Iberia, Vineyards & Chateaux Tour & Cruise

The tour begins in Madrid, Spain’s capital and the highest capital city in Europe. The Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofia give Madrid one of the finest art museum triptychs in the world. The BackRoads group assembles this evening for the welcome dinner.

Toledo is the most complete medieval city in Spain, its walled hilltop position above the Tagus river, its Gothic cathedral, the El Greco museum and the synagogues and mosques of the Mudéjar quarter all within the original city walls. The cathedral treasury holds El Greco’s largest work, a painting of 13 figures at 4.6 metres wide.

The Mezquita of Cordoba is the most extraordinary building in Spain, a forest of 856 columns in striped red and white stone built as a mosque in the 8th century with a Gothic cathedral inserted into its centre in the 16th. The Jewish quarter immediately outside the Mezquita, the oldest in Spain, preserves a labyrinth of whitewashed lanes and courtyards that define the Moorish city at its most intimate.

The Alhambra is the most visited monument in Spain and one of the finest examples of Islamic architecture in the world. The Nasrid Palaces within the complex, with their geometric tile work, carved plasterwork and garden courtyards, represent the culmination of 700 years of Moorish civilisation in Iberia. Pre-booking is essential and BackRoads arrangements cover the entry.

Ronda is one of the most dramatically situated towns in Spain, its old city perched on a limestone plateau above a 100-metre gorge carved by the Guadalevín River. The Puente Nuevo bridge crossing the gorge is one of the most photographed structures in Andalucia. Ronda is also the birthplace of modern bullfighting and the Plaza de Toros, dating to 1784, is the oldest and most celebrated bullring in Spain.

Seville is Andalucia’s capital and its most energetic city, the flamenco tradition, the Real Alcázar and the third-largest Gothic cathedral in the world all within walking distance of each other. The Alcázar’s Mudejar architecture, requested by Pedro I from Moorish craftsmen in 1364 despite the Reconquista, is one of the finest examples of the Christian and Islamic architectural fusion that defines southern Spain.

The drive west into Portugal’s Alentejo region covers the most sparsely populated and least-visited landscape on the Iberian Peninsula, the cork oak forests, the whitewashed hilltop villages, the medieval castle towns of Marvão and Monsaraz and the rolling plains of wheat and sunflowers that define Portugal’s heartland.

A full day in the Alentejo, the source of most of Portugal’s cork, wine and olive oil. The region’s black pork, sheep’s cheese and cataplana fish stew are the finest expression of Portuguese food culture outside Lisbon. Évora, the UNESCO-listed Roman city with its Temple of Diana, is the region’s cultural capital and within easy reach by road.

The tour arrives in Lisbon and the afternoon is free to explore the Portuguese capital before the included hotel night. The Belem district, with the Jerónimos Monastery and the Belem Tower visible from the waterfront, gives the best introduction to the Age of Discovery that made Lisbon one of the world’s great powers for a century. The pastel de nata from Pastéis de Belém is the finest single food experience in Portugal.

A second day in Lisbon and the city reveals its quieter layers. The Alfama, the medieval Moorish quarter that survived the 1755 earthquake, rises steeply above the Tagus in a maze of lanes and miradouros viewpoints. The Museu Nacional do Azulejo, housed in a 16th-century convent, holds the finest collection of Portuguese tile art in the world. The number 28 tram through the Alfama is the most atmospheric way to move through the city.

The final land tour day covers two of Lisbon’s most celebrated day trips. Sintra, 30 kilometres northwest in the Serra de Sintra hills, was the royal summer retreat for centuries and its extraordinary concentration of romantic palaces, the Pena Palace, the Moorish Castle and the Quinta da Regaleira, within a UNESCO World Heritage landscape, is unlike anywhere else in Portugal. Cascais on the Atlantic coast, the seaside resort where the Portuguese royal family spent their summers, gives the afternoon a more relaxed character.

The BackRoads tour concludes this morning in Lisbon with the transfer to the port, where Oceania Vista is docked for the cruise component of the journey. Eleven nights sail north along the Atlantic coast, beginning with Porto tomorrow. The Grand Dining Room and the Ember restaurant are both worth exploring on this first evening aboard.

Oceania Vista calls at Porto, and the city that gave its name to port wine reveals itself from the water as one of the most beautiful in Europe. The UNESCO-listed Ribeira waterfront, the Dom Luís I Bridge above the Douro and the Vila Nova de Gaia port wine lodges on the south bank are all visible from the ship. Ashore, the Livraria Lello bookshop, with its neo-Gothic interior and Art Nouveau staircase, is the finest bookshop in Portugal and one of the most beautiful in the world. The Clérigos Tower gives the finest elevated view of the city and the Douro below. June in Porto means warm evenings and the terrace restaurants of the Ribeira fully in operation.

La Coruna is the gateway to Santiago de Compostela, one of the most significant pilgrimage cities in the world and the stated destination of the Camino de Santiago walking routes that converge from across Europe. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, containing the tomb of Saint James and approached by pilgrims who have walked hundreds of kilometres to reach it, is one of the most emotionally charged arrivals in Christian Europe. La Coruna itself is worth the morning: the Tower of Hercules, the only functioning Roman lighthouse in the world, has been guiding ships into the harbour continuously since the 2nd century.

Bilbao’s transformation from post-industrial port city to one of Europe’s most architecturally celebrated destinations is one of the great urban reinvention stories of the 20th century. Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum, its titanium cladding rippling along the Nervión River, catalysed a regeneration that turned Bilbao into a global destination in under a decade. The old quarter’s pintxos bars, where plates of elaborately constructed bar snacks are refreshed every hour, give the afternoon its finest practical expression of Basque food culture.

Biarritz was the resort of European royalty before it became the birthplace of French surfing. Napoleon III built his summer palace for Empress Eugénie here in the 1850s, and the resulting influx of aristocracy gave the city the grand Belle Époque hotels, the casino and the social infrastructure that makes it unlike any other resort on the Atlantic coast. The Grande Plage and the Plage des Basques are both excellent June swimming beaches. The blue-domed Russian Orthodox church, built for visiting Russian aristocrats in the 19th century, is the most unexpected building in Biarritz.

Oceania Vista sails up the Gironde estuary to Bordeaux and the approach to the city along the Garonne, with the 18th-century waterfront crescent of golden stone emerging from the flat vineyard landscape, is one of the great river arrivals in European cruising. The Place de la Bourse, the Grand Théâtre and the Cité du Vin give the city its cultural content. The Médoc châteaux north of the city, Margaux, Pauillac and Saint-Estèphe, are accessible by organised tour for those who want the wine country at its most concentrated.

A second full day in Bordeaux and the wine regions beyond the city reveal themselves further. Saint-Émilion, 35 kilometres east, is the most beautiful of the Bordeaux wine villages, its 12th-century monolithic church carved directly into the limestone rock below the medieval town making it one of the most extraordinary man-made spaces in France. The limestone caves below the village, used for wine storage since the Middle Ages, are accessible on a guided tour that pairs the tasting with the geology. Oceania Vista departs this afternoon.

A sea day in the Bay of Biscay heading north toward Brittany. The Atlantic swell at this latitude in late June is typically gentle and the bay’s reputation for rough weather is largely a winter phenomenon. The Aquamar Spa Terrace, the pool deck and the Ember restaurant are all excellent companions for a warm Atlantic sea day. Brest arrives tomorrow on the westernmost tip of France.

Brest is France’s most westerly major city, its deep natural harbour at the very tip of the Finistère peninsula where the Atlantic drives directly against the Breton coast. The city was almost entirely destroyed in World War II and rebuilt with a functional postwar character unlike any other French city. The Château de Brest, the only building to survive the bombardment, houses the National Maritime Museum. The Oceanopolis marine science complex, one of the largest in Europe with over 1,000 species, gives an excellent afternoon alternative.

Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, its position 22 kilometres from the Normandy coast giving it a history shaped by both France and Britain across nearly a millennium. St Helier’s covered market, the Jersey War Tunnels documenting the five-year German Occupation from 1940 to 1945 and Elizabeth Castle in the tidal zone below the town are the three most compelling sites. Jersey Royal new potatoes, Jersey cream and the island’s cider apple traditions are the finest local food products in the British Isles.

Le Havre sits at the mouth of the Seine where it meets the English Channel, connected to the charming Normandy port town of Honfleur on the opposite bank by the elegant Pont de Normandie cable bridge. Le Havre’s city centre, rebuilt by architect Auguste Perret after wartime bombing, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its extraordinary coherent example of 1950s reinforced concrete urbanism. Honfleur’s picturesque harbour, lined with tall narrow houses reflected in still water, is one of the most painted scenes in Normandy. The Musée Eugène Boudin, dedicated to the pre-Impressionist who discovered Monet painting on the Honfleur quayside, is the finest single art museum in Normandy.

A final sea day as Oceania Vista crosses the English Channel toward Southampton. The French coast is visible to the south and the English coastline to the north as the ship navigates one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors. Southampton arrives tomorrow morning and the 24-night Iberia, Vineyards and Chateaux journey draws to its close. Tonight is worth a farewell reservation at Polo Grill or Toscana.

Oceania Vista arrives in Southampton and the voyage concludes in one of the world’s great maritime cities, the departure point for the Titanic in April 1912 and the Queen Mary and SS Normandie in the 1930s. The SeaCity Museum gives the most complete account of Southampton’s maritime history. Transfer to Southampton Airport, London by train or your onward arrangements. Twenty-four nights have covered the full arc of the Iberian Peninsula from Madrid’s art museums through Cordoba, Granada, Seville and the Alentejo to Lisbon, and then the full Atlantic coast of Europe from Porto north to the Channel Islands and Normandy. Ask your Cruiseabout specialist about a post-cruise London extension before flying home.