Granada Excursion with CIEE in Spain

By: Amelia Asfaw

An amazing bonus about doing a CIEE program are the activities included with your program. You can do activities, excursions, tours, and events almost every day and everything is included (tickets, transportation, etc.). Unlike you (because you’re actually reading this blog), I was severely unprepared for my program and had no clue what to expect. I had no idea CIEE even offered excursions, much less what they would be like. But these have been one of the best opportunities I have found. 

The most recent excursion I attended was to Granada which is about 3 hours East of Sevilla. CIEE has a calendar with all the events you can choose from, so I went online and clicked “I want to participate” and it was as simple as that. Then I received an “accepted” email and an itinerary of the trip. 

The morning of the trip, I walked to the bus stop, and we took off towards Granada. Once we arrived, we checked into the hotel (already paid for by CIEE) and had time to relax. Then we ate and took a tour of an older part of the city and saw the Cathedral de Granada. We had tour guides who explained the history, culture, and traditions which I had no idea about. And after our tour, we had free time to continue exploring, shop around, and have some tapas. A fun fact about Granada is that for every drink you order, you get a free tapa too which was pretty amazing. 

The next day, we woke up bright and early and had breakfast. Then we walked to the Alhambra and took a tour of the palace and gardens. It was absolutely beautiful. And more than that, the tour was perfect to get a mix of information and simply exploring the beauty of the palace. After, we had lunch and departed back to Sevilla. We had the freedom to eat wherever we wanted, but the hotel offered a complimentary breakfast, lunch, and dinner which was very nice.

Granada was amazing – please visit if you have the opportunity. And doing this excursion with CIEE only made my experience better. Although you may have doubts about the quality of the trip or if you want to be on a guided tour or if you want to travel with a big group of people or anything like that, don’t worry, I had those too. The trip was very well planned, and I truly felt like I got to experience Granada through the mix of tours and free time the program outlined. I am so glad I did the CIEE Granada experience because I was able to learn so much more than I would’ve trying to research everything by myself and because of that, I feel like I truly got a more well-rounded experience. It was like getting the benefits without having to do any of the work of planning a trip. 

Although this article is about Granada, CIEE also has so many more tours, excursions, and events that are similarly amazing. If you do a CIEE program, please take advantage of this opportunity. Also, if you choose a CIEE program, please use my referral code for $200: https://my.ciee.org/?rc=ameliaasfaw.