Spain: the land of sunshine, beautiful beaches and friendly locals. It’s little wonder so many Brits keep returning to Spain’s sandy shores - after all, it’s close by, many of the people living in tourist areas speak English, and it’s an opportunity to soak up some rays before the dull British weather turns us all completely transparent!
If you’re planning a holiday to Spain or are trying to decide if it will end up being your vacation destination, there are a few things you should know before you finalize your plans. One of the most important factors to take into consideration when visiting Spain is that it is a country with many distinct regions and districts, some with their own languages or dialects, yet more with their own special cuisine and customary behaviour. Take for example the main cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Seville: all are incredibly popular amongst tourists, but each have their own individual persona. Madrid is the capital of Spain and is heavily populated. It is also home to beautiful architecture and an incredibly rowdy bar and club scene that younger travellers in particular enjoy. Because of the popularity of Madrid as a base for travelling further into Spain itself, it is not difficult to find a cheap package holiday that suit your needs. In fact many of the packages for cheap holidays in Spain use Madrid as their focus, simply because of the large number of tourist facilities in the area.
Barcelona and Seville have this capacity for tourists in common with Madrid, but are quite unique in the sights and sounds they have to offer holidaymakers. Barcelona, for instance, is split into several historical quarters or districts and has a strong art and music scene which is popular with both young and old. Smaller than Madrid and less like ‘The Big Smoke’, it is favoured for being a cultured and friendly city that is easy to get around and an even easier place to use as a long-term base for a vacation or even a permanent move. Like Barcelona, Seville is considered to be more laid back than Madrid, and it’s most famous characteristic is that it is renowned for being the birthplace of the Flamenco (a famous Spanish dance). Bull fighting arenas are also famous in Seville, and this is one of the foremost reasons for tourists visiting the area. All three of the big cities have fantastic airport connections to the rest of Europe and indeed the rest of the world, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find cheap flights.
If you’re fed up with visiting city after city, you may instead decide to visit one of Spain’s many beautiful islands. Luckily there are several you can choose from, including the Balearic Islands chain (Mallorca and Ibiza, amongst others) and the Canaries (including Tenerife). Cheap flights to Tenerife, Mallorca and Ibiza shouldn’t be hard to come by, particularly as many of the budget airlines fly to these destinations.
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