Page Contents
- Guidebook used
- Itinerary
- Means of travel
- Weather
- Daily schedule
- Money
- Tipping
- JFK Warning
Guidebook used
We used “Rick Steves Spain 2015” as our only guidebook. We have used Rick Steves books on other trips and have been happy with his suggestions and guidance. What was nice this time was that I got the book as an eBook, and so I was able to have the book on my iPhone and consult it continuously during our trip (no WiFi required).
Itinerary
We traveled to Spain in 2017 and visited there from 3/30 to 4/11 with the following timetable:
- Madrid – 2 nights
- Sevilla – 2 nights
- Granada – 3 nights
- Barcelona – 4 nights
So, before we left, we had booked all hotels and domestic transportation. We had ideas of what we wanted to visit in each location, but did not have a fixed schedule. However, per recommendations from Rick Steves, we booked our visit to Palacio Nazaries at the Alhambra and the Royal Apartments in Sevilla’s Real Alcazar ahead of time. For the Palacio Nazaries, do this MONTHS in advance of your trip as when I looked in early March, it was completely book though ALL of MAY. We also booked some tour bus and sightseeing cards before departing (per Rick Steves).
Means of travel
- JFK to Madrid – Iberia airlines coach
- Madrid t0 Sevilla – Iberia airlines coach
- Sevilla to Grenada – Alsa bus
- Grenada to Barcelona – Vueling airlines coach
- Barcelona to JFK (with stop in Madrid) – Iberia business class
Weather
As we were traveling in mid-spring, we did not expect it to be hot, but there was no way to predict rain, etc. Basically, we lucked out with 12 days of bright blue sky with only occasional scattered clouds. There was never a hint of rain. Temperatures were around 50 degrees (F) in the AM and evening and the days got into the high 60’s and even 70’s. I basically wore a casual tee shirt with a long sleeve collarless shirt over it to start the day and ended up removing the long sleeve shirt as the day warmed up. My wife wore a camisole with a long sleeve shirt over it and I carried a her light coat in my backpack for when it was cooler.
Daylight hours and normal day schedule
At home on the east coast, we were used to having the sun up around 6:30 AM and then going down around 6 PM. In Spain, we found that the sun did not come up until about 7:45 and then did not go down until after 8 PM at night. On vacation, we arose between 9 & 10 am, had our breakfast between 9 & 11, had lunch around 2 or 3 pm, and then started dinner between 8 & 9 pm. Frequently, we were leaving restaurants at 9:30 or 10 and there were people just arriving.
Money
We exchanged $500 into Euro’s at our local TD Bank a few days before we left. We used credit cards for most larger amounts, like dinners, hotel changes, and a small souvenirs. We used ATM’s three times to withdraw 300 Euro’s each time to use for the small purchases of water, stamps, small souvenirs, and frequent Coke Lite/beer stops. ATM’s support multiple languages but we were stymied by one or two, so we moved to another bank. At one place, we had to get someone from the bank to help us. Before departing for Spain, we had notified all credit card companies NOT to reject any transactions from Spain and we made sure that our daily ATM limit was large enough to allow 300 Euro transactions. When we were in Spain the exchange rate was about 1 Euro = 1.07 dollars. One silly bit of pain was that we were making purchases for museum or bus tickets before we left, TD Bank kept denying those transactions, so we often used PayPal or a secondary credit card instead.
TIpping
We basically followed Rick Steves recommendation on tipping. We did not tip in restaurants, rounded up to next Euro on taxi rides, and only tipped hotel porters who handled our luggage.
ONE NOTE ON JKF Airport
JFK is a giant ripoff. On the evening of our departure, we arrived around 7 pm after parking offsite. We could NOT find a seat at any restaurant, so we bought two sandwiches and one Coke at a Deli place for $25!!! Then we found a seat at a bar and had two glasses of wine for another $25!!! I suggest that you try to eat before you go.
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