Barcelona: The City Experience
🔹 Curated experiences: Every program is intentionally designed to feature guided learning, cultural engagement, and independent exploration experiences to drive global competency development, denoted on each itinerary with a blue diamond. Learn more about these experiences.
-
Day 1: Fly overnight to Spain
-
Day 2: Barcelona
Meet your Tour Director at the airportTake a walking tour of Las Ramblas, a pedestrian mall where you’ll find endless entertainment, restaurants, markets, monuments, and shopping
Enjoy a paella dinner in Barcelona, a rice dish served with various types of meat and seafood and seasoned with delicate saffron
-
Day 3: Barcelona
Take a tour of Barcelona
With an expert local guide you will see:
- Why Barcelona is an art lover’s haven and the perfect home for master painters like Miró, Picasso, and Dalí
- Avant-garde gems in open-air plazas, such as the Plaza de Catalunya and Plaça d’Espanya
- Snap photos of the spires on La Sagrada Família
Visit Park Güell, a vast public park designed by Antoni Gaudí that features colorful mosaics and remarkable architecture
Visit La Sagrada Família, a massive cathedral that was started in 1883 and remains unfinished
-
Day 4: Barcelona
🔹 Guided learning: Take a guided walking tour of the Modernist District and Barrio Gótico
Visit Casa Milà, a rock-like structure which features no straight lines and is often called “La Pedrera,” or rock quarry
Visit Casa Batlló, now a museum, and marvel at the bold colors that shimmer from the delicate tiles covering the outside
Add this in-depth excursion:
🔹 Cultural engagement: Cooking class
Spanish cuisine is as diverse as the country’s geography, climate and culture. This mouth-watering excursion gives your group a chance to prepare—and savor!—a Spanish specialty of your own.
-
Day 5: Barcelona
Add this in-depth excursion:
Montserrat
Journey northwest of Barcelona on this guided half-day excursion to the picturesque town of Montserrat. Its rugged mountain setting provides a dramatic backdrop for the 9th-century monastery whose basilica houses the Black Virgin Mary of Montserrat. Legend has it that the Benedictine monks could not move the statue to construct their monastery, choosing to instead build around it. If you are lucky you might hear the renowned boys’ choir sing during your visit.
-
Day 6: Barcelona
🔹 Cultural engagement: Tour La Boquería, Barcelona’s central produce market, with an expert local guide to see limitless varieties of cheeses, meats, and sweets
Add this in-depth excursion:
🔹 Guided learning: Dalí Museum in Figueres
Join an exciting half-day excursion to Figueres, a Catalan city on the exquisite Costa Brava. You’ll visit a one-of-a-kind theater museum dedicated to the surrealist world of renowned Spanish painter Salvador Dalí. This museum contains the broadest range of Dalí’s works and offers a unique experience to step into the world of the artist.
Enjoy dinner in Barcelona
-
Day 7: Depart for home
Add more days
-
Day 7: Barcelona • Madrid
Travel by AVE train to MadridTake a guided tour of Madrid
With your expert local guide you will see:
- Puerta del Sol, one of the city’s busiest squares
- Plaza Mayor, the center of old Madrid where you’ll learn about the grand square’s history of bullfights, royal weddings, and public executions
- Plaza de Oriente, the Royal Palace square, located across from the Royal Palace
Visit the Royal Palace, once the seat of the most powerful court in the world and where Spain officially joined the European Community in 1986
Visit the Prado, Madrid's famed art museum where you can behold Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Goya’s paired canvases
-
Day 8: Madrid
Add this in-depth excursion:
Toledo
This half-day excursion will take you to the former Spanish capital of Toledo. Known as the “city of the three cultures,” this was a place of peaceful coexistence of, Jews, Christians and Muslims. Toledo preserves an artistic and cultural legacy in the form of churches, palaces, fortresses, mosques and synagogues. Enjoy a panoramic drive around the city and visit the cathedral that dominates Toledo’s skyline. Then continue on to the Church of Santo Tomé where you’ll view The Burial of Count Orgaz, one of El Greco’s most famous works. Step inside one of Toledo's synagogues and finish off your excursion with a stop at a local sword-making workshop.
Enjoy dinner in Madrid
-
Day 9: Depart for home
-
Day 1: Fly overnight to Spain
-
Day 2: Barcelona
Meet your Tour Director at the airportTake a walking tour of Las Ramblas, a pedestrian mall where you’ll find endless entertainment, restaurants, markets, monuments, and shopping
Enjoy a paella dinner in Barcelona, a rice dish served with various types of meat and seafood and seasoned with delicate saffron
-
Day 3: Barcelona
Take a tour of Barcelona
With an expert local guide you will see:
- Why Barcelona is an art lover’s haven and the perfect home for master painters like Miró, Picasso, and Dalí
- Avant-garde gems in open-air plazas, such as the Plaza de Catalunya and Plaça d’Espanya
- Snap photos of the spires on La Sagrada Família
Visit Park Güell, a vast public park designed by Antoni Gaudí that features colorful mosaics and remarkable architecture
Visit La Sagrada Família, a massive cathedral that was started in 1883 and remains unfinished
-
Day 4: Barcelona
🔹 Guided learning: Take a guided walking tour of the Modernist District and Barrio Gótico
Visit Casa Milà, a rock-like structure which features no straight lines and is often called “La Pedrera,” or rock quarry
Visit Casa Batlló, now a museum, and marvel at the bold colors that shimmer from the delicate tiles covering the outside
Add this in-depth excursion:
🔹 Cultural engagement: Cooking class
Spanish cuisine is as diverse as the country’s geography, climate and culture. This mouth-watering excursion gives your group a chance to prepare—and savor!—a Spanish specialty of your own.
-
Day 5: Barcelona
Add this in-depth excursion:
Montserrat
Journey northwest of Barcelona on this guided half-day excursion to the picturesque town of Montserrat. Its rugged mountain setting provides a dramatic backdrop for the 9th-century monastery whose basilica houses the Black Virgin Mary of Montserrat. Legend has it that the Benedictine monks could not move the statue to construct their monastery, choosing to instead build around it. If you are lucky you might hear the renowned boys’ choir sing during your visit.
-
Day 6: Barcelona
🔹 Cultural engagement: Tour La Boquería, Barcelona’s central produce market, with an expert local guide to see limitless varieties of cheeses, meats, and sweets
Add this in-depth excursion:
🔹 Guided learning: Dalí Museum in Figueres
Join an exciting half-day excursion to Figueres, a Catalan city on the exquisite Costa Brava. You’ll visit a one-of-a-kind theater museum dedicated to the surrealist world of renowned Spanish painter Salvador Dalí. This museum contains the broadest range of Dalí’s works and offers a unique experience to step into the world of the artist.
Enjoy dinner in Barcelona
-
Day 7: Depart for home
Add more days
-
Day 7: Barcelona • Madrid
Travel by AVE train to MadridTake a guided tour of Madrid
With your expert local guide you will see:
- Puerta del Sol, one of the city’s busiest squares
- Plaza Mayor, the center of old Madrid where you’ll learn about the grand square’s history of bullfights, royal weddings, and public executions
- Plaza de Oriente, the Royal Palace square, located across from the Royal Palace
Visit the Royal Palace, once the seat of the most powerful court in the world and where Spain officially joined the European Community in 1986
Visit the Prado, Madrid's famed art museum where you can behold Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Goya’s paired canvases
-
Day 8: Madrid
Add this in-depth excursion:
Toledo
This half-day excursion will take you to the former Spanish capital of Toledo. Known as the “city of the three cultures,” this was a place of peaceful coexistence of, Jews, Christians and Muslims. Toledo preserves an artistic and cultural legacy in the form of churches, palaces, fortresses, mosques and synagogues. Enjoy a panoramic drive around the city and visit the cathedral that dominates Toledo’s skyline. Then continue on to the Church of Santo Tomé where you’ll view The Burial of Count Orgaz, one of El Greco’s most famous works. Step inside one of Toledo's synagogues and finish off your excursion with a stop at a local sword-making workshop.
Enjoy dinner in Madrid
-
Day 9: Depart for home
Confidence • Curiosity • Global perspective • Empathy • Adaptability • Relatability • Self-Awareness
Your experience includes
-
Round-trip airfare
Your price includes round-trip airfare for your whole group
-
Accommodations
Safe, comfortable hotels with private bathrooms will be waiting for you at your destination.
-
On-tour transportation
Land transportation
-
Regional-style meals
Daily breakfasts and select local dinners are included in your program. Generally, we leave lunch up to you so your group has an opportunity to explore its own tastes.
-
End-to-end support
Your team helps to secure administrative approval and academic credit, provides recruiting tools and helps establish your program's ongoing presence on campus.
-
Full-time Tour Director
Your Tour Director is with your group 24/7, providing deep local insight while handling all program logistics.
-
Expert Local Guides
Your expert Local Guides are natural historians, adding cultural insight and enhancing teaching moments wherever your curriculum takes you.
-
Guided sightseeing
Gain insider knowledge and cultural perspective from licensed local guides who join your group for select experiences on tour.
-
Entrances
Parque Guell, Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera; with extension: Prado
-
Worldwide support, safety and security
EF has over 500 schools and offices in more than 50 countries worldwide. We provide 24-hour emergency support service along with a comprehensive $50 million liability policy that covers you and your institution while abroad.
-
Flexible payment options
Give more students the opportunity to study abroad by offering them two different payment plan options, along with our TripFunder website to help fundraise for the program.
