Full Day Private 4WD Tour from Bilbao to Picos de Europa. Fine meals.

The tour operator cancelled our booking just about two days before the tour began. We booked the tour more than three months in advance to secure a place. We then plan our trip, including purchasing air tickets to fly from Madrid to Bilbao. Planning a trip is not a simple thing like you can eat an orange if there is no apple. It involves time, money, opportunity costs and a lot of thought. Such cancellation with this short notice period has adversely upset our travel plan. Should we have not joined a tour to Picos De Europa, we might not probably fly to Bilbao. The tour operator said “I can cancel whenever I want”. However, this has not been reflected in the cancellation policy. The cancellation policy only says “For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours in advance of the start time of the experience”. This should mean from the customer’s side. Nowhere can see that the tour operator can cancel whenever he wants. In fact, the tour operator had sent a message to us a few days before the tour began, asking us if we could start or start and finish the tour at Santander and he could arrange a private taxi service for us because he had another tour the next day. He further asked us whether we could join the tour one day before our confirmed scheduled tour. However, before we replied, the tour operator had cancelled our confirmed scheduled tour. We want to point out that the tour operator offers this tour every day. If he does not want to run the tour on any two consecutive dates, he should mark the day before and the day after the confirmed tour unavailable, but he did not do that. It is highly suspicious that he is picking customers. We tried to accommodate his request, thinking that it would not do much harm to us if we could do him a favour. Nevertheless, he said that he had already cancelled our tour without providing any reason, just saying “I can cancel whenever I want”. Such business operation means that the customers have no protection at all. I would blacklist this tour operator and would not recommend it to my friends or relatives.

This private all-day tour with Juan was one of the most memorable experiences of our two week cruise of Spain, Portugal, and Bordeaux France. We love to get out into the countryside and get a real flavor for the area and the people. This tour fulfilled all of that and more. Juan could not have been a better host, and the Picos de Europa was absolutely beautiful! To top all of that, Juan treated us to the most wonderful lunch at the restaurant at Hotel del Oso. The Cocido Lebaniego was delicious, so good that we had Juan send us the recipe! We recommend Juan and his tour as a “must do” for anyone traveling in the Bilbao/Santander area.

Juan was knowledgeable, flexible and professional. He easily adjusted the itinerary to accommodate several special requests. Picos de Europa ended up being the highlight of our entire trip to Spain and Portugal!

We took a couples trip to Northern Spain and were very excited to explore Asturias for the first time. We could tell it would be an amazing place in terms of cuisine and natural beauty but felt it would be helpful to have a good guide. Juan was perfect. He worked with us ahead of the trip to plan a two-day itinerary that most interested us Our first day, he picked us up from our hotel and drove us around the most interesting sights (ancient yew trees, mountain villages, etc.) in Picos de Europa, saving a lot of time and treating us to spectacular scenic drives by going off-roading. I am certain we wouldn't have seen the same sights if we had planned the trip ourselves. We covered a lot of ground, and Juan also selected an excellent restaurant for lunch that was not very touristy. Our second day, Juan again picked us up and drove us around a host of different cities and coastal fishing towns in Austrias. He again tailored the trip to our interests--picking a fish and seafood restaurant as well as a tapas/sideria restaurant. We tried many delicacies and learned a lot about the region. We went to many different shops, and Juan was really patient with exploring how we wanted to and adjusting along the way. There's a lot to recommend in Juan. His English is fantastic (although he's very modest). He's friendly and knowledgeable, but he's also very chill and easygoing to be around for multiple days. He's a great driver in offroad and urban settings and makes your trip so enjoyable and easy. He takes very nice photos during the trip and sends them to you afterwards. He's very communicative and will give you suggestions for other parts of your trip. We had a great trip as a couple, but because Juan has kids, I think he would also be a great guide for families and really anyone. We loved our trip and are so grateful to Juan for everything he did to make us feel so welcome and make the trip memorable.

My husband and I took the Picos de Europa tour with Juan as the tour guide. It was an awesome day, probably the best of our days in Cantabria. Unforgettable!