France & Spain Tour Packages for 2025 & 2026

Most of our guests travel to France and Spain from the US by air, unless they are already traveling in a neighboring European country.

Starting in Paris, Barcelona, or Madrid makes sense, depending on your route. Buying an open-jaw/multi-city ticket is usually only a little more than a standard return, and we’ll include any intra-European flights in your package. Our travel advisors will help you pick the best flights for your itinerary.

It very much depends on your priorities. If you want to visit the most famous places in Spain and France, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Provence, and the French Riviera might be top of your list. If you’ve been to France before but not to Spain, we can arrange a trip combining lesser-known French destinations, such as Bayeux, Amboise, or Carcassone, with Spain’s most popular destinations, such as Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, and San Sebastian. We can build an itinerary around anything on your must-see list. 

Absolutely. That’s the whole point of working with a custom tour operator like us. We’ll work with you to tailor the perfect trip for you, so you can be sure you have enough time to see what you want without worrying about details like how to get to the train station or make reservations at a local restaurant. We take care of all of that.

Our tour packages are designed to make touring France and Spain effortless. From working with our travel advisors and expert trip planners to craft your ideal itinerary to the moment you get on the plane to return home, we will take care of everything. Your custom tour package will include accommodation, airport transfers, any kind of transportation between destinations, walking tours, day trips, and, most importantly, the support of our local staff in Europe. They’ll be in touch with you before your trip to finalize any details. Upon request, we can provide you with a local e-SIM so you can be in touch by phone, email, or instant message. It’s like having a tour director but still traveling independently.

Our France and Spain packages start from around $350 per person per day. The largest element is often accommodation, but private full-day tours can increase the cost, too. All our sample itineraries have a Price Guide function to give you an idea of the cost for different levels of accommodation, month of travel, and number of travelers.

No. As our tours are completely tailor-made to your needs and preferences, you choose the dates and specific destinations you want to visit. All our tours are completely customized and private, providing a much more personal experience. Every tour is a definite departure because it’s based on your travel dates. No worrying about whether your preferred departure meets a minimum number of guests to go ahead, then scrambling to find an alternative because your flights are already booked.

The best time of year for your trip to France and Spain will depend on what you want to do. Both countries can be great places to travel year-round. Keep in mind that locals tend to leave the cities in peak summer, heading for the coast or mountains. If you want to swim, you should travel between mid-June and the end of September. If you are more interested in sightseeing and avoiding the hottest time of year, mid-July and August could be too warm for you. High season on the islands and in coastal destinations, like Palma de Mallorca in Spain and the Cote d’Azur in France, is the opposite in the cities. Therefore, while the summer months of July and August are the most expensive times of year to travel to summer hotspots, the cities, provided the heat doesn’t bother you, can be a good deal.

We can arrange rental cars for all or part of the trip, but bear in mind that dropping off a rental in another country incurs high one-way fees, and taking a car on a ferry adds significantly to the cost. Your JayWay trip planner can arrange separate rentals where needed so you can avoid unnecessary expenses and have the freedom to get around by car when you need to. In France or Spain’s countryside, a car is useful. Should your trip be mostly city-based, though, trains and private transfers will be a lot more convenient.

Among all the guided tours we offer in France and Spain, many of our most popular are culinary-based, whether food tours or cooking classes. Yet, it’s impossible to overlook the importance of seeing the main sites like the iconic Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, and the Grand Palace of Versailles in Paris or Gaudi’s wonders in Barcelona, and Madrid’s Prado Museum in Spain. Visiting these sites on a private or small-group tour with a knowledgeable tour guide can render your experience all the more rewarding.

Absolutely. Your Spain and France itinerary will be customized to your wishes. You don’t have to fill every day, and we encourage leaving some free time aside – even if it’s just a free afternoon – simply to appreciate the destinations you’re visiting. Delving into the authentic ambiance of the quaintest Parisian neighborhoods or lazing under the sun on Barcelona’s long sandy beach are among the best ways to get acquainted with Spain and France.

We don’t sell cruises in France and Spain. We believe you enjoy a far richer experience by spending as much time as possible on land, soaking up the rich culture, and enjoying the local cuisine while appreciating a more responsible type of travel. So many of the riches of both countries lay far from cruise ports that to try and visit on a cruise would short-change you on the delights you should be relishing.

This is mostly a question of how many places you want to see. Each time you move to another destination, you’ll spend half a day traveling. For this reason, we recommend three nights in most destinations. Adding fewer destinations to your itinerary means less time and money spent moving between them and more time soaking up the atmosphere and seeing the sights.

The quickest way to travel between France and Spain is by air. Flights between major tourist destinations in both countries are quick – maximum two hours – and relatively cheap thanks to several low-cost airlines providing service. To simplify your planning, we can include these intra-European flights in your vacation package.

High-speed trains connect major cities in Spain and France. There are direct high-speed trains between Paris and Barcelona, but, at six and a half hours, the journey time could be a deal-breaker. The direct railway connection between Lyon and Barcelona, though, takes about five hours.

Yes, thankfully, the Euro is the currency of both Spain and France, so any coins and banknotes you have left after the first country can be used in the second. 

You don’t have to worry about group sizes as all our itineraries in the region are private, custom tour packages. We like to call this semi-independent travel. We make all the travel arrangements, from airport transfers, accommodation, excursions, and transport between cities. Unlike an escorted tour, you aren’t paying to have a tour guide, driver, or tour director the whole time, just when needed, so our packages are more affordable, too. That said, although our Spain and France tours are private, within your tour, we can include some shared experiences where you can meet fellow travelers and like-minded people. Some cultural activities, like food tours, wine tastings, and cooking classes, are more fun when you join tours for small groups. A walking tour, on the other hand, is often better one-on-one, so you can ask questions even beyond the regular content of the tour.

Our travel experts have inspected all the best 3- to 5-star hotels across our destinations, with an emphasis on small, locally owned boutique properties in the city center as well as signature larger properties. During the planning process, we will give you a choice of hotels and available room options to choose from in a carefully-selected range. If you’re celebrating a special occasion, let our trip planners know at the time of booking, and they’ll make sure you stay in a hotel room that will add to your unforgettable experience. You can choose your preferred room type or share with us any specific accommodations you have in mind, and we’ll take it from there.

To keep our tours affordable, you won’t have a tour manager with you the whole time. Instead, you will be looked after by a dedicated local representative for each country, who is available by phone, email, and messaging. You will meet a local expert tour guide for each of your excursions.

Not at all. Our approach is to get the basics set first. To begin, we’ll set the dates and number of nights in each destination, your hotels, and how you’ll get between each city. In each destination, we recommend taking a guided tour with a local guide that will get you oriented and familiarize you with the city. Later, you can choose any optional tours according to your preferences.

Other than breakfast or meals that are part of an experience, like a food tour or cooking class, we don’t include meals, although for larger groups, we often arrange welcome or final night dinners, for example. Once you book, you will receive access to your Guest Page, which is packed with our curated recommendations for local restaurants you can enjoy during your custom trip.