hi there everyone!
I just wanted to thank everyone here for their help while planning my trip to Europe. I just flew back yesterday and am still on such a high from my trip! My friend and I were in Barcelona first for 3 days and it was so great! We stayed at Hosteria Grau , thanks to Caroline's recommendation on this forum! The hostal was in a wonderful location along Pelai. We love the italian eatery Sbarro which was so nearby and the internet cafes just off the streets! The Gaudi architecture and buildings were so beautiful and the sea and all!!! We loved it!
Then we headed to Madrid. Another beautiful city but it is quite different from barcelona in some ways! The Royal Palace was the best sight!!! WOW! We took the air shuttle from IBERIA airlines from Barcelona to Madrid. It was inexpensive and very efficient! We also followed Madridman's recommendation to take the aerocity airport shuttle in Madrid. They were also very good and efficient though we woke up late when we were suppose to fly from Madrid to Paris and thus we missed our shuttle service! yikes! but we still caught our plane! phew! heheh...
the rest of europe was great as well...but since this forum is more abt spain, i shall not digress so much...
anyone who needs to know anything abt planning a trip to europe..feel free to ask ok?!?! cheers to everyone!!!

[ 06-06-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

Just the person I want to talk too. we will be leaving on the 13 of june for Madrid. I need to make reservation to fly to Barcelona and also from Madrid to Paris. Do I do this at the airport or over the phone? Do they take crdit card info over the phone. what is the easiest way of doing this? Does anyone know for how long the special is on Iberia for Madrid /Paris.? :)thanks for all the help...Madrid here we come!

hi there,
are you going to be flying from Barcelona to Madrid and then from Madrid to Paris? Coz that was what we did.
It was simple to just buy the air shuttle ticket for Bar-Mad at the Airport (terminal2). No problem with paying by credit cards but do shop ard among the airline offices there for the best value. We went to Air Europa first but they were about almost 8000 PTAs more than Iberia Airlines (which was the national carrier)! so we went with Iberia which was good and the staff at the counter spoke a bit better english as well..
But maybe due to June being peak tourist season, it might be better to try reserving online and you might even get it cheaper actually i think.
As for flying from Madrid to Paris, we took AIR FRANCE and we had already bought the tickets from home to save us the hassle of trying to buy them there. My advice would be to do as much as possible from home. Make full use of the internet! it was our saviour! just as this forum was! heheh...
and just FYI, on our trip, we did Barcelona, Madrid, Paris (twice!), London, Vienna and Munich!!! and took various forms of transportation : planes, trains and automobiles (u name it,we took it!) ....
so if there's any more info you need to know..just gimme a buzz ok? cheers!

Hi afrianny,

What did it cost you to fly from Barcelona to Madrid and how long was the flight? I'm thinking of doing this in July rather than taking the train back to Madrid (unless of course the train ride promises many beautiful sights!)

hi there canadiense,

it costs for me about 11900 PTAs to fly ONE-WAY from Barcelona to Madrid on Iberia Airlines. It might be slightly cheaper to try and buy it over the internet but apparently you would have to collect your tickets within 48 hours at the airport or something like that. I'm not too sure if it still applies. But it is really easy to just obtain it at the airport itself from the airline ticket counters (terminal B, i think). The flight duration was about an hour, maybe less so we were not served meals on the plane. Just some snacks and a drink.

glad to be of help
have a good trip there!