Spain advice needed

I'm hoping to make it to the Wild Weekend in Benidorm, Spain this year (Nov. 19-21)!

http://www.thezombiezoo.com/wwvtitle.html

An my tiki exploration of Spain is WAY overdue! But, I need a little help in planning. I have plenty of info on the tiki bars (and amusement parks!) in Spain from Tiki Road Trip, the Locating Tiki Forum (thanks esp. to Tiki Chris), Trader Woody's web page on Spain (http://www.traderwoody.iwarp.com/spain.html), City in Space (http://www.city-in-space.com/), and Critiki. What I would like to know is:

Can I possibly see all the tiki of Spain in 2 weeks? Should I attempt it? I plan on flying into and out of the same city - Barcelona or Madrid. I want to take trains to get around. Can one get to all the locations easily by public transportation?

After reading City in Space, and since there's 3 tiki bars there, I really would like to spend plenty of time in Barcelona. So perhaps 5 days there, 3 in Benidorm, 4 in Madrid, and with days for traveling from place to place that would be 2 weeks. Is that too much in 2 weeks? Should I bother making the detours to Trader Vic's Marbella, to Waikiki in Palma Del Rio, and to Moana Beach in Bilbao?

I do want to spend some time sightseeing and relaxing a bit also.

Any tips on vintage modern hotels and good restaurants?

1. Can I possibly see all the tiki of Spain in 2 weeks?

No, nor should you. Spain is pretty big & quite diverse. In my opinion, you’re best focusing on a couple of areas rather than mad dashing around. Your best bet may be to focus on a sort of Benidorm/Madrid/Barcelona triangle.

You may want to check out Valencia. I’ve a sneaking suspicion that there’s tiki there!

2. Barcelona: if just for the tiki, you could get a good feel in a longish weekend. If for the modern architecture, Gaudi, etc. the better part of a week would be better.

The Park Hotel (in Cities in Space), is a very funky, modern hotel near the barrio gotico, but it ain’t cheap.

3. Should I attempt it? I plan on flying into and out of the same city - Barcelona or Madrid. I want to take trains to get around. Can one get to all the locations easily by public transportation?

I usually rented cars when travelling in Spain, but I hear good things about long haul public transportation. City services (trains, metros, buses, cabs) are, in general, convenient & inexpensive. Transportation to/from airports/major cities is usually a breeze too.

4. Should I bother making the detours to Trader Vic's Marbella, to Waikiki in Palma Del Rio, and to Moana Beach in Bilbao?

Probably not. TV’s in Marbella is cool, but you’ve probably seen better (older) TV’s. Bilbao (neighboring city San Sebastian, & the Basque County) are incredible & definitely worth the visit (but I wouldn’t go just for tiki). Same goes for Palma del Rio.

5. Any tips on vintage modern hotels and good restaurants?

Feel free to email me for non-tiki advice. Spain’s got some of the best eats & sleeps anywhere!

[ Edited by: Tiki Chris on 2004-06-17 06:24 ]

I was just in Madrid to clinch the Spanish mug deal, and now am so thoroughly inspired that I am pushing forward with my Spanish Tiki book project entitled "Aloha Amigo".

My advice: A car in Madrid is more a hassle than a help, because of traffic and parking, cabs are cheap and plentiful. Nobody speaks English though! E-mail me...

Between cities a rental car might be better, I heard about bad and long train connections...then again, I cannot imagine the Madrid-Barcelona route not being the most travelled! But compare prices, some budget airline tickets are as cheap as train fares in Europe these days!

Madrid is great, but Barcelona is my fave, more atmospheric, and unrenovated, I would spend more time there. You also must visit the Bar Marsella, the oldest Absinth joint there.

My only experience is in Barcelona. This place is fun, although all I did was carve during daylight hours and hang out in the tourist area at night. Nicolas Pacielo is the owner of the Kahala, Nicolas took me to the " Casa Blava" for the best paella in all of Barcelona. It is outside of the city, but really ,really good ! If you go there I'll pass along an American tiki enthusiast's (he put's on the tiki party there)e-mail that lives there and y'all can meet up. He's Really nice and .... The Kahala is the best tiki bar there in my opinion because he is the only owner that has kept up his decor as well as added to it. Oh yeah ther is a cool MOD scene there too. Andrew know all about it. Let me know if I can give you any 411 besides this rambling of mine.

Gracias, amigos, for all the helpful advice. I'm even more excited about the trip! Now I have to learn to speak some Spanish in 6 months.

Phew, lots of good advice already!

My angle would be that you should arrive in Barcelona, spend at least 2 nights there checking out the best Tiki bars in Spain. If you have more time there, you'd be doing youself a favour as there's so much to see.

Travel by public transport is excellent, and if you have a couple of spare hours, the coach to Benidorm may be preferable to the train. In Benidorm, there are a couple of Tiki Bars, or at least there were 3 years ago. Not the best, but fun visits nontheless.

Then, you have a good few days to head to Madrid or elsewhere in Spain. You can certainly 'do' the Tiki bars there in two weeks, but I'm sure that you'll get so intoxicated by the country that you'll go off on some weird Spanish trip. It's happened to Tiki Chris and I.

Madrid is my favourite Spanish city so far as I love the people there. No, their English isn't as hot as Barcelona, but they are genuinely interested in you and don't try too hard. Over there, you pay for your whole evenings drinks at the end of the night, and we were flabbergasted by the times that the people we met paid for our whole evenings tab after talking to us for just an hour or so. As a result, I prefer the friendly Madrid-ites to the trendier Barcas.

I'll post later about the Wild Weekend - I may well be there myself....

Trader Woody

Jab - just bought my ticket to the Wild Weekend. We'll have to meet up.

Trader Woody

On 2004-06-17 14:24, Trader Woody wrote:
Jab - just bought my ticket to the Wild Weekend. We'll have to meet up.

Trader Woody

By all means! Hey, I should buy my ticket now too. Does it usually sell out?

It's sold out each year, and each time quicker than the last one, so it's well worth getting a ticket soonish. Then you've got months to plan your airfare around it. The ticket price doesn't go down, but the cost of the flights can go up and down radically. By getting tckets now, you can buy the airplane tickets at the right time.

Trader Woody

trader woody has good advice. however, you might want to save barcelona for last (& then save the kahala for your last bar). think about when you prefer your dessert: first or last?

tw is also 100% correct about "going off on weird spanish trips". i recommend reading Michener's IBERIA to help understand this phenomenom.

On 2004-06-17 14:50, Tiki Chris wrote:
trader woody has good advice. however, you might want to save barcelona for last (& then save the kahala for your last bar). think about when you prefer your dessert: first or last?

If I fly in and out of Barcelona (most likely) I can have it either way. The airfare is about the same from San Francisco to Barcelona as to Madrid.

Well if you go to Barca first, ypou've got the satisfaction of doing the prime Tiki spots first and the rest is gravy. On the other hand, you could leave the best 'til last and go out on a high.

Personally, I always assume the worst, and think that everything will go wrong, so I go for the mediocre first & assume they are the finest.

Trader Woody
PS - Jab - Buy tickets!

Another question:

Any hotel recommendations in Benidorm? The WW web site says that there's a big festival the same weekend there so book early. I checked Expedia and most hotels have no vacancies left. I contacted the booking agency in Spain that handles the 3 hotels that have the special WW rates, and i'm waiting to hear from them.

Jab,

I wouldn't get too worried. The whole town grew up in the 60's and 70's, catering to (mainly) Brits on vacation. There's a vast amount of accomodation, and November is the off-season. There's still some sun, so it's by no means dead, but hotels are plentiful and cheap.

I went to the Wild weekend 3, and had a room booked for a few days at a decent hotel which names escapes me. Anyway, I decided to turn up a day early, and got a room at the first hotel I visited in the old town. It's the sort of place that even if all the hotels were full, you could ask at a bar and they would organise accomodation for you.

If you have money to splash out, the Don Pancho is plush and full of great fake Aztec stuff. If they had gone for a Tiki theme rather than South American, it would have been a 7th wonder of the Tiki world. There are many many cheaper options, though.

Finally, I wouldn't get to worried about hotels not appearing on expedia and the like just yet, as they only tend to crop up once they realise they aren't going to sell the room themselves, and it's still 6 months away.

Trader Woody
PS, there's always a campsite!

TW - Thanks for the hotel advice. I won't worry about booking early.

I just bought my Wild Weekend ticket!

Great news! The hotel I stayed at was the Poseiden Playa, by the way. I'd stay there again.

Trader Woody

Hey Jab-

Good advice from all so far. I'll add that you should at least check out the possibility of flying into one city and out another - sometimes it's NOT more expensive.

Also, the train ride from Barcelona to Madrid is great. Spain's RENFE, the national train system, is usually wonderful. You even get free earphones for the music system (like an airplane's). By day, it's a total Clint Eastwood treat out the window, with gorgeous oceanscapes to boot. But, if you do it by night, DO get a sleeper car. The "seats that fully recline" are a joke: they do fully recline, but when they do, they touch the seat across! Fine if there are only 3 of you in the car, but if there are 6, you're gonna be smelling feet at your face!

Metros are wonderful and easy in both Madrid and Barcelona, but they close at 2:00 AM, at least on weekends, which I found out the hard way. (Maybe earlier on weekdays? Can't remember.) Buy a day-pass and go everywhere for dirt cheap. Forget the rental car, I say.

Yes, much better tiki in Barcelona than in Madrid, and I didn't even see the best - the Kahala. But DO NOT limit your trip to great Spanish tiki!!!! Barcelona's architecture is only beaten by Prague (in numbers of cool buildings), but as far as individual edifices, you will never find better than Gaudi's mind-blowing creations. Never. And don't even get me started on the museums.

I also HUGELY recommend Rick Steve's travel book, "Spain and Portugal." I was never mislead, and he told of the coolest, cheapest, most interesting everything! I am still enamored of my hostel in Madrid, super-close to the Tio Pepe sign in the Plaza del Sol, THE center of Madrid in terms of fall-into-fun-at-every-corner terms. I think it was The Veracruz II. Cheap, super-clean, super-convenient. Our 3 bed room came to $17 per person per night in 2000. No hour restrictions about coming in, private shower, maid service. How it was a hostel and not a hotel, i don't know! I guess that it didn't serve meals. Found it thanks to Senor Rick, as we came to call him and his great guidebook. There are much cheaper spots, even across the street, but those particular ones were over a disco, which Steves made clear. He really does give great advice.

Warning: The Euro is SO strong compared to the dollar now, so be prepared. It's pretty brutal. But you can still have a great time cheaply. Most lunches and dinners, we did the tapas (or "raciones") thing. Several yummy small dishes, until you're full, all while drinking cheap sangria or a cerveza. And it's true about the free drinks thing. Many times, I found that I paid for 1 outta every 4 drinks I drank! The bartenders will often buy your whole gang the next round, and then a round of shots. And maybe another. 'Course, I was with Spaniards, so that helps.

And remember that the tiki bars only take cash!!!! Bring enough!!!

Dang, now I wanna go!

jab and woody, I'm planning to do the festival too...I'll probably go a week there before the wild week end...
We'll have to have a drink together, at least.

one more thing about madrid ...

the mauna loa had a line almost completely around the saturday night we were there. you might want to go early!

Formikahini - Thanks for the great tips! Why don't you go too?!

I found plenty of hotels and apartments with rooms at this site: http://www.alpha-beds.com

[ Edited by: thejab on 2004-06-22 17:29 ]

On 2004-06-22 10:20, virani wrote:
jab and woody, I'm planning to do the festival too...I'll probably go a week there before the wild week end...
We'll have to have a drink together, at least.

Bloody hell, Virani, do you ever visit your house? :wink:
Yeah, we'll definitely have to meet up. My current plan is to fly into Barcelona, spend a couple of days there, then hit Benidorm. I'll e-mail those who are going closer to the time and keep the board free of "Meet you at 8:00 at the lounge"-style posts.

Tiki bars in Spain seem to be very quiet during the week, but are very popular, like Tiki Chris mentioned, at the weekends. This is great as it keeps them open & thriving, but Tikiphiles will enjoy the freedom and space to wander about and talk to the staff during the weekdays.

Trader Woody

On 2004-06-23 11:19, Trader Woody wrote:

On 2004-06-22 10:20, virani wrote:
jab and woody, I'm planning to do the festival too...I'll probably go a week there before the wild week end...
We'll have to have a drink together, at least.

Bloody hell, Virani, do you ever visit your house? :wink:
Yeah, we'll definitely have to meet up. My current plan is to fly into Barcelona, spend a couple of days there, then hit Benidorm. I'll e-mail those who are going closer to the time and keep the board free of "Meet you at 8:00 at the lounge"-style posts.

Tiki bars in Spain seem to be very quiet during the week, but are very popular, like Tiki Chris mentioned, at the weekends. This is great as it keeps them open & thriving, but Tikiphiles will enjoy the freedom and space to wander about and talk to the staff during the weekdays.

Trader Woody

Hey, what happens, I was supposed to reply...

Well, woody, my job is very BORING but it let me have about 55 days off a year !!!
And Paris is so-uncool that I don't like to stay here... :wink:
Well, except for this week end : http://www.loudmufflers.com

I would ditch Madrid and do a Barcelona, Valencia triangle. There IS Tiki in Valencia, and it's newer and slightly less tawdry than that in Barcelona.

Plan on spending most of your time in Barcelona between the Aloha bar, the Gaudi park and the barrio gotic.

Valencia has one street whose name I can't remember that is all tropical bars and hip clubs. I would probably remember the name of the street if it weren't for the copious amounts of Medellin rum I ingested along the way (10 euros a shot, but well worth it).

Away from tiki a bit I know, but in Barcelona you should also check out the Barcelona Pavillion if you're into modern Architecture/Bauhaus style, its all based around the perfect rectangle.
Also, and I don't know if its still there as I haven't been for a while, but there's a bar themed on the film 'Blue Velvet' that is ultra cool if you can find it.

Don't know if anyone mentioned this, and I'm too far gone to read thru the thread ... starting early today! I found this awhile ago, and the Spaintiki thing kinda jogged my memory.

http://www.city-in-space.com/locations/home.asp?SUBCAT=5&LNG=en

Cheers!

I've just added a post about the Wild Weekend here:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=9961&forum=4&0

It might be a good place to discuss places & times to meet up, etc.

Trader Woody