Possibly going to Spain this summer, looking for a good place to go

[Colin]

Thanks for that

[Allan W]

5 hours ago, Colin said:

Oh great, at least it should be interesting. Whats a good car rental company?

Last time we rented we used Sixt.  Decidedly mixed reviews, but we had a good experience. YMMV however.

[Ssnake]

I think for tourists in Spain, GoldCar used to offer the best rates. Europcar and Sixt tend to be on the pricey side; at the end of the day, it's a car for a fixed number of days. Comparisons should be easy. The question is more like, how do you plan to navigate. Google Maps is in most phones, but you'll go through the megabytes in no time and your US cellphone plan is probably inadequate. You were planning to go for a prepaid sim card, I remember, and that's probably most reasonable to use if the car doesn't come with built-in navigation (the assumption that they all have one these days is somewhat optimistic).

[sunday]

HERE WeGo! has a offline navigation mode. I found it very useful to navigate the Paris Metro, for instance.

Tourist SIM cards are not expensive. See here. The recommendation of Movistar is sound.

You may also want to consider renting a mobile wifi access point, then all the family's devices will have cheap wifi when you are together. Some information at the end of this article.

Edited March 5, 2024 by sunday

[Colin]

2 hours ago, Ssnake said:

I think for tourists in Spain, GoldCar used to offer the best rates. Europcar and Sixt tend to be on the pricey side; at the end of the day, it's a car for a fixed number of days. Comparisons should be easy. The question is more like, how do you plan to navigate. Google Maps is in most phones, but you'll go through the megabytes in no time and your US cellphone plan is probably inadequate. You were planning to go for a prepaid sim card, I remember, and that's probably most reasonable to use if the car doesn't come with built-in navigation (the assumption that they all have one these days is somewhat optimistic).

Garmin GPS? 

[Colin]

4 hours ago, sunday said:

 

You may also want to consider renting a mobile wifi access point, then all the family's devices will have cheap wifi when you are together. Some information at the end of this article.

I think I like this idea so this would allow us to cast google maps to our phones while we are driving, correct? 

[seahawk]

Rental cars, you do not want to have a deposit higher than  200 Euros and you want a full coverage insurance and a deductible amount not higher than around 200 Euros.

Centauro: I had good experiences with them

Gold Car: not great service, not great cars

Record Go: Cheap and okayish, if you buy the full coverage insurance

Sixt: Okay

Europcar: another one where you want full coverage insurance

 

[sunday]

3 hours ago, Colin said:

I think I like this idea so this would allow us to cast google maps to our phones while we are driving, correct? 

Using the phones like at home, browsing, chatting, etc., when driving in Europe, more precisely. Some Spanish roads could be boring!

[Ssnake]

6 hours ago, Colin said:

Garmin GPS? 

Any non-phone satnav with a local map will do, of course (though, depending on settings, the Garmin might send you off on running tracks and bike trails - ask me how I know; I discovered neat places, however).

[sunday]

32 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

Any non-phone satnav with a local map will do, of course (though, depending on settings, the Garmin might send you off on running tracks and bike trails - ask me how I know; I discovered neat places, however).

In Normandy there was that time that looking for the Pegasus Bridge, a car full of TNetters found itself trying to cross a pedestrian rickety small bridge, that from that time and while the Grate Sight endures shall be known as "My Little Pony Bridge". Navigation system was set up for bicycle riding.

We had a good laugh.

Edited March 5, 2024 by sunday

[seahawk]

8 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Any non-phone satnav with a local map will do, of course (though, depending on settings, the Garmin might send you off on running tracks and bike trails - ask me how I know; I discovered neat places, however).

If you know the area, you can download google maps data before you go and use it offline.

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid

[Colin]

On 3/5/2024 at 1:08 AM, Ssnake said:

Any non-phone satnav with a local map will do, of course (though, depending on settings, the Garmin might send you off on running tracks and bike trails - ask me how I know; I discovered neat places, however).

$139 for the map data and of course it won't work in my current GPS, sigh. Renting the wifi connector works out to the same costs roughly for the map data.

So trying to get my wife to book off the 28th so we can arrive the 29th. Otherwise land in Madrid on the 30th and fly out Apr 7th. Anyone going to be in Madrid 30-2nd for a beer?

[sunday]

I could try to go there for two days starting April 1st.

You may download a map of whole Spain in Here we go for free. There is an Android version available.

Also, you need a car phone holder, as in Spain is very much banned having a mobile phone in hand while driving.

Edited March 6, 2024 by sunday

[Colin]

Our current plan

30th - Arrive 2:30pm

Drive to Segovia spend the night, visit the aqueduct and the Castle for sure the next day.

1st - drive to Toledo

2nd - Tour Toledo

3rd - Drive to Granada 

4th - Do the Alhambra and a bit of Granada

5th - Drive to Madrid, stay at hotel near the airport

6th - Go into Madrid (likley the wife will stay at the hotel) see some sites come home

7th - Fly out 8:00am

Wish we had more time, but that's the dilemma of marrying a Lawyer turned teacher. She gets a lot of time off, but no flexibility. 

 

[sunday]

Sounds doable and not stressed.

[Colin]

8 hours ago, sunday said:

Sounds doable and not stressed.

whereabouts do you live?

[sunday]

45 minutes ago, Colin said:

whereabouts do you live?

Near Barcelona, we would not be meeting. Sorry!

[Colin]

10 hours ago, sunday said:

Near Barcelona, we would not be meeting. Sorry!

Dang hopefully we make another trip to Spain.

[sunday]

2 hours ago, Colin said:

Dang hopefully we make another trip to Spain.

I hope so!

[Colin]

I wanted to thank everyone who gave me advice or ideas. We had a great trip. The only downer was the company we booked the Alhambra tour with, sent us a email saying "Sorry we could not book you for the tour" a day before. So we did not get to see the palaces. We did finally get our money back, but I was pissed. Then later that day my wife and I went to perhaps the only cafe in Spain incapable of serving a beer. After 20 minutes we got up and left. Otherwise the trip was great and we really enjoyed it. A couple of places we added to the our stops that we really loved. My daughter was utterly in love with Spain and added bonus is that how you sweeten things with Cane Sugar, treats like Ice Cream, juice and Chocolate all had less impact on her diabetes. To give an example, a small juice box here has 25grams of sugar and in Spain 7-12 grams. 

I am working on doing a 2nd trip. Another word to the wise, 2 hours to get to a connecting flight in Heathrow is cutting it extremely fine!

 Castillo de Consuegra 

Summer Palace

 

[sunday]

Did you get to Aranjuez (the Summer Palace) using Tren de la Fresa?

[Colin]

On 5/16/2024 at 9:48 PM, sunday said:

Did you get to Aranjuez (the Summer Palace) using Tren de la Fresa?

That would have been cool, but nope we drove there. The car we ended up getting was a Audi Q3 which turned out to be perfect, not to big but very roomy inside. We used Alamo as they had the best prices. The girl who was dealing with us was useless and tried to give us a car with no GPS. When we refused, a young guy took over and got things sorted quickly and arranged the Audi. 

Also got 100g's of data for 30 Euro is heaven for us Canadian who spend a fortune on cell service. Having fun at home when they call me to update my plan and I do a price comparison with Spain.

I ended using booking.com to arrange hotels and that was painless and got a very nice 4 star place,  "Hotel Pintor El Greco" with parking on the edge of the Jewish quarter in Toledo.

The hotel we got in Segovia "Hotel Avenida Del Sotillo" was 5 minutes outside of town and only 2 stars, but clean, had a great cafe, free parking and supermarket/gas station across the street. The room was very basic and small, but we just used it to sleep in.  I think we paid 240 euros for 3 people and two nights. Because it was Easter weekend most of the 4 star hotels were sold out.

In Granada we stayed at the Sercotel Granada Suites which did not have parking for our car, so I had to park 5 minutes away. But the room had a kitchenette and was gorgeous and comfy inside.

For Madrid we stayed at the "AXOR Barajas Hotel Madrid" A large complex with a pool and free parking, plus a nice restaurant. The nice thing was it was a 5 minute walk to a large shopping centre my daughter could go nuts in.

 

[sunday]

Nice outcome, very nice.

I am glad you enjoyed Spain.