Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Spain Trip Report, Including Extremadura

We recently returned from a three week trip to Spain. Our group consisted of my husband and myself, as well as our two daughters – both young adults. We’ve traveled together many times before. We usually stay at the equivalent of two or three star hotels and we rarely go to expensive restaurants. Three of us are vegetarians, which always complicates the traveling situation, and one of us is a serious runner. My older daughter ran many miles on this trip, and this affected our schedule a little bit, but it enabled us to find “hidden” places in towns, like small, pretty parks we may not have found if she hadn’t found them while running.
We flew into Barcelona on Easyjet, from Milan. We stayed three nights in Barcelona at Hotel Granvia. We really liked this hotel. The location was great, the room was clean, and there was a nice salon and terrace, as well as internet access. The location in Eixample was so good because we found that we liked the Gracia area, especially for dinner and in the evenings, and we were able to walk from there to our hotel. Highlights of the city were seeing the Tour de France, touring the Gaudi buildings, and Park Guell.
We then took a train to Zaragoza. A sidenote here: We knew there were high speed trains between Barcelona and Zaragoza and this is what we planned to take. We were shocked to find out that the relatively short trip would cost us approximately 60 euros each. In the end, we decided to use the day as a day “off,” took the slow train (five hours!) and spent much less money. When we arrived in Zaragoza, it was unbelievably hot, and we got off at the wrong bus stop, so we were not in the best of moods. We checked in to our hotel (Hotel Las Torres) and then went sightseeing. We enjoyed the city during the short time we were able to spend there (an afternoon, evening, and next morning). It’s a city that’s working hard to attract tourists, has some interesting sights, and has one of my favorite sights of the trip: the spires/towers of the cathedral lit up at night. It was beautiful, and we had a view from our hotel room.
The next day we took a bus to Madrid, where we stayed at Hostal Gonzalo. It was a Monday, and luckily the Reina Sofia was open late. We spent the next day as well, roaming around neighborhoods (we especially liked La Latina) and touring the Prado.
Our next stop was Segovia, where we stayed at Los Linajes. I loved this hotel. We had a small balcony with a great view of the countryside. The only downside was that it was a few minutes further away from the action, but I didn’t mind the extra walking when I returned to the view. We loved Segovia, though this was the first town where we struggled as vegetarians. I had thought the town would be overrun by tourists, but we didn’t find this to be the case at all.
From Segovia we took a bus to Salamanca, a city I had visited decades ago and was eager to show to my daughters. It was beautiful, as I remembered, but felt very different from other places we visited; it was crowded with groups. We stayed at the Hostal Sara.
We rented a car in Salamanca so that we’d be able to tour the smaller towns of Extremadura. We used Europcar and the rental, pick-up and drop-off, were problem-free. We started our week in the region with an afternoon in Ciudad Rodrigo. We arrived in the town at midday and enjoyed lunch in the square. We explored the town that afternoon, but we were affected by the incredible heat. I think this was one of the hottest days we experienced. In the evening we drove to La Alberca, where we stayed at Hostal La Alberca. The next day we slowly made our way to Hervas, stopping for walks through Mogarraz, Miranda del Castanar, Candelario. We loved this area and really enjoyed the small villages. La Alberca marked the start of a serious language barrier in our travels, but our older daughter speaks some Spanish and was able to translate most things. This also marked the start of “conspicuous travel” for us. We came across no other English-speaking tourists, and were the recipients of quite a bit of staring as we walked through the towns. I often greeted people as I walked past them. Sometimes the greeting and smile were returned, sometimes not. We weren’t deterred, and met many friendly and welcoming people. We had many wonderful interactions and conversations (thank you, translating daughter) with people.
We arrived in Hervas and walked around the old section, thinking this was the entire town. We accidentally came across the newer part of Hervas and enjoyed the people-watching. A dining note here: Eating late was a struggle for us throughout the trip. We often felt we were the first people wanting food at a restaurant. Our crankiest times were the nights when it was 9 PM and we couldn’t find a restaurant serving food. This was really an issue in these smaller towns. I’m guessing the larger cities cater to the tourists by serving food earlier.
We didn’t have hotel reservations the next two nights, but had an idea we would stay in Jarandilla de la Vera. We stopped in Plasencia, walked around the market, and then ate lunch. It was siesta time, and none of the “sights” were open. We continued on to Jarandilla de la Vera, and found the Posada de Pizarro, where we stayed two nights. We enjoyed this hotel, and the owners couldn’t have been nicer, but we thought it was a little overpriced. I’m so glad we spent a longer period of time in this town. We did a lot of exploring, including being “abducted” by the owner of the town museum. He invited us into his house (at the time we didn’t realize it was a museum), and showed us around. At the end of our visit, he asked for money. Of course, we should have been prepared for this, but what seemed like a fun, spontaneous visit turned a tiny bit sour. On one of our days in the town, three of us (not me!) decided to go on a hike. They left at 4 PM, knowing they’d still have many hours of light, but trying to beat some of the heat. (The heat was unbeatable! It was HOT.) They started the hike and came across an elderly man who stopped them, saying it was too hot and they shouldn’t be hiking. Instead, he took them on a slow walking tour of the area, telling them about the region and showing them local sights. My daughters said it was the highlight of their trip.
We sadly left Jarandilla de la Vera, and headed for Trujillo. That Plaza Mayor is beautiful! We spent the day sightseeing in the heat. This was the only hotel we all agreed we didn’t like very much. We stayed at Meson la Cadena, which was ok, but quirky. The lights went out a couple of times, and there was a weird key system. The next day we went to Guadalupe. (I know, it would have made more sense to go Jarandilla to Guadalupe and then Trujillo…) The town was secondary here. We stayed at the Hospederia del Real Monasterio and loved it. It came near the end of our three weeks, and we really appreciated the peace and beauty it offered. We also went on a Spanish tour of the monastery, which I thought was wonderful, even though I didn’t understand anything the guide was saying. That night we ate at the hotel, which offered special salads, something the vegetarians in the group were looking forward to. My daughter asked what was in the salad, and understood everything the server said, except for one word. She asked for an explanation, and the woman said they were long, white things. My daughter assumed it was asparagus. When the beautiful salad arrived, it looked as if it had angel hair pasta on top of it. We all exclaimed happily, because we hadn’t had pasta in a while. My daughter looked closely at it and said, “This spaghetti has eyes.” It turned out it was eels! We learned this evening, as well as throughout the trip, that it wasn’t enough to ask if a dish had meat. The Spaniards didn’t consider fish or small bits of ham to be meat, I guess.
After Guadalupe we headed to Caceres, where we returned out car, and then stayed two days. We loved this city. The old section is incredibly beautiful. We also enjoyed the Plaza Mayor and the newer section, with its tree-lined promenade. This was one of our favorite towns on the trip. We stayed at the Alameda Palacete, which was fine, but had strange lighting. It was very bright with natural light during the day, but the rooms only had the equivalent of nightlights, and it was hard to manage at night.
We returned to Madrid by train, spent one more day there, and flew back to the US the next morning. I don’t know if this happens normally or not, but I was given the third degree when checking in for our Delta flight. They checked our passports and I think the problem was that they didn’t see a record of our entrance into Spain (because we’d flown in after staying in Milan). We were asked many questions and they wanted to see receipts for some of our hotel stays in the country. I explained that it would involve unpacking everything and somehow we were able to proceed. I thought everything was settled and then, once everyone was boarded on the flight, and we were almost ready to depart, someone came on the plane and asked me to show him my passport. He said he wanted to make sure it had a certain kind of sticker on it. Luckily, he checked it and that was that. I have no idea what any of that was about.
We had a great time on this trip and I’m glad we had a mix of large cities and small towns. We returned exhausted and ready for our next trip to the Jersey shore – a very different but maybe more relaxing vacation!