Spain Travel Advice

[agulati]

Hey folks,

We are four guys in our mid/late 20s going to Spain for 10 days and wanted to get some advice of things to do, places to see, foods to eat, nightlife and situations to avoid. I would say our budget is mid-rangeish. We have a budget of CAD2500 after our tickets.

We are flying in to Amsterdam, spending a night there, and then flying in to Madrid or Barcelona. Our plan is to rent a car and do southern Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Cordoba, Majorca etc)

[meritmat]

Condoms. Lots of condoms

[nik-]

Andalusia is significantly cheaper than Madrid and Barcelona so your budget will stretch farther there. Granada is worth a stop to see the Alhambra (and the drive in that area is awesome), just make you buy tickets for it ahead of time. The Alhambra and the Cathedral of Seville are, imo, the two most impressive sites.

10 days though, with that many cities, you're not going to get a great taste of these places. It's going to be really rushed. I'd recommend chopping some off or extending. With 10 days I'd recommend 3 places as your goal.

[troutman]

The rain in Spain?

Falls mainly on the plain.

[FireGilbert]

Tell me about Spain and Portugal

I've said it before and I'll say it again: spend a day in Toledo! My wife and I did a 2 month around the world trip visiting 14 countries and that was our number one highlight.

I'll also echo the advice to limit your cities if you only have 10 days. We did 5 nights in Madrid, 1 in Toledo, 1 in Valencia, and 3 in Barcelona. In hindsight I really liked Valencia and could have spent more time there whereas I found Barcelona to be overrated and could have spent less time there.

[burn_this_city]

We travelled through Andalusia in 2014. Seville and Granada are must sees, Cordoba is pretty mediocre aside from the Mosque-Cathedral. Majorca is fantastic, the beaches there are the nicest I've ever been to. Malaga and Ronda are really nice as well, you can't really go wrong anywhere there. Alhambra was the highlight of our trip followed by the Alcazar in Seville.

[cam_wmh]

San Sebastian.. the eating is unreal.. Iberian ham, mmm

[bluejays]

I thought Barcelona was pretty good as a young person. Beware of pickpockets - crazy amount of stories and they're really good down there. Probably more pickpockets than anywhere else in Europe. Valencia is a must do. Good nightlife, very very safe (no pickpockets), and just a nice city/town. I did Seville and was disappointed. Hot AF, and very tiny. Once you're done the main sites (within a few hours) there there's nothing much to do because it's so hot. I'd see if I could skip over to Lagos, Portugal. I had some fun times there a couple years back (nice beach town).

[nik-]

Seville has a pretty decent nightlife in Triana and El Arenal

But yeah, Seville in the summer is like 40.

[snootchiebootchies]

Montserrat is nice in the summer. Pretty easy to get to from Barcelona. It was a nice escape from the heat in Barcelona.

[Reneeee]

I was disappointed with the beach in Barca. Water wasn't even hot in June. Otherwise super easy to get around the city without a car. Subway system is well setup there. Stayed about 20 blocks away from the main walking street and it was the perfect location to be quiet at night and close enough to everything during the day. A quick jump on the subway and 3 stops later you were in the thick of it. Think Banff trail or Chinook area in Calgary

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[Lubicon]

My daughter went to Spain last year for a high school field trip. Obviously a different agenda but in Barcelona her personal favorites were the Sagrada Familia and Camp Nou. If you're a sports guy Camp Nou is where FC Barcelona plays. Stadium tours, museum etc. The guys in her class really liked it.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by snootchiebootchies

Montserrat is nice in the summer. Pretty easy to get to from Barcelona. It was a nice escape from the heat in Barcelona.

Yup, had a great day there. Hiked to the top from the monastery, and there was hardly anyone around. 99% of the crowd stays around the monastery, or goes up the upper funicular and right back down. Brought a picnic lunch and bottle of wine to enjoy for my birthday up there.

[Huntingwhale]

Good timing for this thread. I was just there last week (Barcelona, Ibiza, Formentera). I absolutely love that country and it's my favourite place to visit.

Barcelona is a great city to walk around and wander. Lots to see, good places to eat, friendly people. The pickpockets are something to watch out for, but I've never had any issue with them (been there 3 times). The underground Metro is awesome. I'd recommend it rather then driving through the city if you can. There is an awesome app called Barcelona Metro-TMB. It's amazing and will easily help you through.

You'll probably head to Las Rambla at some point. If you do, you MUST go to Pizza Circus. Best pizza of pretty much anywhere in the world. Do not miss it. If you walk east from there on the same road, you instersect with Las Rambla and come across Placa Reial. A beautiful square with a huge fountain in the middle. Always something crazy and interesting going on. The restaurants there can be hit or miss, but we ate Guelph and it was amazing.

Definitely have to see Sagrada Famillia. It's a tourist trap for sure...but it's so damn epic that you'll be blown away. Don't bother with the Gaudi park house museum that you can buy alongside it. A waste of money and took all of 2 minutes to see the chair Gaudi sat in. Woohoo.

The beaches I liked. Nice and clean. Walk far to the end to avoid the crowds, but still get some great scenery. The only bad part are the annoying people who try to sell you drinks and massages. I actually don't mind the drink guys because it's good to quench your thirst. But they are always watered down, so better of bringing your own. The message ladies can get annoying, but if you yell at them angrily they leave you alone. I would also buy a big blanket from a shop and use that instead of putting your towel on the sand. It just makes it way more comfy.

Enjoy Spain! Even though I literally just came back, I am jealous that you are going!!

[tvp2003]

Thanks to CP (and cmyden) we ended up spending a week on the island of Menorca. Not a lot to do but still pretty good for $150 a person

[prarieboy]

If you find yourself in Plaza Mayor in Madrid and are hungry walk two to three blocks in any direction and then find a place to eat.

Trust me on this one.

[bluejays]

Oh, there was this little hole in the wall that had amazing tapas and wasn't expensive for a sit down place. Place was called Bar Ramone in Barcelona. So damn good.

[Amethyst]

I loved Spain. For ten days, I would definitely select an area and concentrate on that, rather than trying to see places all over. When I went, I flew into Barcelona, toured mostly around the northeast part of the country and then flew out of Madrid.

Barcelona was great. I also heard of the pickpockets, but I didn't have any trouble. I've also heard that for Prague, Budapest, Ulan Baatar, etc and I think in most places if you are relatively "street smart" you won't have any problems.

In Barcelona, I took a cooking class from Cook and Taste Barcelona. We walked through the market first, buying ingredients and then went back to the school and cooked a bunch of traditional dishes from the area.

If you make it to San Sebastian, check out San Sebastian Urban Adventures. It's run by my former tour guide and his wife. They focus on hiking and biking tours around the area. They also do a pintxo crawl (like a pub crawl with food and drinks).

I also enjoyed the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. It's a day trip from San Sebastian.

I also enjoyed Pamplona and Laguardia (a small town built on top of a bunch of wine cellars). Laguardia wasn't supposed to be part of our tour, but the guide suggested it when one of our scheduled spots was closed. It was a great experience off the typical tourist path.

Edit: And yes, try the Iberian ham for sure!!

[agulati]

Thanks for your input, folks. We are going to sit down and plan it out. I'll probably have a few more questions in a day or two.

[agulati]

Folks,

Thanks to your input, we have decided to reduce the places we will go to. Currently we are doing 2 nights each in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Costa Brava, Valencia and Madrid. We are doing a single night in Toledo as well.

We made the tough decision of not doing Seville and Granada this go around due to heat and the driving time it would add to our trip.

What would be good areas to live in, in these cities? We are looking at hotels or airbnbs and want to be close to the action.