Hola! I just got back from a 9 day trip to Spain and it was a blast! I'll be sharing detailed guides about Barcelona, Ibiza, and Sevilla/Granada, but first I wanted to write a general post about the trip overall. We took a lot of photos, did quite a bit of sangria research, and learned a few valuable lessons along the way!
I traveled with one of my girlfriends, Chandler, and we randomly found flights through Cheap DFW for a little under $300! We jumped on the flight deal and didn't look back! The flight was roundtrip from Dallas to Barcelona via Air France/Delta. I originally thought that I could get away with packing in a carryon suitcase but I was wrong. I brought too many pairs of shoes! I ended up using a 24" suitcase and checked it, BUT I didn't realize that Delta charged $100 for a checked bag. Is that a new thing?! For me it was worth not having to lug around a ton of carryon bags, but definitely check with your carrier!
I lived in Valencia, Spain for 6 months during a study abroad experience, and have traveled a bit in Spain, so I planned to revisit a few cities. This was Chandler's first visit, so we made our itinerary to fly into Barcelona, then visit the island of Ibiza (new to me!), then Sevilla and Granada. Last time I was in Spain, we did a lot of travel via train, so I assumed we would do the same, but it ended up being cheaper and faster to do flights between our destinations within Spain. Airlines like Vueling, EasyJet, and Ryanair are so cheap in Europe!
We only had a few mishaps during our trip, but one of them was that a few of the tourist attractions that we wanted to visit were booked on the days that we had planned to visit them! I also had a woman try to pick-pocket me on the metro in Barcelona! Luckily my purse was zipped! Our favorite city was definitely Sevilla, and we were finally able to slow down, enjoy the city, have some fantastic meals, and get some much-needed rest!
Overall, we had a fantastic trip and I'm excited to share recommendations from each city and our favorite things from our itineraries later this week!