My usual approach to holidays is more free-wheeling than escorted tours, as I worry about not having enough time in the places we’d be taken. I suspect other people my age would feel the same.
But even with those concerns, the Travel Department’s week-long holiday – Highlights of Andalucía – seemed irresistible: accommodation and most meals were included, as well as entry to some of the most astonishing historical sites in Europe.
In the capable hands of our excellent holiday guide Alejandro, we would be based for the first half of the week in a hotel high above the town of Loja, appropriately named El Mirador, meaning the overlook. The view from the roof terrace was indeed superb.
From that central point, we would be travelling to sites such as the mysterious megalithic dolmens at Antequera.
“We have many questions, many answers,” said Alejandro. “Are they real, are they fake? Let’s find out.”
Well, they are definitely real, as I went inside them. I’m not sure how many of the other questions about the millennia-old structures might have answers, though.
Getting to know fellow travellers
I quickly saw the appeal in the coach tour when chatting to the other people who had come along, all lovely folk variously from Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
They were just good fun. One woman from Newton Mearns told me she usually travels via freely available webcams placed around the world and available online. An Irish woman reacted to entering the ancient tomb by saying: “Crikey, it is spooky isn’t it?”
I’d get to know them during our dinners back at El Mirador, and on the group tours of the stunning Islamic architecture in buildings such as the Mezquita in Cordoba and the Real Alcazar in Seville.
Walking the streets of Seville in our little tourist enclave, I spoke to one man from Dublin who was on his first coach trip and said he was enjoying being pointed directly towards points of interest.
His least favourite part of holidays was working out the good places to eat, so the pre-scheduled meals were perfect, and he loved the moments when he could just switch off and hand responsibility to someone else.
It was a different perspective to my spontaneous self, but I could understand it. Then we jumped quickly back on the coach – we were in Andalucia during one of the earliest Spanish heatwaves in living memory, and it reached an incredible 47C in the region’s capital.
The actual travel was fairly pain-free, despite relatively lengthy rides to some of our destinations.
The view from the windows showed us the extent of the extraordinary olive tree monoculture, stretching off in straight lines to the rocky horizons, and Alejandro would keep us entertained with well-informed potted histories of 20th Century Spain.
A different vibe in Granada
There was a very clear boundary between that half of the holiday and the latter half, when we left the coach behind to base ourselves in the Catalonia Hotel near the centre of Granada.
I will admit that this was more my preferred style of break.
Aside from a group excursion to the Alhambra, where I was mesmerised all over again by the fusion of Muslim and Catholic culture that characterises this part of Spain, we were largely left to explore the city on our own.
We took full advantage of the opportunity, often ignoring the main tourist draws in an effort to get a better sense of Granada.
There were walks around the medieval Albaicin neighbourhood, which is a World Heritage Site, and cheap cocktails that lasted late into the night. Our favourite spot was the Terraza Monasterio rooftop bar, where we managed to catch a glorious sunset.
On our final night, we went along to a flamenco show in one of the city’s famously intimate caves.
With a pitcher of sangria beside us, we watched open-mouthed as guitarist, singer and dancer demonstrated their talents on the tiny stage, with the music, vocals and movement sliding around each other effortlessly.
We thought that was the ideal way to end the trip, and then found out the following morning was the final day of the city’s Corpus Christi festival, marked by an enormous parade with music, giant puppets and rather aggressive characters in oversized papier mache heads.
The whole thing was a joy.
Maybe this kind of trip could be enjoyed no matter your age.
On the way back to the airport, sucking a Werther’s Original offered to me by a coach-mate, I thought I might need to give it a try again.
Travel facts
Travel Department’s Highlights of Andalucía trip starts from £899pp with flights available flying direct from Aberdeen (13 September 2022) and Glasgow (various dates September 2022 until November 2023).
Flights, accommodation, breakfast and dinner is all included, along with entry to the Alhambra, the Real Alcazar in Seville and the Mezquita in Cordoba.
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