I'm very sad to be bucking the trend on the Madrid & Beyond reviews. But our experience was less than stellar. We found them through a domestic travel agency and booked a Portugal trip with them in 2022, which we cancelled due to COVID. The trip had been prepaid in full. Madrid and Beyond would not return any of the funds remaining after non-refundable hotel cancellation fees. They would only hold the unused funds for a future trip. Eight months later, we asked them to rebook the same trip, at the same time of year and were informed that the price to do so would be greater than 40% more than the year prior. So, at that point we had a choice to either forfeit the funds being held, or ante up many more unexpected thousands of dollars. When I requested a reasonable explanation and transparency in the form of a cost breakdown for the original and current itineraries I was told that the increase was due to "inflation" and that transparency would not be provided as a matter of policy. We definitely feel as though we were held hostage and the communication from M & B management after that, including the remaining planning, was very terse and very unsatisfactory. We were given the impression they just didn't care and that the held funds had been a ruse. We ended up succumbing to the hostage situation and taking the trip in 12/22. In fairness, the accommodations, guides and drivers arranged by M & B were all very good to excellent, and the trip was wonderful. But, they made zero effort beyond that to assist with our trip and left us with a sour enough taste over the hostage situation and their indifference that we would not use them again, nor recommend them. Unsurprisingly, as of the date of this post, they have yet to contact us about our trip to see how it went. I think that is clear testimony to their level of indifference. read more