Paris and Madrid
8 DAYS
Paris 3 • Madrid 3
Basic Inclusions
Accommodations
Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person.
Meals
All breakfasts. All dinners.
Transportation
Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.
Guide
Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout. All tips are included in the Program Cost. Whisper headsets included.
Travel Protection
Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.
Tour Summary
Itinerary Includes
Unlimited public transportation
Days 1-2: Arrival Paris
Arrival transfer
Day 3: Paris
Paris City Sightseeing, Excursion to the Palace of Versailles, RER train to Paris: Local Guide
Photo stop near Notre-Dame Cathedral
Seine River cruise
Day 4: Paris
Optional Excursion to the Loire Valley: Visit to the Château de Chenonceau, Lunch in Chenonceaux, Visit to the Château de Chambord, Chambord HistoPad interactive tablet
Ascent to the second level of the Eiffel Tower: Optional Eiffel Tower Summit (subject to availability)
Optional Capitaine Fracasse dinner cruise
Day 5: Paris - Madrid
Departure transfer, Flight Paris-Madrid, Arrival transfer
Day 6: Madrid
Half-day city sightseeing: Guide, Visit to the Prado Museum, Prado headset
Day 7: Madrid
Optional Excursion to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen: Visit to the Royal Monastery of El Escorial, Visit to the Valley of the Fallen
Day 8: Departure
Departure transfer
UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
CITY-CENTER HOTELS
Stay right in the heart of it. Why settle for staying outside of the city? Wake up in the city. Explore. Have dinner in the city. Explore. Return to the hotel at your convenience.
Check out our typical hotels
3-AND-4 STAR HOTELS
We’ve scoured each city for the finest hotels for our groups. Comfortable, conveniently located, clean and safe. That’s what we do.
HOTEL CHOICE
We give you options - but the choice is yours.
AMAZING FOOD
Student tour dinners don’t have to stink! Enjoy authentic, high-quality food, and lots of it. Three-course meals that you will want to post on social media.
Check out what our food is like
INDUSTRY BEST TOUR DIRECTORS
Passports contracts only the finest, A+ Tour Directors in the industry. With decades of experience, our team is second-to-none in terms of experience and professionalism. Read more about our amazing Tour Directors.
24-HOUR SERVICE
Your Tour Director will meet you at the airport and stay with you every step of the way until your return flight. They are your own personal travel expert.
INCLUDED FLIGHTS
We work with the airlines so you don’t have to.
BEST AVAILABLE ROUTINGS
We look for the best possible routings for your group with a minimal number of legs and ideal layovers. We try to get you in early - but not too early - to maximize your time overseas.
MORE INCLUSIONS
UNLIMITED PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION INCLUDED
You don’t want to have to worry about getting metro tickets when you’re pressed for time. We provide pre-loaded travel cards so that you can hit the ground running.
INCLUDED OVERSEAS MEDICAL COVERAGE
Passports provides and pays for a post-departure travel protection plan that helps protect you while on your trip with coverage for trip interruption, trip delay, baggage loss, theft or delay, emergency medical expenses, evacuation and more.
ALL TIPS INCLUDED OPTION
Tour Directors receive tips at the end of the tour. Including the tip in the up-front tour cost saves your group from carrying around extra money overseas or being surprised with an extra expense at the end of the tour. This is just another way that Passports is honest and up-front about all expenses. You can choose to include the tip ahead of time - or not to. Passports gives you the option.
NO ON TOUR UPSELL
Ever been pressured on tour to purchase an excursion? Or been shuttled into one workshop after another? Not with Passports.
VALUE VALUE VALUE
Dollar-for-dollar Passports is the best value you can get. Our tours are packed with included activities for a price that you can't beat with any other company.
HUMAN-FIRST POLICIES
FANATICAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT
We are here to be your partner. We support our group leaders 100%. Through thick and thin, we will work with you to make your travel program an annual success.
BEST REFUND POLICY IN THE INDUSTRY
Passports refunds 75% until 30 days prior to departure as our default policy. Early cancellations have fixed, low cancellation penalties. We would love for you to compare our cancellation policy to our competitors. Passports acts as the best partner we can, for every traveler, on every tour. That’s our promise.
SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT
Our Tour Advisors are amazing people who work with the group leaders during the pre-sale, enrollment, pre-departure, on-tour and post-tour periods. They check in when the group is overseas. They are the point of contact throughout the entire process to assist in all phases of the tour. This is more important than you would think unless you’ve been with another company and changed hands several times in the course of the tour. The point is: trust and accountability are critical in our relationship with a group leader.
NO HIDDEN CHARGES
No adult fee. With Passports, adults pay the same as students. Oftentimes adults will opt for a double room as they can’t room with students, and there is a charge for the double room. But there is no charge simply for being an adult.
No hidden airline fees. No hidden tripwire fees. With Passports, what you see is what you get.
Detailed Itinerary
Days 1-2: Arrival
Weeks, or even months of preparation come to fruition at last as you board your airplane bound for Europe and the glittering jewel at her heart, Paris. Bienvenue!
Settle into your hotel, then have a look at one of the world's most beautiful capital cities.
Time permitting, you may want to head to Montmartre, Paris' highest hill and its most celebrated bohemian district. Artists still flock to the charming Place du Tertre, as they did when Toulouse-Lautrec painted the French Cancan dancers at the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. Visitors enjoy panoramic views of the city as they make their way to the Sacré-Coeur, the white-domed basilica that anchors the Parisian skyline.
Overnight: Paris
Day 3: Paris City Sightseeing, Excursion to Versailles, RER train to Paris, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Seine River Cruise
Set out on a coach tour of the city in the company of a local guide. On the Right Bank of the River Seine, see Napoléon's Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysées, the Place de la Concorde, and the exuberant Opéra Garnier. On the Left Bank, discover the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides, the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
A full-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Paris and its surroundings, will accompany your group.
Enjoy a bit of relevant French history today at the palace where the Sun King, Madame de Pompadour and Queen Marie-Antoinette all come to life. In this ultimate example of Baroque architecture, you will marvel at the lavish decoration, abundant gilding and exuberant ornamentation, particularly in the Royal Apartments of Louis XIV and in the Hall of Mirrors. Imagine the sense of self-importance that must have inflated the ego of these kings and queens.
Then, take a stroll around the Main Gardens.
Return to Paris using the efficient RER transit system.
View Notre-Dame de Paris, gutted by the fire of April 15, 2019, but still standing, solemn and magnificent with its iconic towers miraculously preserved from destruction.
Begun in 1163 and completed in 1272, this cathedral has presided over centuries of glorious and somber French history, including its desecration during the French Revolution. In 1831, Victor Hugo launched a campaign of restoration with a novel he titled Notre Dame de Paris. Because he saw the cathedral as the main character, he strongly objected to the title of the English edition: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
See Paris transformed into a wonderland like no other during a cruise along the River Seine.
Overnight: Paris
Day 4: Paris, Optional Excursion to the Loire Valley, Eiffel Tower
Plan your free time or consider an optional excursion.
An excursion takes you into the very essence of the history and culture of France. See two of France's loveliest châteaux, which define the sophistication of the Renaissance.
Discover the prettiest of the Loire Valley châteaux, which spans the River Cher. In 1547, King Henri II gave this property to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. On her orders, splendid gardens were added and a bridge was built to link the castle to the other bank of the Cher. The famous gallery later erected upon that bridge by Queen Catherine de Medici served, during World War II, as an escape route between Nazi-occupied northern France and unoccupied southern France.
Lunch is included on this excursion.
Enter the largest of the Loire Valley castles (440 rooms and 80 staircases). At the age of 25, King François I decided to build a sumptuous residence, and he did. However, over the 32 years of his reign he only spent 42 days at Chambord!
Today, visitors marvel at the park (enclosed by a wall 18 miles long), at the grand façade, and at the famous Double Helix Staircase (Grand Escalier), which leads to a roof adorned with 200 chimneys!
Let the 3D and virtual reality technology of your HistoPad Chambord fill up castle rooms as they were in their heyday, back in the 16th century, while you listen to automatically triggered commentaries.
Take an elevator to the deuxième étage of the most famous cast iron structure ever built, la Tour Eiffel, for an unforgettable panorama of Paris.
Ascend to the third level of the tower.
This evening, dine in style and see illuminations transform Paris into a wonderland like no other as the Capitaine Fracasse cruise ship takes you along the River Seine.
Overnight: Paris
Day 5: Paris, Flight to Madrid
Enjoy some free time in Paris.
Take a stroll along the glamorous Avenue des Champs-Elysées, which stretches for more than a mile from the Place de la Concorde, where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette encountered Dr. Guillotin's invention and their fate. The obelisk at the center of the square was presented by Egypt to France in 1831 and dates back to the 13th century BC, a relic of Ramses II. In the vicinity stands the Palais de l'Elysée, built in 1718, which now serves as the residence of the President of the Republic. At the other end of the avenue, the Arc de Triomphe looms over the city's craziest rotary. (You may want to climb up to the monument's platform for a great overview of the area!)
You may wish to visit the Musée de la Parfumerie Fragonard housed in the Théâtre des Capucines, a theater built in 1900 that was transformed into a museum in 1993. Its collections illustrate the history and manufacture of perfume. A mini-factory with a 19th-century copper distilling apparatus demonstrates the extraction of essences. Visitors also learn all about the esoteric artistry of the "Noses."
Check out Rue Cler, a pedestrian-only street lined with shops that are quintessentially French. You will see boulangeries with crunchy breads, pâtisseries with scrumptious pastries, boucheries and charcuteries with their array of meats, poissonneries with freshly caught seafood and fromageries with the proverbial 365 kinds of French cheeses. There are also wine shops and épiceries with fresh fruit and produce. In addition, every morning (except Mondays) and again in the late afternoon (except Sundays), Rue Cler hosts an open-air market whose stalls overflow with more foodstuff and goods. This is the place to shop for a truly-French picnic (there's a park nearby).
Today's flight takes you from France to Spain.
¡Bienvenidos! Welcome to Madrid, the bustling capital of Spain.
Get settled in your madrileño hotel and explore your surroundings.
Overnight: Madrid
Day 6: Madrid City Sightseeing, Madrid
On a tour of the city, you will be introduced to the sights and the city grand squares: Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, Plaza de España with the Cervantes Monument, Gran Vía, Calle Alcalá, Plaza de Colón, and Plaza de Cibeles with its fountains.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Madrid and its surroundings, will accompany your group.
View world-famous paintings by El Greco, Goya, and Velázquez, and much. much more, at the magnificent Museo del Prado.
The remainder of the day is free to plan as you wish.
For lunch, why not duck into a sidewalk mesón for a sopa de pescado or some calamares?
Consider a visit to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, which houses one of the largest private collections of paintings ever assembled, with some 800 works ranging from the 13th century to the present day.
Overnight: Madrid
Day 7: Optional Excursion to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen, Madrid
Set out for the wooded slopes of Mt. Abantos, watershed of the Guadarrama River, where Spanish royalty retreated from the summer heat and from the bustle of the capital city.
At the palatial religious retreat of King Philip II, El Escorial, you will see the Royal Pantheon where the kings are buried, the Crypt of the Royal Children, the Apartments of King Philip, the Basilica with Titian's fresco depicting the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, and the lavish library, which contains 40,000 rare manuscripts, including the diary of St. Teresa of Ávila.
Stop at the Valle de los Caídos, a wooded belvedere nestled in the Guadarrama Mountains that features the world's largest monumental cross. It's also the site of an underground basilica that General Franco ordered carved inside a hill of solid granite by prisoners of war from the Republican side. It once housed his tomb but was removed to avoid public veneration of his dictatorship. Make your way across the vast esplanade for a panoramic view of valleys and mountains.
A well-educated and specially-trained local guide will accompany your group.
The afternoon is unscheduled.
Why not stroll through Retiro Park. Once royalty's playground, El Parque del Retiro now opens its gardens and recreational areas to the public. You may be tempted by a row boat ride on the lake (you row!), or by a solar boat ride (you relax!).
Of course, in Spain one must experience the tapas, the delightful snacks served in any bars de tapas; why not sample them today?
Overnight: Madrid
Day 8: Departure
¡Adios España! Madrid's airport recedes and you're 500 miles closer to home with each hour in the air. Race the sun westward, arriving home later today, eager to share your experiences with family and friends.
CUSTOM TOURS
All tours can be customized to your particular needs.
Or start from scratch - we will build your dream tour!
Paris City Sightseeing
Excursion to Versailles
Seine River Cruise
Eiffel Tower Level Two Ascent
Madrid City Sightseeing
Plaza Mayor
Optional Excursion to El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen
Free time in Madrid
A deep dive into how travel opens students’ minds not just to cultures, but to future career paths in fields like global studies, archaeology, art history, and even diplomacy.