Travel dos and don'ts

The previous columns of this 3-part series on our Spanish holiday covered our travel from Madrid to Salamanca, then to Fatima, Estoril and Lisbon in Portugal, then on to Seville, Cadiz and Marbella.

On the second week of our family holiday in Spain, we found ourselves in Malaga, with a population of 600,000. As you may know, Malaga is the home of the Spanish painter Pablo Picazzo who was born here in 1881 in the Plaza de la Merced, now a museum and headquarters of the Picazzo Foundation.

We decided to get a city tour, to make sure we cover all the must-sees in Malaga. The tour was surprisingly short (but also for 17 Euros per). The hop in-hop off bus took us to the Victoria district, past the Monkey Square (with very few monkeys), passing several fig trees and almond trees and a charming rose garden with big roses abloom, all the while enjoying a magnificent view of the Mediterranean Sea. Malaga is one of the most important ports in the western Mediterranean, second only to Barcelona.

Among the interesting sights: the ancient Malaga Cathedral with a baroque tower combining Gothic and Renaissance architecture that reportedly took centuries to finish; the Customs Palace done in neo-classical style in 1788, the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) which is home to the Malaga City Council built in a new-baroque style; and the Malaga Bullfighting Ring located near the Malaga park which dates back to 1876. Posters announced a great bullfight in mid-August, but we were set to return home earlier than that.

We spent a restful 2 nights at the MS Maestranza Malaga Hotel, tucked away in the downtown district, our triple room costing a modest US$210/night. Curiously, a double room costs US$220/night. We found that most of the hotels charged slightly lower for triple sharing than for double sharing!

Then, it was time to pack our bags once again into the trusty and dependable BMWs for another lengthy ride to Granada. By this time, our luggage was considerably more, having shopped in all the cities we visited, but the BMW X1, a remarkable compact SUV, and the BMW 320-D held our excess baggage beautifully, giving us so much more space for the forthcoming shopping sprees. We had 3 more cities to go.

Granada offers historic castles and buildings to visiting tourists but unfortunately for us, our hotel, the Macia Gran Via which was centrally located was right smack in the middle of major roads that were being repaired. Private cars were banned from the all the nearby roads and only government vehicles or public buses were allowed. We were not even able to see the Alhambra, famous for its Moorish architecture, or the Historic bats of Granada, also a Moorish building dating back some 1,000 years. Being in the heart of downtown Granada, though, we shopped to our hearts’ content, leaving behind the BMWs and walking as much as 5 hours in a day looking for the “rebajas” (sale) signs.

Hotel rates in Granada did not differ much from Malaga rates, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that triple sharing was again cheaper than double sharing.

Then, we were off to Valencia, center of Spain’s ceramic industry and home to the famous Lladro porcelain. For some reason, it took us over 3 hours to find our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Valencia which was literally tucked away in the Bonaire area, a new shopping district of factory outlets. This is a shopper’s paradise, but it wrought havoc on our GPS. If we had less comfortable or less dependable vehicles in this time of distress, it would have been a big black mark on this holiday tour. But we eventually found the hotel with some sleuthing and settled down to check the factory outlets with much anticipation. Brands like H & M, Desigual, Zara, Lacoste, Nike, etc. had their factory outlets there, and so eager were we that we completely forgot to check out the Lladro factory, which we later found out gave as much as 50 percent discount on selected items. That was completely foolish of us, but we did get some great bargains, the biggest bargains in fact among all the cities we visited.

The Holiday Inn Express rates were very reasonable at US$105/night for triple sharing, but the rooms had no refs, and the breakfast buffet was sparse. Valencia was overbooked on those days.

After 2 nights in Valencia, we had to get up early for the 5-hour drive to Barcelona, the last leg of our trip. I thoroughly enjoyed the very, very long drive though, comfortable in our spacious BMWs. We would set the cars on cruise speeds of 120 kph, and relaxed all the way, rarely getting off the cruise mode until we saw Barcelona. We literally breezed through the 5 hours drive. That’s the beauty of having excellent vehicles for land tours.

Home in Barcelona was another Holiday Inn Express because Barcelona was understandably fully booked for the tourist season. Our first stop was Las Ramblas, a long boulevard by the port which joins the Columbus monument to the Plaza de Catalunya. You literally had to elbow your way through the huge park in some areas, and I could only look in disbelief at the sea of people, envious that the city had such a big share of the world’s tourists. After picking out a couple of the prized red and white Barcelona football shirts, we were off to La Boqueria, one of the greatest food markets in Europe. This is a gourmet and gourmand’s dream place, where huge legs of jamon Ibugo, Serrano and Iberico hang from hooks in the ceiling, ready for carving. Vendors scoop olives from big pails to sell by the kilo, Spanish chorizos, orange and fatty are packed in vacuum-sealed plastic ready for travel. Dried bacalao was laid out, all encrusted with sea salt. We certainly had our fill of this wonderful market. 

The next day was Sunday, and most of the shops were closed. We still got a few of the Spanish mantons (embroidered colorful shawls with long tassles) and fans, but mostly we rested for the trip back home early the next morning. It is the end of a wonderful land tour that spanned 1,635 miles!

Some tips we would like to share with travelers:

On long holidays like this one, it would be best to pack some ready- to- snack- on food like multi-grain crackers and tuna spreads, bologna, etc. like what sis-in-law Evelyn did. One fine meal in a city is good enough, and Evelyn’s stash served us well during the 2 weeks.

Keep your bags, cameras, etc. in front of you at all times, when walking or even white eating.

Before the trip, make sure you have at least 2 sets of copies of your passports, visa, Driver’s license and even your e-ticket (keep them in separate pouches or wallets—if you lose one you’ll have a spare). For possible lost passports, prepare 2 photo IDs (2 x 2), a copy of the affidavit of loss and police report ready for the embassy to save on time. Fee: 30 Euros. And always check out the nos. of the consul/embassy.

Bring an extra folding bag in your luggage for the shopping spree so you don’t have to buy another bag. And, always pack a lightweight jacket, even if it’s summer in the place you are visiting. The nights and early morning were biting cold in some places.

Remember to pack a supply of emergency medicine for sudden bouts of diarrhea, allergy, etc.

Keeping a diary of sorts for long trips could be useful, especially when you take so many photographs that you can’t identify much later.

Having a second credit card on hand is useful, packed separately in case of loss. Keep a mental tab on your credit card charges so you don’t get a heart attack when your bill arrives. And don’t forget to inform your credit card company about your intended trip least you suddenly find your card suspended once you start charging from abroad—a security measure of the credit car companies. 

There’s nothing like having comfortable shoes for those long walking tours and shopping sprees. For ladies, these are neither too flat nor too high, and have a smaller, lighter handbag as well.

Many thanks to Asian Carmakers and its lovely lady president Ms. Maricar Parco for lending us 2 excellent and dependable vehicles for this land tour: the BMW X1 and the BMW 320-D, our trusty companions for two straight weeks of enjoyable driving.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.                

For comments: (e-mail) [email protected]