Valley of the Fallen and El Escorial from Madrid with Optional Toledo

Buyer Be Where of VPT! The company VPT offering the tour service of El Escorial and Valley of the Fallen was terrible!!! We had called in advance twice - once from the US and once from Madrid to confirm our reservation and details of the pick up at our hotel. We were told to be in the lobby of our hotel before 8:15 AM for pick up by VPT. VPT was a no show, at 8:25 AM I called the local number. VPT said they were sorry but they would not be able to pick us up as scheduled and that we would have to take a cab and arrive at their local office by 9:00 AM or forfeit the trip and of course no refund and not to mention screwing up our plans!!!!! We notified the desk and they immediately called for a taxi. We arrived barely in time, the VPT representatives did not seem to really care that we were not picked up as originally arranged. I asked to speak with a supervisor and they said no supervisor was available. The VPT guide was not great either, she mostly spoke in Spanish and her English was marginal. She rattled off her English version of what she had just said in Spanish so quickly that we missed about 50 of what she said!! We have generally had pretty good experiences with Viator but this really is a horrible operator. We are now questioning Viator's due diligence regarding service providers they rely on. The very positive part of this was El Escorial and the Valley of the Fallen, they were both excellent site seeing experiences and should be considered must see!