Here Are Your Plans for SPAIN!

Congratulations on your upcoming trip to Spain.  And thank you for choosing Rooms With Great Views to hView of the Alcazar, Segovia, Spainelp you with your plans.  You and your wife will be traveling for 18 days, flying from Charlotte NC to Barcelona, and returning to Charlotte from Madrid.  You will be using single country Eurail passes and will be spending one or more nights in each of the following cities:  Barcelona, Seville, Granada, Tarifa, and Ronda.  In addition, you will be visiting (via day trips) Toledo, Segovia, Cordoba and Morocco.  And of course, you will spend two nights with your friends, who live near Zaragosa.

First things first:

Documents. Are your passports in order?  That’s all the documentation you need for Spain and Morocco, unless you’re driving.  Your passports must be valid for at least 6 months from the date you enter the country.  So make sure that you have plenty of time left on your passports.

Vaccinations. Have your anti-tetanus vaccination up to date.  We would also recommend you get a flu shot, since you’re going to be traveling during the flu season.  Be sure to get it at least two weeks before you travel, since it takes a while for immunity to build up.  Hepatitus A and B and Typhoid shots are recommended for Morocco.  You’re  only going to be there for a day, so it’s up to you about these.  Here are a couple of links to help you decide.  MDTravelHealth, and the CDC. Better safe than sorry.  Get them as early as possible.  For Spain info, MDTravelHealth also has advice.  We strongly recommend travel insurance.

The Weather:  This is one of those items that constantly change.  For a more up to date forcast, check (and keep checking) this site: barcelona.com/weather.  Another factor is that southern Spain has warmer weather than the north, and the coast has weather which is different from inland – all of which you are going to sample.  For average high and low temperatures for the dates you will be traveling in Spain (but these are Average so days could be hotter or cooler):

Electricity:  220 to 240 Volts. You’ll need an adapter.  Read more about their electricity at GoSpain.About.com

How to Dress: To not look quite so much like a tourist, check out this article by (of all things) Tourist Guide Barcelona.

ATMs:  Here’s a list of  Barclay ATMs in Barcelona.

Here’s a MAP of the route you’ll be taking (courtesy of Travellerspoint):

View Full Size Travel Map at Travellerspoint

 

View Full Size Travel Map at Travellerspoint

NEXT, the AIRLINES. Considering your desire to combine the shortest time with the lowest price, the best deal we found was on Expedia, flying with Delta Airlines.  A longer flight would be slightly less expensive, but would add about 3 hours to your day.

Total price for this flight: $2,011.20  (Average price per passenger: $1,005.60)
You requested flying open jaw (into Barcelona and out of Madrid).  You could save about $500 by flying into and out of Madrid.  But taking a train to Barcelona and back, instead of flying open jaw… the AVE (high speed train) takes 3 hours and would cost approx. $250 RT, so it might not be worth the savings.  Then again… if you’ve never ridden a high speed train, it could be an adventure.

Here is the open jaw schedule:

TO Spain:
Charlotte (CLT) Delta Flight: 1015  Depart 3:30 pm via Atlanta (ATL)
3Economy/Coach Class , BOEING (DOUGLAS) MD-88
Delta Flight: 114
Atlanta (ATL) to Barcelona (BCN) Arrive 8:55 am +1 day
4,584 mi (7,377 km)
Total Duration: 10hr 3mn  (11hr 25mn with connections)

Return:
Delta Flight: 3841 Madrid (MAD)  Depart 10:45 am via New York (JFK)
3,589 mi (5,776 km) Duration: 8hr 15mn
New York (JFK) Depart 2:45 pm to Charlotte (CLT) Arrive 5:09 pm
541 mi (871 km)
Total duration: 10hr 39mn  (12hr 24mn with connections)

From your home to your airport:  Use MapQuest for the fastest route from your home.  The airport’s address is 5501 Josh Birmingham Pkwy, Charlotte NC 28208.    And here is a parking map of the Charlotte airport. Long term parking is $4 per day. Here is a map of the terminal. Delta is on concourse A. We advise that you check in and print your boarding passes from home (usually within 24 hours of your flight), and get to the airport at least an hour early. Things happen. Better to spend a little extra time at the airport than have to rush and be stressed at the beginning of your trip.

EURAIL SPAIN PASS

You’ll be taking the train on 9 different days.  the nine day pass is $385 for 2nd class and $479 (US dollars) per person for 1st class.  Total: $770 or $958.  Here is the link to  Eurail
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CITY BY CITY

BARCELONA:
From the airport:  You have three choices, and how convenient/expensive they are depends on where you choose to stay.  If you don’t mind walking a half dozen blocks or less to your hotel, and don’t have a lot of luggage, take the Aerobus to the Catalunya stop.  If you do have luggage, you could either take a taxi from the Catalunya stop, or just take the taxi from the airport (which would cost about 20 -30 Euros, vs less than 3 Euros per person for the bus).  Luggage is a big factor in this equation – the more luggage you have, the more expensive the ride in from the airport.
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Most of the rates we quote are in Euros, because exchange rates change daily.  To get a current rate try X-Rates.
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Hotels: We recommend that you look at these hotels:  Casa Billy 30€, Hotel Continental 97 €, Opera Ramblas 63-90 €, and  HotelAtlantis 86 €, includes breakfast, Hotel LLoret 50€ and The Patio 72 € per night.  The most convenient, are the Hotel LLoret and the Hotel Continental, which are located very near the Catalunya Metro Stop.  This stop is a stop for two different metro lines, the Aerobus to the airport and the Bus Touristic.  Pretty convenient.

Transportation: Here is a Metro MAP,  Metro Information (this is great – type in where you are and where you want to go and it tells you which metro line to take) and Taxi Information.  Here is a Tourist Map that shows the sections of Barcelona.  When leaving Barcelona to go to Madrid, take the train at Catalunya station to the Estacio-Sants station.  There the trains go to Madrid.  Inside each station is a sign that tell’s which lines use this particular stop (see photo below).

Barcelona Metro

Food:  You mentioned that you and your wife are vegetarians.  We don’t think that you’re going to have a problem – at least not in the larger cities. Barcelona, for example, has lots of choices for you (many near the hotels we list).  You can find them on the map below.  And rather than list them again here, we’ll link you to the Barcelona page of a couple of Vegetarian websites:  The Happy Cow (which lists 21 vegetarian and 3 vegan restaurants), Vegetarian-Restaurants and VegGuide.  One restaurant that seems consistently reliable all over the world is Govinda.  In Barcelona, it’s in Plaça de la Vila de Madrid, 4  close to Ramblas and Plaza Catalunyas.
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Here’s your personalized map for Barcelona, showing locations for your hotel choices, vegetarian restaurants, and things to do and see (click to open):

View Barcelona in a larger map

Language:  Naturally, the language is Spanish, although there are differences in the way it’s spoken from region to region.  And in some areas (for example, the Basque Country), you’ll find that they prefer to speak their own dialect rather than Spanish.  That being said, English is widely (though not universally) spoken.  Here are some links to phrases it would behoove you to know:   Fodor’s and Begin Spanish Now. For many more Spanish resources, go to Learn Spanish, Travel Spanish.

More resources for Barcelona:  Learn Spanish, Travel Spanish

This TRIP PLAN includes all of this for every city this couple will visit, and more.  Also included is  a breakdown of costs, as well as information on locating an ATM, using telephones and computers in Spain, staying safe, packing light and much more.  We aren’t including any more of it here because… well.. this couple paid for this.  We got their permission to use it, but it wouldn’t be fair to give away what they had to pay for.  If you like what you see, think about using Rooms With Great Views to plan your next trip.  Let’s plan a trip!