End of Trip Update
 

The vacation has been really wonderful! San Sebastian is as beautiful as ever, but perhaps a tad bit quieter on weekdays.

The food is as delicious as ever. The pintxo bars are now mostly sitdown restaurants, which is fine with me. I used to find ordering at the bar to be really intimidating.

The beach was packed this last weekend and still pretty busy for a cooler Monday.

We successfully took our supervised COVID tests this morning and received the results via email within 10 minutes. My husband’s results did not the the date filled in, but it was resolved quickly with a phone call. We uploaded the results to the VeriFLY app and quickly had our green status. We’ll see if that works!

Generally speaking, the trip has been amazing. Here are a couple of photos.

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Watching the sunset
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The beach

Thanks for the update!

One last update about the airport experience coming home:

We were not able to get boarding passes via the Iberia app. The lines were very long for seeing an agent for economy check-in and the airline sent an email recommending that we arrive 4 hours prior to our flight. (Note that there is a separate area for business class agents and those lines were very short.)

The agent at check-in did not seem to understand or recognize the VeriFly app, so we showed her our printed results. Be sure to point out "COVID" on the printout. Flying business, we were easily at the lounge within an hour. (It's a bit of a walk to 4S.)

The Iberia lounge at 4S was open and busy. There was a person serving pasta and soup, etc. and a bartender serving drinks. Other items, like chips, small bottles of wine, coffee were all self-serve. "Restaurant rules" applied in the lounge-- when seated the masks were generally off.

As normal, there was a checkpoint before the gate for passport and now COVID documentation checks. The VeriFly app included a few questions required by the U.S. and they were satisfied with the app. Those without the app had to fill out paperwork at the checkpoint. All in all, I would take the extra couple of minutes to submit information to VeriFly -- and be sure to have the COVID testing paperwork printed as a backup.

Again, I hope that this information is helpful to those of you seeking information on returning to the U.S. Happy travels!

We also had a fairly smooth return from Spain on Sunday. We flew TAP Portugal and had to transfer in Lisbon (flew Malaga > Lisbon > Newark). We used the Abbott’s BinaxNOW test with eMed and Navica app. I had also booked an appointment at the airport as a backup, but didn't need it. The eMed test was fine (and thankfully negative). I had watched a youtube video in advance to see how the test is done. As per Bibliotecaria71's suggestion, we printed out all docs, and ended up not even bothering with the app..

For Lisbon transfer we needed to fill out a Portugal locator form, similar to SpTH form, and get a QR code as well. If the form wasn't done electronically, they handed out manual forms on the flight there.

The only hiccup we had relating to the Covid test, was when we checked in at Malaga airport. The agent looked at our test results and said they expired. She kept repeating that they must be within 48 hours. They were, with hours to spare. After some back and forth, we realized she was looking at the date wrong. It was printed in American format (m/d/y). She saw the first digit 9, instead of seeing it as the month, she saw it as the day (Europe format d/m/y)..

In Lisbon, we had to go through passport control, and then show docs at boarding gate. They also had an additional Covid-related form we had to fill out and sign at the gate. We had a tight connection and were concerned but boarding was slow with the extra docs, so it was not an issue. As it turned out though, our luggage did not make the transfer, but they did arrive at our home 2 days later.

Few American's to be found along the coast, more on the Costa del Sol side, than Costa de la Luz. Also Costa Del Sol seemed to be a bit more crowded. Friday night in Malaga was hopping. It was strange to see. People seemed compliant with Covid rules. The weather was warm, It was great to be outdoors checking out all the charming towns and beaches on route but I'm glad to be home, and Covid negative!

I am glad that your trip went well, MFNYC!

Quck note regarding Covid testing in Spain for Madrid Airport. We are just wrapping up a fifteen day trip to Andalusia (Sanlucar de Barreda and Zahara de los Atunes. Great vacation, perfect weather, food and friendly people. We depart Madrid for Boston tomorrow. Yesterday we traveled to Conil de la Frontera to get our return trip Covid Test. We are both vaccinated and opted for the Antigen Test (30 Euro) as opposed to the PCR Test (120 Euro) a significant savings. Wrong! Bad mistake. My wife tested negative myself positive. You can imaging our state of mind knowing we would both have to quarantine for ten days, find a hotel to accept us, return the rental car, ect. This would have cost me thousands of dollars.
The nurse at the medical center advised us that the Antigen Test is not accurate and there are a lot of false positives. Fortunately we have friends in Zahara who told us not to worry and to take the PCR Test, acknowledging that they are aware of numerous false positives. Our friend in Zahara contacted the medical center and she was able to schedule a PCR Test in an hour. It came back negative. Lesson to be learned on a return trip from Europe to the USA. Spend the extra money and schedule a PCR Test.

There is a false positive rate of about 1% for the COVID antigen test depending on the prevalence. I’d rather (and I have twice this year)
do the Antigen test in my hotel room 3 days before my flight and do a PCR the next day to confirm if my Antigen test comes back positive. Actually since we each carry a second antigen test I would repeat the test as the one cause of a false positive is contamination of the test site from the control site.

Mike1728, we were in exactly that same area a few weeks ago. Did a mini road trip between Jerez and Malaga. Never been there before. Loved it. Beautiful area.

My biggest fear was getting a - result. It would have been a very expensive nightmare and huge inconvenience, if we couldn't fly home as planned.

We were in San Sebastián/Basque country in June and had a great time. The Maria Christina is a lovely hotel and we had a nice dinner at Arzak. Best pintos for us was in Hondarribia and we also had a very nice dinner there as well.
I agree that perhaps my biggest worry traveling in Europe is testing positive and having to delay our return. Our travel insurance would cover most if not all of our costs but losing income from being out of the office is far worse. We went armed with a cache of 20 N.95 masks each plus a small spray bottle of alcohol to decontaminate our hands. Fortunately both of our trips this summer went safely