Preparing Yourself For Your Trip
Although the following article mainly concerns itself with Spain and more particularly Madrid, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, the research principles are applicable to any trip one plans throughout the world.
We are fortunate to have the accessibility to the thousands of web pages concerning travel. One suggestion I have before leaving for your destination, be it Spain or any other country, is that you try to tune yourself in to the surroundings. You may listen to some radio broadcasts from the country you are visiting.
One site, which lists various radio stations, is the following:
https://www.radio-directory.com
Another way to tune in is to read a newspaper from the locality and find out about the latest news, cultural events, weather, etc. You can refer to the following site in order to track down a publication.
If you have access to foreign restaurants where you live, you may want to visit one where the language and food will be the same as the place you intend to visit. For example, if you are going to Spain you may want to have a trial run and visit a Spanish restaurant and try ordering your food in Spanish. If you know anyone who speaks Spanish, you may want to invite him or her to your house for a meal where you can try and speak a few words of Spanish.
Any or all of the above will perhaps soften the cultural shock when you visit the foreign country. If you are really ambitious you may want to enroll in a foreign language course before embarking on your trip. There are various sites on the Net that can give you basic words in the foreign language such as:
This site lists Spanish as well as other languages that you can log onto.
Another suggestion is that you contact the tourist bureau of the country you wish to visit and request that they send you brochures, maps, and other relevant information. On our recent trip to Spain, I was interested in tracing my wife’s Spanish Jewish roots and I had received excellent information and brochures from the Spanish Tourist Office. They also send me brochures including maps of Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla and Granada, which came in very handy.
Making Air Plans
The best way to keep posted as to the best flights available to Spain or to any other locality is to subscribe to the following services:
Both have a service that will notify you via email as to the latest prices and inform you of any flights throughout the world. All you have to do after enrolling is to indicate your departure city and your arrival city and every now and then you will receive up-dates as to the price changes etc. I have used this service several times for other trips and it is excellent. Incidentally there may be other sites, which have the same service.
When I initially prepared my flight I received an email indicating that the price from Montreal to Madrid drastically dropped if I were to travel during mid November. It is interesting to note that even the passenger agents at Iberia did not as yet have this information when I had called them on a Sat night!
After reserving my flight for my wife and myself about 6 months in advance, I was in for a “shock-a-Roo” when discovered one day while surfing the Net that Iberia no longer was flying from Montreal to Madrid. When I called them as well as my travel agent, I was informed by Iberia that they were only willing to reimburse me my airfare and they were not willing to book me on another flight from Montreal to New York where I could pick up the Iberian flight to Madrid. If I want this change I would have to pay extra.
As I am not a person to passively accept such “nonsense”, I emailed the Spanish Embassy in Ottawa, the public relations department of Iberia, the Tourist bureau of Iberia and the Spanish representative of IATA. Within 24 hours I was booked on the flight from Montreal-New York-Madrid without any extra cost. I also received apologies!
The lesson here is if you have any hassles from any airline, complain loudly!
Don’t forget to request your seating well in advance and if you have any dietary needs don’t forget to make them known well in advance.
Airport in Madrid – Spanish Train Travel – Currency
The following links should help you get acquainted with the Madrid airport, transportation from the airport and the train system in Spain: currency exchange: exchange rates: ATM machines.
Once you arrive in Madrid Spain you will land at the Barajas Airport. A good page to refer to concerning the various transportation possibilities is the following:
https://www.concierge.com/travel
This page also shows you how to get out of the airport if you are renting a car. I found that the bus, which takes you to Plaza Colon, is extremely reasonable and very efficient. The bus is steps away from the front door to the airport and it takes you to a very central part of town where you can take a taxi to your destination. Another page I found interesting was the Airport Guide page which lists the main airports throughout the world and also gives you departure and arrival times.
Follow this link to find links to the Metro system in Barcelona and Madrid, as well as train information throughout Spain. The Metro system in Madrid is excellent and if you plan to do a great deal of metro travelling it pays to take the 10 tickets, which can be used by more than one person. The Spanish train system it is very efficient and on time. It is wise to reserve your train tickets in advance if you are going to travel on the high speed train from Madrid down south.
Information concerning changing your travelers cheques at American Express offices – locations, hours of operation can be found in the following link, which should give you a listing of all of the American Exchange Offices throughout Europe. If you have another type of traveler cheque you can probably track down their locations. I have found that it is better to change the traveler cheques at the American Express offices rather than the local banks. If you are a member of the CAA or the AAA you will probably not being paying for the traveler cheques.
Using your ATM card is another possibility and here are the locations for the card using TD, GREEN MACHINE, PLUS, INTERAC: You can probably track down the locations of the other cards by first finding their sites on the Web. Spain is very much up to date when it comes to ATM machines and you will find one on just about every corner. Click here to get up-to-date exchange rates.
Getting around Madrid
This page gives you a good idea of the various costs of transportation from not only the airport to the City Center, but also within the city. This page also lists campsites, mountain retreats, location of public telephones, hours of operation of public transportation and many other very useful tidbits concerning Madrid.
Finding Accommodation
Finding accommodation can be extremely frustrating, as there are “tons” of web sites. It is best to ask yourself what type of accommodation are you looking for, price range, locality, etc. This narrows down your search. My wife and myself like the idea of being able to have a private apartment where we can cook our own meals and getting the feeling of living like the locals! We have also found that eating breakfast and preparing lunch and snacks at home have saved us a great deal of money. Here are some of the sites I have found useful. Some of these sites show you descriptions of the hotels, exact location on a map, etc. You may also want to search the Net for comments from individuals who may have stayed in anyone of these accommodations.
Bed and Breakfast – This is an informative site that gives you a list of B&B’S worldwide and not only Spain.
For a complete Spanish tourism guide that lists hotels throughout Spain you may want to refer to:
Another good page is called “Shoestring Travel“, which gives you excellent links to various shoestring accommodations throughout the world.
Lodging in Madrid
https://www.spaindata.com/data/hotelfind.shtml
https://www.travelnow.com/europe
https://www.spaindata.com/data/index.shtml
My wife and I stayed in a self-efficient apartment in Madrid called Hotel Dulcinea, which was a five minute walk from the Prado and central to every one of the interesting attractions in Madrid. Madrid is for walking and it is small enough to be able to see all of the interesting attractions without killing yourself, although you will do a great deal of exercise. A good pair of walking shoes is in order. It is interesting to note that we were in Spain in the middle of November and the weather was quite cool and very often rainy. During the summer months you can expect very hot and humid weather in Madrid.
Lodging in Cordoba
My wife and I stayed at Hotel Boston which is located overlooking a plaza. The room was very comfortable and for an extra few bucks you can have a continental breakfast which includes pastry, jams, rolls, coffee. The hotel rates are very reasonable and the hotel is in a very good location.
Lodging in Seville
I found the following page very helpful as it did contain listings of self-catering apartments as well as other types of accommodation:
On a recent trip we stayed in a self-efficiency apartment which was very near the bull fight ring as well as being close to the center of town. The apartment was cosy and very reasonably priced.
Lodging in Granada
In Granada, my wife and I stayed with a Flemish gentleman named Luc, who has been living in Spain for over a year. Luc’s apartment was delightful and we had our own private room with bathroom as well as the use of his kitchen. Furthermore, Luc acted as our private tour guide.
The costs for lodging and Luc’s services were extremely reasonable! Furthermore, Luc picked us up at the train station and took us to the airport when we departed from Granada. We went touring with Luc to places you would not see if you had an organized tour. It was an experience to remember and he made our trip to Spain very interesting and enjoyable. I would recommend Luc anytime, especially if you do not want to drive.
We were able to drive with Luc to the Alpujaras, the Costa Del Sol, the Sierra Nevada and many more interesting places. Along the way we stopped at various cafes and mixed with the locals. Quite an experience.
His email address is: lucschok@teleline.es
If you write to him tell him Norm and Liliane referred you to him.
Granada is well known for the Alhambra, which you should not miss. To find out more about Granada and the Andalucia refer to the following page:
https://www.stratpub.com/linkacco.html
This page will give you a good idea of the area and what to expect. The scenery is magnificent!
General Information and History
An excellent site I came across is the The World Heritage of Cities that gives you a description of many historical cities throughout the world. In reference to Spain they have information concerning Toledo, Granada and Cordoba. These articles are very informative and provide a good starting point when organizing your trips.
There are also various links which aid you in carrying out further research on anyone particular city. These links lead you to tourist information, hotel information, weather, etc. Apparently this site is constantly being up-dated and there is an indication as to which cities have been added to the list.
Another site I have used in planning my trip is the following that is all about Spain. You will find a great deal of very interesting information:
The Encyclopedia Britannica is now online without cost and this is an excellent site to begin your research.
There is so much more information I can include in this article, however, as space is limited I will have to conclude with the suggestion that if you should want further information you may contact me at ngoldman@netcom.ca