Blacquesmith, perhaps you can help me with an itiniary.
I am going to Barcelona on July 26 with 2 teenage girls. We will fly out from Madrid after app a week.
My original plan was to spend 3 days in Barcelona, then rent a car and slowly make my way to Madrid, however i am open to any suggestions.
I like to see culture, not so much into museums, I prefer monuments and the like. I also like to spend the latter part of my days drinking the local booze somewhere with good views and not too cramped.
My oldest daughter is obsessed by anything gothic, the younger one mainly wants to shop, however I am in charge of the itiniary. My oldest daughter who shares her opinions the most, would like gothic quarter and beach.
A friend told us to get a hotel outside of Barcelona and then drive to take the train in to the big city as needed.
If it were me, Iād fly to Paris and then take the TGV down to Bordeaux, rent a car in Bordeaux and drive down to Spain from there. Some of the most interesting parts of France are between Bordeaux and Spain (Condon, Auch, Pau, Tours, Toulouse, ā¦etcā¦). Itās hard to get lost as with most of France, if you know the name of the next town, you can get from town to town on the D roads. The Autoroutes are even simpler, but less interesting. This area was the scene of a lot of the 100 yearās war and the most exciting thing that happened to some of these towns was that the Black Prince burned them down in the 1300ās. The food is wonderful and relatively cheap, (routiers are still decent). You can stop in places like Madiran and try some really interesting wines. The drive into Spain across the Alps is a really cool one. Basque country is also very unique and interesting.
Iām not biased and I do recommend to visit Pais Vasco (Basque country) and/or around. Food, traditional and colorist architecture, landscapes and food again.
Letās seeā¦ First of all, Iād recommend you to look for a hotel inside the city, if possible. If not, look into the hotels into the āArea metropolitanaā. The smaller cities around Barcelona are into the same transport zone, which means that youāre paying the same fee for transport within it (you pay once, you can get unlimited transport inside the zone for an hour and a half). Iād recommend you to go to the Park GĆ¼ell, it is great and it gives you fantastic views over the city. Even if not gothic, Iām sure your daughter will enjoy the architecture, as well as the Sagrada Familia and other GaudĆ buildings. The āPasseig de Graciaā avenue has most top fashion brands for shopping, and has some interestign buildings to check out. Beware the prices if you want to drink something, thoughā¦ Most bars and restaurants there are traps for tourists. Itās better if you go there, watch your monuments, do your purchases, then go to another place to have a coffee or some drinks. Rambla Catalunya (parallel to Passeig de GrĆ cia) is also a good shopping street, and the prices are slightly better.
If you want for an interesting drink place (not known to most tourists), if you go to the top of Passeig de GrĆ cia, thereās a modernist building, the Casa Fuster Hotel, that has an open terrace on top of it, you can just go up there and ask for drinks, enjoying a beautiful view of the city (best done at night). You have to dress up a little bit (no sandals with socks or crocs), but itās worth it.
As for the gothic quarter, Iād recommend you to begin at PlaƧa Catalunya (many public transportation going there), under the square, thereās an information point that gives out guides, and offers you information about tours, prices, and discount coupons. When youāre ready, walk down Portal de lāAngel (the angelās gate, back when Barcelona was still a walled city, one of the gates was placed there). Portal de lāĆngel is another great shopping place, by the way. Make your way down until you find a fountain (and a fork in the road), then if you follow left, you reach the Cathedralās square, and you can look around that area. There are some goodies hidden in the gothic quarter: Roman columns, a piece of the old roman necropolis, parts of the old city wallsā¦
For drinks, I also recommend you the neighbourhoods of GrĆ cia and El Born. El Born, specially, is closer to the beach, so if youāve spent the afternoon at the beach, you can take a nice walk there. Visiting the old Born market, with the recently uncovered ruins under it, itās totally worth the time, and then you can head to the bars around (there are plenty of choices around). The Born area also has lots of small stores from independent fashion designers that your daughter might appreciate if sheās into that (my wife and her friends love it, as do most of my younger cousins).
I wouldnāt recommend driving from Barcelona to Madrid as a sightseeing tripā¦ If you take the most direct route, the only thing in between them is Zaragoza. If you took the (far longer) northern route (Barcelona-Lleida-Zaragoza-LogroƱo-Burgos-Segovia-Madrid) that would be a much more interesting trip, but as I said, itās far longer (without stops, It can be done in about 8-9 hours, Iāve done it, but not as a relaxed family vacation). My advice would be to either take the plane between Barcelona and Madrid, or take the AVE (high speed train). The plane is faster and a little bit cheaper, but the train just takes a little bit longer, it departs from the main train station inside Barcelona (as opposed to the airport, which is outside the city), and the security controls are less bothering, no passport or ID checks (they just X-Ray your luggage and youāre done). This way, youād have time for a nap in the train, and youād arrive to Madrid with enough energy to make the most of it. Renting a car would make sense if you want to move around Barcelona, but inside the city, the public transportation makes the car a poor choice (the parking fee is expensive). Same for Madrid. Itās fine to rent if youāre going outside the city (Toledo, Segovia, El Escorialā¦) but driving inside Madrid might make you want to cut your veins. Iāve never been in Madrid and not witnessed a traffic accident.
If youāre not into museums thatās OK, but if youāre going to visit just two of Madridās museums, pick the Prado and the Thyssen museum. If you were to go to the Reina SofĆa modern arts museum, in my opinion the only thing there thatās worth is Picassoās Gernika and the few surrealist paintings they have there (most of them by DalĆ), but thatās just two rooms of the museum. So, unless you specifically want to see the Gernika or āThe big masturbatorā by DalĆ, youāre better off that museum.
Yes, 4 days in Barcelona, which I really liked. Hotel had a great location, I loved the food of Spain, especially the tapas, and i managed to bring 3 pounds of jamon iberico to Taiwan(donāt tell anyone). Booked lots of guided walks, and learned a lot. Barcelona has too many tourists though, but a lot to see. All the major churches were checked out, including the cathedral, manda maria del mar, Santa maria Pi(?) which was right behind the hotel, and La Sagrada Familia, which was a 4 hour visit.
More beggars than Italy, though, and the mood of the place seemed dimmer somehow.
Then I rented a car and took the girls to Gandia, where we stayed at a beachfront hotel. Much cheaper than Barcelona, we did not really do much apart from swimming.
Last day, we drove to madrid, where I got on a plane to Taiwan, and the girls went to DK. night before the flights was spent next to the airport, however we managed to schedule 3 hours in the prado in.
As for the number of tourists, Barcelona is the third city in the Top 10 most photographed cities in the world, after New York and Rome. Compared to both, Barcelona is smaller (New York has more than 19 million inhabitants, Rome about 3 million, and Barcelona has only 1.5 million). Last year, though, Barcelona hosted about 8 million tourists throughout the year.
Tourism is the main income source for the city, and there are many laws and regulations in order to protect the tourists and the city buildings and cleanliness. Sadly, though, where there are so many tourists, there are also people who try to make an illicit profit of that (hence the beggars and the thieves, who mainly target asian tourists, specially japanese, because they use to carry huge amounts of cash with them, and not so many credit cards).
I know. Iāve never been targeted in Paris because every time Iāve been there I wore a jacket with zippers in every single pocket, and all the valuables were in the inside pockets (also with zippers) and the jacket was zipped too. Too difficult to even bother to try. When I went there with my wife for our honeymoon, I recommended her to get a similar jacket, so we did, and never had a problem (Iām aware sometimes Iām too paranoid, but I donāt want to find myself in a foreign country with no ID, no Passport, and no moneyā¦ I donāt really trust that the Spanish embassy would help me go back home).
My parents have been there much more often, and every single time, some burglar attempted to rob them, sometimes more than once in the same day (my guess is that they being in their fifties/sixties, they look like āeasy targetsā). Luckily for them, they didnāt lower their guard and have spotted every single attempt, twice with the burglarās hand inside my fatherās jacket. And then the burglar just takes off the hand and walks away casually. My parents, not wanting to spend half of their trip declaring in the gendarmerie, and not seeing any policeman nearby, they just let it slide.
Yep iām sad to say that thievery is on the rise in Paris
But regarding to your parents i wouldnāt do that anyhow.
Depending on the situation, the crowd around and if they can get away with it, some of them can get violent when discovered.
Itās a shame to say this but it could be better to ālet it goā instead of getting beat up.
I have a lot of old clients (older than your parents) and some of them have been targeted for pickpocketing on the street.
Some who tried to resist have been beaten or pushed violently and stuff like that.
Did not happened that often like 5 years ago. Thieves are on the rise and getting more violent.
Note however that this events did not happen in Paris itself but in the close suburbs (not pretty ones but popular).
Iād add Ronda in there too (lovely little town), and advise anyone to reconsider Malaga. We loved Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Granada, but hated the tackiness of Costa De Sol and Malaga (we only spent two days there and that was more than enough). More working class Brits there than East London!
yes, 2 days in Malaga was enough. but good food and nice beaches. Lucky for me, didnāt meet many Brits. Just saw many many Russians everywhere in Spain. But considering that Spain is now the no.1 summer destination for Europeans, youāre gonna run into some.
Costa de Sol generally was tacky, I agree. Honestly, though, I got tired of Spain pretty fast (although Seville, Alhambra, Gaudi stuff, San Sebastian are must see), no more tapas, no more pintxos. Iād much rather eat Italian or Greek any day. Still if you like lots of beaches, I suppose Spain is good for it.
Planning to take my better half and our 12yo to Spain and France for the summer this year - maybe start in Santiago de Compostela, slide over to Navarre/Pamplona, then up to San Sebastien (maybe sneak over to Bilbao), then around the coast to Lourdes for a few days, then Toulouse, Carcassonne, and then back over the border to Barcelona. Maybe 3 to 3.5 weeks at the end of June to late July.
Any suggestions on how best to travel along that route? Train connections seem to go through Madrid. Are buses (like Alsa) comfortable - here is a 14 hour overnight bus from Santiago to Pamplona
We do not drive, so car rentals are out. Iām hoping there are shuttle buses over the border from San Sebastien to Bayonne then we can jump the train to Lourdes from there.
My suggestions would be stopping in LeĆ³n and Burgos. Both gothic cathedrals are masterpieces. The PanteĆ³n Real in LeĆ³n is another masterpiece (Romanesque style in this case) that you should not miss if you go to LeĆ³n. Also, tapas in LeĆ³n are top class too. Burgos has a very interesting museum of human evolution where you can see many pieces from Atapuerca sites.
Both cities have AVE stations (high speed rail). Probably, there arenāt direct trains from Santiago, but it should be possible to transfer in Medina del Campo or Valladolid without having to go all the way to Madrid. Same with non high speed trains. Alsa buses should be fine and traffic is generally safe in Spain, but it is a looong way from Santiago to Pamplona.
You said your going for the summer, and you want to visit Pamplona. If it is during San Fermines, I hope you know where you and your family are going into. That can be too much fiesta for almost everyone.
