I recently completed the tour through Northern Spain. Our tour guide, Laura was very knowledgeable and took good care of us. She led the group professionally and with humour. The cities and communities that we visited were interesting, culturally diverse and easy to walk around, except for the cobblestones, but that is Europe. Loved having time to sit in the piazzas and enjoy a drink or meal. Would recommend for those who like visiting unique areas and not just big cities.

A great tour, true to description. Thoroughly enjoyable and a great exposure to Spain and its culture

Guillermo our Guide was amazing so knowledgeable kind helpful and patient.
The bus driver Eusabio was fantastic.
He was so cheerful loading and unloading our bags and we always felt safe while he was driving.
The itinerary and accommodation were really excellent too.

Had a fabulous trip, got to see and experience parts of Spain that we wouldn’t normally have visited

I cannot fault this tour of Northern Spain. It was loaded with charm especially the medieval hilltop villages scattered throughout the countryside each with their own compelling history. From Bilbao and the Guggenheim museum, the Bayonne Cathedral and the towns history, the vineyard and winery of LaGuardia, walking in the footsteps of the bulls to the ring in Pamplona and with a cookery class where we worked for our lunch! From delightful boutique hotels to a monastery for accommodation where we were wined and dined very well. No complaints!

I loved my Back Roads tour to Northern Spain. Everyday was fabulous!
Julia was the most wonderful tour guide. She was knowledgeable, enthusiastic & such fun!! The best tour guide ever!
The accomodation was better than I imagined.
Very disappointed in our meal at Monasterio de Boltaña. It was inedible! I hate to think what we’d paid for it!!!!!

Julia was an exceptional tour leader, her ability to speak Spanish was a fantastic help..
She had a lot of patience and was a great organiser. Antonio the driver was tops and we felt safe in is hands

We really enjoyed our tour, our guide Georgina was outstanding. The accommodation was great and each day was timed to perfection with walking, activities, leisure and travel. We also had a great group of fellow travelers.

We saw some amazing places and stayed in wonderful places. Our guide and local guides did a great job of instilling a sense of how proud the people are of what they have been through history.
I don’t think I had ever heard of Girona, but it was a wonderful stop. Pamplona was a bucket list stop so only half a day is somewhat disappointing.
We had the most amazing tour director. Julia went so far behind her duties to make sure we appreciated that part of the world. She organized group meals that were so much fun and gave us a great taste of local customs. She introduced us to Basque cheesecake. She told us about quirky local customs.

Bus and Tour leaders were fantastic
accommodation very good
some people too old and slowed days trips down the travel agents need to tell how much walking and not suitable for those with poor eyesight or walking disability
not for those over 75 yrs
food at set dinners was not always palletable
soups were very good
not everyone wanted to be made to sit together on free nights

The Backroad Highlights of Northern Spain was a wonderful tour. OUr tour guide Georgina was very helpful and was able to provide many interesting facts about the areas we visited. She also took time out to help with restaurant bookings and also took those, who were keen walkers, on some longer walks. The Pyrenees region is beautiful and formed a major part of the tour. We would like to do other Backroad Tours in the future.

The tour was very well organised and the tour leader and bus driver were excellent. I was disappointed with myself that I had not realised that there would be so many towns and cathedrals rather than meeting and sharing with the local people.

We had a wonderful Tour Guide - Georgina Gentle, a fabulous driver, a great group and wonderful scenery. Accommodation was also good. Only problem probably was, bus was a bit squishy. Perhaps a bigger bus should be considered. We had fun. Margie

I was completely happy with the itinerary, tour leader and driver.

There was a really good variety of activities on the tour and we had an excellent tour guide who kept us informed and organised in a lovely relaxed and friendly manner.

We love everything! Julia was a great leader
The only thing that may have been better was to stay in Garone and visit Dhalis house from there. But if it was sunny time it would be great to stay at the beach
Also being dropped off in Barcelona wasn’t great. We thought that the last night would have been great to have and to finish our n Barcelona

Excellent trip. Everything went smoothly because of our guide and she made the time memorable

The tour exceeded our expectations with wonderful experiences in beautiful cities and ancient towns. We loved the wine tasting, cooking class and visit to the sheep milking farm. Our guide and driver were both very friendly and approachable and we had a wonderful time.

Great Guide - Julia
Good pace of walking, driving, activities each day - some days busier than others - and a 'quiet' day mid tour was welcome.
Like minded travellers.
Super driver - Agus
Variety of activities was excellent. It was one of the reasons I chose this tour; the reality was better than expected.

So enjoyed the smaller "back roads" experiences of Highlights of Northern Spain. Meeting producers, tasting area specialty foods and wines, all aspects of this tour was really enjoyable and interesting. Fabulous organisation by the tour leader. A lot of fun and wonderful accomodation experiences too.

Great tour, superb team leader, Julia, with great knowledge and very kind.
Nothing was too much trouble for her.
Absolutely recommend.

Pluses: Interesting locations and activities.
Great coach driver and coach.
Some excellent dinners
Good food and wine
Some really good hotels.
Tour leader tried but....
Against: Tour leaders first time. Getting read about sites off her phone. Learning with us rather than leading. Not Tour Leaders fault but a fail by Backroads not having an experienced leader as well for a first time leader.
Some sub average breakfasts, such as stale bread, extremely limited selections.
A final dinner which was a shambles and ended the tour on a low note. Whoever is the agent working for Backroads in Northern Spain needs either to be replaced or counselled.

I know every trip has its ups and downs but this one had a few too many issues.

BUT take out the negatives the Tour was overall enjoyable.

Locations and interests and activities well selected. Hard to go wrong in such a great region.

This is a laid back relaxed tour with some interesting sights including Guggenheim, Monasteries and some Romanesque Cathedrals. The architecture is wonderful and the visits to cheese farms and wineries are interesting. There is too much repetition re churches and medieval villages and free time spent in pointless places was disappointing. Local guides are very educational and there should be more use of them. Our tour leader worked very hard to meet our every need. Most accommodation was good but some eg Girona and Cardona were very poor. Food varied, some very good and some disastrous eg Farewell dinner in Girona.

Great itinerary with varied and interesting experiences. All group members got along very well. Our guide Letitia was extremely knowledgeable about her country and her enthusiasm was contagious. We rate this tour top-notch and would recommend it highly

The overall trip was very good ,but we travelled through some wonderful farm land and orchard and thought it needed some attention and details about this side of Spain where all their food comes food come overall it was a very pleasant trip thank you for asking

The small tour group of 10 was great. Pam was a warm hearted and helpful guide and the specialist guides in Bilbao and Lleida were excellent. Girona guide was adequate but not as inspiring. The included meals were far too big. Accommodation good, and the winery and monastery stays particularly memorable. I am wondering whether some basic ground rules for participants might help reduce some unacceptable behaviours.

Excellent itenerary. Learned a lot. Great hotels. Lots of fun.

It was through a travel agent.

Great value as we toured top sites. That and the excellent service make top value.

Well organised central locations for accommodation but out of the way stay at winery was fantastic

The tour followed the prescribed itinerary so there were no unexpected disappointments.

Lack of variety, too slow

Terrific guide. Good driver. Bus ok, could have had more leg room.

to many churches. cathederals at the top of hills. language very hard to follow, as there are 3 different ones.. hot

The 2 nights in lagudia unenjoyable. Accom poor. No yea/coffee/water. No bar or lounge area. Nothing to do. Suggest 2 nights in Dan Sebastian coast area would be wiser. Or another accom in a town or village.. otherwise really enjoyed our tour

Great architecture and history. Unfortunately most information we had to find ourselves.