SPAIN travel advice

it looks like i am going in early may! i need some basic advice. i am plotting out an itinerary and what i am thinking is fly into madrid, hang out there for a few days, rent a car (which is $15 a day i guess, cheaper than the train unless i'm really misinformed?) and driving up and down the mediterranean coast. we need to be in murcia for a few days for a music festival but have nowhere else specifically - we could either drive south along the coast and loop back or go up to barcelona.

does anyone have any advice on a good route to take/must see stuff? thanks!

i also need advice on stuff like affordable accommodations, where to stuff my face with jamon, etc.

please try to get yourself to san sebastian
that is my #1 suggestion

a little bit of advice on these old threads. I was in Madrid and the Southern coast a long time ago. Hmmmm let me think

Another reason among the many to visit Spain

Tell me what to do when I go to Spain for two weeks!

the trains are really expensive, unless you buy the tickets exactly two weeks ahead of time, when they release a limited number of discounted tickets. but it doesn't really matter cause the website for the trains is basically a black hole of frustration. the high speed trains are really nice though, and there is a digital display of the traveling speed in all the cars.
i was just in spain but not in these parts (except for a quick 2 day stop in madrid) but 2nd the suggestion of going to san sebastian.

murcia-alicante-valencia-barca is all along the coast and if driving's your thing then it's a slog but good times

i really don't mind driving! the high speed trains look crazy, but i am trying to be relatively frugal so the car rental seems like a good way to get around. is there a benefit to doing a southern route (down towards gibraltar) as opposed to northern?

they're just super different parts of the country, it's up to you what part you want to see. also if you're driving please budget a lot for tolls -- the roads are really really nice and well marked, but they have outrageous tolls.

and we might not need to go all the way up to barcelona but just hang around the murcia/alicante area (possibly up to valencia?), it might be too ambitious. it would be cool to take a ferry/boat somewhere, but i'm guessing ibiza is skippable!

good to know about tolls!

murcia-valencia is i dunno 3-4 hours

yes, tolls is a good point- though you can take the coastal roads and avoid some of them- it's slower but prettier imo

Renting a car will also cost more than $15 USD daily, or at least it did last year.

I would stan for Andalusia - Seville, Ronda - but only because that's the bit I'm most familiar with. Don't know the Blanca/Dorado/Brava bits that well. My parents speak highly of Northern Spain though - Leon, Oviedo, Bilbao, San Sebastián might make a good roadtrip?

Hiking in the Pyrenees in Torla was one of the highlights of my trip -- gorgeous medieval village in the middle of a national park/nature area. AMAZING.

la lechera otm, GO TO SAN SEBASTIAN.

and yeah Bilbao is lovely too, great people in both San Seb and Bilbao.

there are good pencions (spanish people using their flat/house as a guesthouse) in most places.

in fact if you go san seb i can recommend one, unless you intend to stay somewhere fancy. it was very very basic but safe, central, and clean, and the owner made us basque custard tarts and stuff, really fun.

san sebastian is like a food paradise.

toooootally a food paradise
easy to get around on foot too, amazing beach, bizarro amusement park on top of a religious monument

so bummed that the funicular was closed the day i tried to go to that amusement park.

this is but one of the amusements

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6134/5976905378_f43801484e.jpg

and the food was amazing. but honestly the food was amazing everywhere i went in spain.

yeah, p much

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6007/5976345131_803d18a734.jpg

was fuego negro open when you guys were there? a tapas bar up near the church in the old town but markedly different from the older bars, really swanky in a sort of naff way apart from the fact the food is this insanely good fusion type tapas, it was really incredible.

other than that it's nice having foie gras everywhere, and those squadrones of spanish men singing opera songs as they go from bar to bar. best way to get drunk ever...

we mostly went to local places, just kinda skipped around. there are a LOT of super fancy restaurants in spain, but i didn't go to any of them. i love the grazing aspect of spanish eating -- just kind of grab what you want, eat it, drink a little, go somewhere else, have something else, sit by the water a while, la ti da, eat/drink some more, etc.

i'll tell you what, if i disappear, san sebastian would not be a bad place to look for me.

now i really want to go to san sebastien but it seems on the opposite end of the country from where i need to end up (murcia)!

next time! i didn't make it south or west at all on my first trip; it's not a place you can cover reasonably in one short trip, i think.

btw if i disappear, please don't look for me.

this was the best tapas place we tried in barcelona. one of the best restaurants I've ever been to. cleaner and brighter than many, not too expensive. two long bars laden w/amazing jamon seafood etc. in the eixample area near ave diagonal, passeig de gracia and some cool gaudi buildings.

Cervecería Catalana
C/ MALLORCA, 235, 08013 Barcelona, Spain
+34 932 16 03 68 ‎

http://w.cdn-tonight.eu/214469.jpg

some of the tapas places were a little greasy/heavy; not here

http://w.cdn-tonight.eu/214370.jpg

please try to get yourself to san sebastian
that is my #1 suggestion

― La Lechera, Tuesday, January 24, 2012 2:24 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

YESSSSS

I wound up there sort of by accident and only for a day during a trip to France and it was amazingly lovely. I really want to go back. I have no other advice about Spain because S Sebastian is actually the only place I've ever been to there. LL otm though. If you can go there definitely try to.

now i really want to go to san sebastien but it seems on the opposite end of the country from where i need to end up (murcia)!

― bene_gesserit, Tuesday, January 24, 2012 3:43 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Oh shit, only just saw that now. Bummer. I'm sure the rest of it is great too though.

well i can recommend cartagena as a beautiful town, heavy roman influence still v apparent, they're currently doing up the amphiteatre and the harbour area is spectacular

i live in madrid and know galicia, castilla y leon, extremadura, and andalucia pretty well, but nothing of the basque country or catalonia. how long are you going to be in spain, bene?

about 9-10 days! i'm definitely spending some time in madrid, and flying in/out of there, so madrid recommendations are welcome!

No-one repping for Lanzarote? It's great.

I don't know the eastern side of the country at all, but if you head south-then-east you can visit some superb towns - Toledo, Cordoba and Granada are all excellent, and places like Seville and Malaga would be just about within reach too. Gibraltar's really interesting and spectacular.

Stay in a ye olde parador if you can afford it. They're converted historic buildings and some of them are really amazing. Jaen (east of Granada) is a castle perched on a crag above the town.

I loved driving in Spain because it's big and empty, like a mini-America. This may be less impressive to an American, granted.

Gibraltar's really interesting and spectacular.

really? my parents have an apartment about an hour from malaga and a trip to gibraltar is always an option when i go with friends, but all i've heard about it is that it's one of the worst shitholes in the universe.

The bay and the rock and the view of Africa are incredible. Historically and politically it's pretty interesting. There are apes. No doubt it's full of tat - but I didn't really notice tbh.

God, yes, Gibraltar is awful. We hare down there, pick up cheap fags and booze and get the hell back out. The caves and that are ok, I guess, but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to visit it.

my tip is: avoid Gibraltar

go to the rock, get out

a few days in and around madrid then visiting a couple cities in andalucia (i second cordoba and granada!) before ending up in murcia sounds awesome. not sure renting a car would be much cheaper or worthwhile though. you're going to have to pay for gas and parking and will be driving around half the length of the iberian peninsula. you don't necessarily have to take the ave everywhere--if you like seeing the countryside then the avant trains are a lot cheaper and go through random towns. and there's always the bus. you could also just rent the car in granada and drive to murcia. cabo de gata natural park is between them (on the coast) and a car would be handy there.

in madrid i highly recommend you visit goya's tomb.

i went to goya's tomb, it was cool

rip

thanks craigorio that is all really helpful! i'll look into costs of train/bus from madrid to granada. cabo de gata looks lovely!

alsa will be the bus line you want. it's about 20 euros, 5 hrs across la mancha, and there will be a bus leaving pretty much every hour all day long from madrid.

ok, i've just worked out some of the details, and i think we are going to take the bus to granada as you recommended! is there a specific town on the coast between granada and murcia that you would recommend spending a night in? we definitely want to spend some time in cabo de gato and take are time going up the coast.

alright - i've fully booked all my hotels so i could use some itinerary specific advice:

days 1-3 madrid - staying at a pension in the the universidad neighborhood, i definitely want to visit the prado but otherwise i could use advice on what to see/eat!

day 4 granada - staying in the downtown area but closer to the alhambra. definitely want to visit the alhambra but not sure what else. planning on renting a car here for the rest of the trip.

days 5-6 - cheaping out everywhere else on hotels, but splurged a little and booked two nights at parador de mojacar (http://spainparador.com/parador-mojacar.htm) which was still not all that expensive (came out to ~$70 per person per night) this is close to cabo de gata but could use advice on other towns to explore in the area)

days 7-8 - murcia - we will probably be at the music fesitival (watching PULP) most of the time

day 9 - need to find a budget accommodation near the madrid airport for an early flight home

Jely

I'm considering going for a week in March. I was going to do Madrid and Barcelona, but my friend is trying to convince me to concentrate on one city, and not try to do too much. Thoughts? I am leaning toward Madrid. Also, is it an okay place to travel alone in?

you should come in march instead and hang out with me!

i mean may

tbh I dont think i've been to Barcelona in the August/July in over 10 years and i'm sure it can be a lot more crazy those times.

I’ve been to barcelona 5+ times and only lost my passport to pickpockets once so make of that what you will

I was there in July last year. I hadn't been in several years (maybe 5-6?). Some parts were definitely throbbing, like the beach and around Las Ramblas. But most other parts were totally normal.

I've only been to Barcelona once, and had a fine time, but I find the focus it gets from tourists annoying and I've spent much more time elsewhere in Spain for that reason. Probably people feel that way about Paris too though...

I like this piece about tourism and Barcelona a lot. https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2018/the-battle-for-the-boqueria/

Nobody remembers who was the first to sell smoothies at the Boqueria. Or if they do remember, nobody seems eager to take credit for it.

The idea, undoubtedly, came from a very simple realization: Tourists don’t buy vegetables. They don’t buy fish or pork chops, snails or mushrooms. They sure as shit don’t buy monkfish or mollusks, chicken or chickpeas or chicory. They need something they can hold in their hands, consume in the moment before they move on to the Sagrada Familia or the sands of Barceloneta. Sure, savvy travelers know that a market is the perfect place to build a picnic of local products, and an ideal spot to find gifts for friends and family, but most visitors aren’t thinking beyond their next bite. For them, smoothies gave them a simple way to connect to the Boqueria.

Today, much of the Boqueria runs on liquefied fruit—an ever-growing army of plastic cups that paint the market a psychedelic swirl of orange and green, pink and purple. At Sprimfruit, near the market’s main entrance, they sell so many smoothies that they run them through giant plastic tubes like some marginally-healthier version of the Wonka factory. Some have bet the entire farm on pulverized produce; others have tried to keep selling fresh apples and bananas and strawberries alongside their fluid counterparts, but with diminishing returns. I’ve watched over the years as the fruit itself is subsumed by its byproduct.

More than replace much of the market’s supply of fresh fruit, the smoothies set off a chain reaction across the market. Vendors, already suffering from a lack of local clientele, looked for ways to transform their raw staples into processed profit. At first it happened in small doses: charcuterie stands sold skewers of jamón and chorizo, a few fish stalls offered oysters ready to be shucked and slurped. But the economics are such now that if you don’t have something to offer the tourist, your days in the Boqueria are probably numbered.

Fizzles OTM - Cadiz definitely worth a visit, Seville is one of my favourite places in the world.

Visits to Andalucía were always a total delight but have become even more pleasurable since I developed a taste for sherry.

My wife's family are Catalans that have been in the city for generations so i have a pretty deep appreciation for the town and territory. They are very understanding of the importance of tourism and even though they live in the center of the city it's not too hard to avoid the more insane places .

sorry for being bolshy about Barcelona etc. I dunno what's going on with me. Barcelona is a nice place to visit. Put that on TripAdvisor.

sorry if i came across wide yesterday, jed

No problem Jim! I do know what's wrong with me, tbh, in spite of what I just said. It's alcoholism...

happens to the best of us!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

alhambra is good

YASSSS

All I can say is that we spent one night in Merida on our way back from Portugal and it was a total delight. Merida has it all: A Roman aqueduct and stone walking bridge, multiple archeological sites, a Roman amphitheater, a coliseum, army barracks, a pre-Roman fort with an unforgettable subterranean well, and a fancy hotel that's a converted Moorish palace, with a rooftop pool right on the utterly charming main square. Where you can sit at your choice of cafes and watch the storks perched on the peaks of the town hall and the cathedral, nests silhouetted against the sky.

The hotel had a small fenced courtyard off the plaza, so I took my wine and my book and read late into the night. It probably doesn't need more than 2 days to see the sights but I could have stayed at that hotel forever.

don’t half ply you with food in granada

had a nice conversation with a taxi driver in french today tho so that was a highlight 👍🏻

Ronda is killing me, my god. Hard to get your head around the fact that it actually really exists.

You should get a load of Setenil de las Bodegas!

Wowee! It's only 15 minutes away by bus...

Madrid then, what nice areas would you recommend for air bnb/staying at?

We stayed in the Lavapiés neighborhood. It was a good location, close to the Prado, Reina Sofia, Retiro Park and Atocha train stationWe walked nearly everywhere from there -- covered ~70 miles over five days -- and it never felt far from what we wanted to see.

We're going back in late October. Thought this thread bump would be about this article: Locals in Spain, Tired of Booming Tourism, Say ‘Stay Away’

Catalans aren’t your average Spaniards

Thanks looking at Lavapies now

seems like kind of a first world problem to be asking for advice about traveling in spain?

we stayed at the hotel Principe Pio - it was clean, centrally located, but there was a loud nightclub out our window that stayed open basically all night

seems like kind of a first world problem to be asking for advice about traveling in spain?

― budo jeru, Wednesday, 17 July 2024 bookmarkflaglink

Just asked about Paris too. A lot of 1st world problems tonight

jelly ;)

I painfully threw my back out in Barcelona and had to learn how to say "No homeopatico! No homeopatico, por favor!" because the pharmacies kept trying to pawn that shit off on my

We caught a terrific deal at the Hotel Europa next to Puerta del Sol Square. It's a big old retrofitted pile of a building, but good enough if you're going to be there for a few days and just need a place to crash while you're sightseeing.

those floods looks absolutely apocalyptic

pretty bad - talking to people in our seville office today (obv far from the affected areas), most of them know people in that region and area, and there's been a lot of concerned phoning around. understandably preoccupied. it's just not set up for this sort of inundation afaict.

yeah, just heard a spanish weather guy and he was pointing to how well-prepared the U.S. was for that last hurricane, and that maybe they should start paying attention

Huge power outage throughout Spain and Portugal ...

Thanks for the recommendation, will check it out

^^^Presumably not addressed to JiC

I would presume the opposite

Lol
Thanks Josh i checked it out. Apart from a bit of absolute chaos crossing roads to get back to the apartment (what the fuck is happening and why are the lights out?) it was a nice simple afternoon reading and sleeping. Came back in time for cooked food at 830.

Others not so lucky obv.

But ... Two whole large countries without power is crazy.

Yeah was just joking about the power outage as a must-do

Most people see Spain with the power on, it's a rare opportunity to see it with the power off!

They are blaming a "rare atmospheric phenomenon." Zombies can't be far off.

sunspots?

swamp gas

My friends in Portugal mostly reacted by grilling up some sardines and opening up the wine, no electricity meant no work to go to.

But there have been more dramatic situations - hospitals obv, but also on a more mundane level old ppl who couldn't get back home because all the lifts were turned off.

Daniel, are the Azores affected?

Thankfully no, so my mum's all right. Dunno about Madeira and Spain's islands but would assume the same.

Not traveling abroad this year (and maybe not next) but went down a rabbit hole of looking at some pretty great paradores that are not really that expensive. Our one parador experience in Hondarribia was excellent.

Can anyone recommend good jazz and classical record stores in Barcelona?

Jazz Messengers (their distribution arm, Distrijazz, handles my releases in Europe).

Also https://www.jazzrecordsbarcelona.com/

I didn’t know they had a brick and mortar—are they the fresh sound guys too?