natural order in your tour, so that you might discover and create the mood, a sentiment in each place, as one sensation leading to another, finding meaning in the whole.

We have studied, researched, read what has been published and the non published as well, from current times and the past, at every stage as a guidance for a journey into the heart of Spain.

HOST

From the first day our host will welcome you, making your stay comfortable and pleasant.

Every day the tour will introduce a tour, the places to visit, we will explain why they were built, their history and legends surrounding it, its power as it has been throughout history .

All within an outlined scheme for you to enjoy each scene

DAY 2

TRAVELING THROUGH THE TIETAR VALLEY

We are going to travel through this wonderful Valley. Most probably you are feeling very well rested after a good night's sleep, it is what our guests usually tell us. It wasn't by chance, when King Carlos I (Charles V of Germany) felt sick, he came to the foot of these same mountains to rule over his Empire.

This will be a day of contrasts, visits that will stimulate your senses:

• We will go up to a lake and its mountain summit, where its views and emotions blend beautifuly.

• We will enter the earth´s bowels by visiting one of the most beautiful natural caves you have ever seen, full of shapes and colors.

• We will visit a Medieval Castle and learn why this land is called " Castilla" and what function these castles had.

• You will also visit a Celtic Village where the Vettones, the first settlers of these lands lived more than 3000 years ago.

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A visit through nature and small towns that will leave their permanent impressions on you.

DAY 4

MADRID

Exuberant, Madrid does not stop growing. Despite its more than 1100 years of history, it would seem that it is still young, not for lack of wisdom (which it does have) but for its vitality, its acceptance of the new, its desire to grow, create, test, to belong to the world.

A city that welcomes everyone who comes to her, so that if you want to be a Madrid native you are already one, a city eager for projects, an ideal place to start up either a new life, an artistic project, a business...

Madrid has so much energy that it can be stressful for some persons.

It is not surprising, therefore, that over the course of history, many Madrid cities have been created inside the larger one, making up a single Madrid, in a Meccano-like assembly. So there is an Imperial Madrid with its palaces and monuments, a Cultural Madrid with theaters, auditoriums and unique international museums, a Landscaping Madrid with gardens such as El Retiro, Casa de Campo or Madrid Rio. There is also a small and humble Madrid of residents who arrived here to make their dreams, such as Lavapies neighborhood, and another Madrid aiming at the highest level of modernity and success, with great skyscrapers, stadiums and the city's projection both in Spain and abroad.

Madrid as creative energy in the past, present and future.

DÍA 5

EL ESCORIAL   /   VALLE DE LOS CAÍDOS

It is difficult to explain what El Escorial is: A Palace? A Monastery? A Library? A Mausoleum? A Museum? It is all those things and something else, because it was not built for any of those purposes.

Erected in a semi-populated area, separated from the city, in 1563 Felipe II surprised his court by raising this construction as a royal residence, after studying and applying the architectural wisdom used in the temple of Solomon, based on a geometry regarded as sacred by some, with dimensions and a mastery that only an empire could afford.

But why? Why here? Why this type of building?

Even though you have no answers now, when you reach this stage of your journey you will understand Felipe II´s reasons, since you will be aware of the Heart of Spain´s mysteries, and its growth.

VALLEY OF THE FALLEN

Not far from El Escorial and almost 400 years later, a megalomaniac construction was built.

The largest basilica in the western world dug into a mountain, around which a grandiose abbey and a hostel were constructed, the mountain's summit being crowned with a monumental 150 meter-high cross.

Again the question arises, Why here?

As I have told you THIS JOURNEY CANNOT BE FOR EVERYONE
because of the limited number of hotel beds and the characteristics of the trip.

This is the time when we are creating
the select group who can take part
on this wonderful trip!.

As you know a trip like this is not to be found with any travel agency.

Tasting Tapas.

In Spain a tapa is basically an appetizer served in most bars or restaurants together with some beverage (alcoholic or not). This itinerant consumption (going from place to place) is called “tapeo” or “ir de tapas”. In many Spanish regions it is customary to dine or have lunch out on weekends by way of “tapeo”, also usually referred to as “picar” or “picoteo” (snacking)..

Tapas have become a sign of Spanish identity and are offered at welcome banquets to the highest VIP (the so-called tapas meeting). Thus, during the Madrid Peace Conference, Queen Sofia and the Madrid Major invited Raísa Gorbachova to a drink with a tapa during her visit to the Spanish capital. Also modern bars offer tapas specialties, a trend that has been called miniature cuisine. However, the tapa concept has been brought to high cuisine by Ferran Adrià , a chef who uses them as starters .

Spanish Food.

Spanish cuisine is on demand all over the world. A great many Spanish chefs have been awarded major international awards. This is due partly to the great variety of ways of preparing dishes, in addition to the contributions from the various regions of Spain.

This bonus-pack for tasting Spanish cuisine includes 4 dinners with our most internationally acclaimed dishes, many of which you are likely to know, such as paella, Spanish omelette, gazpacho and more…. 

So let´s wind up the day with this thrill to your taste.

Airport Transfers.

Even though our guests who take part in this adventure usually arrive in their own cars from different locations in Spain and Europe, we foresee that coming from the UK you will have chosen to arrive by plane.

This Bonus is designed to make your trip that much more comfortable: we will pick you up at the airport on the first day and bring you back on the last day of this adventure we will share together.

Would you like to come and get to know the heart of Spain?

Would you enjoy this journey?

Please Contact us