Caminos by Casas Cantabricas Traveller Reviews

This was our 6th touring holiday organised for us by Casas Cantabricas and this time my partner and I started our 10 days at a gem of a small hotel in Porto, the Pensao Favorita. It was quite charming and within walking distance of the city centre and all of the attractions. After 2 days there we collected a hire car from the airport - driving in Porto is something of an unknown nightmare - and headed inland, following the Duoro valley, with vineyards as far as the eye could see. We were stunned by just how high up to the hill tops the terracing extended. How long had that taken to create and what hard work it must have been. Our second stay, at the secluded vineyard of the Morgadio da Calcada, near Provezende, was another treat for all of the senses. The old buildings have been beautifully restored and rooms are mostly arranged around intimate little courtyards. The dining room was very grand but still felt welcoming and dinner was shared at one long table with the host telling us all about the wines he was serving. The small pool, sheltered by high stone walls, also felt very private and somehow special. We explored the surrounding area by car, taking in Pinhao and the Duoro valley and also discovered a charming little bar in the village itself! From there we headed further inland, over the border and on to Salamanca. What an interesting city, with beautiful architecture and its famous Plaza Mayor. When we were there the square was sporting a huge sculpture of a very shiny, silver elephant balanced vertically on its trunk! Our Spanish is not good enough to know what that was all about! Temperatures were considerably higher than normal for mid-June, so our wanderings involved a lot of shade-hopping, apart from when we walked over the Roman bridge, but the view back across the old city was worth the effort. As for the Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, wow! What a delight that was. After Salamanca we drove back into Portugal, stopping to see Cuidad Rodrigo and its beautiful old walls, which we walked right round, accompanied by hundreds of swifts and a good few storks and a handful of little lizards. We would have stayed longer but the temperature was around 39C so a little warm for sightseeing. Our penultimate stay was up in the mountains of the Serra da Estrela, at the Casa das Penhas Douradas, a quite special sort of place. No doubt the views would have been spectacular, but sadly a mix of intense heat haze and, across the horizon, a distant pall of brown smoke from the disastrous forest fires, limited visibility to only those of the nearest slopes. We did a lot of driving from there, taking in glaciated valleys, rugged mountain crags and reservoirs but possibly the best fun was to be had driving up and down kilometer after kilometer of hairpin bend roads - we loved it but it's not for the nervous driver! Our final two days were spent back on the coast in Aveiro. The hotel could not have been better placed, overlooking the famous canal and its colourful boats. Overall then, Casas Cantabricas gave us exactly what we wanted, a holiday tailored to our likes and dislikes, that we thoroughly enjoyed in places that we love and one that we will always remember.

We have now visited Spain and Portugal 6 times with Casas Cantbricas, each time visiting new regions. They have never failed to come up with a well-planned itinerary, taking in some stunning and interesting destinations. The accommodation they find suits us perfectly, from city-centre hotel to mountain-top retreat, from tucked-away quintas to ducal palaces - wonderful! They also provide all of the information you need beforehand and an app which we used for the first time this year and found it extremely useful. I can't fault them!

The property was excellent value in a beautiful location. Booking was easy. Follow up information on Vamoos was brilliant. Andy McCulloch was very helpful when I had to unfortunately cut my holiday short due to a family bereavement. I would most definitely book with them again.

See above. Professional, easy to do business with, super helpful in a crisis.

Self-catering in Picos de Europa, Spain, walking.

Excellent - clearly experts in that part of Spain. Very helpful.

A packed one week driving tour of Grenada, Cordoba and Seville.

Casas Cantabricas - first time I have ever used them but would consider doing so again.

A 3 week tour with classic cars visiting most major cities in Northern Spain and Portugal, Covered about 1700 miles in beautiful countryside visiting some spectacular places. The Tarmac in Spain must be the best in Europe!

This is the 2nd time we have used them. Very helpful and accommodating to our needs.

We had a hire car to travel to seven different locations, a mixture of big cities and beautiful countryside. We enjoyed the different experiences and learnt a great deal about that part of Spain. We were also fortunate with the weather which was mostly fine although cold at night being early May.

They were very helpful in every respect. They organised excellent accommodation, arranged the car hire, provided maps and detailed route plans with suggestions for stops en route. They also provided additional information about that part of Spain to enable us to get the best from our holiday. They were available at the end of the phone to answer any queries we had. They were also flexible making the route suit our personal needs. We would certainly use them again.

We spent the best part of a week touring the central and eastern Pyrenees of Spain. The first 4 days were spent in the region comprising the national parks of Ordesa y Monte Perdido and Aiguestortes i Estany sant Maurci; and also the Posets-Maladetas natural park. The landscape is sensational, and we combined driving the area with some quite long and exhilarating hikes. The hotels were very good, and we now have a good understanding of the 'lie of the land' of the region and will return, next time to concentrate more intimately on those national parks.

Casas Cantabricas provided everything we needed for this first-time trip to the Spanish Pyrenees and were quick to resolve any questions or issues that came up. There website and information was well planned and easy to follow. The hotels they booked us into were very good indeed, and the itinerary followed a logical, well-planned route through the region, giving us a good understanding of the region. For a future trip we now know where we'd like to go, and would certainly consider using the same travel company.

This was an excellent 14 day touring holiday, based on a 10 day Casas Cantabricas holiday. They were very flexible and helpful about the necessary arrangements and adjustments. In the final form, we stayed four nights in all in Porto and two nights each in five different locations, four of which were historic Quintas in the countryside and the fifth a very good well-positioned hotel in Guimaraes. All the Quintas were good or excellent but perhaps the highlight was the night in a Quinta high above the Douro where we had the whole of the 18th century manor house and grounds to ourselves, with the only other person in evidence being the very helpful lady who cooked an excellent dinner and served it to us on a balcony off the panelled dining room. In advance, we were slightly nervous that this was Casas Cantabricas' first year operating in Portugal and that as we were quite early in the year (in May), there might be some teething problems at some destinations. But it was clear that Casas had done the necessary on-the-ground work and in the event their efforts resulted in us staying in much more interesting places than we might have booked if we had tried to arrange it all ourselves.

Casas Cantabricas are a North Spain specialist with 2017 being their first year operating in Nothern Portugal. They were very helpful and flexible in arranging our touring holiday in Northern Portugal and it was clear that they had put a lot of work into identifying interesting and high quality places to stay, notably historic quintas in the Douro valley and elsewhere that we would not have found by our own efforts

A week's fly drive holiday with hire car touring northern Spain (Asturias and Cantabria). Three different areas of northern Spain were chosen - the first hotel in a rural mountain area staying in the Palacio du Libardon was stunning. The second hotel was situated in the mountains and the third hotel near the coast. A wonderful way of seeing different regions of northern Spain.

Casas Cantabricas were extremely helpful when arranging this holiday for us even when we needed to slightly alter our itinerary due to a delayed flight. They organised a taxi pick up from Bilbao airport when our flight arrived late at night. They provide a map and travel book. All the information from them (booking and travel) could be accessed on an app which also provided local information of the area.

Our property was ideal for a large (8 )group of friends. We had plenty of space for everybody in a very peaceful location. We rented bikes and cycled several days and also walked in the country side, a great location for those that like the countryside. We were also within driving distance of the beaches and Santander City. Great holiday location in a beautiful part of Spain.

Efficent Helpful. Informative. Excellent.