Frequently Asked Questions

How do Spain Savvy services work?

We are custom itinerary specialists offering professional travel consulting, reservation management, and concierge services. We plan your trip right down to the last nuts and bolts, working in any reservations you may have already made (such as international flights) and fleshing out your itinerary to make your dream trip a reality. For more information on our process, please check out our How We Work graphic.

What services do you include?

We can include all travel-related services in your package depending on what you need us to organize for you. These are just some of the program elements we normally include in a custom itinerary:

International flights (if you haven’t booked them already!)
In-country transportation (air, train, bus, rental car with self-guided itineraries, private driver, airport transfers…)
Hotels & short/long-term rental properties
Privately-guided tours (or self-guided walking itineraries where appropriate)
Monument & museum entrance tickets
Restaurant recommendations & reservations

All of these services will be packaged together in your very own app / clickable digital itinerary format (downloadable to PDF) that will make your trip logistics a breeze.

Do you include travel insurance in your packages?

Spain Savvy partners with Global Rescue to meet our clients’ trip insurance needs. Global Rescue, based in the U.S., is the world’s leading membership organization providing integrated medical, security, travel risk and crisis response services to travelers worldwide. Spain Savvy clients can enroll with them directly via our partnership link!

Do you charge a fee for your services?

Yes, we charge a professional fee for our travel design services, ranging anywhere from 150-400€ per itinerary (the rate we quote you will primarily depend on length of trip and number of travelers). When you receive your custom itinerary, we will price out all the different program elements so you can pick and choose exactly what you’d like to book with us.

Why do you charge a fee?

Frankly, because our services are worth it! Our fee covers our in-depth local expert knowledge, professional services, and time spent researching your travel experiences. You are paying for us to professionally design your itinerary according to your specific needs and desires, packaging it in an attractive and user-friendly format in our very own app. Whether or not you end up booking this custom-designed trip with us in the end is of course entirely up to you. We are proud to state that 90% of clients who secure our itinerary design services end up booking their complete travel package with us.

Click here to read a Forbes article about how the travel industry is shifting towards a professional services fee structure.

How does the Spain Savvy app work?

You will be invited to download your custom itinerary in the «My Trips» app the first time it is sent to you, and it will be available to you throughout the proposal and trip execution process. Here is an article with some more information on how it works! Our clients absolutely rave about this app and we are so pleased to be able to offer you this innovative tool.

How long do you take to create a custom itinerary?

We usually ask our clients to allow us 7-10 days to put together their custom itinerary, starting from when we receive our completed New Client Survey, the fee payment and our e-signed client contract. If it’s likely that we will take any longer due to holidays or high season, we will let you know. After you receive your custom itinerary, the review and revision process may take another week or two. Then, once the full payment is received, we can usually have your trip booked and confirmed within another week or two at the most.

How far in advance do you suggest we plan our trip?

We suggest anywhere from 3-6 months. We can do a last-minute trip (less than 3 months from departure), but in order to guarantee the availability of hotels and some special tours, and to give us the time to put your trip together properly, planning with some leeway is usually more advisable. Please note that we may or may not have the time to take on a last-minute trip and we appreciate your understanding. We may also take a bit longer than normal to work on a trip that is over a year away.

Where is Spain Savvy located?

Our office is located at our home in a small village on the outskirts of Seville, Spain. Our company is run by an American expat who has been living in southern Spain for almost two decades, and we are fully in touch with the local area, culture, customs, etc. If your itinerary takes you to this area, we will do our best to meet you in person while you are in town!

How long has Spain Savvy been in operation?

We launched Spain Savvy in April 2017 but have a long history as cross-cultural professionals since we first stepped foot in Spain from the U.S. in 1998. You can read more about our founder’s background here.

How can we make payments?

Payments can be made securely on our website with Visa, Mastercard or American Express. If you’re charging your trip balance on American Express, please include the 1.5% banking fee on top of your balance (we will specify this in your itinerary). If you’re having any trouble making payments on our website, we suggest reaching out to your bank for pre-approval for the international charge. Sometimes, because our site is based in Spain, American banks flag charges on our website – but our experience has shown us that this can usually be cleared up with one call to your bank.

Do you only work in Spain or do you also do Italy, France, etc.?

Spain Savvy operates primarily in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. We have some contacts in other geographical areas (and are working to make more!) and we would be happy to set you up with a like-minded professional where we can.

Can we speak to you on the phone?

Absolutely – sometimes a quick phone call is better than 20 emails! We just ask that you send us a quick email first to arrange a time – sometimes, with the different time zones and other life obligations, we are not available immediately for a phone call.

Can we see a sample itinerary before we commit to working with Spain Savvy?

While our itineraries are all customized to our clients, and contain proprietary information, we are happy to share a couple of generic samples, which should give you an idea of what to expect should you decide to work with us.

Lara LaDage

23:59 09 Jul 19

During the planning phase, Sarah was prompt and thorough, which was greatly appreciated. The itinerary she created for us was very well-organized and specifically tailored to our interests and budget. Also, Sarah made additional suggestions that we wouldn’t have thought of such as renting a car and driving to interesting locations within 2 hours of Sevilla. The app was very helpful, particularly the navigation option when we were driving or navigating the city. I liked that I could access my itinerary offline and all the necessary documents were accessible on the app. During our time in Spain, Sarah made herself available to us without being obtrusive, and our vacation ended up being absolutely perfect. As a bonus, we had the pleasure of sharing a meal and chatting with her about her wealth of experiences as an expat. We highly recommend Spain Savvy and will definitely be using this company again in the future.

Armaan I.

00:52 05 Jul 19

Spain Savvy was a fantastic way to travel through Spain and Portugal. We were able to thoroughly enjoy all of the nuances and history of Spain without the headache of planning each excursion. Sarah was easy to work with, timely, and always willing to help!

Himanshu Chatterjee

18:54 02 Jul 19

I would highly recommend Spain Savvy for travellers who want a custom made travel itinerary and need recommendations to stay in the heart of the city & to eat at restaurants popular with the locals. The digital itinerary developed and shared by Sarah had every last detail you'd need for the trip.

Miriam Mills

02:29 29 Jun 19

Sarah is very responsive, full of ideas, fun to work with, and she tailored our trip exactly to our specifications and interests.

Sarpreet Basra

17:18 22 Jun 19

We recently made our first trip to Spain and used Spain Savvy to help us. Sarah Gemba was very helpful in every step of the way. She stayed in touch with us when we were there and assisted with restaurant reservations, add-ons, etc. She definitely picked the highlights of every city that we visited. We couldn't have known about some of these places without her help. Will highly recommend her to family and friends.

John Reeves

19:25 19 Jun 19

“Sarah, thank you for arranging such a great trip. The early part for my sons on their own was awesome, and the parts that we joined them with the three separate guided tours you arranged had guides that were equally wonderful and enthusiastic. The best parts of the trip were in part from their insights. I highly recommend Spainsavvy.John Reeves, June 2019”

Christy Texeira

10:43 16 Jun 19

Using Spain Savvy took the headache out of trying to perfectly plan our first overseas trip as a family. The business is so well organized and communication was always exceptional! Our trip was so much more enjoyable with the help of Spain Savvy! I would highly recommend their services to all!

Christine Flouton

20:06 02 Jun 19

After researching exhaustively on-line and despairing in my efforts to arrange a first trip to Spain, I thought there must be someone who excels at this. I found Sarah Gamba and Spain Savvy, and was outrageously happy with everything she planned. We started with a questionnaire about where I was going to go in Spain - Madrid and Barcelona as my first entry into Spain - and Sarah asked me what I wanted to do in each city. I gave her my dream wish list of things to do, and amazingly, with a week total, 3.5 days in each city, she literally checked every item on my list. In Madrid, there were tours of the Prado, and a night of tapas, flamenco dancing, and a special detour to see the flamenco guitars being made, plus gardens, open food markets, the royal palace, the first restaurant in the world featuring suckling pig, vermouth bars, and exposure to the most wonderful, civilized culture and history. Then after a short flight to Barcelona, I was treated to a private half-day tour of all the Gaudi sites, and access to another Gaudi house in the afternoon, plus the Picasso museum, spots for the best gazpacho in the world, the Frank Gehry sail, and once again, incredible food and drink and wonderful people and adventures. I can't say enough for the service that Sarah provided. My itinerary was clear and well-planned, with regular breaks and free time scattered amongst the planned events, and and all the hotels and passes and arrangements so I had no queues or anything to worry about. And some unexpected surprises and treats that Sarah thought I would like. I loved it all, and when I found that Spain Savvy also specializes in Portugal and Morocco as well as Spain, I immediately started thinking of my next trip with them. After anticipating a trip to Spain for at least 15 years, my dreams all came true that week. Thank you, Sarah and team, for your exceptional care and service. I was simply delighted and highly recommend Spain Savvy..

Mark Smith

22:17 10 Apr 19

Spain Savvy and Sarah did a phenomenal job developing an itinerary that fit everything we wanted to do with our week in Spain. We had great communication with Sarah before and during our trip. Her recommendations for hotels and restaurants were perfect. Spain Savvy provides an app based itinerary with offline options. It included the day by day schedule and necessary digital documents. We would definitely use Spain Savvy again!

Deborah Aiges

14:45 08 Apr 19

Sarah recommended that we visit Zahara de la Sierra and Vejer de la Frontera in southwestern Spain. Both towns were spectacular, both in terms of visual beauty and the accommodations and food! Through Spain Savvy we also visited southern Morocco which was just incredible. Thank you, Sarah!

Vera Suarez

13:59 23 Mar 19

My husband and I normally arrange everything ourselves and this was our first experience with a travel planner. Sarah was awesome and now I'm spoiled. I can't recommend Sarah enough. We were a party of eight with four kids between 3 and 11, FYI. Two of the most amazing things about using Sarah is that 1) she arranged childcare so the adults could experience some of the late night dinners without the kids (the kids loved the sitter, BTW), and 2) having reservations at amazing restaurants really made every dining experience enjoyable! Also, we didn't have to wait in long lines to buy tickets, as ours were already purchased. This was the first time we travelled to Europe with our daughters (3 and 5 yrs old) and we were worried that it was going to be more work than enjoyable. But, we think this is our best vacation ever! I credit that to Sarah and her planning. Sarah was great to work with and very responsive to our questions and comments.

Hugh Abernethy

19:10 23 Jul 18

My family and I were delighted by the Spain vacation itinerary developed by the team at Spain Savvy. The hotel recommendations, the restaurant reservations and tours were superb. Spain Savvy took time to understand what we were looking for in a trip to Spain. They balanced active tours with time to recuperate. This trip was our third trip to this beautiful country. We wish we know about Spain Savvy before the first two trips! If you want someone to thoroughly understand your needs, develop a comprehensive itinerary - CHOOSE SPAIN SAVVY!