With last Thursday being Thanksgiving in the U.S., we decided to take advantage of the holiday by taking a day trip from Alicante to Albacete — about an hour away by train, halfway between here and Madrid.

To be completely honest, Albacete is a city I’d never really heard of and never really thought about. Even when you search Google Images for pictures of Albacete, most of the photos are of picturesque pueblos in the surrounding areas. But something about its somewhat forgotten status, along with the fact that it seems to be a place you pass through on the way to other places, gave me the idea that it might be something like the American Midwest. Flyover country, as we often hear.

Those of us from the Midwest, though, know that it’s full of hidden gems and places waiting to be discovered, if only people were to give them a chance. So… is Albacete worth visiting? Keep reading for my verdict. [Read more…]

If you’ve ever done a Google Images search for “Barcelona,” then you’ve undoubtedly seen the picture: a spiky-looking cathedral perched on a hill, a golden statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched, Rio-de-Janeiro style, balanced on top.

With this in mind, you couldn’t be blamed for assuming this is one of Barcelona’s most important icons. (Last year when I had a countdown to a Barcelona trip on my phone, even I was suckered in to selecting a photo of this church to go along with the countdown, despite knowing nothing about it. The photo was so pretty though, and the sunset made it extra dramatic.)

But the truth is that this church isn’t one of Barcelona’s most famous, and most visitors to the city never actually venture out to see it. I’d been to Barcelona four or five times and knew this church existed but had no idea what it was called or how to get there. Until our most recent visit, when we had a free day, and I decided I was finally going to figure it out. [Read more…]

While I’ve been to Barcelona about four or five times now, my most recent visit was extra special — Matt and I got married in the countryside of Catalonia, and our families were in town with us in Barcelona for a few days! Not long after meeting up with my parents, my mom mentioned that she wanted to visit Montserrat, but she couldn’t figure out the best way to get there. After a little bit of research, we decided to book a Barcelona to Montserrat tour that also included tapas and wine tasting.

So the next morning, we set off on our excursion from Barcelona — and we had such a good day and learned so much! Here’s exactly what our day looked like, if you’re interested in the same Barcelona to Montserrat tour. [Read more…]

If you’ve recently arrived in Spain for your holiday in Benidorm, you may have noticed that Benidorm doesn’t have its own airport — instead, you flew into Alicante. While you likely hopped on a bus or grabbed a taxi up to Benidorm, Alicante has plenty to see and do as well! So if you’re interested in doing a bit of exploring, here’s what you need to know about taking a day trip from Benidorm to Alicante. [Read more…]

When I lived in Madrid, one of my favorite things to do when I had a free weekend was take a day trip from Madrid to another city. Now that we’re based in Alicante, we want to do the same thing! A few weeks ago we spent an afternoon in Elche, and last week we finally visited the city of Murcia.

Here’s what you need to know about taking a day trip from Alicante to Murcia. [Read more…]

Traveling by train is one of my favorite things about living in Spain. I feel like I must have done it 100 times by now. But on my most recent trip between Alicante and Madrid, I had a brand new experience: Rather than traveling with Renfe, Spain’s national rail operator, I tried a competitor called Ouigo.

Ouigo is a French rail company, and it entered the Spanish market in March 2021. Up until that point, Renfe had a complete monopoly on the high-speed rail market in Spain. So considering that I moved back to the U.S. in 2020, it makes sense that I didn’t have a chance to try Ouigo until recently. In fact, I had never even heard of it — and I’d also never heard of the other new Renfe competitor, Iryo.

So, here’s my Ouigo train review of what it was like to travel round-trip between Madrid and Alicante. [Read more…]