Ronael

Four weeks in Winter 2010 were spent by our family in Northern Spain. What I posted is OUR - yes OUR experience......in answer to your remarks Robert2533 + Revulogo. All too often, people paint a glowing picture of somewhere that is simply over exaggerated. The wonderful thing about these forums is that honest accounts of personal experiences can be shared. And you take from it what you wish. We arrived in Barcelona and then hired a car and our family drove from there along the bottom of the Pyrenees via Zaragoza, Pamplona to San Sebastian (Donastia! To be respectful!). This was done over a 4 week period. We are a hardworking, culturally accepting, certainly not demanding or 'social climbing' (where would that remark have come from?? harsh....) basic - 2 backpacks for 4 months travelling family (many nights spent in backpackers and even in a car on the side of the road!!!) Through the heart of the Basque country. From there we drove to Bilbao, and then onto Madrid. We took the good with the bad on our 4 month trip through Europe. My opinion certainly counts. I have mentioned just a VERY small part of the what we, as a family, experienced in Spain....and to be honest, I'm battling to find something positive to say about the food we had there or the people we came across in restaurants/cafes or any of the other service providers - the scenery, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and the stroll down la Ramblas along with the tandem bike ride we did along the Beach in Barcelona would be worth mentioning as a positive. But the food in each of these places was terrible and the people in the service/tourist industry were RUDE, ignorant, down on the world and on MANY occasions we experienced dishonesty with the final bill. In markets what you saw was not always what you got - the stall holders always showed their best produce, but put less quality produce eg. strawberries into the bag from behind the counter! We don't expect the world when entering a restaurant. We expect food to be fresh and we expect to be treated with the simple plesantries that all cultures CAN manage. Regardless. After all, they are providing a service & we are the ones paying their wages. And....we would NEVER have treated anyone with such disrespect as to tell them that because they spoke a foreign language, they couldn't eat at a restaurant. Unbelievable! We visited 14 different countries and experienced many differnent cultures and met many wonderful people on our journey. Spain took the prize for being our least favourite, simply because of the way we were treated and ripped off on many occasions. I can accept variations in cultural 'manner'. What I can't accept is rudeness & dishonesty and secondly paying good money for crappy food. Spain, in the opinion that I'm entitled to express, is certainly not the place I'd choose to go if I was looking for yummy food or pleasant, welcoming people. Just as I'd written before. Restaurants are rife with substandard tapas and the service to match!

josele

For sure most of us (specially basque locals) would like to know the name of these places and details on your experiences, please take some time to write a report in detail.

Libretto

Ronael as an Australian who has also travelled extensively in Spain I'm amazed you could "write off" a whole country based on your experience. I can't credit that every waiter or service staff was rude? How could that be...that's like saying every Australian is laid back, and we now know that's not true!

lincasanova

I can only say that I am sorry you had such an unfortunate stay in Spain. These incidents you report would certainly upset anyone. I am confident, however, that this is not the majority of travelers' experiences, but I am sure there are others out there that do not even bother to post such encounters.

I do agree that in MANY places the service is less than recommendable, and over the years I have learned( and convinced Spanish friends) to look over restaurant bills, especially in tourist areas, as for the past forty years there seem to be some unscrupulous practices here and there, no matter where you go. An extra bottle of wine for a group, food that was not ordered or eaten, an unusual, handwritten mathematical error, etc.

I do feel some visits to the suggested eateries you find here would have shone a different light on your stay. A shame you seemed to hit the bad spots ( and there are quite a few, I am sure). It wouldn't take too many of those encounters to taint a holiday.

Glad to see the rest of your long journey went so well.

kimhe

As Josele, I would like to know the names of the places in San Sebastián providing "substandard tapas and the service to match". In 23 years I have yet to visit a place in town that would remotely fit such a description. Food is religion in San Sebastián and the Basque country in general, and I would expect such a place to be out of business in a week.

ribeirasacra

Must have visited a different Barcelona to me then.

Aduchamp1

Ronael on another topic says she was kidnapped in Istanbul. It is unfortunate that many things horrible things happen to her while traverling.

Robert2533

And what about her problems with the car rentals in Italy & Portugal? Was the offer in Morocco really 20,000 camels?

Cowboy1968

You can check the latter of Robert's question here:
http://camels.evilsun.org/

Robert2533

Great site Cowboy1968. We never had anything like this when I was a preteen living in Rabat and Casablanca. It would have been useful at times.

I was once offered 50,000 pts for a nice looking blond from one of the Nordic countries while sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Torremolinos many years ago, but even then the peseta wasn't worth a whole lot, but you could live for a week on a 1000 pesetas.

ribeirasacra

Cowboy................LOL