Solo travel - need recommendations!

[Dogmom]

I''m getting the itch for an adventure. I have some FF miles I need to burn next year and am thinking of heading off somewhere for a long-ish weekend trip. I''m holding a reservation right now to Barcelona mid -May for four days. Crazy, I know, but I''m flying Business class which makes the traveling part a bit easier.

What are some places that you all would recommend? I don''t mind being on my own, but do want to feel safe where ever I go. 4-5 days max would all I could probably handle. Much longer and I would probably start to feel lonely and pathetic, lol.

 

[Skippy123]

Oh Barcelona!!!! I loved Barcelona, I went this spring!

Okay at the Plaça de Catalunya (center park to Las Ramblas) is a Red bus (bus Turistica), and it takes you everywhere, drops you off and pics you up at all the major sights. The bus company gives you a lot of great coupons into the museums like Gaudi's Apt's (La Pedrera) and Sagrada Familia! I loved the architecture of Gaudi, I would also see Parc Guell also the Miro Museum and the Picasso Museum. You have to see the Palau de la Musica Catalana, I missed it and it sells out quick! Bee (another Pricescope) also went there not too long ago so hopefully she will chime in. The Gothic Quarter is cool but is easy to get a little lost. We stayed close to Place de Catalunya which made it convenient to metro stops and is pretty central and the open Market (La Boquaria sp?) is off Las Ramblas too. I would be careful at night though especially in the Gothic Quarter.

Here are some of my pictures https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/welcome-back-skippy.79990/

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Skippy gave great suggestions! Also, if you have the time, the Dali museum is a bit outside of Barcelona. Definitely walk along Las Ramblas, if you''re there during nice weather, spend a couple hours walking along the beaches (or just lying on one!). For food, I liked Quatre Gats (despite it being a little touristy, it had great food and cava!). And when I was there, we ended up taking a little hike up a hill to the TV Tower, where you can get great views of the city.

 

[miraclesrule]

I didn''t like Barcelona much. But then again, I had just come from Madrid which I loved so it was bad to compare. We only had two days and one night in Barcelona, but we did get to see some nice places. I recommend the Rick Steves book on Spain. We used that as our guide and we were not disappointed, especially when it came to eating. The Manchego (?) cheese is to die for. I wish I could remember the name of the hole in the wall place that we ate. We had the most amazing tapas which consisted of crust and meat and cheese and lots of wine.

We even packed up some of the cheese to take with us on our train to Nice that next night. It was awesome.

I loved all the Gaudi architecture and the wharf. But get out your earmuffs, unless you love the sound of Vespa''s.

We were there during that ridiculously hot heat wave in 2002 and we thought we were going to die from the heat and humidity. May is a good month. You should miss any heatwave.

I didn''t find it to be unsafe, but then again, because I am in Safety and Risk Management, I had taken all precautions that one can take when traveling.

Rick Steves....we lived with his recommendations and the three books I purchased for the countries we visited were priceless.

I wish I was going with you. It''s hard to find traveling companions.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Miracles, I lived in Madrid for a summer, and I LOVE that city. Well I pretty much loved Spain in general but I''ll always look back at Madrid fondly. Barcelona was very different! Much younger, hipper (at least to me), which is fun to experience. And manchego cheese is so delicious!

 

[scarleta]

Do you want Europe only? What do you like to do when you travel? So many places to choose would be nice if you could narrow it down a bit.

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

I''m shocked, this is the first time in my entire life I have ever known anyone to like Madrid better than Barcelona; even when I lived in Europe and every one had been to both, no one felt that way. Huh.

Personally, I think Barcelona is heaven on earth. I loved the Conjunt Monumental de la Plaça del Rei which is a gothic mansion they moved there, but the real coolness is the entire Roman city underneath. As an archaeologist in training, I dragged my FI to every site in western Europe and outside of Pompeii/Hucleum, this was the largest and most impresive.

The Gaudi park outside the main part of the city is very cool and great for spending an afternoon. It and the Tibidabo have the best view of the cities.

If you like art nouveau or music, El Palau de la Música is really lovely. We got to hear a rehersal of a show on the tour that was a lot of fun and the building is truely amazing.

My two favorite places are Las Ramblas of course, but also Montjuic. The art museum is beautiful from the outside, the park has lovely walks with all sorts of fun little things to discover and of course, the edge has the magic fountain.

 

[miraclesrule]

Hey hussy ( I just like saying that), I know, everyone who has been both places is always surprised when I tell them I like Madrid more. But I think it was because:

1) It was the first place we arrived when we landed after 14 hours and we were staying at the Westin in a heavenly bed.

2) They had a great castle (Not nearly as good as I had thought, or close to the one in Vienna, but I liked it anyway)

3) I was drunk on the best Sangria ever!!

4) There was an H&M and we did a lot of shopping in Madrid.

5) The gardens were amazing. I could get lost in them forever.

6) We were introduced to the best "tortilla de espana" ever created. I could eat that until I MOO....

7) We woke up at midnight and went to a club to find that we were the first ones in there and everyone else arrives at about 2 a.m. We walked back to the hotel at 7 a.m. to go to sleep after having partied and danced all night and met some amazing people.

Hardly any Vespa''s.

9) Did I mention I was drunk on Sangria??

When we got to Barcelona, we stayed in a nice quaint hotel but it didn''t have a heavenly bed. It was so hot and humid I thought I was gonna die. And when I woke up and started planning our day, we all had to go find more comfortable shoes first, because of the heat. I had to spend 50 bucks for some real leather sandals that were not cute. There was a huge Starbucks right outside our hotel that we had to stop in on our way to Las Ramblas, and it didn''t have the feel of Madrid. When I travel across the country, the last thing I want to see outside my hotel room is a Starbucks or MacDonalds.

Having said that, it wasn''t that I didn''t like Barcelona, it was just that for us, maybe we expected more because we had heard the same thing that you said. That Barcelona was so much better than Madrid. I did like it and I would not hesitate to go back. I think there were a lot more places we could have seen that would have changed our experience. I think it was just that it was a crappy experience due to weather and the quality and quantity of time we spent there. We were all pretty grumpy, but did have the one of the best meals of our trip in Barcelona. Actually, because of the recommendations in the books of Rick Steve''s, we had amazing meals everywhere in Europe. Only twice we decided to "go our own way" and we were so disappointed that we went right back to our book.

 

[TravelingGal]

Add me to the list of people who didn''t love Barcelona. Liked it, but didn''t love it. Much preferred Sevilla.

As far as solo travel...I find traveling solo in a bigger city actually ends up being tougher to meet people than a smaller town. Just the hustle and bustle and busy people minding their own business. Now Ireland...THAT''S a place to travel solo. (but you gotta be willing to go and sit in a pub by yourself.)

 

[Po10472]

Barcelona is fabulous and the wine and food is exquisite in Spain but you could easily organise your visit in 2/3 days giving you time to go elsewhere for 2 days - that's if you're doing the 5 day trip thang. Barcelona and Madrid are very different because one is Castillian and the other Catalan and therefore you need to treat them seperately as they both have cultural appeal but if you could, I would suggest visiting both. If you don't have the time to go to Madrid, then you could always take a train ride down to Valencia from Barcelona its only a couple of hours, as it is also a beautiful city which has recently spent millions on builiding the city of arts and sciences. Its a really lovely place. What you do have to watch out for in all these cities, is the pickpockets, they're rife. And remember, that if you go in May it will probably be nice and hot so you can take advantage of the beaches if you visit the coastal citiies.

I love Spain and plan on buying property there in the next few years as its my second home *sigh*.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Like Miracles, when I was in Barcelona, I was in the "Hostel from Hell" as we termed it - it was July, no AC, horrible, the bathrooms were disgusting... I mean, yeah it was our fault, since we knew anything that was 60 euros for 2 nights wasn''t going to be great, but still. The heat, exhaustion (we caught the midnight bus out from Madrid and arrived at 7 am), everything colors my view a little. That said, I still loved Barcelona! But Madrid was home, and there was just so much to do and see and all these little out of the way spots, cute little restaurants, shopping areas, gorgeous parks, etc. Barcelona has all of those too, but I didn''t get to see them!

But Dogmom, I''m with Po in suggesting a multiple cities type of trip. Valencia is supposed to be gorgeous, and Sevilla, Segovia and Toledo all have their charms, and amazing things to see. And if you''re near the Madrid area, there''s a TON of things to do as well (I have great restaurant recommendations for that city...love Spanish food!), you can also visit El Escorial right outside the city (the Royal Tombs). I thought it was really easy to get around (much easier than in Japan anyway, but mostly that''s a language thing), and there''s just so much to see.

 

[Pandora II]

Loathed Barcelona - I got continually hassled by men (take a fake w-band with you). I hated it to the extent that I never wanted to go to Italy because I thought it would be the same.

I would vote for going either to Venice, or even better go to Milan and take the train up to Lake Como - so beautiful!

Other nice places are Vienna (dancing horses, great architecture) or come on over to London (bling galore - crown jewels

)

 

[Dogmom]

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions. Skippy, your photos are gorgeous! I need to get to the library and look through some books. Good suggestion about smaller places, TGal.

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 8/6/2008 8:42:53 AM
Author: Dogmom
Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions. Skippy, your photos are gorgeous! I need to get to the library and look through some books. Good suggestion about smaller places, TGal.

No problem...although I will say you run the risk of getting bored with less to see and do. (I always ended up meeting people, so it didn''t matter to me what was around for sightseeing).

 

[princesss]

Date: 8/6/2008 7:01:30 AM
Author: Pandora II
Loathed Barcelona - I got continually hassled by men (take a fake w-band with you). I hated it to the extent that I never wanted to go to Italy because I thought it would be the same.

I would vote for going either to Venice, or even better go to Milan and take the train up to Lake Como - so beautiful!

Other nice places are Vienna (dancing horses, great architecture) or come on over to London (bling galore - crown jewels

)

I loved Barcelona, but I definitely have to agree with Pandora. I got hassled by so many men and I was with my BF! Luckily I''d been living in Spain for a few months at that point and had some choice phrases for the guys that hassled me. A lot of them looked very surprised when I started yelling at them in fluent Spanish that they were "no good #@$#$es and that it''s too bad their mother could have had a pet pig that was better behaved, so back off @#$@%@#!" The people around me were fairly amused, though.

I second Italy as a place to go alone. Take a few days in Florence and a few days at Lake Como, and you''ve got my perfect vacation spot.

I also LOVED going to Paris by myself. I would not have traded that experience for anything.

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 8/6/2008 1:12:02 PM
Author: TravelingGal

Date: 8/6/2008 8:42:53 AM
Author: Dogmom
Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions. Skippy, your photos are gorgeous! I need to get to the library and look through some books. Good suggestion about smaller places, TGal.

No problem...although I will say you run the risk of getting bored with less to see and do. (I always ended up meeting people, so it didn't matter to me what was around for sightseeing).

I actually did not have enough time to see everything, we went up to Montjuic (sp?) and I would have loved to had more time to see it and we were there 6 or 7 days going none stop.

Thanks Dogmom. I guess it depends on the types of things you are interested in; I was captivated by Gaudi's architecture, tapas, the modern art, the beach was lovely, and soccer is big there. I do love Paris more but I really had a wonderful time and I am so glad I got to see Barcelona.

 

[Independent Gal]

I''m not much of a fan of Barcelona either. It''s a matter of taste.

Did you want suggestions for where to go city wise or what to do in Barcelona? I wasn''t clear on that.

As for being a woman traveling alone, I''ve spent the last 12 or so years of my life traveling the world alone. I''ve been to places like Cambodia, Turkey, Peru, Malaysia, etc. all on my own and only once ever had a problem (that was on a mountainside in Turkey... lesson learned, no serious consequences in the process).

So here''s my advice: Go to places where there are lots of people if it''s evening (although in Barcelona this means lots of PICKPOCKETS too... they really prey on tourists there. So be savvy with your bag! a safety pin to keep it closed is wise, although I know of travelers in Barcelona who were wrestled to the ground and had their bags taken off them... it ALWAYS seems to be the city where people get robbed when they travel); don''t be shy to strike up a conversation with other women travelers alone; take a taxi after dark. Sit behind the driver. Dress modestly. Tell someone where you''re going (via e-mail, e.g.) each morning. Keep your wits about you (don''t listen to your iPod when you''re walking alone, e.g.).

Honestly, most places in Europe it''s not an issue anyway, since women are of course on their own all the time. It''s nothing that would draw attention.

Bring a good book!

The wonderful things about traveling alone are that your experience is totally unmediated. You just experience things, you''re not trying to describe them all the time. That makes it more wonderful. And you notice more because no one is distracting you.

I looooove traveling alone. It''s one of my very favourite things!

Plus, you always get to pick the restaurant!