My husband and I are looking at travelling from Canada to Spain summer 2013. We are both teachers and are actually thinking about trying to move to Spain to teach at an international school so we are travelling to check out the school areas. We've narrowed our interests down (using cities that have schools) to Valencia, Barcelona, Madrid, and possibly Bilbao. Marbella and Cadiz also have scchools but just based on some quick reading I'm thinking they might not be as desirable as far as area (thoughts?). Given the four places we are looking to visit, is there an itin that makes the best sense and what's the best way to travel between each place? I'm thinking that if it's cost effective we could fly into Barcelona, go to Valencia, Madrid, Bilbao and then back to Madrid to go home but if it's more cost effective we might have to fly in and out of the same city.

You don't necessarily need to return to Madrid from Bilbao. If you're flying on a skyteam alliance you can fly Bilbao to Paris, then Paris to Canada (assuming your city in Canada is serviced by Air France).

Surprised you left out Salamanca, which is totally university focused and quite desirable. Barcelona will have a large Catalon influence and similarly Bilbao is in the Basque country, both areas very unique and not what many think of when they envision Spain.

Thanks CathyM, we haven't actually looked at universities. We started by searching www.ecis.org for international schools. Univerisities are certainly a possibility but I'm not sure how common expat hires would be and what education requirements would be needed. Further research will be needed on that one. Any general sites one can recommend?

Not sure why you might think Marbella or Cadiz to be in less desirable area. I have not been to Bilboa, but love the area around Cadiz, North to Seville and Cordoba and East to Granada, and would choose it over Barcelona or Valencia, probably even over Madrid. I would try to visit both, if possible before you discount them.

Since you want to spend substantial time in Spain you should teach yourself how to shop for transport.
Basic resources for trains and flights:
www.skyscanner.com
www.whichbudget.com
www.seat61.com This site will train you in using European train websites.
www.bahn.com The German rail site is a good source for schedules all over Europe although its sales are oriented towards German travel.

It isn't any more expensive to fly into one major city and out another with Air Canada. When you are booking on-line choose the multi-city option at the top.

Air Transat flies to both Barcelona and Madrid; their prices will be cheaper than Air Canada but since they're charter flights you can only fly in/out certain days. You can also try KLM or Air France (I flew AF in July, YYZ-VLC then BIO-YYZ), keep an eye out for their seasonal sales.

Thanks Southam, these look like they'll be a great help! Sassafrass, I'm not big on mountain driving - hate it actually and it seems Cadiz and Marbella would involve a lot of that. I also read that Cadiz in particular has an economy that is suffering so that concerned me... thoughts?

Also, I'm not really too concerned about flights to Europe as I have some experience with that but am wondering on flights within Europe. There's a slight chance we might fly into London for a brief 2 day stay and then on to Spain. I know of Ryan air but are there any others one would say are a must to check for cheap flights?

>>I also read that Cadiz in particular has an economy that is suffering so that concerned me... thoughts?<<

All of Spain is in a dreadful economic crisis. Just the other day I read a story about how pharmacies in Valencia cannot afford to replace medicines that are out of stock. The story was meant to be illustrative of the hardships throughout the country.

Of particular concern to you should be that Spain has recently begun denying medical care to immigrants who seek help in public institutions. I'm not trying to scare you, and you might have lots of resources to weather storms. But if the idea of economic suffering in Cadiz is a deal-breaker for you wanting to live there, then it might be a deal-breaker for Valencia, Bilbao, Barcelona and Madrid too.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifesty...in-209209.html