Totally Spain Customer testimonials

Review from Yelp

We have now used Totally Spain on three separate occasions and each trip has been top-notch.  I cannot recommend Ken and his team highly enough. Their planning has been meticulous, the communications prompt, and the ad-hoc assistance extremely helpful.

Each trip we have done with Totally Spain has been very different in terms of objective and itinerary but all three were a complete success.

1) Our first trip was a two week jaunt around Spain for my wife and I.  We travelled all over Spain by plane and car and really got a good flavor for the country.  Hotel accommodations were really excellent and timing was good for the various locations.

2) The second trip was with our two daughters, who were 9 and 5 at the time.  Aside from accommodating children's activities into the planning, Ken and team arranged babysitters and made certain that my wife and I could get some "private" time without kids.  All four of us had a fantastic time.

3) Finally, our third trip, which consisted of walking 300 miles of the Camino de Santiago, was the best of all.  Ken and team booked all of our accommodations and arranged for luggage transfer between stages.  We had an unforgettable experience and really appreciated having everything go so smoothly.  

We will definitely be using Totally Spain for our next trip to Spain, which will be next summer.  We would not consider using another tour company under any circumstances.

Review from Yelp

We have travelled a few times using Totally Spain and each time they have organised a fantastic trip for us. Most recently we went to Seville and Olaia booked a fantastic hotel, flamenco show, walking tour and food tour for us. We love the information they send to you before your holiday, lots of local leaflets and maps so you can prepare for your trip. I had made a mistake on the booking form and Olaia changed the travel details immediately with no extra cost or fuss. Totally Spain are a fantastic company and we will never travel to Spain without using them. Book with them today, you won't regret it.

I fell in love with Portugal and Spain and will return again one day to explore other areas of these wonderful countries. And would not hesitate working with your company again. The guides were perfect with my favorites being Adrianna and Ivo. ...Again, thank you for the wonderful planning and handling the miscue with class.

Review from Yelp

We worked with totally Spain to plan a 2 week trip to Spain, and were extremely pleased with the results. All of the travel arrangements, recommendations on places to visit, and logistics really worked out well. The private/small group tour guides were great, cars/drivers were always there for us, hotels were very nice and the sites were wonderful. We would definitely recommend them to others interested in visiting Spain. 

Review from Yelp

We just returned from a two week trip around Andalusia. Olaia from Totally Spain set up the itinerary, hotels and guides for us. Pretty much everything worked out smoothly and they choices of hotels and activities were spot on. When something went wrong she was quick to get involved. We were very happy with the trip and can happily recommend Totally Spain.

Hi Olaia! Just wanted to touch base now that we are back and say thank you for organising our trip. We had a great time and most things worked out perfectly. Thank you for doing such a great job setting it up for us!!

Review from Yelp

The wonderful trip that you and Totally Spain put together for us was an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime adventure for us!
The precision and timing with which all our excursions and events came together were absolutely remarkable!  Life always has what we call 'glitches', where things simply just go awry because they can; not necessarily due to anyone's fault.  Not this trip!  Every single occasion and each individual involved was where they said they would be, when they were expected.  Each and every person was polite, and kind, and patient.  The guides were very knowledgeable, interesting, and often amusing at times with their repertoires.  Without each of these individuals, our adventure would have been so much less!  
Just as an aside, we enjoyed the train and bus rides, allowing us to see more of the countryside.  We began in Cordoba with our guide, the endearing Gemma.  Indeed she lived up to her name.... and was indeed a 'Gem'!  Without her presentation, the Great Mosque, and as well, the contiguous neighborhoods would have been far less understood and so many nuances missed via any of the traditional means of visiting such sites.  She was a real plus with her insight and knowledge as well as amusing and interesting.  I've seen a lot in my 75 years, but the Great Mosque is one of the most spectacular structures I've ever seen.  No photograph can ever project the majesty of El Mezquita.  The Hotel Maimonides you placed us in, was very nice, comfortable, and what a perfect location for the main attraction.
The bus ride to Granada was enjoyable and another good way to see more of the countryside.  We also enjoyed the Hotel Hesperia.  As with all the hotels you placed us in, they were excellent.  The Alhambra Palace & Gardens were far greater than we even expected.  What an amazing structure, or more accurately, a city!  And what a beautiful view of Granada from the hillside.  Again, the tour guide we received was very good, patient, and very amenable to answering questions. The transfer to Sevilla with driver Francisco Jimenez was most pleasant and patient.  Before dropping us off in Ronda, he took us to the bottom of the gorge and Roman bridge and amusingly asked if we wished to walk up to Ronda.  We respectfully declined and he took us back up to the city and dropped us off and went home while we roamed around.  In retrospect, we should have stayed at least the night or maybe two in Ronda.  Another most beautiful place.  Off to Sevilla and the Hotel Becquer.  Another very nice hotel and such a wonderful location.  While I did not know it until we arrived, the Becquer was very close to many of the areas in Sevilla I used to frequent long ago!  I will relate a funny story to you (or at least it was amusing to me!).  In 1962-63-64. we frequently came down to Sevilla on our 3-day breaks.  Almost always, we went to a little café/bar that was situated across from the Toro de Oro.  Across from the Tower and to the right, there is this triangular complex of buildings bordered by the Calle Almirante. Lobo/Paseo del la Delicias/Av Paseo de Christina.  All the time we went there, none of us had ever gone across to enter the Toro del Oro.  So it was a must to climb the Tower since I had not done so!
Casa Del Flamenco/Sevilla-- Another treat to see after all these years.  I still cannot remember where we used to go but it was an old bar or club.  My wife had never seen Flamenco in person, and she really enjoyed it and has a better appreciation for the hard work it takes to master the dance.  Constantina - aside from a full day of non-stop rain, it was still a treat to re-visit a place where I had lived for three years.  Albeit, now just a shell and empty, at least I still got to see my old base for the last time.  The Spanish Air Force at E.V.A. 3 were so very nice and accommodating and treated us like royalty.  Wonderful people!  Alberto Garcia, our driver was so very patient and accommodating as he had to wait by himself and was not allowed to join in on the tour of either the old base nor the new radar facilities.
Madrid -  Again, the location of the Hotel Palacio San Martin was great allowing access to a lot of the older neighborhoods.  El Prado Museum - of course one can never possibly see all that there is to see in the Prado.... I think it is merely impossible.  We spent 7-8 hours, and finally, though reluctantly, had to give up.   What a treasure El Prado is!  I was there once before and have now probably spent a total 14 hours total there--yet seen so little!  
Toledo -  Another place that we should have planned at least a couple of days for!  I had never been to Toledo, and my, my what a beautiful place!!  Bravo for all that you did for us!

Review from Yelp

In December 2014, my son and I toured Madrid and Andalucía.  Over the course of two weeks, we visited Córdoba, Seville, Málaga and Granada, and used Totally Spain to arrange the entire trip.  Olaia arranged all of our transportation, excursions and hotels.  She recommended points of interest and marked each on maps of each city.  Every element of our trip passed exactly as she had arranged it.  No delays.  No no-shows.  No missing tickets.  We stayed in clean, safe, quiet, 3-4 star hotels in the heart of the action in every city.  We used the train and bus systems throughout our journey, which are incidentally light years ahead of what we have available in the States.  We were pleased by every aspect of our trip, and plan to use Totally Spain again to arrange our next adventure in la meseta.

Totally Spain is totally awesome. Having just returned from a trip to Seville and Granada with members of my family, I can attest to the fact that Olaia and her team planned and executed a trip of a lifetime.  From the walking tour of Seville to the Flamenco show and tour of the Alhambra in Granada, every detail was perfect. Thank you for making our visit to Andalusia picture perfect.

Review from Yelp

We used Totally Spain for our trip to Spain and Portugal in October 2015 and they were wonderful.  We had a month and their planning assistance helped us travel from Barcelona through the South of Spain, up through Portugal to Santiago De Compostella and then down to Madrid.  Their choice of hotels 3-4 star as requested were excellent, all centrally located within easy distance of major historical sights and "hop on hop off" bus routes.

Prior to completion of booking they sent us links to review hotels and were happy to answer questions about route changes.  Olaia responded to our emails very promptly. When we finalised our booking they sent us a detailed itinerary, maps,information on each town, key Spanish phrases, information on food, hotel vouchers and they also were able book us tours and entry into key historical monuments.

They organised a train from Barcelona to Valencia and then a hire car from Valencia.  We found driving was stressing us out as access to the hotels located in major historical areas was difficult due to very narrow laneways and parking required the skills of a superhero. Car parking was also costing around €18 per day.  We left the car with the hire car company in Cordoba and I sent an email to Totally Spain letting them know this and asked them to re-organise our schedule using public transport. They were brilliant.  Olaia was on holidays but Belen responded within hours.  They organised the credit for the hire car, booked trains and buses, suggested an alternative to our accommodation in Seville (since we didn't need parking for a car) revised our schedule, organised for our hotel to print this together with transport vouchers.

Nothing was too much trouble and our holiday was quickly back on the rails. They more than fulfilled our expectations and I have no hesitation in recommending them.

Review from Yelp

Belen at Totally Spain planned a fantastic two week trip for us.  We specified that we wanted to rent a car, stay in each area 3-4 days and enjoyed small hotels, countryside and small cities.  We also decided that we would only visit Northern Spain. Everything that they planned was perfect for us.  We loved each location.  We had vouchers for a variety of activities and everything went smoothly.  We accidentally missed one reservation, but Belen was notified and with her help, we rescheduled the next day.  We could not recommend them more highly.

Hello Olaia and Ixone, I would like to extend our sincere thanks to you both and Totally Spain for helping us have a wonderful experience travelling in Spain and Portugal.

The hotels you selected were wonderful, well located and checking in was an easy task.  Our rooms without exception were clean, quiet  and comfortable and breakfasts were a treat.

With our change in plan to return the hire car and to use trains/buses you assisted us promptly and made good suggestions to alter the itinerary.  You took the stress out of a major decision for us.

The information pack you provided prior to us leaving with maps, sightseeing recommendations and general information was also really helpful.

We would be happy to recommend you to other travellers.

Our thanks once again for making our trip a success and helping us take home a lot of happy memories.

Dear Olaia and Ana, My friends, Catherine Cerny, Margaret Osterkamp and Ingrid Wehrle join me in thanking you for the excellent arrangements for our October 19-25 tour of Andalusia.  The drivers and tour guides were top notch and the hotels chosen were in great locations.  We thoroughly enjoyed the tour packets you provided with maps and other background information.

Dear Olaia and Belen,  My wife and I just returned home from Spain.  We would like to give you some feedback.

Perhaps the most obvious is the quality of the tour guides. Each was very experienced and knowledgeable, answering questions and discussing the history of certain sites.  By the time we left for home, we had a good handle on basic Spanish history.
Hotels:  Each was clean and provided good breakfasts.  All were very good and placed in strategic locations.  
We also loved the friendliness  of Merida and the history of Cordoba.Barcelona was also a great stop.  Our favorite thing was the tour. We also went to Guadi's home as well as the church.   

 Thank you for all of the work you did on our behalf.

We had a wonderful time and want to thank you for helping us set up a fine trip.  It all went together with no snags.  Since our trip was lengthy it would not be unusual for something to go wrong.  But nothing did. 

The packet of information you provided was thorough and informative.  It was very clear about where we were to meet our tours and everything else we needed to allow our time to be free of worries.  The many tour guides which were arranged for were all good and several were truly exceptional.  The transfers went off without any hitches and all of the transportation was in top line vehicles.  Our two suite hotels (Madrid and Granada) were excellent facilities.  

We would not hesitate to recommend Totally Spain to others.

Hola Olaia, Just a quick email to thank you very much for all the arrangements you made for us. After a wonderful month in Spain we fly tomorrow to London. We are most appreciative of all you did and the information we received. 

We will be sure to recommend you and your team to our friends back home in Australia. 

Hi Olaia, Quick note to thank you for our fabulous trip and the comprehensive job you did in putting all the information together . We loved all the hotels and the extras we took .

An absolute highlight was the cooking class in Seville. Cooking school ...11 out of 10 ! Flamenco show great and Gayles tapas tour was really good too.
All hotels great ...boutique hotels fantastic and the paradores were very
good too.

Value for trip 11/10.  Briefing notes, maps and overall organisation 11/10 .

The driving was easy and we had no problems at all.

Many thanks. I have new love affair with Spain.

Hi Olaia, We had a great trip and you did a great job of picking hotels and tours for us.

Thanks again

Olaia, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

The itinerary you created for us was perfect. The hotels, cabs, private tours, train tickets and individual city information packets were all great. We truly enjoyed our time in Madrid, Seville, Cadiz and Barcelona and have you to thank for helping us. We traveled around Spain with complete confidence knowing that the cabs would get us to and from the train stations on time. Both Joyce and I enjoyed the high speed train rides between Madrid and Seville as well as the ride from Seville to Barcelona so much that we wonder why anyone would use an airline over the trains. We also enjoyed the ride between Seville and Cadiz on the regular train especially because it was only 2 streets away from the ship our son was on.

Once again, thank you for making our trip to Spain so enjoyable.

Dear Olaia, I just wanted to let you know that we are back home from our vacation and everything went very smoothly. Thank you so much for your work; it was so nice to have the bag of information for each city. We were glad we added Cordoba because the Mezquita there was one of our favorite places on the trip. Your hotel choices were great, too. Southern Spain was beautiful and we had a great time. Thanks again

Dear Olaia, We have just returned from a wonderful vacation with our daughter and son-in-law arranged by you. Thank you for a stress-free time in Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon. ​ The travel guides in Barcelonal and in Lisbon were on time, friendly, knowledgeable and fun people to be with.

Again, thank you.

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that we had a wonderful trip.  We so appreciate everything you set up for us.  Everything went smoothly.  The events you set up were just enough for us travelers!

We are delighted to recommend you to our friends.

Thanks again for making our trip so memorable!

Hello Olaia, we had a wonderful time, everything went exceptionally well and no problems, the accommodation was perfect, especially the Casa Rurals in the small villages it gave us a great chance to experience rural Spain. This part of the Camino the Meseta was so different from St.Jean to Burgos, it was very flat with long straight path's for miles but the scenery was breathtaking ,we were so lucky with the weather we never got a drop of rain in the 15 days we were there and last year over the 18 days we had no rain either, my poncho has not got wet yet on the Camino!!!

Thanks very much for all your help in organising our trip, we will be in contact early next year 2016 to arrange the next stage.

All the arrangements went perfectly.  The hotels were ideal and we had a lovely holiday – the weather gods were particularly kind.

Thank you

Ken organized a wonderful tour for our group of five American couples for a grand tour of Spain. We were originally thinking of a bus tour but spoke with Ken, gave him what we wanted to see, and he put everything together -- Madrid (3 nights), Toledo (day trip from Madrid), Cordoba enroute by train to Sevilla (2 nights), Ronda, Granada (2 nights), and Barcelona (4 nights). Set up private tour guides for just our group (some Rick Steves guides) with all entry tickets, all transportation in Spain, small buses for our group, train transfer from Madrid to Sevilla, air transfer from Granada to Barcelona. Hotels were all centrally located and first class.

Great meals included -- evening tapas in Madrid, plus typically long lunches in super restaurants. It's been seven years since our trip and we still talk about how great our Totally Spain trip was.

Re-produced from our Google Reviews

Wanted to thank you for helping me give my grandson the trip of his life.  He completely enjoyed the 3 futbol games & visiting the cities.  As the futbol game in Sevilla was on a Sat. night, I was able to get tickets for the Sun. bullfight.  In fact, our seats were so close, we felt like we were in the bull ring. 
The flamenco dancers were good. The winery tour was very nice.

The high speed trains were fantastic & on time to the minute.  First Class travel was stress free & I only wished we could have traveled that way home.  Highly recommend Spain's trains. 

Sincere thanks

Olaia, Desde que regresamos a los EE.UU., he pensado mucho en España.  Casi cada noche sueño con ella también...su paisaje, su historia rica y antigua, la pureza de su comida y vino tinto, la amabilidad de su gente y...por supuesto...la vitalidad de la música y los músicos de Andalucía.

A veces estoy triste porque no estoy allá.  Echo de menos de mi segundo país.  Por eso, recuerdo uno o dos de las aventuras que mi hijo y yo hicimos y...como magia...sonrío y / o me río y estoy mejor inmediatamente.

¡Qué asombroso es tu país!

También, quiero agradecerte por tus esfuerzos.  Cada cosa que me dijiste que ocurriría para nosotros pasó.  Por eso, te agradezco.  Nunca, estuvimos demorados.  Nunca, tuvimos problemas con los métodos de transporte, ni con los boletos para las excursiones.  Siempre, nuestros guías de turismo llegó a tiempo.  Siempre, aprendimos mucho. Siempre, estivumos satisfechos con nuestras excursiones y con nuestras habitaciones.

Disfrutamos todas las excursiones y la compañia de todos los guías.  

Yo sé que debo volver algún día, pero no sé cuando.  Sin embargo, te aseguro que cuando regresemos usaremos los servicios de Totally Spain.

Olaia, I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you how much we enjoyed our entire Spanish itinerary. 
Every one of the guides were fabulous and so informative, with great personalities, too!!
The transportation was superb and right on time, all the time, making things worry free.
The hotels were great and the locations could not have been better.

Thanks again for you and the teams efforts and making our trip an enjoyable and memorable one.

You can rest assured we will highly recommend Totally Spain to anyone considering a Spanish vacation.

Olaia, I just wanted to let you know that our trip was very successful and we very much appreciated the role that you and Totally Spain played in making that happen.   Our itinerary worked out very well for us.  The hotels were very good. The trains were excellent and even the bus ride, though long, took us through a beautiful part of Spain.   The walking tours were all as expected and the airport transfers worked out well too.  So, all in all, a wonderful trip!

Thanks for helping us organize this trip.  It was memorable in so many ways.  Andalucia is a marvelous region of Spain!

Dear Olaia, This is to thank you and Totally Spain for organising a truly memorable trip to Andalusia and then to Portugal for us. In Spain your expertise and professionalism was very apparent and much appreciated.  Portugal was also very good on the whole.

We liked all the places in our itinerary and all the hotels you booked for us, and had no problems with language or friendly help in each one.  All the hotels were very well located and we could walk just about everywhere we wanted to go.

We will happily recommend Totally Spain to our friends and families.

Our thanks and regards to you and your team.