Schmitzig - I believe that you, mocharaia and I are all on the same flight to MAD. I sent you a PM regarding meeting up.

BostonBali.

We're just starting to plan as well. We're flying 9/28-10/5.

I think we're going to try and do a bit of a whirlwind tour. Arrive Thursday morning, take a day trip to Toledo on Friday, Saturday high speed train to Seville. Sunday in Cordoba to see the Mezquita. Monday in Granada to see the Alhambra. And then possibly an overnight train back to Madrid to spend the final full day.

That's our current thinking anyway, though it seems like it might be a bit too much for such a short trip. The Granada part is what's really killing us. Everyone says to go see the Alhambra, but there doesn't seem to be any convenient way to get there that doesn't involve at least a 4 hour trip.

Everyone also seems to have Barcelona at the top of their list of places to visit, so I'm a little disappointed we aren't going to make it out that way.

Hello all -

I´m in Madrid now (solo) and leaving on 9-27. A full week without any knowledge of Spanish, go figure. Sorry I´ll miss you.

I did a day trip to Segovia. Beautiful, and I recommend it. The bus is faster than the train because it goes directly while the train stops at every little town along the way. Approx US$5 each way, bus or train. The bus is a clean greyhound'type bus.

Here´s my itinerary¨
Day 1 - Walking around the city. Finding the major gathering spots. Sleeping in.
Day 2 - Day trip to Segovia.
Day 3 - Thyssen and Prado museums. Beautiful. Wandered around the Royal Gardens next to the Prado.
Day 4 - Royal Palace. Lunch nearby. Then spent the afternoon drinking at the Plaza Mayo and reading.
Day 5 (tomorrow) - Day trip to Salamanca, college town. ç
Day 6 - Day trip to Toledo
Day 7 - Reine Sofia museum. Resting before long trip home.

You´ll have lots to do in 5 days if you do a day trip or two.

Cheers!

Where are you staying Oceangirl? Any place worth recommending?

I´m staying at Hostal Gonzalo. Rick Steves recommended it in his Spain 2005 book. ¨Hostals¨ are not what we Americans think hostals are...they´re little family run places, like a B&B. Mine doesn´t have breakfast. Very plain, hard bed, no hotel services (restaurant, bar, ice machine, etc), but for $45euros per night it´s fine. Cute, little neighborhood, near the two major museums. 1 block from the Thyssen museum. Nice owner, he speaks English. Starbucks around the corner. Walkable distance to everything. So, I would recommend it if you don´t plan on spending any time, other than bathing and sleeping, in your room, and are used to roughing it. While I do not regret staying here, I would not stay in a little place like this again but only because I´m prissy and like big soft beds.

Hope this helps!

thanks for the tip. we are probably going to stay in a hostal as well, i think we've got it narrowed down to two... one is closer to the train station, the other is closer to plaza mayor. having a hard time deciding between the two since we're planning on doing a lot of traveling by train.

did you prefer Toledo or Segovia? we're going to attempt to hit one of them, but haven't made up our minds which. i heard the train station in Toledo was out of server for repairs for a while.. do you know if it's back in operation?

We're just a few days away from starting our trip...

Remember - use www.tripadvisor.com for informative, honest traveller hotel reviews!

I'm still not completely oriented with the layout of Madrid, but the hostel I'm staying at (Cat's Hostel; Google it or look it up on hostels.com ) is fairly centrally located from what I can tell. You might want to look into that. It's about $20 US per night, but they only have availability for "dorm style" rooms, which may not be some people's thing. I've seen a lot of highly rated hostels and B&B type places in Madrid, so I'm sure you'll be able to find something.

We decided to go with Hostal Barrera while we're in Madrid.
http://www.hostalbarrera.com/

We wanted to be relatively close to the train station since we'll be traveling a bit.

Right now, our schedule for this week is:
Wednesday: Depart US
Thursday: Arrive at Madrid in the morning. Spend the day wandering around Madrid.
Friday: Possible day trip to Toledo or Segovia, otherwise more Madrid
Saturday: High speed train to Cordoba, but leave in the late afternoon for Granada
Saturday night: See Alhambra at night
Sunday: Alhambra during the day and/or any other sites in the area, but leave that night for Sevilla
Monday: Spend the day and night in Sevilla
Tuesday: Catch the high speed line back to Madrid as early as possible. Spend the final day in Madrid.
Wednesday: Flight back to US

It's hectic, so we may deviate, but right now that's our plan.

Sorry I just found this thread...
my itin:
9/29/05 BOS-EWR-MAD
9/30/05 Arrive MAD; train to Sevilla (Ave train ~ 11am). Overnight at Sol Melia Colon for E115.
10/1/05 Train in Afternoon to Madrid. To HH Campomanes. Possibly El Prado
10/2/05: Thyssen-Bornemisz Museum, Palacio Real, possibly this Madrid bus thingy
10/3/05: Recovery/the Park :)
10/4/05: Return on CO MAD-BOS-EWR
Drop a line if you're interested in getting together during these dates.

How could we assume that the reviews are honest when there is no basis for trust with Tripadvisor? With Flyertalk, many of us know each other thanks to all the Do's. That is why Flyertalk is so successful.

I'm just speaking from experience. I've never been steered wrong using tripadvisor. You're right, a hotel owner and his 46 cousins/friends can put in phony reviews, but it's still the biggest independent traveller hotel review site out there. I trust it much more than whatever the hotel/travelocity/etc say about the property... YMMV. :)

How much will the train cost you? I'm still a bit undecided on our itn.

My original plan was 3 days in MAD, and 3 in BCN.

3 weeks and counting.

I'm in Madrid often, in fact probably next week. Ping me if you want to hook up for tapas.

Is there a "central location" or something where all the busses depart for places that are good for day trips, like to Segovia, Toledo, Guadalajara, etc.?

I hope you guys already have tickets for the Alhambra. If not, you're going to be spending a lot of time touring the urban blight that is Granada. Each time we went and tried to buy entrances at the gate they were already sold out for the day. Also note that night visits only give you access to some of the palaces, not nearly the whole thing, and that your visit is limited to 90 minutes.

http://www.alhambratickets.com/

Toledo train - Don´t know. The tourist office (love these people, there are many throughout the cities, don´t be shy about asking them anything) told me to take the bus. If you take a bus out of town, make sure it´s the DIRECTO (EXPRESS) otherwise you get the bus that stops in every little town along the way.

Enjoyed the Plaza Mayor. You can´t go wrong with $3 sangria.

I prefered Toledo. The cathedral is a must-see. The maze of medieval streets is wonderful. Touristy though. Segovia is still a lovely trip and I´m glad I did both.

I´m heading home tomorrow. You must continue the all-night tapas crawl for me. Let me know how your trip goes!

For those there next weekend, I investigated and there is a bullfight on Sunday in Madrid. Tickets are still widely available. It is accessible by metro. Let me know if anyone is free/interested.

I was planning on going to that as well. I mean, you can't see Madrid without seeing a bullfight if possible, right? :)

That would be cool, but I'm not sure if I'll be in Madrid then. How much are the tickets?

>did you prefer Toledo or Segovia?

I in both places last Feb. I would say Segovia. The aquaduct is incredible.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

I grew up in Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain (southern Andalucia) and I was too young to drink because I was there from age 9-13 but fondly remember going out with my parents and their friends. Eating Tapas was a way of life there. Very rarely did my parents sit down at one restaurant to have a meal. Instead it's like bar hopping. You jump from bar to bar and have drinks, meet and socialize with new people and enjoy a tapa at each place. They are very cheap and if you tapa hop to say 5-6 places in one night you've had a full meal. Atleast this is how it was in the early 90's, doubt it has changed much. Also do not miss out on 'Picos', they are the long, very thing, hard sticks of bread they serve instead of bread, they are delicious!

So to answer your question they are the equivalent to american appetizers but cheaper, smaller portion, and more delicious in my opinion! The drinks are dirt cheap anyways in comparison to US bars whether it is happy hour or not. Remember they eat very late in Spain.. 8pm at the earliest. Tapa hopping is a blast, enjoy!

Oh I love Spain. Haven't been there for way too long.

A few thoughts:

Madrid and Barcelona are like New York and Washington -- you could easily spend a week in one of them and still be running around seeing things. You could spend an entire day at the Prado and Thyssen. Seriously, these are major museums and well worth the time. Don't miss Goya's black paintings and Velazquez's Las Meninas in the Prado -- they never travel so if you don't see them at the Prado you won't see them at all. At the Prado, you have to see the Velazquezes and Goyas and Rubens and El Greco's -- there are major collections of each. I took an art class at the Prado when I was studying in Spain and it was one of the highlights of my semester.

Eat late, eat tapas, drink sangria and eat chocolate con churros. Don't waste your time with fast food -- the food in Spain is great and every region has its own special cuisine. There is a great place off the Plaza Mayor, in P. Santa Ana that is well known for its sangria. I'm blanking on the name (Cerveceria Aleman?) but it's got marble tables and if you're standing in the Plaza it will be easy to see and very obvious.

Mid afternoon is siesta and a lot of things close. Personally I liked walking around then, and the museums are of course open. People are out late, like midnight, 1 or 2 am during the week and 3 or 4 on weekends. Prepare to be caffeinated (solo means espresso, cafe con leche is coffee with milk, and cafe americano is american coffee).

Don't forget to look at the ceramic street plaques near the Plaza Mayor -- some of them are really detailed and beautiful. You can ride the metro all over the place or hop on a bus for a fun "tour" of the city.

Loved Seville and Granada. I can't speak about Alhambra tickets -- it used to be very easy to go but I guess that's changed. Seville could be a few days. There is beautiful architecture and lots to see. Toledo and Segovia are easy day trips from Madrid. I liked them both and they are equally good options.

Will try to think of more. Must go and look longingly at my photo albums. :)

just returned from my week in spain! abdolutely loved it, even upon finding a bustled bottle of olive oil in luggage! oy vay!

in the most classic example of serendipity, when checking in for my flight home (btw, i thought you could checkin online but no, i had to stand in a long, but moving line for a boarding pass), i ended up standing right behind three other flyertalkers! one guy used his ticket to hop over to germany; the other two drove to portugal. the nicest people!

anyhoo, hope y'all enjoy your trip! i'm making my flyertalk donation right now!

I am going over to Madrid in Nov..

For those of you not into the smaller family hotels it seems you can often priceline the 5* Westin Palace The hotel is the #4 favored hotel out of 350 Madrid hotels in Tripadvisor. ^ from around $130 to $140 US per night. ($150-$160 with fees) Still kinda spendy for leisure travel for me anyway.. but if you can split it with someone, not so bad.

Don't get me wrong, I like the smaller hotels, I typically stay in a 4500 Yen-a-night ($42) hotel in Tokyo just for fun, but I also LOVE the Westin heavenly bed and thinking about getting a Westin property sounded pretty good for that 5AM return from Madrid nightlife.

For a method, start bidding Old Madrid around $130, and then if no go, add the airport zone that has no 5*, for $140. There may be some more free-rebids (priceline zones without 5* hotels) but doublecheck. I know the northern castillano (sp?) area has several 5*'s.

(afaik.. Old Madrid only has one 5* - "the palace".. so it is pretty safe to priceline this, YMMV. )

A good deal I think, since with discounters it seems to vary from 250 to 400 Euros a night. SPG.com logged in as Gold had it for 199.00 Euros. ($240 US) Nothing like a 45-80% discount. :D



** BTW Oceangirl thanks for the cool trip report! :cool: ^

Their website says that they offer airport shuttle service. Did you use this service? How much (if any) was the cost?

Dan

MAD is on the metro

Metro is easy. If you're not adverse to spending 20 Euros, a taxi is a good, quick alternative to the city center. From what I've read, the airport shuttle is 17 Euros (for up to 3 people).

I´m just finishing (or starting ;)) my first day in MAD due to the mistake fare. On the off chance that any FTers are in MAD and want to meet up, I should have net access for the duration of my trip )til 10/4. I only ran into one FTer on my flight even though there were supposed to be 4 or more of us. C´mon, a 777 isn´t that big, is it? ;)

So far MAD is awesome. Those going in the future will enjoy it greatly. Beware, if it means anything to you, the metro stop at MAD is a 10-15 min walk from where you clear passport control. Not the best for lugging a lot, but much cheaper at 1 euro than a taxi.

Yep. You're forgetting Alcalá de Henares, where Cervantes used to live, and Toledo, the old capital, whose cathedral is the only one that still celebrates the Mozarabic catholic mass. (The last point is of interest to history fanatics.) The Escorial should be great, but the Valle de los Caídos may be skipped.

Hmmm, do the words "tourist trap" come to mind? A restaurant right by the aquaeduct is likely to fit the description. IMHO, eat only if you see locals eating there (walk a few blocks away from the touristy area). And never eat at places that hire touts...

I'll be arriving in MAD Tuesday if the French strike allows. Free mini-bar at my hotel. ;)

I'm also going to be in Barcelona and Madrid in November (Thanksgiving week) ^ . I'm flying out of DCA with US on the 18th to BCN (via MAD) and coming back on the 27th from MAD. Just booked 4 days at the Hotel Nunez Urgell in Barcelona using Expedia at $81.75 per day (total is $362.16 all-in). This is not in the Las Ramblas neighborhood (many people told me to avoid the area). It is a 3 1/2 star business-oriented hotel and has very good reviews at Trip Advisor. I tried to get the Westin in Madrid using Priceline and started with $120, they counter offered with $174 and I said no, thanks. Tried free re-bids up to $140 with no luck, so I'll wait and try again in a couple of days. I agree that the Westin seems to be pretty nice and well worth it. Wish me luck! I also booked passes for the Barcelona FC tour and museum ($11)... as an Argentinian and soccer fan I couldn't resist this :D .
For the trip from BCN to MAD I looked around and found several flights every day from Spanair at $47 so I booked one (I think is the cheapest option and I also get miles on my UA account).
If anyone has any comments/suggestion about Spain, please feel free to share experiences and places to go and visit. I'll be doing day trips to Toledo/Valle de los Caidos and Segovia. Pullmantur seems to be a good and reputable company. I did some research and found that it is cheaper to book them trough Expedia than using their own web site. Hope this helps someone!

Have fun in Spain and Viva España!!!

Incredible! I just returned from Segovia last week and had the exact same experience at this loser restaurant, except I believe I had about 15 peas. :p A usually reliable guide book suggested this place, but we too left hungry and $80 poorer. I do remember wondering at the time, "if this place is so good, then why are there only a few people here--and all of them foreigners?"

Fifteen peas???? Wow, you hit the jackpot! ;)

Well, at least the view was splendid, right? And that was the last time I looked at that particular guidebook for a recommendation :)

The sad thing is that a restaurant like that has so much potential: great location, splendid view, wonderful decor... Now if they could just get their act together in the kitchen.

Sadly, it's too tempting to just take the tourist money and run. In the town where I live there is a long row of restaurants - maybe 25 - all along the sea, with beautiful views of the beach and sea, most in lovely old buildings. Every last one of them sucks. They nearly all have the same pre-printed picture menu poster out front of Paella and Sangria (two dishes people from this region do not partake of) with the brand name in the corner of the company that trucks in the bagfulls of frozen food that gets nuked and served up to the tourists. It's funny though that you sometimes hear people in the street raving about the wonderful fresh seafood meal they had at such-and-such a place. I think they're the ones contributing to the guidebooks and similar sites. The locals refer to that street as "la ruta de paella congelada". :)

Ask your concierge to recommend someplace good and non-touristy.

Always avoid places with pictures out front.

I know you are not "my concierge" :D but since you live there you may have some suggestions. I'll be there in November (Barcelona and Madrid) and I would love to try an authentic Paella. My dad knows how to cook it (and I learned from him) but I'm sure I can have an excellent one over there.
Thanks in advance,

Angel

Hostal Barreras treated us very nicely. The place is very clean and neat. It's very close to the train station, which was the big plus for us because we expected to take a few trips. I wasn't aware of shuttle service to the airport, and never asked about it unfortunately.

We unfortunately had to give up on the Alhambra because the tickets were sold out, so we decided to cut Granada out altogether.

In the end we did:

Day 1: Madrid
Day 2: Day trip to Toledo
Day 3: High speed train to Cordoba
Day 4: High speed train to Sevilla
Day 5: High speed train back to Madrid
Day 6: Madrid
Day 7: Return home

I really like certain things about each of the cities.
- Madrid is a very walkable, friendly city. It was great to be able to go out very late and see restaurants open and people walking around. Felt very safe.

- Toledo was probably my favorite city. Small, rambling streets. Lots of ancient buildings. There is a church, Iglesia de San Juan de los Jesuitas, where you can climb to the top of a tower, then cross over in the open air to a second tower. Great view of the city. It was free the day we were there.

- Cordoba's main draw is the Mezquita. It's a really incredible building. We stayed at the Hotel Boston, which had views of the main public square. Small rooms, and very tiny bathrooms, but it

- Sevilla we stayed at the Hotel Atenas, which I really would not recommend. Of all the places we stayed, the rooms here just weren't as nice, the beds were rock hard, and there were all kinds of little problems like broken light switches and shower heads. The area was also a little iffy. I'm sure there are much better places to stay. The staff was very friendly though, and they helped us arrange tickets for a Flamenco show and get a cab, etc. Sevilla is a pretty city, although our first impression was somewhat ruined by our initial location and we almost stopped from venturing far enough to hit the heart of the city, which would have been a mistake. We took a tour of the bullfighting ring, and lots of other sights over the course of the day and a half we were there. The weather was great and I definitely would love to go back there in the future. (Guys, let me also say the ladies in these southern cities are jaw droppingly beautiful.)


Also, just wanted to say the AVE (high speed train) was great. Very fast and comfortable. Pricey, but still cheaper than a similar Amtrak trip would cost by far. Well worth it. The stations have automated machines you can purchase your tickets at, which you'll definitely want to do because the lines move very, very, very slowly. Unfortunately there is no english option.

And as far as day tripping to Toledo, we took the bus (Continental Auto). I believe it left every half hour. We went to the station, bought a ticket, and twenty minutes later were on hour way. Took just about an hour each way even though the official times were longer.

Oh, and personally I didn't think that Prado was all that great. It's a great collection of Goya and Velasquez and a few others, but not a lot of other great stuff.

I really enjoyed the Thyssen museum though. Didn't have a chance to check out the Reina Sofia unfortunately, since it is closed on Tuesdays and it was our last day there.