My husband & I are planning a self-drive tour of Spain & Portugal in September, 2005. We are 60+ and neither can walk > 4 or 5 blocks at a time. We would like to extend our trip to 3 weeks by staying mostly at hostals instead of fancy hotels. Will it be a problem to park the rental car if we are staying at hostals?

We like to take a little 4 cup drip coffee pot and a small fan with us when we travel in the states. Here you can buy both for < $25. Since most are made in Asia anyway, are they inexpensive there, too? If so, we would rather buy them when we fly into Barcelona and not have to worry about the correct adapters. Do both Spain and Portugal have the same type of current? Do you know if plugging a pot in would be permitted in most of the hostals.

We have never been to Europe before, & I have just discovered this site, Lonely Planet, and Let’s Go, so will be reading your comments with great interest in the next few months – and asking additional questions, I am sure. Thank you for your comments.

Hi there and welcome!

Unfortunately, I can only answer one of your questions as I am still planning my trip and am asking a lot of questions myself. The one I can answer is yes, both Spain and Portugal use the same type of power (220V @ 50 cycles).

-Loc

Hi DJC - Welcome to the board

First thought, based on your comments, is to make sure you are staying in hostels that have elevators. Check the listing of hostels on this site - perhaps if you let us know what cities you are planning on visiting & an idea of what you want to spend, we can offer suggestions. Yours is a question that has come up before re being a bit older and not wanting to 'walk the day through' - I just can't remember when or the title of the thread. I do know there was some solid information about your type of situation.

Because you didn't detail your chosen itinerary, it's a bit hard to comment on the car aspect. Without this knowledge my first suggestion might be a moot point - but have you considered the possibility of using trains, buses and cabs in lieu of renting a car? If you are planning on spending the bulk of your time in the larger cities - you do not want to go to the expense or hassle of a car. Driving in the larger cities can be tough for a variety of reasons. If you are planning on spending most of your time outside of the main cities - then - a totally different response would be in order.

Please give us a bit more info -

Puna, you said you needed more details. There is still a lot we do not know. Because we can’t walk more than a couple of hours a day total, we will not actually go inside a lot of the cathedrals and castles. We are interested in history, and my husband plans to taste his way through all of the sausages, hams, and cheeses (and sweets in Portugal) – which is good because if dinners are at 10:00, he won’t make many!

I’ve put the accommodations that we have decided on in the parentheses and ??? where we don’t know yet where to stay. We are trying to hit market days, and the caves of Tito Busillo close for the year on September 15th. We would like to stay as cheaply as possible and ask mainly that the room is clean, accessible, and cool, with its own bathroom. We use our room to rest & sleep, not to hang out, so it doesn’t need to be large or fancy.

Friday, September 10, 2005 --FLY TO BARCELONA
1S Barcelona (arrive) to Vic to Barcelona (???)
Vic market day -- sausages – back to Barcelona
2 S Barcelona -- Barcelona morning tour (???)
3M Barcelona to Tarragona to Bilbao (Hostal Begona) -- Roman ruins/pintxos
4T Bilbao to Ribadasella ( Posada Del Valle) Area cheese makers/ Neocueva
5W Ribadasella to Torre de Moncorvo (???)
Caves of Tito Busillo; Astorga museo de chocolate
6Th Torre de Moncorvo to Guimaraes (Casa Sezim)
National archeology site; Vineyard tour; Celtic ruins
7F Guimaraes to Santarem (Hotel Rural de Santarém) -- Tours to bull breeding farms;
8S Santarem to Lisbon (???) ½ day city tour; market - Feira da Ladra; Estoril casino
9S Lisbon to Sintra (Hotel Vip Miramonte) Artisans/Sintras market days; Fado Music
10M Sintra to Lagos (???)
Bom Dia grottos/sailing tour ; Palace of Prince Henry the Navigator
11T Lagos to Tavira (Casa Vale Del Rei) Motorbike rental
12 W Tavira to Seville (???) City tour and night flamenco/tapas tours
13Th Seville to Jerez de la Frontera (???)
Andalusian Equestrian school -- dressage day /Archelogical museum
14F Jerez to Rondo to Granada (???) -- Granada city tour
15S Granada to Madrid (Hostal Bianco II) Alhambra morning
16S Madrid (Hostal Bianco II
17M Madrid (Hostal Bianco II
18 Wednesday fly from Madrid to Texas

DJC writes: Short answer: Yes! But in most cases that can also be a problem at Hotels.

Be sure to 'book' your rental car before leaving Texas (with your airline tix): Some Car rental Agencies in Spain won't rent a car to people over 65.

I'll probably have some more comments on your itinerary later ...

Then you definitely must visit the marketplace across the bridge from the Casco Viejo (Old Helmet - so named because it is shaped like a helmet by the course of the rio Nervion) in Bilbao.

15 Sep is also el día de Cantabria and a holiday in the Autonomous Region (Province).

Tapas are for 'cocktail hour' (i.e., before supper). Flamenco is for late at night.

Eddie, thank you for all the info. I'll factor all those things in. I think I made us sound more feeble than we are. (He has a bad knee & I a bad ankle that cause the walking problems.) A few late nights we can handle, but it helps to know about the different times for the tapas and flamenco.

Hope you have a great trip. We rented a car in Madrid and drove to Granada, Gibralta, Seville and back to Madrid this past April. Driving in the cities can be a nightmare and parking is very expensive at most of the hotel - 10 to 20 euros per day. Please be aware that almost all rental cars are standard shift, not automatic. If you get an automatic transmission you will pay double. We rented from CARJET and got an awfully good rate and a nice car. Much better that US companies like Avis, Hertz, etc. Good luck and have fun.

Between Bilbao and Ribadasella there's a lot to see: I especially like Santillana del mar where there are two Paradores and several excellent restaurants. Further west, you could 'hang a left' at Unquera (near San Vicente de la Barquera) and drive thru the Gorge of the rio Deva to Potes, Capital of a region called Liebana. Then you're in 'Cheese Heaven!' The drive south is short, but it's a 'white knuckler.'

If you eat the Cocido de Liebana, a stew of Garbanzo beans, Chorizo and Morcilla and Salt pork, you'll need to rest a bit before continuing on your journey: you'll feel like you've eaten a brick.

You could wait until you get to Ribadasella and dine on a Favada Asturiana (same basic dish - different kind of beans: favas).

Eddie, make that 'fabada' and 'fabes' quick before an 'asturiano/a' sees it and calls it a sacrilege!

I consider tapas the "Spanish snacks", so they can be had most anytime; at 'aperitivo' time(before lunch), for lunch, 'a mediatarde', before dinner, for dinner, after dinner....anytime you feel like it

Dear DJC,
Here I hope are some helpful comments and advice on the first part of your trip to Spain. These are based on living in Catalunya for 3.5 yrs in a small town north of Vic and driving around. I have also just come back from a 3 week trip to the States from Las Vegas up to Yellowstone via Salt lake City and basically driving in Spain is nothing like driving in America. For a start in America the streets in towns are so wide, cars so big, the hire car automatic, and most everybody obeys the speed limit. This is not true in Spain. The only similarity is that petrol is just as cheap.

The drivers go very fast in Spain and even more so in Portugal. You just have to look at the number of road accidents which are reported at every bank holiday on the news.

And in big cities as has already been said the roads are a nightmare. I still haven't driven through the centre of Barcelona and would only consider doing so in an emergency. The road signs are all in Catalan with some also in Spanish.

If you have never driven in Europe before I would seriously rethink you holiday plans.

ON what you might think is a more helpful note.
You arrive in Barcelona on Fri sept 10.

Sorry, I'm not very good with these computer things.
Setember 11th is Catalunyna's independence day and usually a bank holiday. There may still be a market in Vic but possibly not. And anyway the market is mostly cheap clothes, shoes some nice plant stalls and vegetable stalls. Sometimes you get farmers from smallholdings coming to sell fresh herbs and snails but the sausages-and they come in all shapes and sizes and are gorgeous-are sold in fantastic old butchers shops leading off the main plaza. These will be shut on a bank holiday.
So the main plaza or square in Vic is impressive as it is one of the largest in Spain but is better when there isn't a market and all the tables from the bars are outside under umbrellas and you can sit and drink some of the best coffee in the world. Because it is independence day there may be demonstrations of gigantes, castelles and sardanes. The first are dancing giants the second are the towers of people and the third is the traditional dancing of Catalunya. I'm sure you can find out more in the guide books.

Vic is only an hour on the train from Barcelona. You catch the train at Placa Catalunya or Sants station and they run about every hour. If the market is on it starts early and finishes about 1.00pm. If there are celebrations in the sqare these will be in the afternoon at about 5.00pm.

The station in Vic is at the top of the main street and the square is about three american blocks walking. There is also a tourist infomation office in Vic which you can probably contact to confirm all this information nearer the time.

So I suggest a taxi or walk to the station depending on where your hotel is, train to Vic and the reverse on your way home.

For Sunday sightseeing in Barcelona I would recommend the Barcelonabus the tourist bus which takes you all around the important sites in BCN. Its a double decker and once aboard you can stay on all day or get on and off where you like after you have decided what you want to see. It costs about 18 euros and you get a free booklet with discount tickets for entry to most of the important sites. (Not a very big discount)

Your next day is BCN , Tarragona and then Bilbao.
You must like driving. BCN to Tarragona is only 111kms and on the toll motorways should take only about 1.25 hours. The roman amphitheatre is fantastic the only problem is its not easy to find with large roundabouts (you don't have those in the USA) and one way systems. I drove there with a friend but after half an hour in the city trying to find the Roman remains in the car we gave up, parked and walked down the ramblas.

Again a train journey from BCN would be simpler with a taxi from the station.

Then you plan the 536 km trip to Bilbao. Its a 5 hour trip straight through. Though mostly toll roads and A roads you still have to navigate around Tarragona and Bilbao.

Again I would recommend the train for a comfortable and reasonable way to travel and see the countryside. All you need is light luggage and cases with wheels.

Well I've written enough and I hope it helps you to plan your trip. Good luck with your planning and if I find out about any interesting things happening I'll let you know.

Carp, thank you so much for the information! The reason we wanted to go to the Vic market was that we had read about the sausages. My husband is planning on eating his way though all the kinds of sausages in Spain – with a little cheese on the side. If the butcher shops are closed, our main reason for going there is gone. I did not realize that September 11th is Catalunyna's independence day. I assume that it will be celebrated throughout the area. The gigantes, castelles and sardines sound very interesting to see. Would foreign (Texan) tourists be welcome? If so, would you recommend that we stay in Barcelona or go to one of the smaller towns like Vic or Torello?

Learning facts like the ones you gave is one of the reasons that I have started planning this trip so early. I still have so many things to learn before finalizing our itinerary and making our reservations. Finding out the days and times that things are open and making sure that you can get in where you want to go takes time. We know that we will never get to go back so we are trying to see as large a cross-section of the country and people as possible.

The bus sounds like a good way to see parts of the City for people like us who can not walk a long way – and maybe meet some local people on the way. If we take a day trip to Vic or reverse the days and do a day trip to Tarragona, your suggestion about the train might make things easier even though we still want to drive to be able to go to all the little places we intend to stop at long the way.

I do like to drive and it is a good thing that I do because we live in a small town in the center of Texas (in what is called the Hill Country) and some days I have to be in court in San Antonio or Austin (120 miles) in the morning and home in time to cook dinner that night.

I hope you enjoyed your trip to the states. From some of the pictures I have seen, the area of northern Spain in the Pyrenees looks more beautiful than Yellowstone – but without the geysers and buffalo.

Thank you again for your help.

DJC,
I am going in nov04 will give u feedback on hostels.and i am planing to do city toure by
Hop-on Hop-off bus.

Dear DJC,

Just to expand on my info above,,,,

Search on google.com for - bus turistic barcelona which gives prices and lots of other info about visiting Catalunya by car or train, good places to visit etc.etc. Taking the tourist bus on a Sunday is a good idea as there is less traffic on the roads and it will be more enjoyable. AS the Sat is independence day the traffic in BCN will also be quieter cos everyone will have left for the beach or the mountains for the weekend.

I also puy into google - catalan independence day and it threw up a few sites which explained about it and what goes on that day.

Sausages.....oh how I miss those sausages in England.

To taste a selection your husband should order embotits and the restaurant should bring you a selection of sausage meats to try. Look at th e following website for pictures and explaination of some of the different sausage types from the most famous sausage maker. embotits artesans monts

then go to their professional catalogue and look at the handcrafted cooked pork products.....and salivate!!!!! Enjoy....be in touch.

Carp, again you had great info. I looked up some of the sites, including embotits artesans monts. My husband was thrilled to see the selection of sausages -- even though we don't know the kinds taste like. I contacted them today and found out that we can go right to the processing center and pick sausages up. Then eat on them and the cheeses and the tapas that everyone has been posting about.

Eddie, thank you for the cheese info. We actually hope to stay at the Posada del Valle rather than in Ribadasella itself, and the fabas/favas dish is listed a specialty at the near by restaurants. The drive south to Portes sounds like a good one. I finally found it on my map... So many of the different kinds of cheeses appear to come from that area.

It is not easy to drive in Spain, but the buses, trains and planes are very efficient. People drive fast and the road signs are not always clear. Be prepared to miss your turn and find yourself in some unplanned location. We also had a car breakdown and had problems with Hertz. We eventually got a new car, but we lost a full day of our trip. Parking is often a problem, especailly in larger towns and cities.
The nice thing about having a car is that you have more freedom.

Try to keep your plans simple and leave yourself time to sit in the small parks and appeciate the real feeling of Spain. Spain is much more than just running around seeing places in the tour books!!

Spain is a wonderful country