Getting to know Spain and Portugal starts with their great cities--imperial Madrid, cosmopolitan Barcelona, lusty Seville, monumental Granada, storied Lisbon, enchanted Sintra. Any good travel agent can chart such a trip of discovery, as can Marketing Ahead.

But independent travelers want to peel away the layers of images endlessly reproduced in tourist posters and on film. These richly complex cultures are far more than flamenco, beaches and white villages tumbling down hillsides. We can chart your course through unrevealed Iberia, into neglected provincial capitals and villages old before the Romans and Moors, over verdant mountain passes and down to lush valleys where golden eagles soar . . . the ways less traveled.

Here are four suggested itineraries. They begin and end in gateway cities with ready transportation back to the points of origin.

Itinerary 1
Barcelona to Madrid: Artistic Catalunya and the Pyrenees

Itinerary 2
Madrid to Lisbon: Across Old Castile to the Ocean

Itinerary 3
Madrid to Santiago: Heroes and Saints on the Way of St. James

Itinerary 4
Madrid to Seville and Granada: The Glories of Andalucía