Honeymoon Discussions

Honeymoon in Spain in June

We are going on our honeymoon to Spain this june.  We need some hotels as we are not sure what is "central" to the sites.  We are first flying into barcelona and would love to stay on or near Las Ramblas.  Then we are headed to seville then madrid (will probably book the Westin Palace).  Any hotels recommendations would be amazing.
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Re: Honeymoon in Spain in June

  • amelishaamelisha member
    First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited September 2014
    Why Madrid? Is there anything in particular you're dying to see there? If not, consider that inland Spain is incredibly hot and unpleasant in summer. Even Seville will be (but it's a much nicer city, in my opinion.)

    I lived on the Costa del Sol for some time when I was younger (nannying) so if you have non-hotel related questions I'd be happy to answer them!

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  • I am not going to remember the exact name of the hotel I stayed in when I was in Seville, but I highly recommend looking in the Juderia (Jewish quarter) which is absolutely gorgeous and centrally located.

    The last time I was in Barcelona we stayed in an AirBnB apartment near Las Ramblas (right at the top of it) which was a great location because it was walking distance to La Ribera, El Raval and the medieval part of the city without being exactly in them (they are great places to go out at night but not great places for a woman to be alone at night, unfortunately). So I would recommend looking just on that north end of Las Ramblas.

    Madrid is a delight, but @amelisha is right that it is HOT in June. Oppressively so. If you do go, the Hotel T3 Tirol is nice, and very close to the Parque del Oeste (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187514-d232809-Reviews-Hotel_T3_Tirol-Madrid.html). My parents stayed there when they visited me while I was studying there and liked it. Otherwise I'd recommend looking near the Parque del Buen Retiro, which is Madrid's other big park (and a safe, tourist-friendly destination).

    If you bypass Madrid, I also recommend the north coast of Spain--San Sebastian is gorgeous, and since it's part of the Basque region, it's a bit of a different "flavor" of Spain. The food is incredible (even more so than the rest of the country, which is saying something) and the city is beautiful, almost Parisian in its architecture, but decidedly Basque in its culture. The beach up there is fantastic, and it should be a bit cooler, too.
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  • We stayed at Hotel atlantis in Barcelona. It was right off the top of Las Ramblas. It was easy to walk to lots of attractions and easy access to the metro and the hop on/off buses. The hotel itself isn't super fancy, but it was very nice, the front desk is extremely helpful, and the morning breakfast was pretty good. The location for the price is really what makes it worth it.
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  • @lolo883 just returned from a honeymoon in Spain "‌
  • I did! We stayed at the Hotel 4 Barcelona because we preferred to be near the beach. Room was small but clean and comfortable. Only thing to be aware of near the beach... it STINKS. The El Pobleneu neighborhood belches up this awful fishy smell. It didn't seem to bother the locals though. The beach was gorgeous, and it was a quick subway trip anywhere else (Llacuna station was about 4 blocks away). I didn't really like Las Ramblas though... too commercial for me. I prefer the old-timey neighborhood feel.

    In Madrid we stayed at the Senator Gran Via 70 Spa Hotel. Really nice rooftop patio and jacuzzis to get away from the city noise, and the rooms are soundproof which was wonderful. Didn't feel like dropping 18E per person for a 1.5 hour stint in the basement spa, although it looked incredible. Centrally located in the theater/palace district and super close to the Plaza de Espana metro station (1 block). Definitely back to that big city feel though.

    I highly recommend the flamenco show at Las Tablas in Madrid. Two shows per night in an intimate little theater at the end of the Plaza de Espana. 27E per person which includes a drink. The guitarist and dancers are seriously INCREDIBLE. It was our favorite part of the trip. We bought our tickets online from my phone. :)

    From Madrid we did a day trip to Avila. Walking the city walls was AMAZING. You can see forever. My FitBit says we walked 67 flights of stairs that day, lol! About a 1.5 hour trip by train (not the high speed one) for 12E. We used the Renfe app to book our tickets which was much more effective than the website, but you had to book a ticket via the web on the same credit card before you could use the app. Stupid. You shouldn't need more than about 4 hours in Avila. We had planned on leaving at 6 but once everything closed for siesta there wasn't anything to do, so we switched our tickets to leave at 4. (Got there just before noon.)

    Assuming you're planning on traveling by train, you get the best deals booking as soon as tickets are available (62 days in advance). We forgot to do this so our high-speed AVE trip from Barcelona to Madrid was 135E each. :( You can get it for about 80 if you book early with a coupon code. 

    Get sangria made from cava. That's my best tip. It's delicious.

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  • We stayed at the Tripp Apollo in the El Reval neighborhood. It was a 2-5 minute walk from La Rambla and in a really good part of town. It has lower costs because EL Reval is seen as "up and coming". We had no issues where we stayed and felt like it looked exactly the same as the other more expensive parts of Barcelona. Also- spend time in El Reval. There's some really good restaurants there that aren't nearly as touristy which is really, really nice. 

    For Seville, we stayed at the Apartamentos Murillo in Bario Santa Cruz in Seville. The location was incredible. Old medieval streets. Had to roll our suitcases down them to get to our room. They have a hotel and apartments, the apartments were nice because of the kitchen. Just don't stay on the ground floor. Tour groups kept walking by our room. We would have stayed another night or two if it weren't for this. There's a Flamanco bar right down the street that is fantastic too. Expensive, but well worth it. 

    I would also recommend Granda in addition to Seville and Barcelona and instead of Madrid. It was my favorite place we stayed in Spian. We stayed in the Albayzin neighborhood which is a Moorish neighborhood with views of the Alhambra. We did an Airbnb (El Numero 8) here with a view of the Alhambra. It was fantastic. 
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  • Last time I was in Madrid I stayed at Hotel Atlantico in the Callao neighborhood and liked it very much.

    Other day trip recommendations from Madrid: Segovia, Toledo.

    Also I have flown between Madrid & Barcelona several times. Vueling is one of the low-cost Spanish airlines. It's usually around $100 and obviously faster than the train.
  • Lots of good tips!  Thank you we have been struggling so much as this is our first trip to Europe together.  We are planning on taking the AVE between Barcelona/Madrid/Seville.  Total budget hopefully we could end up somewhere between $6-$8k.
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  • edited October 2014
    Yay for Spain! How long are you staying? I would recommend into looking at renting apartments. That's what we did in Barcelona (we stayed for a week) and it saved some money, but also was a great way to have a little more freedom if you like cooking/need to do laundry, etc. I'm not sure if I would do it for a honeymoon though, but something to consider.

    I'm also going to second San Sebastian in case you're looking for another option instead of Madrid or seville. Loved the area and the people! It's also very interesting to see the contrast between the Catalonia and the Basque regions.
  • We are planning on staying for 2 weeks.  We just started working with a travel agents so hopefully she can get us to all the good places that were recommended!

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  • edited October 2014
    I lived in Madrid for a while, so my recommendations on cities outside of what you already have planned are Granada and Cordoba. Those two cities won't take more than a day or two each and you have two whole weeks. And you can easily go on the front or back end of your trip to Sevilla (check out a map). In Granada, you need to see La Alhambra and in Cordoba, La Mezquita is phenomenal - both are worth reading up on before you go. The history is what makes them so cool. When I was living there and traveling outside Madrid, I was staying in hostels that I wouldn't exactly describe as romantic honeymoon. My go-to book was "Let's Go Spain". I didn't have one bad recommendation from that book - food, hotel or activity wise. And they have more upscale hotels in there too. __________________________________________________________________ The Westin in Madrid is really nice and the location is awesome. You can see El Prado and Museo Thyssen-Bornemizsma from the hotel. It's also relatively close to Parque de Retiro and, to get there, you can walk by the Banco de Espana plaza which has one of the most stunning buildings I've ever seen (and where you'd probably catch the metro if you end up using it). I would spend the most time Barcelona, then the cities of Andalucia (Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba) then Madrid. I'm not hating on Madrid or anything, but the other stuff is much cooler. __________________________________________________________________ ETF: I swear I had paragraphs.... Ugh TK.
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