Hola, todos. Last year I went with my school's Spanish Club to Spain through EF Tours on their "Grand Tour of Spain" (see this link: http://eftours.com/FindATour/Tour.aspx?c...p;touryear=2007 )

It was great! We spent a lot of time traveling, since we went through a very large portion of the country in about two weeks.

However, I want to return next year with my brother, who's never been. I enjoyed seeing so much of the country and its diversity that I wanted to take this grand tour again, but since I won't be with a school, I can't go through their EF School Tours. I checked out EF Tours College Break (efcollegebreak.com), which is for travelers 18-30, but I dont see a grand tour, only smaller ones. Does anyone know if you can do a grand tour without being tied to a school/larger group?

(P.S. I'd like to stick with EF. I was extremely impressed with their tour guides and logistics. I went on this huge trip including airfare from my hometown and stayed in up to 4-star hotels for about 2000 dollars. I thought it was great.)

Hola eltorero! EF's Grand Tour of Spain looks great - the itinerary is much more interesting than most that you'll find. And EF's prices sure are hard to beat!

I can really understand where you're coming from! I organize multigenerational tours and I think they're wonderful. My son, who must be about your age (starting university this fall) is also a great fan. It sounds to me from this and other posts like the two of you have a lot in common!

Here's a bit of advice. If you're set on going again with EF, try talking to the teacher in charge of the trip at your old school. Ask if they would consider taking you along. Numbers are important on these trips, and the teacher in charge may bend rules to add another person who isn't a student. Really. Try it. That's probably the only way you'll go on a tour with EF, unless you can convince a teacher you can be a chaperone!

It's very hard to find another tour with prices as low as the student companies like EF offer, and of them all, EF is one of the cheapest. As far as the tour guides/managers/directors go, these great people tend to freelance and work for any number of companies. Europe is filled with great guides, and they're the ones who make a tour a success. Luckily, they work for lots of companies.

The other thing that will be hard is finding as good/complete a tour with another company. Most tours of Spain are shorter and hit the main sights only - Madrid, Seville, Granada. Maybe Toldeo, Barcelona, Cordoba. Costa del Sol is often thrown in for the beach. (There are cheap hotels there, and plenty of them, which is a concern for big tour operators. Otherwise, IMHO there are MANY other more attractive beaches to visit in Spain!) I took a quick look around and here are some links for you to take a look at.

This one has lists of tours to Spain from many companies. It'll give you an idea of what's available and the names of the major tour operators.
http://www.tourvacationstogo.com/spain_tours.cfm

Trafalgar\'s 16 day Best of Spain tour looks like it may be your best bet itinerary-wise, and Trafalgar is excellent. They hire only the best tour managers.

Another one is Gate1's 17 Day Iberian Kaleidoscope http://www.gate1travel.com/spain-travel/17D-iberian-kaleidoscope.asp

You don't have to be part of an organized group to go on these tours. You would travel with whomever else signs up. You could end up making great new friends!

Of course, you could also travel on your own. It's a bit daunting, though, if you've never done it before, and somewhat limiting if you have to rely on public transportation (although it is very good). Personally, I love traveling with a tour manager and local guides, because I learn so much more with them, and I enjoy traveling with a bunch of people. I also like not having to worry about catching the train or bus when I don't know where the station is, or wondering where I'll sleep! The guides also know the best places to eat and things to do. They're a hundred times better than a book! And to think I traveled on my own for years and years...

Good luck!

Thanks! Yes, I really like EF and hope to travel with them again. While I'm certain I'll travel on my own sometime, I also like haveing the tour directors handle logistics, and also really like the low price including airfare.

I think my school would let me go again. I know all the Spanish teachers and am the Spanish club prez, so they know me pretty well. They let some others do the same when I went, the only thing is, is that I'm not sure if they're going again.

I don't much like Costa del Sol. Way too touristy for me. I only really liked it last year because we went to Morocco while we were there. I much prefer the Northern beaches.
Thanks for the links. I'll definitely try them out.

Just one word of caution on EF Tours. One of their high school tours in Spain recently had an incident where one of the females on the tour accused one of the males of rape. The incident happened on the last day of the tour when the students were basically given the afternoon and evening unchaperoned. There was a great deal of drinking, including by under 18 year olds who can not buy booze in Spain.

If any parents are considering allowing their high school students to make a trip to Spain or anywhere the drinking age is 18 or under, please, please, please make sure that the ENTIRE TRIP is properly chaperoned. This does not mean allowing someone just out of high school to be responsible for a group of 20 to 30 teenagers!

Chris, the problem you describe is not just something that could happen on EF tours; it could happen on any student tour, regardless of which company they go with. The tour managers are not chaperones, something that many people do not realize (or perhaps they don't want to believe it). The chaperones are the teachers and the other adults the teachers bring along. If there is a free afternoon in the itinerary (there are always a few, and they're a good thing to have), the tour manager will make some suggestions of sights to see and places to go, but that's it. The chaperones are then responsible for supervising the students - or not, which happens on many, if not most, high school trips.

I totally support your recommendation for parents. They should attend all the pretrip meetings with the teacher in charge and ask many questions about supervision. It's sad to say, but whereas most teachers plan these trips as true educational experiences, a few see it as a free trip to take with friends, and then spend most of it partying themselves. You can imagine what kind of freedom those students have!

I don't know anything about the incident you descibe, but it sounds like the tour manager was perhaps very young. That's a shame, but the incident probably could have happened with even the most experienced tour manager if the chaperones weren't "with it." So yes, parents, be careful! Talk to the teachers in charge, and talk to the kids!