Medina Azahara Guided Tour

Our guide was excellent, and well versed in the history of the Medina and its relationship with Cordoba. She explained things well and answered all of our questions.. The museum tour and the tapas, both part of the tour description, never materialized.

Irene was an amazing guide! She was friendly and knowledgeable and we enjoyed having her as our guide. I would highly recommend doing this with a tour guide, because we would have had no idea what we were looking at if we didn't have one. There is a short video you watch at the museum to give you background, but the guide provides much better in-person teachings while you are standing and walking through the area.

Our guid was fabulous—knowledgeable engaging. It is a fascinating site.

Amazing recent excavations at this site with city limits of Cordova.

I’m not usually a tour person, I like to travel independently and on my own time, however considering this was an archeological site, having a tour guide seemed like a good option. Our guide, Almudena was fantastic, she is a historian and provided so much context for the site and brought it to life with the stories of the people of the time, and offered lots of insight into the reason for the designs of the site. Our experience would’ve been diminished without her guidance.

The guide was super knowledgeable and easily helped us understand what life was like in this vast city

Site was beautiful but logistics did not run smoothly. Accused of not paying our correct entrance fee, having us wait for the bus too early in the hot sun when it runs on a set schedule to begin with. We found the guide to be a bit rude in the way she spoke to members of the group and careless with the hot weather - ex. stopping us all to speak directly in the hot sun in 98F weather when there was shade a short walk away.

Very interesting and factual, excellent guide. Very hot though, need a sunhat, and comfortable shoes as uneven ground

This one is a bit away from the city center and hard to navigate by public transport. Its a pretty big site to get the context and also to make transport easy strongly recommended to do a guided tour. The site itself doesnt have much explanatory signage. Otherwise its big and well preserved. It is fully outdoor and can be unpleasant under the summer sun.

Bring your imagination and do your research beforehand to really appreciate. It is a very interesting excursion to understand the importance of the Moorish presence.

A wonderful tour guide. She is clear, patient, interesting. There were some difficulties with young children, nobody's fault, she handled it well. There is a lot of walking, including stairs, she paced the tour. At the entry center, a 15-minute film, plus some some food, before a bus to the actual site. A lot is included for the price. I did not see acoustiguide material, you need a guide.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and able to share his knowledge with the group. We enjoyed meeting him and learning about the history of the area

Able to reserve ahead and meet at a designated spot and travel by bus to the archeological site of the former Caliphate Palace and residence home of the Caliph. Our guide Maria spoke English well and was very informative with a sense of humor . Highly recommended. The museum site where one first begins starts with a short video about the Caliphate and the site, and there is a restaurant and a good gift shop . Does involves walking up and down a small incline to view archeological remains and reconstruction

Well organized and fascinating location and experience. Our guide was excellent. He was extremely knowledgeable, friendly and helpful.

A really great tour! This is an interesting and absorbing tour of the ancient site. Artencordoba looks after you, getting you to and from the site. A special shout-out for Alejandro, our tour guide, who ably took us around the site and shared his extensive knowledge in a clear and accessible manner. I would thoroughly recommend this tour.

Excellent tour. Very informative and conpleted at a good pace. The tour guide was very knowledgeable of Andulucian history and the history of Madinat Azzahra and communicated this very clearlt. Thank you

We had a great trip to Medina Azahara. It is a fascinating place with an incredible history. The guide was excellent and spoke knowledgeably and with real passion about the site. I would definitely recommend this trip.

A wonderful tour in spite of the persistent rain, mainly thanks to the efforts of María, our tour guide. She was enthusiastic and knowledgeable. We learned a lot about the history of the Caliphate of Córdaba and its importance for the cultural legacy of the region. Great efforts are being made to restore this once magnificent city, which showcases its ancient splendor.

Maria was a great guide. We had an amazing time at the archeological site. Learned a lot. Very interesting.

Setting up this tour, the communication was very good. The group was easy to find and the bus showed up on time. Our tour guide, Joaquin, was a very nice person and clearly very knowledgeable. Throughout the tour, we heard a lot of really interesting things about the history, even about facts in the historical record which were later determined to be “historical propaganda.” He talked about the excavation process and the materials. He was very open to questions, which was great, however when group members came close and asked, he would answer them without repeating the question or speaking into his mike. One person was very persistent, not only asking but continually speaking even as he was answering! We were missing a lot of info. It isn’t easy to control a group like that, but it is part of the job so he could improve that. Overall, we enjoyed the tour.

Nice and informative our tour guide Joachim was knowledgeable and gracious. The bathrooms at the center need a bit more care but overall dcierience was positive

Well worth the time and investment. Our guide from Artencordoba (local guide) was amazing, an archeologist, who also told us what to visit in Cordoba.

Generally well organised - well once the bus actually left the meeting point. Great guide - interesting history and learnt more than if we had done on our own

Wear comfy shoes and take water as even in October it was hot. Great informative tour and our guide, Joaquin was helpful and easy to understand

Medina Ahahara is an amazing tour, especially with a knowledgable guide. We were very fortunate in this regard. There was some waiting around for buses, but that was not the fault of the guide.

Enjoyed the experience. Maria was knowledgable and an excellent guide. Friendly and helpful too. She struggled with her English pronunciation but this didn’t affect our enjoyment.

Tour was not well organized. Tour guide was very nice however seemingly had minimal tour guide experience. Bus used for transport was old and smelled moldy.

Don't do it if it's cold, windy and wet. I'm sure it will look magnificent in about 10-20 years time - when restorations are further advanced.

Enjoyed a tour of the Medina Azahara today. Our guide was Almudena and she made the visit very interesting and explained everything thoroughly. It is a fascinating place and she brought it to life. Well worth a visit.

Maria was a great guide. It was fun and I didn’t have to plan anything. Maria was attentive and informative. Would recommend

Our guide Alejandro was excellent. So knowledgeable, he really made the place come alive. I suspect this site is one you would not appreciate without a guide to tell you the history and point out the relevant architecture. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Alejandro! 5 stars.

This was a fascinating place brought to life with excellent historical knowledge by our lovely guide Maria.

Alejandro is a fantastic guide to the Medina Azahara. His descriptions brought the place to life. It is a great tour and well worth the time. Highly recommend.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and considered. The tour was very pleasant despite of the bad weather. The audio system worked very well. The only recommendation is to try to communicate better the logistics to the group as there were times of uncertainty that added unnecessary stress to the experience.

Our tour guide Alejandro was amazing and very knowledgeable. We learned way more than we could have on our own. We also might not have figured out the system on our own. There’s a bus to the site, then the ticket system and a museum, then another bus to the main site. You have to then take both busses back. It was logistically a headache, but worth the visit.

Alejandro and his historical stories made the tour so much more interesting!! It’s such a worthwhile trip. One tip though - it says snack and drink provided but we didn’t try anything so do not expect same

Alejandro was a brilliant guide. He was really knowledgeable and the whole tour was so interesting. Doing the Medina without a guide would have been nowhere near as good. He looked after us so well. Thoroughly recommend this excursion

Alejandro is a good, knowledgeable guide and spoke some of the clearest English we heard in Spain in 4 weeks. The Medina Zahara was a fascinating surprise we had not really heard of until our Mezquite guide mentioned it. Highly recommended.

Maria was an excellent guide! Friendly, funny and such an encyclopedia of knowledge. We had such a wonderful time

Our guide Maria was very good and very knowledgeable of the history & provided a lot of information.

The guided tour was supposed to be in English - very difficult to understand. She obviously knew her stuff but trying to tell us about it in English was difficult for her. Kept asking us for suggestions for words.

Booking this as an excursion made the trip easy instead of negotiating the traffic. Our guide was excellent and very informative about the history of the die and the Umayyad Califate. Learned much more than just visiting the site ourselves

Wonderful tour! All went well On time pickup point Lots of information about the site Highly recommend Thank you "Maria"

The guide was very knowledgeable. She was also well organized and personable. We opted to have transportation included which was a good decision

It was quite long tour. Only available in Spanish so was lot of information we could not understand unfortunately. It can be done in on hour less .

Fascinating place! Antonio was a great guide. As a student of history, he was very knowledgeable about the significance of the various buildings.

Maria was an excellent guide. She met us at the bus stop in Cordoba punctually and was very knowledgeable about the Medina. She had a lovely, fun sense of humour

Maria was an amazing guide with great information and wonderful sense of humor! I did the night tour with the bus from the MV, got picked up and dropped off to the Medina. We walked around the Medina at night so bring some comfortable shoes. I highly recommend the night tour when it's less hot and not as crowded.

It was a great idea to book this tour. The history of Medina Azahara was fascinating. Our tour guide, Maria was lovely, she explained in detail and answered all our questions. Although the tour was very well organized, you do have to wait a while at the top of the hill while a bus comes to take you back to the starting point. The logistics from the place is a bit lacking. Highly recommend this tour although not in the summer, or make sure you take a hat and plenty of water.