Loved this trip especially El Escorial Monastery,

A good tour. The only downside was that we went back to Madrid between El Escorial and Toledo, which meant we had relatively little time in Toledo. If time is tight, it is worth it to see both, but if you have the time, I recommend a full-day to Toledo!!

It was nice, but I felt as though I got more out of the Toledo tour which was part of the four day tour to Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada, and Toledo. The four day trip which included Toledo was more informative over all.

I think this tour has potential to be a bit better than it was. First the weather with intermittant rain put a damper on the visits. Secondly, the guide who was extremely informative was otherwise very cold and not particularly friendly. Perhaps it was a bad day for her but Toledo is definitely a must see.

1. after paying good money for the tour, I shouldn't have to keep my fingers crossed and hope for a good guide to be allocated. there was actually 2 separate guides. Carla, who was great, for the morning El Escorial tour, and Anna, who was horrible, for the afternoon Toledo tour.
firstly, her english was so heavily accented I couldn't tell when she was speaking in spanish, and when she was speaking in english, and when she was speaking in italian. but more on this later.
secondly, she was so impatient on the rare(and one wonders why) occasions someone dared to ask questions. she actually interrupted the person before the person was done asking the question and was very visibly irritated while answering the question.
thirdly, instead of explaining the various sights and attractions, most of the time, she would be singing to herself while strolling across Toledo, which makes it harder for me to ask questions as it seemed rude to interrupt her singing.

2. i can understand making stops to certain merchants to keep the cost of the tour low, but i feel that 2 merchants in a half day tour is a bit excessive. especially considering there was no free time given in Toledo at all.

3. the local provider, was extremely disorganized. the morning session was bilingual, english and spanish. so even though it was not stated in the Viator website that the tour was bilingual, it was still great in the morning, mainly because Carla did an excellent job of explaining all sights in both languages

but some Italians joined the Toledo tour, and insisted that Julia had told them the tour would be in Italian. so Anna had to translate in 3 languages.
it was obvious she was most fluent in Spanish, as she would spend 2, 3 minutes speaking in Spanish, before summing up in 2, 3 sentences in English and Italian.

Chances are I would never get to go Madrid again. which is why this is such a disappointment, as my wife and I could see how Toledo could have been so much more enjoyable.