Language Tours to Spain

Vitoria in the North of Spain...

Vitoria, capital of the Basque Country, boasts a wonderful Medieval Quarter with narrow streets and unique shops alongside large squares with open-air cafés, a busy cultural life and plenty of parks and bike paths.

Just a few steps from the Old Town is Zador Spanish School.

Zador Spanish language school offers Spanish immersion courses in mini-groups for adults throughout the year, as well as custom-designed packages for schools, groups, and families.

Vitoria, a medium sized city burgeoning and friendly awaiting your visit.

Vitoria is the perfect blend of old European history with young and modern development. It boasts one of Spain’s highest standards of living thanks to its array of cultural activities, its beautiful surroundings, and its excellent services.

The town, as yet untouched by mass-tourism, allows you to discover the marvel of the fusion between the solid strength of the past and the energetic power of the future.

The city’s award-winning urban design, its environment, and its lively social initiatives together with its first-class services, and cultural and sporting activities, make Vitoria one of the capitals with the highest standard of living in Spain.

In fact, Vitoria is ranked second in standard of living among all the cities in Spain, and first as to green areas and cultural places.

With all its pedestrian streets, Vitoria invites you to go out for a walk. The entire old town, with its narrow streets and unique architecture, has been declared a monumental group. The gothic churches of Santa Maria, San Vicente, San Pedro and San Miguel as well as the renaissance palaces of Montehermoso and Villa Suso, are worth seeing.

Afterwards, you can stroll through the Arquillos, an arcaded walk that leads to the two main squares: the Plaza de España, and the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca. This central area perfectly links the medieval quarter to the modern the town-centre. This bustling area is filled with people strolling, shopping or sitting at the countless outdoor cafés, which line the streets. Time flies as you sit and watch people coming and going and children trading their card collections on Sunday mornings...

The parks, pedestrian-only streets and wide avenues are an open invitation to walk to the Museum of Fine Arts or the Romanesque church of San Prudencio. You can also go jogging around the Prado or San Juan de Arriaga parks.

Location

The Basque capital is situated on a vast plain surrounded by mountains; 60 Km from the coast, 30 Km from the vineyards and old wine cellars of the La Rioja region, and 50 Km from the monasteries where the first texts in Spanish appeared.

Population

Nowadays Vitoria has about 240,000 inhabitants. In the 1950´s, when the city had about 60,000 residents, Vitoria experienced a significant population boom. Its dynamic industry and services sectors attracted many people from other Spanish regions to settle in this ever-growing city.

How to get there

Vitoria has both a train and a bus station, as well as an airport. The city is 351 Km from Madrid, 66 Km from Bilbao, 110 Km from San Sebastian, 112 Km from Burgos and 90 Km from Pamplona. All these cities, as well as others like Zaragoza and Barcelona, are interconnected by highways, bus and train lines. There are regular flights available to and from Madrid and Barcelona.

Arrival and departure transfer are included in the language tour packages.

To travel to Vitoria independently you can flight to Bilbao airport -64 kms away from Vitoria- There are buses every half hour from the airport to the bus station -Termibus- where you can take a coach to Vitoria -La Unión Coaches Company.

Also you can flight to Madrid airport, and there take a coach -Continental AutoI offers two buses to Vitoria per day- or to take the tube to go to Chamartin Train Station and there one of the trains to Vitoria. There are 2 daily fast trains to Vitoria -ALVIA trains reach Vitoria in less than 4 hours-

In any case, we will provide you with all the information to travel without problems.

Places to visit

The entire medieval town with its four gothic churches, its medieval walls, its palaces and towers. Santa María Cathedral, 7 Museums with ARTIUM, the Basque Museum of Contemporary Art …

Vitoria Social life

As in most Spanish cities, there are many bars where you can try the famous “tapas”. In the Basque Country, they are called “pintxos”. You will find many outdoor cafés, especially in the summertime, on the various streets and squares, such as the Plaza de España square or Dato Street, the traditional pedestrian areas of the city. La Cuesta, the area that connects the city’s 19th century extension to the medieval quarter, is another lively part of town (as is the medieval quarter itself), with many bars, and plenty of weekend entertainment.

Surrounding cities

The biggest city is Bilbao, with Guggenheim Museum; San Sebastian, with its beautiful beach; Pamplona, Burgos, Logroño…

See you soon in Spain!