Hola todos-
I've read old posts about Salamanca and Granada. What you all think about the best or a good language school with an urban environment (or would a rural one be the best environment to learn spanish?) Of the few cities i've been in- i lovedthe big city vibe...
Barcelona or Madrid?
Granada v Salamanca?

Personal ancedotes or specific reasons/recommendations
Gracias a todos para ayudar!

Well, besides the fact that according to taravb and me Salamanca is the best city in the world, as compared with Granada you would probably find the Spanish spoken there easier to understand. Castilla y León, where Salamanca is, is where the "purest" Spanish is spoken in Spain. The people in Andalucía tend to cut the ends of their words off. I don't know too much else about Granada but Salamanca is just a wonderful place to study.

[ 04-05-2001: Message edited by: Majesty318 ]

Muchas gracias

I studied in Salamanca for a semester, and it was wonderful. It's not tiny, but not as big as Madrid either. People really get to know one another. At a certain point, I knew where I had to go on a certain night to find someone I was looking for. It's a university town, so there are a lot of people there your age, and they're easy to find.
I studied wtih IES, you go through a university. There is also Don Quixote language center there that is great, from what I've heard.

Oh Venire, Don't get me started.

I was living in Granada last year studying, or maybe I should put that in quotes "Studying". I say that the two biggest lies anyone can tell their friends back home while they are in Spain are 1)that they are studying, and 2)that they are busy; because you'll never be studying and the pace of life in Granada is so slow compare our get up and go USA life, that it is damn near impossible to be busy.

I absolutely loved Granada. It is technically a small town, but it has a lot of big city feel to it. There are tons of places to go out at night, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Ski resort a 45 min bus ride away and the beautiful mediteranean about the same distance as well.

It does suffer a bit from the hoardes of Americans that all come over to study spanish, but it is my understanding that Salamanca is just as bad, and Sevilla even worse. But if you really try you can escape hanging out with all the Americans there and actually learn some spanish. Granada is probably one of the cheapest cities you can go to as well. I was living comfortably off of $400 US a month!

Either way you can't make a bad choice. You'll be in Spain - not much else matters.

Suerte.