Castles · Tour

Private Nine Hours: El Escorial, Segovia Cathedral and the Alcázar

Nine hours, one group, a Mercedes-Benz V-Class with its own driver, and an official guide for the whole day. Pickup and drop-off at your hotel in Madrid, and nobody else in the vehicle. Three admissions are in the price: the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, the Cathedral of Segovia, and the Alcázar palace and museum. The one exclusion is stated plainly, which is rare: the Tower of Juan II at the Alcázar is not covered. At El Escorial the guide works through the Basilica, the Royal Library, the Royal Pantheon and the palace apartments, and through what the building meant to Philip II and to the monarchy after him. Segovia takes the afternoon. There is free time around the Plaza Mayor for lunch, which is not included; the guide will point you at the restaurants that do the roast suckling pig properly. Then the Cathedral, the last great Gothic church built in Spain, and the Alcázar, which went from medieval fortress to royal palace and is tied up with Isabella I of Castile. The day finishes at the Roman aqueduct, standing where it has stood for close to two thousand years, before the private drive back. Being private, the pace bends to the group, within the opening hours of the monuments.