Travel Companies for Young Foreigners in Madrid, Spain
When you are a foreigner in a new country, you want to take advantage of travel opportunities. Whether it be opportunities to travel around different parts of your new country or to leave it and see the beauty of neighboring countries.
But if you do not consider yourself to be a good travel planner, this can be difficult to organize on your own. One of the easiest solutions is to use a travel company to book day trips or even weekend trips. So you do not have to plan these trips yourself.
You can just pay a company to do it for you. But the conventional idea of the past — to use a travel agency to plan your trip — is a bit outdated for modern times as well as the budgets of young travelers. Instead, a better option is to join a group trip organized by a travel company to get the best deal for your destination.
This is of course not a perfect plan. For instance, travel companies only organize certain trips to certain destinations on certain dates. So you do not have the flexibility to pick when exactly you will travel to your desired destination. You have to work with the dates the travel company offers, which can definitely be a disadvantage.
But advantages exist as well. For instance, you can get a better price going with a big group compared to going by yourself due to group discounts that the travel companies receive from hotels and tours.
Overall, as a young traveler on a budget, travel companies can provide a lot of advantages: cheap trips, trips scheduled for weekends and holidays that you do not work, the opportunity to meet other travelers, and so much more.
If you live in or near Madrid, Spain specifically, I even have some specific suggestions for you.
SmartInsiders
SmartInsiders is by far my most used travel company. They offer both day trips and weekend trips within Spain and to Portugal. And on long holidays, such as Semana Santa, they offer longer trips to countries outside of Spain.
They have a lot of trips on offer — at least one or two every weekend. And I have traveled with them at least 7 times over the past year. I have never paid more than 100 euros for a trip with them, because they offer such good prices.
CityLifeMadrid
I have also personally used CityLifeMadrid, but just once, for a visit to Porto and Lisbon in Portugal. I like CityLifeMadrid as well, but the prices are usually a bit more expensive than what SmartInsiders offers. And, since both companies offer a lot of the same destinations, I will usually pick SmartInsiders over CityLifeMadrid.
But, that being said, CityLifeMadrid does have some unique offerings. For instance, if you are into wine tastings, CityLifeMadrid offers several wine tasting trips to wine country in Spain per year, including Ribera del Duero. They also usually offer a trip to Ibiza each year. Plus, they have an interesting trip offer to Cuenca a few times a year that includes a hiking and adventure component.
Madrid Urban Vibes
The last tour company, Madrid Urban Vibes, is one that I have not personally used. However, I have heard good things from friends who have.
It does not offer nearly as many trips throughout the year as the other two travel companies. But that is partly because it is not just a travel company. It offers a range of activities, like hiking trips and language exchanges. So the trips that it does offer are limited, and usually just for longer holidays in Spain, such as a long weekend or whole week off due to a public holiday.
