Southern Spain in February

[Eucerin]

Loved Sevilla and hope to return soon. It’s a great base for exploring as well.

Tapas always worked for us for dinner. We don’t like a late big meal.

We were surprised how much we enjoyed Madrid as it is such a large bustling city, but we have been there twice and enjoyed it immensely each time.

Our hotel was right next to Plaza Mayer on the old street. There are many restaurants inside the plaza mayer. We had tapas at one of them, I would say that that's the best meal in Madrid, on the top list in Spain

Our hotel was right next to Cathedral which is where the tapas street located. Quite convenient

 

[Eucerin]

Which airport did you eventually fly into ?
Did you rent a car or how did you get to Toremolinos from the airport ?

We flew to Madrid from JFK, and spent 4 days in Madrid. Then took high speed train to Malaga; At same train station, you walk to another part of the station for local train only, then you take the local train from Malaga to Toremolinos (20min). After 3 weeks airbnb, we took train to Sevile for 4 days, and then high speed train to Barcelona. From Barcelona to JFK.
The taxi is very cheap. 10 euro goes long way. And no tips was expected for food and taxi. We found that's a big chunk of $$ saved.

We met another couple from the states. They flew to Portugal, and from Portugal to Malaga, and then switch to local train to Toremolinos

Our ainbnb is about 10minutes walk to train station in Toremolinos, we never took bus or taxi. However, we met few vacation europeans, they purchased monthly bus pass, the bus stop always have people waiting, it was quite convenient.

 

[explanade]

Spent a couple of nights in Madrid last year. A lot of construction at Plaza del Sol and one of the main metro lines to the airport.

 

[brett]

What's the situation in Morocco since they had a big earthquake? Did rescue operations complete?

There are some packaged tours, which I generally don't do but for a developing country I wondered about. But they invariably include a couple of nights out in the desert, staying in a tent, riding camels.

Would prefer just to see the old architecture and stay within cities.

NO idea about the rescue operations. We had a time crunch. Our airline allowed us to bank the our previous non refundable trip last Sept...it was for 2 days after the earthquake. Between the time limit as to when we could use the ticket, the weather, and our personal scheds the only fit was the month of May!

We only had two non refundable hotels booked. The Marrakesh hotel was kind enough to refund our money. The Essaouria B&B gave us a credit that we will use.

Our plan is for independent travel. We expect to do some day or overnight tours into the Atlas mountains etc. We have reviewed a number of tours from Marrakesh and from Agadir that look interesting.

We have our Lonely Planet Moroccco book as a guide. As per normal we will sketch out a tentative sched but only book a few days in advance so that we can make changes as we go should we so wish.

Backup, just in case we need a change after three weeks is to fly to Spain, or train to Tangier, then ferry over to Spain. We have done this ferry route in the past.

 

[anethum]

We quickly learned in Spain that the nice restaurants were closed at 5pm, they usually open at 7pm for dinner. We had to make some alterations on our part.

I found that restaurants in Spain (and Argentina) typically don't open until 8pm or 8:30pm. They're open for lunch in Spain at least from 1pm-4pm. I altered my eating schedule, too. I sometimes bought something in a bakery in late morning, and then ate a late lunch, typically starting at 2:30pm or even later. I often wasn't hungry for anything in the evening but if I was, I'd get a drink in a bar and a tapa or I'd visit a bakery again.

What's the situation in Morocco since they had a big earthquake? Did rescue operations complete?

I know someone who attended an international conference in Marrakesh only a month after the earthquake and she said things were fine for visitors.