The Spanish Basketball Experience: Barcelona & Madrid

Flowers, pedestrian boulevards, and decorative pavement make Barcelona a great walking city, and your Tour Director will show you where to stroll. See the Mercat de la Boquería, where the bright colors of fruits and vegetables, spices, fresh seafood and meat -- not to mention about a hundred different types of cheese -- vie for space in the market stalls. In the city center you'll see the Monument a Colom, a towering statue of Christopher Columbus. Gaze at the city stretched out before you, the mountains in the distance, and the Mediterranean Sea at your back. Then it's on to the best walk in the city, Las Ramblas, a mile-long pedestrian street that offers up the carnival of urban Barcelona. Have your palm read or browse through the strip's famous open-air shops. Enough walking for one day? Pull up a chair, order a café con leche, and watch the parade of street performers from your seat.

Discover the city known for white sandy beaches, bustling boulevards lined with tapas bars, twisting modern architecture, dramatic cathedrals with spindly steeples and, of course, a passion for fútbol.

Play an International Exhibition Game against a local club or University team in the Barcelona area. The team will meet and compete against athletes of similar ages and skill levels.

Explore Barcelona’s mountain of Montjuïc, the focal point of two of the city’s key international events: the World’s Fair of 1929, of which many structures still remain; and the 1992 Olympic Games. Montjuïc features the largest "green zone" in the city with miles of forests and parks.

Relax on the white sandy beaches, walk down the bustling boardwalk, or stop at a tapas bar for a snack in Barcelona’s La Barceloneta neighborhood.

Serve as global sports ambassadors, spread the love of sport to the youth of another country or support a local community. These opportunities can take different forms including providing a Coaching Clinic for a youth or special needs team, working with a local school or supporting community projects and events. This is certain to be one of the most rewarding elements of the trip. Please Note: only one Global Ambassador opportunity can be provided per city, in the select cities it is offered, for each tour.

Play an International Exhibition Game against a local club or University team in the Barcelona area. The team will meet and compete against athletes of similar ages and skill levels.

Tour the home of the Real Madrid football club.

Get a taste of Spain's cultural, political and economic center with a tour led by a licensed local guide. See Madrid's mix of traditional and modern as you visit the Royal Palace, an 18th-century masterpiece. The enormous Baroque palace currently has more rooms (2,800) than any other European palace, but it was originally supposed to be four times as large. The palace is dripping with porcelain, jeweled clocks, amazing ceiling frescoes—the most magnificent, in the Throne Room, was done by the Venetian artist Tiepolo when he was in his seventies. Next take a look at the Neoclassical architecture of the Prado Museum and the Puerta de Alcalá triumphal arch, built to honor Carlos III’s entry into Spain.

Play an International Exhibition Game against a local club or University team in the Barcelona area. The team will meet and compete against athletes of similar ages and skill levels.