Finding Cheap Flights to Spain

Cheap_FlightsTrendsetting restaurants in Bilbao, colorful festivals in Barcelona, the beautiful parks of Santander. These are just some of the things you won’t want to miss on your journey to glorious Spain. However, many of the best attractions aren’t free, so it’s all the more important for the traveler to find cheap flights to Spain in order to free up the money needed to fully experience the best of what Spain travel has to offer.

Where to Find Cheap Flights to Spain

Today, it’s easier than ever to find cheap airfare, even to a country like Spain! All you have to know is where to look. The Internet is the most powerful resource the at-home vacation planner has at his or her disposal. It allows you to easily and quickly research airlines to find the best values. You can instantly compare airlines, seat availability and ticket prices to ensure that you are getting the best flight for your money. In many cases, there are certain things you can do to lower your airfare even more!

Tips for Lowering the Price of Your Cheap Flight to Spain Continue Reading…

Reflections on Travels in Spain: Andalusian Memories

before-the-feriaThe bus pulled off the highway and into the station marking the halfway point between Madrid and Granada. Stepping down from the bus a slight wind swirled the dust, the sunlight glaring off of the cars parked nearby making the whitewashed adobe walls seem blinding. The truck stop, some shabby hotels and an old deserted petrol station were all I could see among the rolling Andalusian hills.

I scrounged in my pocket and pulled out a handful of change. My fist full with strange unfamiliar coins of varying weights and sizes. Pesetas, francs, pence, guilders, deutchmarks, the sum of my travels so far. Separating the pesetas from the rest I stepped into the truck stop café surveying my options. Smoke hung curled and seemed motionless, the inside of the café had an air of perpetual haziness and I felt like my eyes would never adjust.

I listened to the clink of glasses and chatter of the old men with their cervezas and cigarettes. The menu on the wall was incomprehensible, names of Spanish dishes made even stranger by the missing letters on the board. I walked instead to the vending machines safe in the knowledge that the prepackaged snacks, full of chemicals and preservatives snug in their shiny, crinkly wrappers were less of a risk than a cho zo con ques y mant quill bocadillo. Continue Reading…

Andalucia Travel Guide

andaluciaAndalucia is a fascinating place for its spectacular Moorish monuments, beautiful white hill towns, sparkling blue coast and natural beauty of its mountainous country. The Moors were a mixed race of Berbers and Arabs that occupied Spain (Al-Andalus) for almost eight hundred years. They developed the most sophisticated civilization in the Middle Ages, centered in Seville, Cordoba and Granada. Every city, town and village, is a wonderful mixture of Christian and Muslim influence. Granada preserves the most beautiful Moorish monuments, the Alhambra palace, being the largest and most sensual building in Europe. Córdoba’s old mosque with a cathedral built inside it and the spectacular remains of the ancient Moorish city of Medna Azahara shold be regarded as a mustsee whilst Seville boasts the most spectacular of all Gothic cathedrals and largest church in the world as well as its Moorish Alcazar.

The white towns surrounding Ronda offer an unspoiled view into Andalucian life with their surrounding natural beauty, delicious home-cooking and stunning appearance-clustered beneath Moorish/Christian castles and churches. There are some terrific walks in this area. Continue Reading…

Save Yourself Lots of Cash on Your Air Tickets

travelThere are lots and lots of ways that you can save a truck load of cash on your air tickets regardless of whether you fly once a year or regularly. Like anything else, its knowing important information, often inside information, that gets you results. Simple things like cutting out travel agents are a good tip. When you take out agents’ fees and buy tickets direct then there can be a dramatic difference in price. Taking this into account why don’t you fly at night? This is not everyone’s cup of tea but its also why tickets are often cheaper when flying at night. Buying your tickets from midnight often get great results. Midnight is generally the time when tickets first become available and also discounts and vouchers are released. And don’t worry about calling so late. You won’t be getting anyone out of bed or be calling them at home!! These companies take sales 24 hours a day.

I know someone in the insurance business and they kindly got me some amazing policies with low premiums. If you are wondering what this has got to do with air tickets then read on! If you know someone who works for a carrier or airline then ask them if they have any unused discounts for that month or season? You could be traveling on staff rates which are infinitely better than normal prices.

Budget airlines have superb discounts and offers if you can book early. They want their planes full and as early as possible. Its how they work as companies. Continue Reading…

Why We Travel

Why do we travel?

Are we looking simply to escape, to take a break from the stressors of daily life? Is it because it makes us happy? Because it is fun?

27why1I would say that the majority of people who travel are looking for something more—whether we realize it or not, the experience of travel provides far more than a relaxing and fun getaway (although that’s a big part of it). I might even go so far as to say that the desire to travel is a primal instinct, and if we all listen closely enough, we can hear it telling us to explore, to connect, to venture out into our world and see what it’s all about. After all, we’ve been doing this very thing since the dawn of man.

Even the most basic instincts are spawned from somewhere—a need to survive, a need to protect, a need to nurture. In a world where we are connected to cultures and happenings with the touch of a button, what could travel possibly provide us that we don’t already have at our fingertips, and why do we feel so compelled to go out and see it firsthand? Where does this need come from?

The African bushman story tellers talk about two kinds of Hunger: Continue Reading…