12/27/15
… The first step to booking the trip was searching for plane fares. I had flown in and out of Madrid before so I was hoping to find a different city to make my entry point. I knew I wanted to take a ferry from Spain to Morocco, and I wanted to visit my dad in Abq and Mom in NY. Other than that my dates and destinations were flexible. I was looking at multiple destinations to determine the best prices. I use a few different sites for researching airfare, but the best one for me has been Google Flights. Simply type where you’re going into a google search bar and follow the links. They make it easy to see the prices for multiple destinations on a map and the monthly calendar with rates is awesome. I also check Skiplagged and Skyscanner.
I found a good deal on a ticket to Lisbon through London, but I have never been to London. To make a long story short, I ended up buying a round trip NY to London and a cheap ticket from London to Lisbon. Then I looked at flights out of Morocco, determined that Marrakech had the best deals and got a cheap one to London. (The “cheap” flights were on Easyjet/Ryanair) I eventually purchased a flight from Cali to ABQ to begin my journey, and have tickets from mom for ABQ to NY and NY to Cali on the way.
The first few days of my last trip in Madrid were a little stressful. I think it was a combo of jetlag and plane germs but I was not feeling well at all and my Spanish wasn’t as good as I thought so getting help was difficult. This time I will land in London and take a few days to acclimate in a place that speaks my language before moving onto Lisbon and the rest. Lisbon was an unplanned and thoroughly enjoyed stop on my first trip, so I figured that would be a great way to begin my travels to the southern coast of Spain to catch the ferry.
Rather quickly I set in my mind the plan to travel from Lisbon down to southern Portugal, then across into Spain through the Andalucía region using a combo of trains, buses, and car shares. Staying mostly in cheap hostels with a few nicer places along the way for respite. The only real change to that plan has been to make a stop in Porto in northern Portugal after Lisbon, before flying down south.
So from Thanksgiving to Christmas I have been busy booking beds, rooms, coastal retreats, tents, and caves to sleep in across my trip. Although I enjoy traveling without an agenda, I wanted to see what it would be like to book and arrange as much as possible beforehand. Transport doesn’t get booked too far in advance, but schedules need to be considered when making plans to get from one town to the next. For finding the best transport options I have been using Rome2rio. I mainly go to Hostelworld and Booking dot com for booking hostels and rooms, cross referencing Tripadvisor and always checking the hotel’s website to find a better deal. And I have the Lonely Planet books which has helped some.
I won’t bore you with a complete rundown of these bookings, but I am most excited about some of the more exotic stays. There’s a retreat on Cape Sagres which is the southwestern most point of Europe with a room overlooking the ocean. In Morocco I have arranged to stay in a tent in the Sahara desert by way of a camel, and I will be staying in a cave at an eco-auberge.
As of this morning I only have the last 3 nights still to book and I am trying to decide if it will be 3 nights in Marrakech, or if I will somehow squeeze in Essouaria one of those nights. Then I am looking to book a car rental in Portugal for a few days (another post of it’s own) and maybe some train tickets for Spain
More to come I’m sure.
