El Escorial, Valley & Segovia with Cathedral day tour from Madrid

Royal Crypt and Aqueduct delivers!

Exceptional stops! Too bad the whispers were lousy quality, and, our guides' English was fair. Segovia needs to get public rest rooms.

Very disappointed with the number of people, wasted time going back and forth to Madrid and poor tour guides

We were disappointed in the number of people on this tour. When we went to board the bus, we were ask to board a bus on which there were no seats for more than 15 people. We then boarded a separate bus that was very comfortable. This issue indicated the people in charge of the tour did not have a handle on the size of the group. When we arrived at El Escorial, the group had to find an additional tour guide for our language. This tour guide walked us through the site but was not really 'engaged" with the group and did not leave much time for questions. Once El Escorial and basilica were visited, we were surprised to hear for the first time that we were returning to Madrid instead of heading directly to Segovia. Thus we spent more than on hour more on the bus and once we got to Segovia our free time to shop the site was greatly reduced and again the tour guide for our langanuge was not easy to understand. While we really recommend the locations for visiting, we recommend booking a tour which has a smaller number of people and one that does not return to Madrid before proceeding to the later afternoon sights.

Not actually a full-day tour

Be aware that this is not actually a day trip. After the morning at Escorial and the Valley, they drove us back to Madrid and told us to return to the tour office after lunch for a Segovia tour. We wasted hours backtracking when the first two locations were on the way to the third, and we could have relaxed and eaten there. Morning tour guide struggled with English and afternoon tour guide would walk away from the group, narrating sites when parts of the tour group were completely out of site. All locations are amazing! Unfortunately, this tour company was not.

The tour was splitted in...

The tour was splitted in two halves. In the morning Escorial and valley of Cuelgamuros. We went back to Madrid and took local lunch. After that in the afternoon to Sevilla. At the end we had a bus ride of 4 hours in a day and missed the oven roasted piglet.

Bus trip to Segovia, El escorial y Valle de los Caidos

The visits were good, although we would have preferred more time in Segovia but the bus we used the whole day was old and the A/C was not working, please VPT tours you know better, imagine this trip in summer, time to modernize your fleet!

Excellent day trip

Well organized, and perfect timings for visiting El Escorial, Valle de Los Caidos and Segovia. The guide was knowledgeable and friendly, the tours has tickets included and the time you get in each place is perfect. Also the lunch break in Madrid makes sense as some people want to mix the tours.

Mixed experience

As with other reviews, these were two separate half day tours with a return to Madrid for lunch after Escorial. Both were bilingual which was a challenge especially in the Segovia tour. In Segovia we may have been the only English speaking clients so it was done primarily in Spanish. The Escorial part went well.

Segovia excursion

Xavier was our guide to Segovia and Christina the driver. Xavier is excellent and shared stories/myths about exhibits. Unfortunately, when making a reservation, only the date can be specified, and one cannot request Xavier. A suggestion: VPT Tours should have toilets when customers check in at the office. Asking customers to go to a cafe or restaurant is no cool.

Interesting tour

Very nice tour (Escorial, Valley of Fallen and Segovia). As others have said, it would be nice not to have to come back to Madrid for lunch, but traffic wasn’t too bad on Sunday so had plenty of time in Segovia. There is a very nice lunch place around the corner to where you’re dropped off (Bar Marius). Local families seemed to eat there.

Poor logistics, otherwise ok

After El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen, we traveled back to Madrid (time for lunch there) and then along the same road to Segovia. Instead of watching the same road, we could have spent more time in El Escorial; now there was no time to see the gardens. The Valley of the Fallen and Segovia parts of the tour were ok.

Great tour

The tour was wonderful. All the sights were amazing. It was a long day going to all 3 places, started at 9am and ended about 8pm. There's a lot of walking involved. We got the lunch option but I don't recommend it. The food was terrible and the service was just as bad. They should not use this restaurant, Restaurante Sabatini, with so many other great options nearby. It would have also been better not to go back to Madrid after El Escorial and Valley of the Fallen since it's a waste of an hour each way to go back to Segovia after lunch. Would have preferred to be dropped off in Segovia for lunch.

Fine! Be prepared to climb up and...

<p>Fine! Be prepared to climb up and down a lot of stairs within Escorial. Panoramic view from the monument at the valley of the Fallen. Lunch was very good 2-course meal, drink and dessert. Guide very good.</p>

Lorena who took us to Segovia was...

<p>Lorena who took us to Segovia was fabulous. Explained everything and took us to major sites. Segovia was well worth the trip. The Escorial part was not as good. We rushed through the cathedral which is awesome and spent too much time on “fluff”. Guide not as good as Lorena. Valley was amazing !</p>

Rude and not suitable for older people

If someone wants a really bad experience, hire VPT. First of all, the subway that morning was delayed and forty minutes in advance we called to alert us of the situation. The two telephone operators were rude and said that when the rest were ready they would leave. They couldn't wait 5 minutes. Logically we left the subway and took a taxi. Arriving on time for the activity. The first guide, Mary, if I remember correctly, explained everything very well and told us that there were many stairs and anyone who didn't feel up to it would have to wait. Logically, since I was traveling with my mother (a very active lady but 70 years old) I asked her how difficult it was. He told me yes, that it was difficult and that he recommended not going. Clearly it did not say that when I bought the activity and he rudely responded that I should assume so since the tombs are always in basements, for which I gave him several examples of tombs in Spanish Catholic temples where they can be seen on the ground floor without having to descend stairs. The excursion continued, the church was closed and we went to the library, he told us not to go so as not to delay the group, which I told him we would not do: But why had we paid for the excursion!! He answered me rudely and of course, I remembered a comment I saw in the purchasing application where they mentioned a rude guide. He got angry and started yelling at me (taking advantage of the fact that only us and an older couple spoke Spanish) and he only calmed down when I started to tell him what I thought about his mistreatment of older people in English. The excursion continued without too many inconveniences, it was only unpleasant that he did so much Francoist politics, defenestrating democratic governments (something that, although it was uncomfortable, does not bother me because it is not my country and vacations are for resting from these types of issues). He hurried us back saying that the church was closed, which we couldn't verify. He also didn't let us go through the souvenir shops saying that there would be time later, but it never happened. As a result, the activity ended 40 minutes early (she was organizing activities with her family upon her return and was talking to someone asking them to have her backpack ready for when she returned, which explains her rush). We returned to Madrid, which shows that we actually bought two half-day excursions and not one of 11 hours, they return you to Madrid making you lose an hour (because you pass through the escorial on the way to Segovia) not to mention that you are in Madrid obliged to have lunch there and not walking in the city of Segovia. At the indicated time they looked for us to go to Segovia. The guide left the agency very quickly, leaving us and an older Chilean couple behind. I yelled at him to wait, and he said they would, that no one would be left behind. Once again Vanesa was a good guide, she just didn't count the people and she started the walking tour with 4 less Americans (luckily one of them noticed that his family was missing), when they arrived she started the tour again and only noticed that the Chilean couple was missing when The woman rebuked her inside the Cathedral (that is, more than 15 minutes of walking later and 40 of the excursion). That is, she didn't know how many people she was carrying and she had to run to catch up with her because she was literally alone. I told him several times that we had the Alcazar (that's what they sold us) but instead we entered the cathedral. There was no refund for the change. It really was mistreatment of tourists and, in particular, the elderly. If you want an activity where the only thing that matters is that you pay and that you have a bad time, I recommend this agency, otherwise... Choose any other!

Excellent. Very professional and friendly guides

Excellent tour and guides. Both Isabel inside the Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen guide gave very good explanations. To recommend!!!

Sin guía lo habríamos disfrutado

Tuvimos la mala suerte de tener una guía muy poco amable y bordeando la mala educación. Único motivo por el que no recomendare el tour.

Te venden un tur que está dividido en dos regresando a Madrid

No me pareció que me regresaran a Madrid y luego volver a carretera es una pérdida de tiempo y en la primera parte a mi hija no le dieron aparato para oír las explicaciones se suponía que era un mismo tur saliendo y regresando una sola vez si para adultos es pesado para niños mas

Increíble experiencia

Bonita opción para conocer un poco más de la historia de Madrid. 100% recomendado Los lugares visitados realmente fantásticos y la guía excepcional!!!!

Me alegro de haber contratado este tour.

Excelente opción recorrer esos 3 sitios históricos en un día. Excelente viaje, confot del autobús y guías preparados.

Muy bueno

El tour está muy bien organizado, transporte de calidad, guías amables y preparados y respetan el tiempo de los pasajeros. En general es recomendable

Exelente experiencia y buses confortables

La atención y amabilidad de los guías y la seguridad de los conductores y por supuesto los paisajes y los monumentos maravillosos

Muy buena la experiencia....

Muy buena la experiencia. Solo hubo una descoordinación al regreso de Segovia, por un desperfecto del transporte. Ambos Guías, Carlos y Javier fueron excelentes.

Buena experiencia

La propuesta resultó acorde a lo previsto. Los tiempos fueron suficientes para tener un panorama de lo más importante de cada sitio. Hubiera sido interesante contar con más explicaciones en Valle de los Caídos, pero se cumplió con lo previsto.