| Home | Just Back | Articles | Books | Photos | Contact Us |
Untours -- Seeing Spain Like a Local
We have just returned from
what you could call our first real ‘vacation’ in years. We decided
that we really wanted to get away from it all, immerse ourselves in another
culture, and not have to be dependent on someone else’s schedule. And
we found all that through an interesting company called
Untours.
Untours, now offered in eighteen different cities in ten European countries, pulls together all of the logistics of a European vacation and then steps aside to let you explore your destination at your own pace in your own way. The typical packages include airfare, rental car, ‘local’ accommodations in an apartment or farmhouse (for 2- or 4-week stays only), and a local host to help you out with directions, restaurant recommendations, sightseeing suggestions or anything else to help make your stay more enjoyable. However, that help is only there only if you need or want it--if not, you’re left alone to enjoy living like a local.
We stayed in a charming farmhouse in an olive grove in the Andalusian region of Spain. It was fun to go to the local grocery store (we were guided there by our host) and purchase a wide variety of meats, cheeses, and wines for our stay (Untours rentals come with full kitchens!). We spent many evenings preparing dinner, enjoying it on our balcony overlooking the olive groves, and then heading inside to enjoy a fireplace stoked with olive wood.
We were a few miles from the
nearest town and, within an hour or so drive, we were able to visit the Mezquita
in Cordoba and the Alhambra in Grenada. Plus, closer to our farmhouse, we
found some gems: a working olive oil mill and a Museum of Olive Oil in Baena,
a ham museum in Rute, and locally made cheese in Zuheros. These are the kinds
of places that you would never find on the itinerary of a group tour! Our
host, who also happens to be the mayor of the nearby town, was perfect in
every way.
In our opinion, Untours offers an ideal way to travel, if you have a sense of adventure and want to really blend in with the local life. We can highly recommend Untours to like-minded travelers.
We returned with many excellent story angles and pictures that would be appropriate for a wide variety of publications.