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The Detour

Barcelona is the second-largest city in Spain and the capital of Catalonia. Its name will likely conjure up images of uniquely gothic architecture, ferocious football matches, and sun-soaked sandy beaches.
While it&rsquo;s one of the most visited destinations in Europe, you can&rsquo;t ignore that it&rsquo;s also beginning to appear more frequently in headlines due to the impact of tourism.&nbsp;
Over the years, many of our JFC team have visited Barcelona, and a few have even called it home, so we&rsquo;re in a good place to tell you what&rsquo;s what in the city. While we&rsquo;ll be sharing our own tips along with those from other members who have visited, our aim is to provide you with unbiased information to help you make decisions about your own visit. 
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXft0qZkbLGcrC15ev0zP0lvqWh2Nyw0DkpTmiyo4OY5D74j6kpXrkV7Gnh8YtpF4dReNAr_1y8V3fMbfha_5wbwT8qS8Cko5p1FUkM4UVubyJMoSA4Wm7XFLY71pw30vQSdDDl28A?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="383" height="383" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
A quick note on the links in this guide:&nbsp;we&rsquo;re not affiliated with any external sites we&rsquo;ve chosen to include, so we&rsquo;re not getting any freebies or commission. We&rsquo;ve only included resources we think will genuinely be useful to help you make a decision on whether this destination is for you. 
<div style="background: #f9f9f9 none repeat scroll 0 0; border: 1px solid #aaa; display: table; font-size: 95%; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 20px; width: auto;">
Quick Reference
<ul>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_91728132448191746012977970">Pre-trip preparation</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_69043587276271746014344740">Cash and currency</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_40104367382501746014602254">Barcelona by season</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_18931801887541746014710373">Getting around Barcelona</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_74168563490791746014762544">Internet and cell service in Barcelona</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_75080099893511746014805881">Travel style</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_26392595142371746019307363">Area Guides</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_70297290447181746019584290">Markets in Barcelona</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_89286655052771746023733338">Recommended links</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_13715699555981746023771632">Barcelona food</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_63417743858831746023832209">Festivals and events in Barcelona</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_18322787361731746023870310">Gaud&iacute; buildings in Barcelona</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_96763719164391746023915429">Parks in Barcelona</a></li>
<li style="list-style: outside none none !important;"><a href="jfcs-guide-to-barcelona#h_49319333067281746023984952">Barcelona day trips</a></li>
</ul>
</div>

<h2 dir="ltr" id="h_91728132448191746012977970">Pre-trip preparation</h2>
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Visas</h3>
Due to being in the Schengen zone, visas here are fairly simple for most travelers:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">If you&rsquo;re travelling on an EU, or Swiss passport, you won&rsquo;t need a visa at all.&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">If you&rsquo;re travelling on a UK, US or Canadian passport, you can travel visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period at the time of writing. E-visas will soon be introduced for travelers from these regions (the planned start date is mid-2025), you&rsquo;ll find more info about this on the ETIAS website <a href="https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias_en">here</a>.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">For travelers with any other passports, you can find some more in depth information <a href="https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen-borders-and-visa/visa-policy/applying-schengen-visa_en#who-needs-to-apply-for-a-schengen-visa">here</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 dir="ltr">Vaccines and Medication</h3>
Disclaimer: We aren't medical experts, so always check which medications and vaccines are recommended by your local healthcare service before travelling. Here are a few links to get you started:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">UK: <a href="https://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/destinations">NHS Fit for Travel</a></li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">EU: <a href="https://consular-protection.ec.europa.eu/travel-advice_en">Travel Advice for EU citizens</a></li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">USA: <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/list">CDC Travelers' Health</a></li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Canada: <a href="https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories">Canada.ca Travel Advice</a></li>
</ul>
Most travelers are unlikely to need any vaccinations before heading to Barcelona, but you may want to pack some more general items such as anti-histamines, painkillers etc. just in case they&rsquo;re needed during your trip.

<h3 dir="ltr">Other Essentials&nbsp;</h3>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Sunscreen &mdash;&nbsp;In peak summer, you&rsquo;ll experience around <a href="https://thespiritedexplorer.com/summer-in-barcelona-survival-guide/#:~:text=Sun%20protection%20is%20key.">10+ hrs of sunshine per day,</a> with high-level UV rays to match, so you&rsquo;ll need some SPF 50+ to avoid any nasty burns.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Mosquito repellent &mdash; A high-level DEET repellent (at least 50%)</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Any higher % DEET typically only increases how long it&rsquo;ll be effective for, rather than offering &lsquo;better&rsquo; protection from biting insects. Applying a 50% DEET should last you 10&ndash;12 hours.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">FYI, when you wear sunscreen and DEET repellent together, it can limit the sun protection of your sunscreen, so give it 30 minutes after you&rsquo;ve applied your sunscreen (or until it&rsquo;s fully absorbed) before spraying your repellent.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3 dir="ltr">Clothing&nbsp;</h3>
Barcelona is generally a very relaxed city, where you can dress how you would at home. As with many historical European cities, roads can be steep, uneven, and cobblestoned in places, so you&rsquo;ll need a sturdy pair of shoes. A cross-body bag or waist bag will also be useful for storing metro passes and phones, while discouraging pickpockets. A wrist strap for your phone will also be useful if you need to use your mobile on the go.
On the beach, people wear swimsuits, bikinis, go topless and occasionally ditch clothes altogether. But before you decide to bathe in your birthday suit, make sure to<a href="https://www.foreverbarcelona.com/best-barcelona-city-beaches-area-guide/"> research the beach you're on</a>, as not all are nudist-friendly.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdEpQrdRBeD91zs8pLVIsjt-PRLCyAF1RYjYaaw0DnmCltqs3R5iRuqgG2BCtVeMGSlFVJmdD0vuL8T-3Oszh_X7hACuPyvLl9O9zfW-HNX-h_8KYvhF9teHWwo1Rbko8eTAOCXuA?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="387" height="387" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h2 dir="ltr" id="h_69043587276271746014344740">Cash and currency</h2>
Local currency: The euro (&euro;)
The majority of bars, caf&eacute;s, restaurants, and shops will all accept both card and cash payments. To avoid the eyes of pickpockets, we&rsquo;d recommend only bringing a limited amount of cash for small purchases and tips, and paying by card for everything else.

<h3 dir="ltr">ATMs</h3>
Although you&rsquo;ll find plenty of ATMs throughout the city, they mostly add pricey fees on top of your withdrawal (a classic trick throughout Europe!). If you need to withdraw cash, try finding an ATM outside the main touristy areas, or ask your hotel for their recommendation. Any Santander customer with an account from any country will be able to get free withdrawals at a Santander ATM. You can read more information on withdrawal fees&nbsp;<a href="https://www.monito.com/en/wiki/atms-in-spain#atm-fees">in this ATM guide</a>.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Tipping</h3>
Tipping in Barcelona is not expected, but it would be appreciated if you experience good service and feel inclined to do so. 10% is an appropriate amount, but check your receipt first to see if a service charge has already been included in the final bill, and you don&rsquo;t have a nasty surprise. You can read a more thorough guide to tipping culture in Spain&nbsp;<a href="https://thespaintravelguru.com/do-you-tip-in-spain/">here</a>.

<h2 id="h_40104367382501746014602254">Seasonality</h2>

Barcelona's seasons are what you'd expect from any Mediterranean city &mdash; hot summers, mild-to-cool winters, and it&rsquo;s very rare to need to worry about anything extreme.
Barcelona is popular with tourists year-round, with peak summer (unsurprisingly) being the busiest time. Here&rsquo;s what you can expect from each season to help you make your plans:
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Winter (December-February)</h3>
Winters there are fairly mild, with temperatures averaging around 8&ordm;&ndash;15&ordm; degrees. Snow is very rare, so no need to pack for the white stuff.&nbsp;
There are fewer crowds roaming the streets, and you&rsquo;ll find accommodation and activities quite a bit cheaper than during the summer months. It&rsquo;s also a great time to go see the popular sites because they&rsquo;re not too busy.&nbsp;
But the true highlights of visiting in winter are the festive atmosphere of the <a href="https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/events/christmas/barcelona-christmas-markets.html">Christmas markets</a> in December and the <a href="https://irbarcelona.org/christmas-barcelona/three-kings-day/">Three Kings Parade</a> in January.&nbsp;
And best of all, the food! The city&rsquo;s favorite festive treat, homemade turr&oacute;n, will have hit the shelves (<a href="https://barcelona-top-travel-tips.com/handmade-turron/">here</a>&rsquo;s where you&rsquo;ll find some of the best), and grabbing a warming bowl of <a href="https://www.catalego.net/post/escudella-nadal">escudella i carn d&rsquo;olla</a> (aka, a festive dish of meats and vegetables in a yummy broth) is hard to beat if you ask us.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Spring (March-May)</h3>
At this time of year, it&rsquo;s a little warmer and the flowers are blooming all over the city, so it&rsquo;s a great time to go wandering through the parks and gardens. And towards the end of May, it&rsquo;ll be time to hit the beaches again, ahead of the summer crowds.
You&rsquo;ll also catch some great festivals that happen during these months, such as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/events/easter/easter-weekend-barcelona.html">annual Easter festivities</a>, and Sant Jordi Day, where the streets are filled with stalls selling books and red roses. It&rsquo;s their version of Valentine&rsquo;s Day!
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeXCx_FaG_xcB2Q-HieA-57Jkgr5qDln1AgvYOMlG1ELYWJClGO8VsgsH3QaVj3wF0J1rfIAoJgvVW73ElKY5trOARLLaAsv-kAwgILoRzXECsqtcSi2WGYa-apb0LR1w_wWrGC-g?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="386" height="386" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">Summer (June-August)</h3>
The hot summer sun comes out, and so do the crowds!
Temperatures can reach upwards of 35℃/85℉ at the height of summer. Luckily, lots of accommodation in the city has air conditioning, but when you&rsquo;re out and about, it&rsquo;s worth carrying a hand fan and stopping off for some icy gelato to cool you down&mdash;we&rsquo;ve heard&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g187497-d2703063-r963496904-Farggi-Barcelona_Catalonia.html">Farggi</a> sells some of the best!
As you&rsquo;d expect, this is also an ideal time to take a day trip to one of the smaller cities and towns nearby, which won&rsquo;t have nearly as many tourists visiting at this time compared to Barcelona. You&rsquo;ll find our suggestions below in the &lsquo;Day Trips&rsquo; section.
For some more in depth info, have a look through&nbsp;<a href="https://thespiritedexplorer.com/summer-in-barcelona-survival-guide/">this summer in Barcelona survival guide</a>&mdash;don&rsquo;t worry, it&rsquo;s not as dramatic as it sounds!
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Autumn (September-November)</h3>
The weather is much more comfortable at this time of year, without the summer heat or winter chill.
This is a great time to try nearby hiking routes, like the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.walkmyworld.com/posts/hiking-montserrat">village of Monserrat</a>, which is surrounded by mountains. Best of all, most of the crowds will have left by October, so you may even have the trails to yourself.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeCQCYysV5Ej2HhS3gsO90Yn1qK1XxwKl_e7hGGr0iXDnFb5jBiaYssLCfusVA5oHx9tD8ZseuPGDF6zSixC8u6pyIOcTNRy0MRe9u56MzxoYEq93u8AJnwGW7jrthgVdXd9IFZzA?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="386" height="386" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

You&rsquo;ll also see the city&rsquo;s parks and streets taken over by fiery red and orange leaves, and there are lots of places nearby where you can go and see the beautiful colors&mdash;find some of the best spots <a href="https://unexpectedcatalonia.com/autumn-colours-near-barcelona/">here</a>.
And if you&rsquo;re still craving some sea and sand, you&rsquo;ll still be able to squeeze in a few more beach days before the winter truly sets in.
Note: If you&rsquo;d like some more in depth month-by-month info, have a look through <a href="https://www.bcn.travel/barcelona-weather-by-month/">this guide</a> to the city&rsquo;s weather.

<h2 id="h_18931801887541746014710373">Transportation</h2>

<h3>How to get to Barcelona</h3>
You can get to Barcelona by air, sea, train, or car.
&nbsp;
By air
Barcelona&rsquo;s airport (BCN) has over 200 non-stop routes from cities across the world. Here are the JFC stats for cheap flights to Barcelona we&rsquo;ve seen from Europe, UK, the USA and Canada.
From Europe:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average price: &euro;60 rtn</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 12+</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: &euro;26 rtn</li>
</ul>
From the UK:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average price: &pound;50 rtn</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 12+</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: &pound;26 rtn</li>
</ul>
From the USA:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average price: $350 RT</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 10</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: $207 RT</li>
</ul>
From Canada:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average price: $710 RT</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 10</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: $548 RT </li>
</ul>

Pro tip: Look out for flights with Iberia from the USA and Ryanair from the UK/Europe, as these airlines offer some of the cheapest fares.

By sea
Barcelona has a major cruise ship port, which docks ships from the UK, Europe, and the USA. There are 7 terminals at the port, and the closest one to La Rambla is a 15-minute walk away. If you arrive at one of the far-away terminals, you can catch the blue cruise shuttle bus for around &euro;3 one way. This will drop you off at the World Trade Centre, which is also a 15-minute walk from La Rambla.
From there, you can easily access the rest of the city with nearby bus stops and the Drassanes metro station.
&nbsp;
By train&nbsp;
High-speed double-decker trains link Paris Gare de Lyon station and Barcelona Sants station&nbsp; multiple times a day and take around 6.5 hours. If you book tickets in advance, they can be as low as &euro;45. Be careful, though, as last-minute tickets can be priced over &euro;100.
Multiple train companies offer direct routes from Madrid to Barcelona throughout the day. On a high-speed service like Ouigo or Iryo, the journey can take as little as 2 hours 30 minutes.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdfuowD91df--GK2imZxhjXMmN4Rwun4CP85ydNd1hvyS2ZsKQhI7Ce3rhZspfSOoyiazRT7vrtUFaXiHx4MmbFP0ho10cEwCsgOsMPA-2QoswzKGU1FT7wQuNxbCuVLF0L4ZgZ?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="387" height="387" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">Transportation</h3>

From the airport
The easiest way to get from the airport to the city center is to jump on the Aerobus. The bus stop outside both terminals is clearly signposted, and you can<a href="https://aerobusbarcelona.es/where-can-i-buy-the-aerobus-ticket/?lang=en"> buy tickets from the driver or online in advance</a>. They&rsquo;ll set you back &euro;7.20 for a single trip or &euro;12.50 for a return, and you can pay by either cash or card. It takes around 30 minutes and stops at 3 places: Plaza de Espanya, Gran Via-Urgell, Plaza de la Universitat. 
The cheapest option to get into the city is to take the metro, which also takes around 30-minutes and costs &euro;5.50. But there isn&rsquo;t a direct line downtown, so you&rsquo;ll need to change at either Torrassa or Collblanc, depending on where you want to go.
You can also catch a yellow taxi to the city center from the taxi rank outside the Arrivals area at both terminals. The price should be around &euro;40.
&nbsp;
Travel cards
There are 2 main travel card options for tourists: the T-Casual card and the HolaBCN card. The T-Casual card is a set price for 10 journeys and can be used on the city metro and buses, but you can&rsquo;t use it to reach the airport. The Hola BCN card is pricier but can be used for an unlimited number of journeys on the metro, buses and to reach the airport. You can<a href="https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/faq/barcelona-card/barcelona-card-vs-t-casual-ticket.html"> read more about both cards here</a>.

Metro
Barcelona has a clean, safe and punctual metro service with 11 lines and plenty of stations across the city. It typically runs between 05:00 AM - midnight, although these hours are extended during peak times such as national holidays. You can find ticket machines at all station entrances, and they accept both cash and card payments. The metro stations are easy to navigate, with many signs displaying the stops along each line. You can also use Google Maps to figure out the quickest route between stations.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdgzHT6W82FJeO7qSbzKQNB4IX7VivTZb7JEWibki9URwOsWcv2UVv6eWFxkhSRrttfa-QmBjVqUkTlH5xCFSdadMrNCvRsD8ZyoEwLvMNVk_REPvL33al-Ww9DMlc_lsLMkZoKSA?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="388" height="388">

Taxis &amp; ride-sharing apps
Ride-sharing apps like Uber and Bolt are available in Barcelona, but their service is limited.
Licensed taxis are usually the easiest and safest option. You can easily recognize a licensed taxi by:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">The yellow and black exterior&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Taxi sign on top of the car</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Identity card of the taxi driver in the front window</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Taxi meter on the dashboard</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
Bikes
Cycling is a great way to move around the city, especially during the summer when the metro gets busy and stuffy. There&rsquo;s over 200 kilometres of clearly marked cycle lanes across Barcelona. Most of the paths are fairly flat and easily rideable, although there are steeper areas like Montjuic, in case you are looking for a trickier terrain.
You may notice rows of red bikes dotted around the city, branded with the word &lsquo;Bicing&rsquo;. Sadly, these aren&rsquo;t available to tourists because you need a proof of residency to unlock them. There are, however, plenty of rental shops, like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.barcelonarentabike.com/en/">Barcelona Rent A Bike</a>, which also offers cycle tours of the city.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdcDqs7F4_6hhOTruHViosHvQWTTHHOqmDEFWlTb7E_RjPF3-Krn7bTsE4x_uFhlZQlIAPp1pPIoeNxHW6S2pxAZA_GITFZE4ySjsP8OqzySCURNSQgh_-MkUUVeK2-SApWU3M?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="386" height="386" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h2 dir="ltr" id="h_74168563490791746014762544">Internet and Cell Service</h2>
Wi-Fi and cell service are reliable and fast across Barcelona, including when you&rsquo;re riding most metro lines.
<h3 dir="ltr">Cell service and mobile data</h3>
The main cell service providers are Movistar, Orange, and Vodafone. You should be able to get a 4G/5G connection everywhere in the city.
If your phone doesn't support an <a href="https://www.mappingmegan.com/international-esim-card-vs-traditional-sim-cards-for-tourists-comparison/">eSIM</a>, you can buy a physical SIM card from Barcelona airport, supermarkets, electronic/mobile stores and tourist information centers. Orange offers one of the cheapest cards with the most amount of data. Buying one at the airport will likely cost you the most, so if you are able, try to buy one once you are in the city.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Wi-Fi</h3>
Free Wi-Fi is available in several places across the city, such as:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Barcelona Airport</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Public parks</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Libraries</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Shopping malls</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Tourist information centers</li>
</ul>
<h3 dir="ltr">Remote working from Spain</h3>
Barcelona is a very popular city for remote working and digital nomads. You can expect to reach internet speeds of 80-100mb download/13-16mb upload.
You can find <a href="https://thespaces.com/best-barcelona-coworking-spaces/">many stylish co-working spaces</a> dotted around the city, offering everything from hourly passes to monthly memberships. Most caf&eacute;s are also happy to let you work on your laptop for a while, as long as you buy something to eat and drink every so often. It&rsquo;s worth asking at the counter to make sure before you set yourself up.&nbsp;

<h2 id="h_75080099893511746014805881">Travel style</h2>

Barcelona is a safe and easy city to visit, as long as you&rsquo;re mindful of pickpockets and scammers. Its unusual stand-out architecture, engaging museums, city beaches and (usually) pleasant weather, help the city appeal to most people.
In particular, solo travelers will appreciate the easy-to-navigate public transport system, the budget-friendly accommodation options and the&nbsp;<a href="https://freewalkingtoursbarcelona.com/">many social activities you can join</a>, such as walking tours or cooking classes.
It&rsquo;s also relatively easy to keep children entertained with heaps of <a href="https://runnerbeantours.com/barcelona-with-kids-the-complete-guide/#:~:text=Is%20Barcelona%20child%2Dfriendly%3F,get%20grumpy%2C%20tired%20and%20rebel.">child-friendly attractions</a> and exciting family-friendly festivals.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfyAPVfFRau72QcVDpFb50PFhsXoPNsjz0ZZuAC917OGOgI9fOm0FJIuP1HWw4F0c7rVkYcMc4YgcqrSJuJbUmtBHB9H-P4dWMegaaKAz9LhAclPIN97qENArmuIT3-fFM6HNqE0A?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="387" height="387">

<h3 dir="ltr">Getting by</h3>

Barcelona is a very tourist-oriented city, so there are a lot of signs in English pointing visitors in the direction of popular attractions.&nbsp;
Flight Finder Lauren says:
&ldquo;Many locals also speak English and are usually very friendly, so don&rsquo;t be afraid to ask for directions &mdash; I certainly did in my first month here, and everyone I spoke to was very patient and willing to help."
Locals would likely appreciate you learning some keywords in their language, but we should emphasize that Catalan is often preferred over Spanish:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Hello: hola (oh-la)</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Goodbye: adeu (ah-dyo)</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Good morning: bon die (bon dee-yah)</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Please: si us plau (si oos plow), per favor (per fah-vor)</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Thank you: merci (mer-si)</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">I&rsquo;m sorry: perdo (per-doh)</li>
</ul>
Occasionally, marches have been held in the city center protesting for stricter tourist regulations. Opinions on over-tourism in the city are varied, with a portion seeing the growing number of tourists as a negative. Despite this, many locals still appreciate visitors, so as long as you are respectful, you should not face problems during your stay.
 Travel tip: Shopping local is always the best way to go, rather than putting more money into the big chains. If you look close enough, you&rsquo;ll notice that some of the oldest independent businesses in Barcelona are marked with a commemorative floor plaque outside the shopfront. It makes for a fun treasure hunt to spot them while walking the streets, plus you get the chance to buy some unique souvenirs while supporting local businesses, it&rsquo;s a win-win. One of our favourites has to be <a href="https://www.google.com/maps?q=Cereria+Subir%C3%A0">this stunning candle shop</a> that was founded in 1761!
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXemJyXBlxc5BKGAu_d0LKVfuXXKOIwYB2ka94GluNMOZAEty_2NuSZf0QXQWuRo5UR-Vgl7MX2lAs9ABi10euNxqTe7jWj9u3l1i6KPCH8fqN6ZxdEIFOLprNCHLpjrJ0uN2vpw6w?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="388" height="388" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">Pickpockets and common scams</h3>

You&rsquo;ll probably have heard that Barcelona is one of the worst cities in the world for pickpocketing. And there is some truth to it, since it&rsquo;s the most common crime that tourists will experience. But if you keep your wits about you, you can avoid becoming a target. Firstly, keep all valuables out of sight, with your phone/wallet in a secure bag that you can close, and do not leave that bag unattended. If you're wearing a backpack/cross body/shoulder bag, it will be safer to wear it on your front in crowded places such as the metro.&nbsp; 
Alongside solo pickpocketers, criminals often work in organized groups that will use distraction techniques to try to steal from you. This might look like:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">A person asking for the time&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">A confused &lsquo;tourist&rsquo; asking for directions</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">A salesman trying to sell you a tour</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">A student doing a survey&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Essentially, be mindful of strangers trying to talk to you on the street. If you do talk to someone, keep your hands on your bag.&nbsp;
The most common areas for pickpocketing are popular tourist spots, like along La Rambla and outside La Sagrada Fam&iacute;lia.
&nbsp;In these areas, you may also notice people dressed up as clowns or mimes. They will regularly attempt to stand in the background of your photos and then persistently ask you for a tip, so try to avoid them if possible. If they begin to hassle you, just say a firm &lsquo;no&rsquo; and walk away.
You may also come across fake tour operators attempting to sell you tickets to popular attractions like Park G&uuml;ell or Sagrada Fam&iacute;lia. Both of these places have a limited number of entries per day and often sell out weeks in advance, so you won&rsquo;t be able to buy valid tickets on the street the day of your visit. Instead, make sure you buy tickets from the official websites early to avoid disappointment.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">LGBTQ+&nbsp;</h3>
Barcelona is a safe and inclusive city for members of the LGBTQ+ community to visit. Public attitudes are more supportive, and you can find many <a href="https://www.queereurope.com/gay-guide-to-barcelona/">LGBTQ bars throughout the city</a> (particularly in the Eixample district, like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/candydarlingbar/?hl=en">Candy Darling</a> pictured below), along with pride parades during the summer. You&rsquo;ll also find a <a href="https://www.barcelona.cat/internationalwelcome/en/activites/discover-barcelona-lgtbi-centre-0">LGBTQI+ centre</a> located in the Sant Antoni neighborhood, which you can visit for support, recommendations and social events.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdFX8_94_8p7NAhL_19laaTZpWWsa58gf4TJR-a3DMzmo7hTPBYPql7Il3Vi3WpMDupDaswEXRfJY-tcXgeut9PYszZxt3swxOns1RCBOrkpR4JBPCRb4m6eOkqyIPgYUZEKI9a?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="387" height="387" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">Female Solo Travelers</h3>

Thanks to its well-lit, walkable streets, low rate of violent crime, and reliable public transport system, Barcelona is a popular choice for solo female visitors.&nbsp;
In terms of accommodation, we&rsquo;d avoid built-up neighborhoods with narrow alleys, like El Ravel or Born, and instead choose more open areas like Eixample or Gracia. For more advice on visiting the city as a solo female traveler, <a href="https://barcelonauncovered.com/is-barcelona-safe-for-solo-female-travelers/">have a read of this guide</a>. 
Travel tip: <a href="https://almas-libres.org/">A</a><a href="https://almas-libres.org/">lmas Libres</a> is a female-run organization that facilitates events and sporting activities for women in Barcelona. They run various meet-ups every week, which you can join as a one off to learn a new skill and meet other women.

<h2 dir="ltr" id="h_26392595142371746019307363">Area Guide</h2>

Barcelona is split up into several districts and neighborhoods, each with its own unique charm, distinct architecture and tasty tapas restaurants. Below, we&rsquo;ve listed our favorite neighborhoods to give you a better idea of where to stay that&rsquo;ll suit you best.

<h3 dir="ltr"><a href="https://thetravelhack.com/europe/spain/locals-guide-barcelonas-gothic-quarter/">Gothic Quarter</a></h3>
This neighborhood is the oldest, yet still very much beating heart of Barcelona. Every corner you turn through the maze-like cobbled streets, you&rsquo;ll find charming courtyards, quaint churches and medieval architecture.&nbsp;
Your prize for successfully navigating the winding labyrinth is the grand Cathedral de Barcelona, tucked away in the very center. Its cool cloisters provide much-needed relief on hot summer days, but you&rsquo;ll need to <a href="https://tickets.catedralbcn.org/en">book entry tickets</a> in advance. Just steps from the Cathedral, down another unassuming street, you&rsquo;ll come across &lsquo;The World Begins With Every Kiss&rdquo; mural made up of tiny personal photos, pictured below.
Along with being within walking distance of many tourist attractions, the Gothic Quarter is also home to 2 metro stations (Liceu on the green line and Jaume I on the yellow line) giving you easy access to the rest of the city.
Given its central location with plenty of bars, restaurants, shops, and accommodation options, it&rsquo;s a popular pick for visitors. Hotels do sway on the pricier side here compared to other areas in the city, so if you want to stay in the midst of the action, we&rsquo;d advise booking ASAP to get the best price. And be prepared to share the narrow streets with a lot of other visitors during peak seasons.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXefExiFbWdOEvcKlOlnTGn5r2E9fgcpwE6tT_Cc9zx44rTxYbfJd-LrZ4DIFpUS6YtAOarZuvHTzLjcKxKfxnism-PBHSo_kXn1r5a4mgVCCVrDgMyNYOodATkVKBuvbeMQnfGxGA?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="319" height="422" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr"><a href="https://barcelonahacks.com/las-ramblas-barcelona/">La Rambla</a></h3>
Although it&rsquo;s not a neighborhood, we&rsquo;ll highlight this iconic street here, since it borders the above-mentioned Gothic Quarter and El-Ravel (see below).
Arguably the most famous walkway in the city, the tree-lined pedestrian-only boulevard runs 1.2 km from Pla&ccedil;a de Cantalunya all the way to the Christopher Columbus Monument near the waterfront.
Walk from end to end, you&rsquo;ll come across restaurants, big-name hotels, kiosks, artists and street performers&mdash;the quality of which are debatable. Some see the street as one long tourist trap, but for others it&rsquo;s an energetic epicenter of people watching.
Besides the potential for pickpockets, it is actually a safe place to wander around during the daytime. Just be careful at night, when the atmosphere can become a little more unpredictable as the tourist crowds thin out, and the party-goers come out to play.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.tatacheers.com/travel/el-raval/">El Ravel</a></h3>
Walk from the Gothic Quarter directly across La Rambla, and you&rsquo;ll enter the Ravel. If you&rsquo;ve ever seen a photo of long narrow Barcelona streets with high buildings and cute traditional flower-filled balconies, there&rsquo;s a good chance it was taken here. Known for its it&rsquo;international communities and surprisingly cheap accommodation for it&rsquo;s central location, it&rsquo;s a popular choice for budget backpackers.
By day, pay a visit to MACBA&mdash;a modern art museum with an outdoor plaza that&rsquo;s been <a href="https://www.santjordihostels.com/skateboarding-barcelona-a-locals-guide-macba/">adopted by the skateboarding community</a>. Grab a drink from a nearby caf&eacute; and watch on in awe as some of the world&rsquo;s best skateboarders <a href="https://youtu.be/OfRdB9451fE?feature=shared&amp;t=61">fly down human-sized ledges</a> and daunting stairways. As of writing this, the exterior of MACBA is currently undergoing a transformation, so for better or for worse, watch this space.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdEkUNh45QSGX81-xqzIn6pOCVMb6p3Q72OwxOrdJWohP0or7WOHYK86fc3plrLV_Kkkg9pFIbgIJn1tn0F9YDkQAzHLq7dNSSncPjG9boOTY1UNqh0iUOf0NRofXMo5YTkz5Iij0Yp0DVjIMPG6pJ_M72P?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="409" height="340" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

The Ravel is teeming with smaller independent bars, which makes for a memorable night out if you don&rsquo;t feel like clubbing. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bigbangbarcelona/?hl=en">Big Bang is a great spot</a> for reasonably priced drinks and has live music most nights.&nbsp;
Pro tip: The narrow streets in El Ravel can make it easier for pickpockets and muggers to target tourists, especially at night. Keep to main, well-lit streets and stay extra vigilant after dark.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr"><a href="https://barcelonanavigator.com/barceloneta/">Barceloneta</a></h3>
A short walk from the Columbus statue at the end of La Rambla sits Barceloneta, the closest neighborhood to the beach. Packed full of tasty restaurants (especially seafood!), <a href="https://www.destinationbcn.com/barcelonas-best-chiringuitos/">chiringuitos</a> and <a href="https://www.shadesofsummr.com/honest-w-barcelona-review-is-it-worth-the-money/">iconic hotels</a>, it&rsquo;s a great base if you&rsquo;re planning to spend most of your time by the sea.
You&rsquo;ll find several golden sandy beaches along the seafront, all with plenty of facilities, like caf&eacute;s, toilets, showers, etc. Although they are not technically classed as nudist beaches, it is sometimes practiced at the southern end, towards the W hotel.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdmd0KcyjMRLoisiYbGK5xjPQlonarUN6888AAiWw7ekDgJFpJ2_I2P9KD-LVAMDv-wEN1gZVXa-82VAG01Ub1PnhglEHRV3NsXS39E_8q837ArBfUArFhXClRYYv_xHXJhTXEkVT9wyalnf582WDjYNLV7?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="386" height="386" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">&nbsp;

Aside from the beach, it&rsquo;s also home to attractions like the Aquarium, Catalunya History Museum, and the Montju&iuml;c cable car (maybe skip the latter if you're scared of heights!).
During the evenings, you may run into a tipsy club-goer from Opium, Pacha, or Shocko, but in general, this is a safe neighborhood.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr"></h3>
<h3 dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.foreverbarcelona.com/neighborhoods-guide-of-eixample-in-barcelona/">Eixample</a></h3>
Probably the most recognizable neighborhood (from an aerial view, that is) is Eixample, thanks to its iconic grid-like streets. It&rsquo;s also home to some of the city&rsquo;s most famous attractions, such as Pla&ccedil;a Catalunya, Passeig de Gr&agrave;cia, La Sagrada Fam&iacute;lia, the Arc de Triomf, Casa Batll&oacute; and Casa Mila.&nbsp;
With so many sights, it&rsquo;s unsurprisingly pretty large, allowing smaller internal districts to form. One of them is Sant Antoni, where Flight Finder Lauren lived for 3 months&hellip;
Lauren: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of my favorite areas in the entire city. Picture gorgeous buildings, shady tree-lined avenues and pedestrianized meeting areas at intersections.&rdquo;
Overall, Eixample ticks a lot of boxes. You will find accommodation options to suit most budgets, it&rsquo;s safe, well-connected to the rest of the city, and has a broad mix of touristy and local areas.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.barcelonafoodexperience.com/blog/gracia">Gracia</a></h3>
If you're looking for somewhere central with plenty of amenities, but fewer tourists than Eixample, look just next door to Gracia.
It&rsquo;s full of chilled-out restaurants, art studios, and independent bars. Pla&ccedil;a de Sol is the most popular square, with plenty of caf&eacute;s to grab a coffee and people watch. If you're ever passing through and fancy some reasonably priced tasty tapas, Flight Finder Lauren recommends <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sol+Soler/@41.4015462,2.153769,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x12a4a297c2b16ccd:0x9caad00f5e2811ce!8m2!3d41.4015462!4d2.1563439!16s%2Fg%2F1vg0sr_5?entry=ttu&amp;g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkyNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D">Sol Soler</a>.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfWu_HBFRlnyfXeFy0qPNRSKE-Hi7G2oXjtI5as0_j5JkRosgrbL4T8Z7e_6wHgdSPH3hn3cKw2jyG2RLAh_3A0EI9sTGIOgSDn8vRlo0rueaGmQXofIAItC125vJUKpGV89cZZnC4U12ESVC7j6UTmF4Zz?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="386" height="386" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

Thanks to its tight-knit community, this neighborhood is considered one of the safest in the city.
Travel tip: To see colorful street decorations, live music and parades, visit over <a href="https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/events/gracia-festival/gracia-festival-barcelona.html">Fiestas de Gracia</a>, a weeklong festival which takes place every August.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr" id="h_70297290447181746019584290">Markets</h2>

When you think of a traditional Spanish market, you can probably already sense the hustle and bustle of vendors and buyers, as well as those iconic sounds, and sights &mdash; like hams strung up, incredible cheese displays, and tonnes of fresh produce. And that&rsquo;s exactly what you&rsquo;ll find in Barcelona too!&nbsp;
There are a whole bunch of markets in the city that sell all kinds of everything, including food, antiques, and art. Here we&rsquo;re highlighting some of the best and most popular markets in the city, but you can find a complete list of them <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_markets_in_Barcelona">here</a>, depending on what you fancy. Spoiler alert: it&rsquo;s not just La Boqueria!
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">La Boqueria</h3>
Where: La Rambla. Google Maps link <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/Dq6qjP2eQ4Agsv4C7">here</a>.
When: Monday to Saturday (excl. Bank Holidays). From&nbsp;8 am&ndash;8:30 pm.
Website: <a href="https://www.boqueria.barcelona/home">https://www.boqueria.barcelona</a>
We&rsquo;ll start off strong with the one you&rsquo;ve probably heard of: The Sant Josep Market (or as it&rsquo;s more commonly known, La Boqueria). Right in the center of the city, this place is filled with hundreds of stalls and is definitely the most famous &mdash; for good reason!
With a seemingly endless stock of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, and lots of freshly caught seafood, it&rsquo;s easy to see why even the city&rsquo;s top chefs head here for the produce.
But everyone can get something out of this place. As you walk through the market, you&rsquo;ll find plenty of samples on offer for you to try, some smaller caf&eacute;s serving yummy, fresh dishes for lunch, and fruit stands offering freshly squeezed juices and smoothies. For obvious reasons, you should come along with an empty stomach.&nbsp;
Best of all, entry to this market is free!&nbsp;That being said, there are plenty of other comparable markets in the city that have just as good produce, but fewer crowds. You&rsquo;ll find loads of great suggestions <a href="https://www.eater.com/22621306/barcelona-markets-guide-boqueria-where-to-eat">here</a> of alternative places you foodies can try out.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcQ7bsuVUAXFpOum2dYRXDfjqvqn3mxxQIBFSGKFTionS7b9WCcCQHcUkC3wgy86joHZP8EaKYSgfX1CuGjlj1RbfhG4DZkr3W6ULcKmN2GvLk9nj3oqHiV0U2iwWh2XPwqk15u?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="387" height="387" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">Els Encants</h3>
Where: L&rsquo;Eixample. Google Maps link <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/x4rTAHCUs9CPNbCMA">here</a>.
When: Monday, Wednesday, Friday &amp; Saturday (excl. Bank Holidays). From 9 am-8 pm.
Website:<a href="https://encantsbarcelona.com/en/">https://encantsbarcelona.com/en/</a>
Dating back to around 1300, this flea market is steeped in history and an integral part of Barcelona&rsquo;s culture.
If you were to ask what you can find here, the answer would be everything: lots of things you do need, lots of things you don&rsquo;t need, and a whole bunch of stuff in the middle.&nbsp;
Yep, with stalls filled with all kinds from antiques and art, to bikes and electrical goods, this place is perfect if you fancy rummaging through tonnes of stock&mdash;maybe you&rsquo;ll even find a kitchen sink too :-)
Want to get prepared before you head over there? Look at a list of some of the shops <a href="https://encantsbarcelona.com/en/shopping/">here</a>, with a little bit of info about what you can find in each.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Palo Market Fest</h3>
Where: Sant Mart&iacute;. Google Maps link <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/Hh5WWwGEWFUVBNTJ9">here</a>.
When: The first weekend of every month, except August (find a full list <a href="https://palomarketfest.com/es/barcelona/calendario">here</a>). From 12pm-10pm.
Website: <a href="https://palomarketfest.com/en">https://palomarketfest.com/en</a>
Held in an old, abandoned factory, this market is definitely one for the hipsters.
The market hosts stalls from all kinds of small businesses based in and around Barcelona, and the line-up changes from week to week. So you can expect to see jewellery, vintage clothes and furniture, antiques, art, and of course, some local food&mdash;we&rsquo;ve heard that the <a href="https://www.cntraveler.com/shops/barcelona/palo-alto-market#:~:text=Rumor%20has%20it%20that%20the%20pulpo%20(octopus)%20tacos%2C%20freshly%20made%20in%20front%20of%20you%2C%20are%20some%20of%20the%20best%20you%E2%80%99ll%20ever%20taste.">freshly made pulpo (octopus) tacos</a> they sell here are some of the best you&rsquo;ll find around.
But what&rsquo;s really cool about this place is you&rsquo;ll also find food trucks, pop-up beer bars, and live music dotted around, which creates a real festival vibe. So you&rsquo;ll be having a mooch in the stalls, and flicking through vintage clothes, while listening to some great live music and having a boogie. What&rsquo;s not to like!
Note: Entry to the market costs &euro;5.50, and can be purchased online from the Monday before the event. If there is still availability closet to the market, you might be able to get a ticket at the box office.

<h2 id="h_89286655052771746023733338">Recommended links</h2>

<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://barcelonaexpatlife.com/free-museum-days-in-barcelona/">Guide to free museum days</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/catalannewsacn">Catalan News</a> &mdash; An Instagram page offering the latest Catalan news and highlights upcoming festivals in English. They may also discuss things that will affect your visit, like upcoming protests or attraction closures.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/barcelonafoodguide">Barcelona Foodguide</a> &mdash;&nbsp;this Instagram account gives loads of cool recommendations of places to go and what&rsquo;s good there. Most posts are in Spanish as they&rsquo;re local recs, but they include lots of pictures and videos to help give you a proper idea of what to expect.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://barcelonahacks.com/">Barcelonahacks</a> &mdash;&nbsp;this website has in depth information about pretty much everything, from all the top attractions, transport, discount passes, and a month-by-month guide to the city.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://runnerbeantours.com/where-to-see-human-towers-in-barcelona/#8220castells8221-human-towers:~:text=1-,Human%20Towers%20in%20Barcelona%3A%202025%20calendar%20%5BUPDATED%5D,-This%20information%20was">Castellers Calendar</a> &mdash; An updated calendar of when to see the human towers in the city.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2 dir="ltr" id="h_13715699555981746023771632">Food</h2>

Being the capital of Catalonian cuisine, Barcelona has a diverse range of traditional dishes that are distinctly unique from other regions in Spain. They incorporate local ingredients from the land and the sea with influences from their French, Balearic and Valencian neighbors.
If you're visiting from December to April, you can enjoy <a href="https://food52.com/blog/24076-this-catalonian-spring-tradition-is-the-best-way-to-experience-barcelona?srsltid=AfmBOoqgseSKfIse-AVyKpOvC87XfIXQ8vGXTCcoIDyNYb3am4msHsV9">Cal&ccedil;ot season</a>, AKA the time to harvest and eat huge spring onions.
Travel note: By law, shops in Barcelona aren&rsquo;t allowed to sell alcohol after 11pm. But this doesn&rsquo;t apply to restaurants and bars.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcF4f93aRA5CCPQC5rDFn4owRjCwhT7DMuAmDBIJzkmaH-HNrdCJwFqHU_Eqibm-qxPmcYSgUZQEot8-gif2-lLJcNWnywSB7-xxvDHyuiNjCGlY0t9G-idMg4UyYeqvRbxSNzaOA?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="386" height="386" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

Here are 3 local dishes to try:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/enjoy/8/the-sacred-principles-of-pa-amb-tomaquet.html">Pa amb Tomaquet</a> - This appetizer may look underwhelming, but you&rsquo;d be surprised just how delicious bread, tomato, garlic and olive oil can taste when combined in the right way.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://www.eater.com/barcelona/22621281/what-is-fideua-paella-difference-noodles-where-to-eat-barcelona">Fideua</a> - Similar to paella (which originates from Valencia), but with small pasta noodles instead of rice. Plus, it often comes with an array of extra ingredients, like fresh tomatoes, garlic, and a lot of seafood.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation"><a href="https://www.themediterraneandish.com/crema-catalana/">Crema Catalana</a> - Think of this like a lighter (and arguably tastier) version of a cr&egrave;me br&ucirc;l&eacute;e with added citrus and cinnamon.</li>
</ul>
Don&rsquo;t forget to bring your water bottle, as you&rsquo;ll find free (drinkable) water fountains throughout the city.
Pro Tip: If you're visiting during the week, look out for restaurants offering a &lsquo;menu del dia&rsquo;. These are usually 3-course meals (including a drink) served around lunchtime Monday-Friday, costing about &euro;14.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe9ZkgjVrxWFl2OQodjL38Wu3qsC3sEDid8bN224PCWA8Ur_pUFkqGyCMAY3_3NLcdg-FxkVMyCI65qkLI4zg2ruvpF7FhzR45zHg7TeiZufps7VAPA_GgGe2J2W93T_xjajLLPDPCGlhTDu0nS7PsYCE8i?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="506" height="285" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

A note on tourist traps: In among the traditional local eateries, you&rsquo;ll inevitably come across less-authentic establishments who care less about quality and more about getting your money. We&rsquo;d suggest skipping restaurants with:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">An employee on the door trying to enthusiastically lure you in from the street with a menu in hand</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Big English signs outside with pictures of paella and tapas</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">A location front and center in a peak tourist area, such as on La Rambla</li>
</ul>
For a good indication that a restaurant is authentic, look out for places with signs only in Spanish or Catalan, menus that are not overly long, and a clientele that seems more local.

<h2 dir="ltr" id="h_63417743858831746023832209">Festivals and events</h2>

<h3 dir="ltr">Three Kings&rsquo; Day - Epiphany (5th-6th January)</h3>
Each year on the night before the Epiphany*, there is a <a href="https://irbarcelona.org/christmas-barcelona/three-kings-day/">Three Wise Men parade</a> through the streets of Barcelona, where the men throw gifts and sweets to the children from up on their regally decorated floats.
The parade usually starts in Port Vell, as the men arrive on a boat, and lasts for around 3 hours with an impressive cultural spectacle of elaborate costumes, music, and dancing for the children lining the streets.
&nbsp;Here&rsquo;s a vlog of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQDY3n603Wg">the 2023 parade</a> so you know what to expect!
&nbsp;*ICYMI, The Epiphany is a religious celebration of when the Three Kings went to visit a newly born Jesus &mdash;&nbsp;it&rsquo;s a bigger deal than Christmas in Spain!
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf5f_vQJXVM-FddcUAKdOnshu1oSkWbIOQhsZ2FjJxRl8VBAQqchPDCyXwF1cczv_Kcy6KMjrJ2nidUishbKBsB-4od-RYC0Fz2J6DHtGGgFjLX-Wx3r0_qaiNdFQM0DSzthJ2M?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="386" height="386" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">Sant Jordi - St George&rsquo;s Day (23rd April)</h3>
Books and roses, what more could you want?
In a mix between Valentine&rsquo;s Day and World Book day, for one day in April, stalls pop up all over the city selling roses and books. Traditionally, men receive books, and women roses, but it&rsquo;s 2025 now, it goes either way.&nbsp;
As you walk around, you&rsquo;ll see traditional sardana dancing, which is typical of Catalan culture, <a href="https://www.barcelona.de/en/barcelona-castellers-human-towers.html">Castell human towers</a>, and you&rsquo;ll smell and see roses on every corner.&nbsp; If you&rsquo;re lucky, you&rsquo;ll see authors at the stalls who will sign their books, too.
Lots of buildings will be decorated, but for one of the most impressive floral displays, head over to <a href="https://youtu.be/NEeAHDAtM44?feature=shared&amp;t=14">Gaudi&rsquo;s Casa Battl&oacute;</a>, where the balconies and window ledges will be covered in hundreds of roses. Spoiler alert: it looks even more beautiful than usual&hellip;
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeUzl8TwOT9cwPP7VeU1a2xAsOrb7J4RJqYxKYQsrsKTE7oUFP77ihQzxrwhU5Ws1CI4JDfFx_m7mBkEIg9zA34SC2mOczkcSDZzimbTqZ3SDW_jQvltnAp5SQLQEfpD7oz5_iCsTHjsl8-JPhR24Uo7SWL?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="387" height="387" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">Primavera Sound (May/June)</h3>
Known for its great, and diverse line-ups and picturesque setting along the Barcelona waterfront, it&rsquo;s arguably (well, according to Timeout anyway!) the best music festival in Europe.
What also makes this a popular choice is there are no complicated logistics. It&rsquo;s easily accessible by the Metro line 4 (aka, the yellow line), or by taking one of the shuttle buses that run between the festival and Pla&ccedil;a de Catalunya. 
The slight caveat, is that there aren&rsquo;t any camping facilities on site for the festival, so you will need to fork out for a hotel or Airbnb if you want to stay nearby. Accommodation does sell out quite quickly, but using&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/HotelsNear-g187497-d8820333-Primavera_Sound_Barcelona-Barcelona_Catalonia.html">this Tripadvisor page</a> is super useful to see what&rsquo;s still available near the festival site.
But, it&rsquo;s much less likely to rain at Primavera than Glastonbury. So, every cloud, eh?
You can buy your ticket&nbsp;<a href="https://www.primaverasound.com/en/barcelona">here</a>.

<h3 dir="ltr">Formula 1 Grand Prix (May/June)</h3>
In the days leading up to the Grand Prix, Barcelona&rsquo;s Port Vell is usually transformed into an F1 village with lots of motorsport themed activities, such as pit stop challenges, competitions, as well as interviews with F1 personalities. In 2024, the F1 cars sped through the city&rsquo;s streets for a <a href="https://www.circuitcat.com/en/">Roadshow</a> in the iconic Pla&ccedil;a de Catalunya.
The closest town to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.circuitcat.com/en/">Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya</a> is Montmelo, but most fans choose to stay in Barcelona instead since it has plenty more transport and accommodation options.
From Barcelona, it takes around an hour to get to the circuit by taking the bus or the train and walking&mdash;you&rsquo;ll find all the info&nbsp;<a href="https://f1destinations.com/getting-around-spanish-f1-grand-prix/#:~:text=Spanish%20GP%20Packages-,How%20to%20Get%20to%20Circuit%20de%20Barcelona%2DCatalunya,-Take%20the%20train">here</a>. Jumping in a taxi is also an option, but it can get very expensive at peak times, especially just before and after the Sunday race.
You can also choose to stay up in Lloret de Mar in the Costa Brava, and book coach transfers to/from the circuit with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sagales.com/en">Sagales</a>.
&nbsp;Note: The F1 Spanish GP will be moving to Madrid from 2026.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfpeks-5O63uc6sWiT1YpWJa9NrLZX_M5PZnHb9o2MzNs60zm5HQuKy3xNQF-oorPQcr_iCRmsHoiVsDD1GwbN4lW1aBdSre3oMvI329lklMT0p6NbMHmbUtozCdUoyzjVsOhKbZlMu4GR_-Y7yll2aZqk?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="518" height="288" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h2 dir="ltr" id="h_18322787361731746023870310">Gaudi</h2>

When you think of Barcelona, Antoni Gaud&iacute; and the image of his distinctly gothic yet whimsical architecture are one of the first things you likely picture. Today, you can find Gaudi&rsquo;s creative flair intertwined throughout Barcelona&rsquo;s busiest areas, from grand buildings to <a href="https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/gaudi/gaudi-lamp-post-placa-reial-barcelona.html">street lights</a>.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Sagrada Fam&iacute;lia</h3>
The pinnacle of Barcelona and all of Gaudi&rsquo;s works is undoubtedly the domineering masterpiece that is the Sagrada Fam&iacute;lia. This towering church began construction in 1882 and work remains ongoing to this day. Officials have confirmed that work should be completed in 2026, so if you prefer to see the finale structure without scaffolding, plan your visit for after 2026. Even in its uncompleted state, it truly is a sight to behold, with an intricately carved facade depicting natural shapes and biblical motifs. 
It&rsquo;s worth taking the time to walk around the outer perimeter of the church, as every angle will reveal something new. Stretching towards the sky are a number of spires, which are the sections still under construction. Inside is equally striking, with columns sprouting from floor to ceiling like tree branches and huge rainbow stained-glass windows.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcJ5cN6AMZherrf08jiw8_iTwiZe4CQnrQJytoTEF5_UTvqROCrqlAE6Jm2MfkoINxe80vB3fKzirDHdyWuIMMTPTGo2AjWk6E9ZPxWTwr4vmncbpGUhjg2EIq5EDru59uKqNvWWA?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="350" height="471">&nbsp;

To go inside, you&rsquo;ll need to <a href="https://sagradafamilia.org/entrada-sagrada-familia">buy your tickets</a> at least a week before your trip, with a general adult entry costing &euro;26. Organize yours as soon as you can, since tickets are known to sell out weeks in advance. These tickets give you access to the main cathedral and an audio guide via their app (but you&rsquo;ll need to bring your own earphones and use your own phone).
&nbsp;You can also buy a <a href="https://sagradafamilia.org/sagrada-familia-i-torre">combined ticket to access to the towers</a> for &euro;36, where you'll see an excellent view of the famous grid streets of Eixample.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Casa Mila</h3>
Originally designed to be used as flats and offices, this distinctly wavy building stands out on Passeig de Gr&agrave;cia. After years of being the private residence to many wealthy occupants (3 of which still live there today), part of the building opened to the public in 1996. <a href="https://www.lapedrera.com/en/visits">General adult entry tickets cost &euro;28</a> and are usually available on the day. However, if you can, either arrive early in the morning or be flexible with your entry time since popular time slots sell out quickly.
For an extra special experience, time your trip with one of the frequent <a href="https://youtu.be/Zl5lwa55uJ4?feature=shared&amp;t=17">rooftop jazz concerts</a> held throughout the summer.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Casa Batllo</h3>
Like Casa Mila, Casa Batll&oacute; is also on Paseo de Gracia. Although it was not originally built by Gaudi, he was put in charge of the complete redesign and renovation of the building.
<a href="https://www.casabatllo.es/en/online-tickets/">Tickets cost &euro;29</a>, and you can buy them on the same day as your visit, but popular time slots may sell out early in the day. They also hold evening concerts with various musical genres every evening.&nbsp;
&nbsp;Travel Tip: Visit after 6pm, and you&rsquo;ll be handed a free glass of cava with your ticket.&nbsp;

<h3 dir="ltr">Park G&uuml;ell</h3>
For the classic postcard view of multicoloured mosaicked terraces overlooking the city, Park G&uuml;ell is where you need to go. When you visit, you&rsquo;ll see natural shapes, textures, and coloured tiles throughout the gardens. Plus, a rather popular salamander.
Located in the Gracia neighbourhood, the closest metro station is Lesseps, which is a 20-min walk from the entrance.
At peak times and on weekends, the park does get fairly busy and tickets often sell out in advance. General entry costs &euro;10, and we&rsquo;d recommend <a href="https://parkguell.barcelona/en/buy-tickets">purchasing your tickets</a> at least a few days before you intend to visit.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfkF5ZPZzPkqEXn8oPSiA_rYqEWKZF_ptoQudEWu2uimu0wV4khcoGxmkt4qPHg_VAPNx_yMG2UjMxW2lTIBemoCm2-hgpWs2DFUxuwyjKz92fm3Uyt51fMpsiJONAjIUBDDGugxQ?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="388" height="388" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h2 id="h_96763719164391746023915429">Parks</h2>

While you&rsquo;re more likely to see narrow, cobbled streets and plazas than sprawling parks, you will find a few unique green spaces among the endless buildings. This is because family and children are very important in Catalonian culture. So, you&rsquo;ll often see small play areas carved out where they fit.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeWWFcWZJEObd7lSs1BBXxpSPmxX8XWk6soEm48CM1NdhOddepZ3cD5RWNB2z84cWeQRygrBucL_lsMc6QU9uUvQNaXynnJ0LQ13riwMFCqjYmK--Z6510vFbHwKGX9P0McqvooVQ?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="355" height="471" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

"One thing that really surprised me when moving to Barcelona was the amount of very tall slides randomly tucked away throughout the city. Like <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Montju%C3%AFc+Slides/@41.3657566,2.1669566,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipOrEEru62_jq_pHxEuH-RLJ6ujlCpPUEEDqAPYR!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOrEEru62_jq_pHxEuH-RLJ6ujlCpPUEEDqAPYR%3Dw150-h150-k-no-p!7i3024!8i4032!4m8!3m7!1s0x12a4a24180f4a701:0x20451f9ee01cf402!8m2!3d41.3657566!4d2.1669566!9m1!1b1!16s%2Fg%2F11g6my6pm2?entry=ttu">these two whippy numbers</a> in Montjuic and <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Drac+de+ferro/@41.3786168,2.141696,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipME6iWcu17_R9icMXc3mgg-EL04Yi_IJGfs_r-h!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipME6iWcu17_R9icMXc3mgg-EL04Yi_IJGfs_r-h%3Dw150-h150-k-no-p!7i3264!8i2448!4m12!1m2!2m1!1sdragon+slide+barcelona!3m8!1s0x12a49880fcc764a9:0x8271ceb886b83916!8m2!3d41.3786168!4d2.141696!9m1!1b1!15sChZkcmFnb24gc2xpZGUgYmFyY2Vsb25hWhgiFmRyYWdvbiBzbGlkZSBiYXJjZWxvbmGSARJ0b3VyaXN0X2F0dHJhY3Rpb26aASRDaGREU1VoTk1HOW5TMFZKUTBGblNVTnlNemw2ZFROQlJSQULgAQA!16s%2Fg%2F11c70jf4bg?entry=ttu">this epic dragon slide</a> by Sants train station. And I can personally confirm both are also adult-friendly!"

Flight Finder Lauren says:

Apart from the iconic Park G&uuml;ell, which you can read about in the Gaudi section, here are 2 more parks worth checking out:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Montjuic - On a green hillside, you&rsquo;ll find a collection of botanical gardens, museums, and even a castle. In the evening, a stroll around its gardens can be peaceful, with most visitors congregating around the Museu Nacional d&rsquo;Art de Catalunya steps for sunset. For a daytime bird's-eye view, you can also ride a cable car.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Citadel Park - Follow the path under the Arc de Triomf, and you&rsquo;ll eventually reach Citadel Park. Filled with sunbathers, performers and picnickers, it&rsquo;s chilled out atmosphere makes it a nice place to relax in the sun. Admire the extravagant fountains, row a boat, or simple throw down a blanket and watch the world go by. Oh, and don&rsquo;t miss <a href="https://voicemap.me/tour/barcelona/barcelona-walking-tour-landmarks-and-legends-of-el-born-and-ciutadella-park/sites/julia-the-woolly-mammoth-instagram-hotspot">Julia the mammoth</a>.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdiFO7dLErkZpiGQkhg4IelSAb2-08g61kyfXL4oGqNUj5EiBsq75G7rKNdU4Mx8BqMA79HivXOYy0itgQH3OlDi-Dh52_pN2LYJ7UXdHGXeneOPXXE1hP5r1nh1bYO_aHF9ssuRQ?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="386" height="386" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h2 dir="ltr" id="h_49319333067281746023984952">Day trips</h2>

Since Barcelona is really well-connected by high-speed trains, it&rsquo;s super easy for you to pop into another nearby city for a day or two, and explore some more of Catalonia while you&rsquo;re there.&nbsp;
You can get to from here to loads of other cities across the country by train. But we&rsquo;ve listed below a few of the best day trips that are all between a 30 mins-2 hours train ride away from the city, and won&rsquo;t break the bank.

<h3 dir="ltr">Costa Brava</h3>
Costa Brava runs along the northeastern coast of Spain, from the town Blanes right up to the French border. And with a name that means &lsquo;Wild Coast&rsquo; in English, it won&rsquo;t be too surprising to find out this region is filled with beautiful beaches, pine forests, and rugged rocky cliffs. 
Dotted along the coastline, you&rsquo;ll find plenty of traditional fishing villages, and seaside towns. <a href="https://nourishedbycaroline.ca/lloret-de-mar-guide/">Lloret de Mar</a> is one of the more touristy places, with lots of resorts and hotels, but if you want something a little quieter, then somewhere like the medieval town <a href="https://unexpectedcatalonia.com/tossa-de-mar/">Tossa del Mar</a> is a great alternative.
Lots of people come to this coast for the beaches, but you can also do plenty of water sports like kayaking and snorkelling, as well as heading out on hiking routes, like the <a href="https://www.spain.info/en/hiking-trails/cami-ronda-costa-brava/">Cam&iacute; de Ronda</a> trail
Here&rsquo;s a great&nbsp;<a href="https://goaskalocal.com/blog/travel-guide-to-the-costa-brava-spain">guide to the region</a> from a local&rsquo;s perspective if you need a little more info.

"If you're short on time and can&rsquo;t make it to the Costa Brava, Castelldefels is a great alternative. It&rsquo;s a laid back coastal town just south of Barcelona. It only takes around 25-minutes to reach by train and the fare is included in a HolaBCN and T-Casual card."

Flight Finder Lauren's tip:

<h3 dir="ltr">Girona&nbsp;</h3>
A little further inland from the Costa Brava, this city is much quieter than Barcelona, but with cobblestone streets, towering walls, and a&nbsp;<a href="https://catedraldegirona.cat/en/">centuries-old cathedral</a>, it&rsquo;s just as picturesque. You&rsquo;ll start to see medieval influences as soon as you step foot in the historic center (which is around a 10-minute walk from the train station). 
One of the most iconic spots here is The River Onya. It&rsquo;s lined with colorful houses, which you can cross by walking over the Eiffel Pedestrian Bridge (yes,&nbsp;that Eiffel) to another side of winding, narrow streets.
And if you&rsquo;re a fan of Game of Thrones, there are loads of filming locations from the series&rsquo; 6th season that you can spot. Here&rsquo;s a guide to&nbsp;<a href="https://hotelsultoniagirona.com/en/route-locations-game-of-thrones-girona/">all the best spots</a> with pics of the places in real life and on screen.

<h3 dir="ltr">Zaragoza</h3>
Over in Spain&rsquo;s Aragon region, Zaragoza is known for its Old Town, surrounded cathedrals and museums, as well as for being the home of Ternasco&mdash;this leg of lamb dish is famous all over the country, and lots of people call it a <a href="https://eatcampogrande.com/blogs/kitchen/ternasco-de-aragon-with-potatoes#:~:text=The%20ternasco%20de%20Arag%C3%B3n%20is%20one%20of%20the%20jewels%20of%20Spanish%20cuisine">&lsquo;jewel&rsquo; of Spanish cuisine</a>.
And if you are a foodie, lots of restaurants and bars in the Juepincho area have offers that get you a tapas dish, and water, beer, or wine, for 2 euros! Find a list of some participating spots&nbsp;<a href="https://thewanderingquinn.com/zaragoza-spain-city-guide/#:~:text=On%20Thursday%20evenings%20in%20the%20Juepincho%20area%2C%20a%20lot%20of%20the%20restaurants%20and%20bars%20have%20a%C2%A0%E2%82%AC2.00%20deal%20on%20which%20includes%20a%20small%20drink%20of%20water%2C%20beer%20or%20wine%2C%20plus%201%20Tapas%20which%20I%20would%20really%20recommend%20checking%20out.%20The%20image%20below%20shows%20which%20establishments%20are%20part%20of%20it%20and%20where%20they%20are">here</a>.
For a little natural beauty, you should head to&nbsp;<a href="https://monasteriopiedra.com/?lang=en">Monasterio de Piedra Natural Park</a>. This monastery dates back to the 12th century, and is surrounded by a lush, green park filled with caves, crystal-clear lakes, and beautiful, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Czj06I3MOu3/">fairytale-esque waterfalls</a>.
If you fancy staying in Zaragoza for a little longer than a day, here&rsquo;s an&nbsp;<a href="https://thewanderingquinn.com/zaragoza-spain-48-hour-guide-things-to-do/">example itinerary</a> for a 2-day trip.

<h3 dir="ltr">Sitges</h3>
Stiges is a nearby coastal town and a firm favourite among locals who want to escape Barcelona for the weekend. You&rsquo;ll have your pick of long sandy beaches with calm blue waters that are perfect for families. Its town is split between&nbsp;<a href="https://thewanderingblonde.com/2019/01/08/sitges-travel-guide/">old cobbled streets lined with whitewash building</a> and a modern, lively centre filled with bars and restaurants. It&rsquo;s also considered <a href="https://www.outofoffice.com/en-gb/blog/a-gay-guide-to-sitges/">a prominent gay capital</a>, which hosts numerous LGBTQ+ events throughout the year.
You can reach Sitges by car or catch a train from Sants Station, with both options taking roughly 40 minutes.
Travel tip: Visit in February to watch the streets come alive during Sitges Carnival. It&rsquo;s a 7-day event, full of parades, costumes and live music.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfMCdGm0rQRXjuzm0I6PLTGtX5rW3L1n7Uz54cbMHcfJxYkb8Ft9OQdVbWUf_hpO0Sq2ief1_3lS9Q8oeNbGvD79TvtgRFMzgE_3ZwQDMJG00npjvf-JRZSjkOmX0xVk_IFk9cYZfCO8WgaGV1aty3mZoE?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="350" height="466" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">Montserrat</h3>
Montserrat is <a href="https://www.earthtrekkers.com/day-trip-montserrat-barcelona-spain/#Train_and_Cable_Car">a picturesque rocky mountain range</a>, where you can find a Benedictine Monastery nestled between huge, tall rocks. Aside from paying a visit to the abbey, you can also tackle one of the many hiking trails offering panoramic views of the Catalonian countryside.
The easiest way to visit is by train, which takes around an hour from&nbsp;Pla&ccedil;a Espanya to Montserrat town. Then it&rsquo;s just a short cable car and funicular ride up to the top. Or, if you&rsquo;re feeling brave, it&rsquo;s a <a href="https://thewholeworldornothing.com/montserrat-barcelona-hike/">1.5-hour upward hike</a>.
There is a dedicated information booth in Pla&ccedil;a Espa&ntilde;a station, where you can ask for advice and buy the train/cable car tickets. However, if you only want to take the train and plan to hike up to the monastery, it will be cheaper to buy your train ticket from the machines. You need to select a return journey from Zone 4, which costs &euro;12.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfOy06uPVZpHBN7qt-SYdzwXnlD5vP4fM6XdPpsB97y-fBWCQ4mZHqkoszsvxQa2cYm00YkXge4Fmw4wFSRmLOCm1HtuG2V8N4wQ28vtUTlGooqMHNWTDH9zFmEaSrAfzR_aT8r0d5GEm9xRQ04Y61jduk9?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="388" height="388" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">La Molina Ski Resort</h3>
Not only is this Spain&rsquo;s oldest ski resort, it&rsquo;s also one of the most accessible from Barcelona at only 2 hours drive away. Home to over 61 runs of varying difficulty, ski newbies and snow pros can all have fun here.
For &euro;67, you can buy a day-return ticket on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sagales.com/en/trip/68/skibus-to-la-molina-on-saturday-or-sunday">the Sagales Skibus</a> (departing from Nord bus station in Barcelona) and get a day ski pass included in the price.
You can bring your own equipment on the bus, if you happen to have it with you, or rent from the slopes once you're there.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe2mvWFCclO6VmorCYyxRI3LosltyelneS3bqbgbliTdR-yWnbsMCqlwep3m67wosuPGK7O9SAZ7anOG4gHTVH4JM0Y3FLPshUxjvaVzjYB4evsEcnr0xtpeRJL1FRncMhGBYh1?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="440" height="330" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

<h3 dir="ltr">Port Aventura</h3>
You can reach one of Europe's largest theme parks in just over an hour by car from the city. Alternately, you can also catch a train from Sants Station, which takes around an hour and a half. You can only buy your train tickets on the day directly from the station, so it&rsquo;s best to arrive there early, especially during the summer.
You can sometimes find discount codes online that will save you some money off the entry fee. Otherwise, they usually run a 50% off sale on Black Friday.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeBtlRV6Acz_Bvf9yYg2wtYxLNxja_-9i8n8HcBRhIO2O-Iq-RNge6jSuXYpRLHPK68EUyiaFq5nUt_PEuaLFOMXOMk4CpU44-tXY5hT-B7Sgtcg2lCGOwYrtUWFij8NqoiwnbJ?key=CWkV_WYRThqICg1sfg8OZg" width="386" height="386" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

JFC's guide to: Barcelona

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Chinese airlines have been serving up the cheapest flights on the market for as long as we can remember. But after disappearing completely during the pandemic, we wondered if we&rsquo;d ever see them again. Cut to 2024, and, oh boy, are they back!&nbsp;
Especially if you&rsquo;re based in Europe, these airlines have consistently undercut their European or Middle Eastern counterparts on price for loooooads of long-haul routes to places like South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. This has left lots of members asking, &ldquo;What is it actually like to fly via China, and what can I expect if I book a ticket on one of these airlines?&rdquo;.
After planning to head back home to Sydney for a wedding, Flight Finder Larissa took the plunge and booked a return trip from London with China Southern. Here&rsquo;s her review on what it was like to actually fly with one of these airlines, and what you can expect if you do the same.&nbsp;

<h3>Flight &amp; aircraft details:</h3>
<ol>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
CZ304 &ndash; London Heathrow (LHR) to Guangzhou (CAN) on a Boeing 787-9&nbsp;
</li>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
CZ325 &ndash; Guangzhou (CAN) to Sydney (SYD) on an Airbus A350
</li>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
CZ302 &ndash; Sydney (SYD) to Guangzhou (CAN) on an Airbus A350
</li>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
CZ303 &ndash; Guangzhou (CAN) to London Heathrow (LHR) on a Boeing 787-9
</li>
</ol>
👎 &ndash;&nbsp; The plane&rsquo;s seats, cabin and the cabin crew&rsquo;s uniforms looked like they were out of the &lsquo;90s, but that&rsquo;s a purely aesthetic point and didn&rsquo;t negatively affect our experience flying on these planes. 
Many flights transiting through China have a looooong layover on at least one of the legs. Ours came on the way home, between Guangzhou and London, where we had to wait a whopping 8 hours in the airport. You can find out more about the delights of Guangzhou Terminal 2 below, but it&rsquo;s safe to say that an extended layover when you just want to get home isn&rsquo;t ideal.&nbsp;
To get around this, I&rsquo;d recommend you pay for an airport hotel (which is usually<a href="https://www.google.com/travel/search?q=airport%20hotels%20guangzhou&amp;g2lb=4814050%2C4874190%2C4893075%2C4965990%2C4969803%2C72277293%2C72302247%2C72317059%2C72406588%2C72414906%2C72421566%2C72471280%2C72472051%2C72473841%2C72481459%2C72485658%2C72536387%2C72601601%2C72602734%2C72614662%2C72616120%2C72619927%2C72628719%2C72647020%2C72648289%2C72658035%2C72671093%2C72686036%2C72729615%2C72749231%2C72754704%2C72757849%2C72766791&amp;hl=en-GB&amp;gl=uk&amp;ssta=1&amp;ts=CAESBgoCCAMQARocEhoSFAoHCOgPEAoYFBIHCOgPEAoYFRgBMgIQACoHCgU6A0dCUA&amp;qs=CAE4BlpcCAEyWKoBVRABKhIiDmFpcnBvcnQgaG90ZWxzKAAyHxABIhuPqYCl0YfFw64sBFZc5Mq5nBXJ4BBCZgNdpzYyHBACIhhhaXJwb3J0IGhvdGVscyBndWFuZ3pob3U&amp;ap=aAE&amp;ictx=111&amp;ved=0CAAQ5JsGahcKEwiwzPCvg5iJAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQDA"> pretty cheap</a> in China). Or, make the most of your stopover and extend it a few days (if you don&rsquo;t mind navigating the tricky rules of the <a href="https://outpostmagazine.com/free-chinese-transit-visa-guide/">Chinese transit visa</a>). Sitting in the airport for your whole layover (the way we did it) is definitely the worst way.&nbsp; 
👍&ndash; The seats and legroom were to the same standard I would expect on any long-haul service, so no nasty surprises there. Despite the cheaper price, it is a full-service airline, so we didn&rsquo;t have to deal with a &lsquo;budget airline&rsquo; experience.
And because Chinese airlines don&rsquo;t have the same restrictions over Russian airspace at the time of writing, the flights between China and Europe are faster than European airlines by about 60&ndash;90 minutes.
<h3>General Facilities&nbsp;</h3>
👍&ndash; You can expect the usual blanket, pillow and headphones trio on your seat when you board. As is common with other airlines flying routes to/from Asia, you&rsquo;ll also be served a piping hot hand towel before and after your meal service.&nbsp;
The seats had adjustable headrests, 2 universal power sockets for every 3 seats, a headphone jack and USB A ports, plus dimmable windows on the 787 and window shades on the A350. The seat-back entertainment screen was nice and big, too. Pretty typical stuff that you would expect on a full-service carrier.
👎&ndash; No complimentary Wi-Fi, unfortunately &mdash; there was a QR code on your seat back where you could go to the website and buy Wi-Fi for your journey. The price was just over &pound;20 for Wi-Fi, and almost &pound;9 for in-flight messaging for what, I assume, is the length of the flight (12 hours to China, or 9.5 hours to Sydney), and you&rsquo;ll have to pay for each leg individually. 
Keep in mind that the Wi-Fi on these planes likely suffers the same geo-blocked restrictions that the Chinese government has put in place on the ground &mdash; that means most of your typical messaging apps will likely not work.&nbsp; Considering some airlines (like Singapore Airlines) now offer Wi-Fi packages for free, this is a mark against China Southern. No amenity kits here, either :-(
<h3>Food</h3>
This is the one category where I feel like I was let down by China Southern. Even 7+ months after my flight, the food is burned into my memory, and not for a good reason.&nbsp;
Let me set the scene: the type of food offered on China Southern (depending on where you&rsquo;re travelling from/to) will be mainly Chinese food. Yep, groundbreaking, we know. And the quality is fine &ndash; it&rsquo;s similar to what you&rsquo;d expect from your local takeaway. But the problem I had with these meals was the lack of variety.&nbsp;
In general, I&rsquo;m a fan of the Chinese food I eat in the UK &ndash; I enjoy the odd takeaway, and I love dumplings and noodle soups. But 2 meals x 4 flights = 8 times, I was offered the same choice: chicken with noodles or beef with rice. And that was it, for over 20 painstaking hours of flight time. Totally fine after the first, second time and even the third time. But on the return journey, I couldn&rsquo;t stomach having the same meal again, so I snacked on my emergency rations of chips and chocolate instead.&nbsp;
So in summary: the food quality was fine, and the dishes were tasty, but very repetitive. If you know you&rsquo;re not going to want noodles for breakfast, pack something else to eat.&nbsp;
They also gave us the choice of the usual selection of soft drinks, juice (the peach juice was my favourite), tea and wine. Their drinks service happened before your meal and then another round during your meal, so more regularly than on some other airlines. You can reserve <a href="https://www.csair.com/us/en/tourguide/flight_service/tour/teshu/">special meals</a> like vegetarian, kosher etc., but to do this it seems you have to call their customer service line &mdash; I don&rsquo;t remember being able to reserve this via their website.&nbsp; 
FWIW: I&rsquo;ve seen other reviews of China Southern showing different meals than the ones I was offered, so this variety may have improved since I flew with the airline in March 2024. &nbsp;
<h3>Entertainment</h3>
When I boarded my first flight at Heathrow on Thursday evening, I was most excited to see what the in-flight entertainment on China Southern had in store for me. Unfortunately, once I sat down and powered it on, I realised my screen was broken, and the home screen was frozen in place. Ouch. It was clearly pure bad luck, since everyone around me had a working screen, and it just meant my phone got a workout with saved episodes of Selling Sunset.&nbsp;
Thankfully, my other 3 flights had a working entertainment system. It was standard for what you&rsquo;d expect on a long-haul flight &mdash; lots of Western blockbusters and popular TV shows, plus a whole category of Chinese-language entertainment too. I have read in the past that the airline heavily censors their entertainment, but I didn&rsquo;t notice this on my flights.&nbsp;
<h3>Cultural Aspects</h3>
If you&rsquo;ve ever flown on a Chinese airline before, you&rsquo;ll be familiar with the security officers who are present on every flight. Flights with China Southern are no different &mdash; you&rsquo;ll usually see this person sitting in the front row of the economy cabin, dressed in a uniform and wearing a body camera. While you may spot them walking up and down the aisle during your flight, to tell you the truth, I don&rsquo;t remember seeing our officer at all during our flight. They&rsquo;re there to discourage antisocial behaviour on the flight and do have the power to arrest passengers who are behaving badly, but they won&rsquo;t bother you unless you&rsquo;re acting up.&nbsp;
The announcements are spoken in Chinese over the PA system before they&rsquo;re repeated in English. Otherwise, there&rsquo;s nothing else on China Southern flights that&rsquo;s particularly different or notable when compared to airlines I&rsquo;ve flown long-haul before, like British Airways, Cathay Pacific or Qatar Airways.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>Staff and Service</h3>
Overall, the staff were friendly and very efficient with meal and drinks services. They all spoke English, too. Nothing else to really mention on either a positive or negative note.&nbsp;
I have read other passengers online reporting that customer service is a sore point with Chinese airlines/terminals as a whole, particularly if you need help or something goes wrong. We never needed to ask a question of the staff or the airline, so I can&rsquo;t speak to that.&nbsp;
Each of our flights took off on time, and we even landed over an hour early on our flight from Sydney to Guangzhou. I can imagine that if we had a tighter connection, we would have really appreciated that. But in reality, it just meant more time in the airport&hellip;lucky us!&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>In the Airport</h3>
Ah, Guangzhou Terminal 2. Where I spent waaaay too much of my life this year. Let me first start off with the positives:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">The airport is modern, clean and has lots of space to relax, with rows and rows of chairs. Some of them were even proper reclined ones, where we parked up for at least 3&ndash;4 hours of our layover.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">There is a Starbucks for anyone who wants a taste of home, plus a really good-looking noodle place and a fun little exhibition space where you can learn a bit about the produce of the area.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Okay, now onto the juicy stuff:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">The transit line to get into the terminal once you deplane is buuuuusy. I assume most people flying into Guangzhou are connecting to another flight, but it took us a good 30&ndash;40 min to transit. And once you get through, there&rsquo;s another line for a security check before you&rsquo;re set free, but at least that was quick.&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Having to spend 8 hours in any airport isn&rsquo;t fun (except <a href="https://youtu.be/gYi5P16l6eo?si=UVjb-ADzAr2lRSta">Changi</a>, maybe. But that&rsquo;s an outlier). This one is particularly boring &mdash; it&rsquo;s a massive, soulless building with very little to see, very few shops and only a couple of restaurants. So there&rsquo;s really nothing to do but sit. They apparently hold the title of the &lsquo;<a href="https://www.cnbayarea.org.cn/english/News/content/post_1148454.html">world&rsquo;s largest single-building terminal</a>&rsquo;, but with very little to fill all that space.&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">The lounge was far too expensive for what it (apparently) is. I say apparently because we never stepped foot in there, after being told a lounge pass was in the region of $30-$40 USD/pp per HOUR. Our 8-hour layover would have put the price of lounge access over $500 for 2 people, and from all the reviews I&rsquo;ve seen online about <a href="https://seeingtheworldinsteps.com/2024/05/29/canto-paradise-premium-lounge-guangzhou-baiyun-international-airport-sq-sia-singaporeairlines-staralliancegold-krisflyergold-businessclass-china-pp-lounges-prioritypass-dragonpass-contract-rewards/">this and other lounges in Guangzhou</a>, it definitely wouldn&rsquo;t have been worth it. Considering you can usually get a lounge pass for <a href="https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airports/how-to-access-airport-lounges/">at least a few hours/a day pass </a>for the same amount in other places, there was no incentive for us to pay that money.&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">We couldn&rsquo;t access the &lsquo;free&rsquo; Wi-Fi in the terminal :-( The network does show up on your phone, but doesn&rsquo;t work once you connect. Apparently, this is a very common problem for travellers passing through Guangzhou.&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">The SkyTrax 5-star rated terminal signs were mocking us everywhere we went, and after all we&rsquo;d seen, we were sceptical of how they had earned that rating. If you&rsquo;re not familiar with our thoughts on SkyTrax, read our guide <a href="https://jacksflightclub.com/flight-quick-guides-page#skytrax">here</a>.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3>Overall Rating &mdash; 3/5&nbsp; ⭐⭐⭐</h3>
My final thoughts: China Southern is great value for money if you get your fares on the cheap. I think I&rsquo;d like to save at least &pound;200 as a general rule for it to be worth it for me to fly them long-haul again. That&rsquo;s not to say they weren&rsquo;t decent &mdash; in most respects they were absolutely fine. But the food issue and the annoying layover were significant enough for me to choose another airline if I could guarantee a better experience for a comparable price.
<h3>TLDR</h3>
🧑🏻&zwj;✈️ Service: Attentive and efficient, but nothing overly positive or negative to note. 
🔌 Facilities: A little dated, but has everything you&rsquo;d expect from full-service airlines.
🍝 Food: Plenty of drinks and food provided, but very little variety. 
⏰ Timing: Can&rsquo;t fault them &mdash; we took off on time on each of our flights. 
💸 Quality VS Price: Definitely worth it if you want a full-service experience on a low budget.
<h3>Bonus: China Eastern</h3>
I am not the only one within the team who has flown on a Chinese airline. Here&rsquo;s Marketing Guru Drew&rsquo;s experience of flying to Japan:&nbsp;
&ldquo;I flew with China Eastern, and the experience was actually alright! The food was genuinely impressive, and I was surprised by that &mdash; they served two proper meals and the portion sizes were good. The staff were also excellent, friendly and attentive the whole time.&nbsp;
&nbsp;Entertainment was where things fell short. The selection was sparse, leaning heavily towards Chinese movies, and only one or two Western options really caught my interest. I was glad I have my own pair of headphones because the airline-provided ones weren&rsquo;t great.&nbsp;
&nbsp;The layover in Shanghai was where things got tricky. My initial three-hour layover was cut down to just one hour because of a delay in London, making for a pretty rushed transit. The terminal is huge, and there&rsquo;s not many signs in English meaning I had trouble finding my gate. And, no WiFi unless you have a local SIM card to get connected. On the flight home, while my layover was longer, it wasn&rsquo;t necessarily smoother because it was the middle of the night so everything was closed. Without WiFi, I only had my downloaded content to pass the time, and I just had to camp up to sleep in the terminal where I could because there were no lounges open.&nbsp;
&nbsp;If I fly through China again, I&rsquo;ll consider buying an eSIM for my phone, just so I can use data during those long layovers. Otherwise, pack some snacks and make sure you&rsquo;ve got enough videos or podcasts downloaded on your device to get you through the journey!&rdquo;&nbsp;
&nbsp;Well, it sounds like Shanghai and Guangzhou face similar problems for passengers transiting through China, but it sounds like the food was better with China Eastern and the in-flight entertainment was better with China Southern. Generally, we both experienced the same standard level of service we&rsquo;d expect when flying with any other long-haul airline.

JFC Honest Airline Reviews — China Southern

As a popular beach getaway and iconic Spring Break hub, Miami welcomes a lot of visitors. And we mean a lot &mdash; try <a href="https://www.travelpulse.com/news/destinations/miami-s-tourism-sector-is-setting-record-numbers-and-gaining-momentum">27 million a year</a>, for a city with a population of under half a million.
Fortunately, our team lead Allan is part of that half a million! I sat him down for the insider scoop on how to avoid crowds and gnarly weather, how to easily get around town, and more.
So read on to get the most out of your Miami trip!

A quick note on the links in this guide:&nbsp;we&rsquo;re not affiliated with any external sites we&rsquo;ve chosen to include, so we&rsquo;re not getting any kick-backs or commission. We&rsquo;ve only included resources we think will genuinely be useful to help you make a decision on whether this destination is for you.

<h3 dir="ltr">Getting There</h3>
Getting to Miami couldn&rsquo;t be easier. There are two major airports in the area:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Miami International (MIA), about 15 minutes by car from downtown Miami.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Ft. Lauderdale International (FLL), which is about a 45 minute drive north of downtown Miami.</li>
</ul>
If you spot a deal elsewhere in Florida, you can arrive in Miami via the new high-speed <a href="https://www.gobrightline.com/">Brightline trains</a>.

Here's about what we expect to see for flights into Miami:
From Europe:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average price range: &euro;300-&euro;450 RT</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 5-10</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: &euro;213 RT</li>
</ul>
From the UK:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average price range: &pound;250- &pound;350 RT</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 5-10</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: &pound;239 RT</li>
</ul>
From the USA:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average price range:$100-$200 RT</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 10+</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: $85 RT</li>
</ul>
From Canada:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average price range: $150-$350 RT</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 2-5</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: $142 RT</li>
</ul>

<h2 dir="ltr">Visas</h2>
Whether you need a visa to enter the United States depends on your country of citizenship. Visitors from Canada, most European countries, and some Asian countries can visit for up to 90 days without a visa, though you will need an ESTA. Visit the <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-visit/visa-waiver-program.html">US State Department website</a> for more information.&nbsp;
The state of Florida and the city of Miami have no local requirements for entry.

<h3 dir="ltr">Cash and Currency</h3>
As you&rsquo;d expect, USD is the only accepted currency in Miami. Most places accept both cash and cards.&nbsp;
If you plan to use public transit, bring some back-up cash. Officially, the buses accept contactless cards and digital wallets, but they don&rsquo;t always work correctly. More about transit under &ldquo;Getting Around Town.&rdquo;

<h3 dir="ltr">Getting Around Town</h3>
Miami is car-centric. Fortunately, rideshare apps are pretty cheap and convenient, and should have all your transportation needs covered. If you have time to wait around a while, you can also try <a href="https://ridefreebee.com/">Freebee</a>: Miami&rsquo;s free rideshare service. It works like Uber, but can be hit and miss with wait times.
A rental car will be necessary if you want to visit the Everglades without a tour, but if you plan to stay in the city, you&rsquo;ll be fine without one. More about that in the next section.
Allan also recommends making use of the&nbsp;<a href="https://citibikemiami.com/">Citi Bikes</a>. These are app-based bike rentals found all over the city, and they&rsquo;re especially convenient for getting up and down Miami Beach.

As for public transit, there are buses, the Metrorail, and the Metromover. Buses and rails are $2.25 per ride, and the Metromover is free.
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Buses cover the entire county, but can be unreliable and inconvenient. <a href="https://www.miamidade.gov/transit/library/system-map-brochure.pdf">This map</a> shows how often each route runs, but don&rsquo;t expect them to follow the schedule.&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">The Metromover connects a few major areas like Brickell, Downtown, and the MacArthur Causeway (the vehicle bridge to Miami Beach). <a href="https://www.miamidade.gov/transportation-publicworks/movertracker.asp">Here&rsquo;s a map of the Metromover</a>.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">The Metrorail is your best bet for <a href="https://www.miamiandbeaches.com/plan-your-trip/transportation/how-to-get-to-downtown-miami-from-the-airport">airport transit</a> because it goes straight into the city from the airport. It&rsquo;s also good for getting into Coconut Grove, South Miami, and Coral Gables. Here&rsquo;s a map of the <a href="https://www.miamidade.gov/transportation-publicworks/metrorail-stations.asp">Metrorail</a>.</li>
</ul>
If you know you&rsquo;ll be using public transit a lot, you can purchase various transit passes <a href="https://transitstore.miamidade.gov/">here</a>.

<h3 dir="ltr">Getting to the Everglades</h3>
Everglades National Park is the biggest Miami attraction that sits outside the main metro area. This massive wetland ecosystem is an incredible place to spot Florida wildlife like manatees, spoonbills, and alligators. If you&rsquo;ve never seen a good old-fashioned swampland before, this is your chance!

Like a lot of National Parks, the Everglades are sprawling, wild, and inaccessible except by car. Drivers can enter through one of three entrances and chart their own course through the park.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.travelandleisure.com/guide-to-everglades-national-park-8550803">Here&rsquo;s some information</a> to help you start planning.
Alternatively, you could book a tour with pickup in Miami. You&rsquo;ll likely want to take a boat tour through the wetlands anyway, so you can simply shell out a bit more for one that will drive you to and from the park.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nps.gov/ever/planyourvisit/guidedtours.htm">Here&rsquo;s some tours</a> recommended by the National Park Service.

<h3 dir="ltr">Best Beaches in Miami</h3>
That South Florida coastline is easily the biggest reason people visit Miami, so here&rsquo;s a quick briefing on your options. Note that where there are popular beaches, there&rsquo;s typically also popping nightlife.

<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">South Beach: Famous and full of art deco, but extremely crowded.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Mid-Beach and North Beach: Also on the same island as South Beach, but with significantly fewer people.&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Key Biscayne: Allan&rsquo;s most recommended beach, about 25&ndash;40 minutes away from Miami Beach by car.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Surfside and Bal Harbor: Upscale areas north of North Beach. Known for its Jewish culture and small town feel.</li>
<li>Matheson Hammock Park: This park has a manmade atoll with shallow, calm water. It&rsquo;s ideal for young children.</li>
</ul>

<h2 dir="ltr">When to Visit</h2>
Timing can make or break your trip to Miami, so here&rsquo;s the rundown!
Pro-Tip:&nbsp;The ocean on Miami&rsquo;s beaches stays warm year-round. Your toes won&rsquo;t freeze even in winter, but don&rsquo;t expect to cool off from the heat by taking a dip.

December-February
Winter is best in Miami, weather-wise! The Florida heat cools to around mid-70s F (or mid-20s C), and the rain is minimal. Unfortunately, a lot of folks know this is the best time, so hotel pricing tends to be surged.
March-May&nbsp;
Lower pricing than peak winter. Temps will be a little toastier (around 80s F, or high 20s/low 30s C), but most of the winter crowds will have died down, with the exception of spring breakers. This is the perfect time to visit, as long as you avoid those weeks &mdash; usually around Easter. And outside of Miami Beach, you&rsquo;re not likely to run into the crowds of drunk students, anyway.

Pro-Tip: If you&rsquo;re coming for spring break, don&rsquo;t set your sights on South Beach. It&rsquo;s overcrowded and can get dangerous. Allan suggests heading up to the beach along 30th Street or higher instead. The popular nightclubs are inland, anyway.
June-August
Absolutely not! Summer in Miami is unbearably hot, humid, rainy, and under hurricane threat. There&rsquo;s a good chance you won&rsquo;t even be able to go to the beach. Unless you feel like walking into a sauna to save a few bucks on hotel fees, these are black-out dates.&nbsp;
September-November
Temps start to cool off, but hurricanes remain a threat and rain stays frequent. It&rsquo;s not ideal, but if you really want those off-season budget rates, late October and November are far better than summer or early fall.

<h2 dir="ltr">Travel Style</h2>
If this is your first trip to the US, you&rsquo;ve chosen the right city! And if it&rsquo;s your fifteenth time, or if you&rsquo;re an American, you&rsquo;ve got a pretty laid-back trip ahead of you. Miami makes itself easy to visit. Hotels are abundant, easy to book, and often right on the beach. Everything is set up with tourists in mind.
If you do want a more active vacation, Miami can still deliver &mdash; hit the bike trails, or head over to the Everglades.

JFC's Guide To: Miami

A friend recently asked me if the whole of Turkey was as expensive as Istanbul Airport. Having been to Turkey (and both of Istanbul&rsquo;s airports) a few times, I never found myself baulking at the price of a meal out in the wild the way I did at the vendors in the airport.&nbsp;
But why on earth are Istanbul&rsquo;s airports <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-14614327/world-expensive-airport-revealed-Istanbul.html">so expensive</a>? The Turkish Lira fluctuates pretty rapidly, and it&rsquo;s certainly true that inflation in the country has pushed prices up a fair bit. From what I can tell, though, there&rsquo;s no obvious reason behind the surged airport snack costs other than the fact that they can. Like all airports, vendors there have a captive (and often under-prepared) audience.
I, too, have been one of the under-prepared. After a couple of run-ins with a &pound;10/$13 simit (for the uninitiated, that&rsquo;s a simple sesame-covered cross between a bagel and a pretzel) and a &pound;20+ off-brand fast food burger meal at Istanbul International, I had hopes that a layover at Istanbul&rsquo;s second airport would be kinder on the pocket.
How wrong I was.&nbsp;

Sabiha G&ouml;k&ccedil;en International, located on the Asian side of the Turkish metropolis, is a hub for domestic routes and Turkey&rsquo;s low-cost airline Pegasus. It&rsquo;s older and gloomier than IST &mdash; think office-style strip lighting and polystyrene roof tiles. Looking for a charging station? That in itself is a like a scavenger hunt. To say it&rsquo;s not exactly modern would be an understatement.
When I found myself there on the way to Cappadocia, I suspected that the prices might reflect that, and costs might not be so modern as those at the shiny, new Istanbul International. But, once again, I was faced with the choice of a &pound;10 simit, &pound;20 burger, &pound;15 Subway salad, etc. And don&rsquo;t even bother considering a beer!
Passing through once again on the way to Kyrgyzstan six months later, I wondered if maybe I&rsquo;d missed the reasonably-priced corner. Or maybe there was a little supermarket with cheaper snacks?&nbsp;
If a bottle of water that&rsquo;ll set you back &pound;5/$6 sounds good, then sure. But from my perspective, there was no cheap corner. So we opted for a proper meal at a proper restaurant, where at least I wouldn&rsquo;t regret wasting &pound;20+ on cold, soggy fries and a sad burger. There was simply no better option.
Lots of you JFC members passing through Istanbul will be transiting on a cheap flight to Asia or Africa, having already travelled 4+ hours and munched through the majority of your flight snacks. Others will just be heading in and out of Istanbul itself. Either way, you&rsquo;ll likely have at least a couple of hours to kill in the airport.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Surviving your layover in Istanbul</h2>
Here&rsquo;s how you can make it through your layover at Istanbul Airport or Sabiha G&ouml;k&ccedil;en without spending your entire travel budget: 
1. Bring a water bottle - preferably a big one!
This one is standard for lots of us these days, but never does it pay off more than when you&rsquo;re passing through Istanbul International Airport. There are more than 23 water fountains dotted around the airport, each one able to help you save $6 on bottled water from a shop.&nbsp;
But it&rsquo;s bad news for anyone passing through Sabiha G&ouml;k&ccedil;en &mdash; all recent information suggests that the airport is yet to install drinking water dispensers, and the tap water in the bathrooms is not potable. If you&rsquo;ve got a long onward journey, make sure you set some cash aside to stock up on bottled water at the airport.
Unfortunately, the best way around this is by bringing a particularly large water bottle that you were able to fill to the brim after security at your departure airport! 
2. Pre-order meals and drinks for your flight
Lots of airlines still include snacks and drinks in their service, especially on long-haul routes. But if you&rsquo;re travelling via Istanbul with Pegasus, you get the double whammy of Sabiha G&ouml;k&ccedil;en and a paid in-flight menu.&nbsp;
While prices onboard are far from cheap, they are generally more affordable than you&rsquo;ll find in the airport (water for &euro;3?!). The menu has two prices for everything &mdash; card or cash. Believe me when I say you want to pay by card, &lsquo;cause you&rsquo;ll save money almost every time. And if you order your meal in advance, you&rsquo;ll save 20% off in-flight prices.
If you can make it through your connection with only the squished cereal bars and the dregs of bottled water from your last flight, this is your best bet.

3. Spring for the airport lounge
A personal favourite of myself and Flight Finder Fran is the iGA Lounge at Istanbul Airport. Never has an airport lounge felt so good. The food is great, there are showers, you can book a massage, and you can while away your time people watching your fellow travellers from above.
Honestly, though, never have I seen an airport lounge so pricey. Coming in at the eye-watering sum of &pound;78/$104 at the time of writing, you&rsquo;d have to really enjoy every minute of the full four-hour window to make it worth coughing up for.&nbsp;
BUT if you travel a lot, appreciate an airport lounge, and haven&rsquo;t already done so, you should invest in an annual lounge pass membership, like Priority Pass or Dragon Pass. For $99/&pound;69, you get 12 months of reduced entry fees for thousands of lounges around the world (or you can pay more up-front for free entries). Even the basic passes take your &pound;78 iGA Lounge entry down to &pound;24 right away, which is about the cost of a burger and fries of questionable quality from the airport food court.&nbsp;
If you&rsquo;re an airline points collector with an airline-affiliated credit card, chances are you may have access to one of these passes anyway, so double check before you go! While I didn&rsquo;t use my Avios credit card perks to gain entry to the lounge, I did use my Avios to book a cheap business class flight back to Glasgow, thus gaining me lounge access. Turns out that was a great decision!
Side note: You may be wondering why I&rsquo;d go business class on a short-haul route in the first place? Flight prices from Istanbul back to Glasgow or Edinburgh were extortionate in peak summer, while the difference in Avios required to travel business class instead of economy was negligible. That got me lounge access in Istanbul and Heathrow, plus a free meal onboard both flights (between my lounge brekkies). Worth every point.

4. Pack a picnic
I kid you not, if ever there was an airport in which to unleash a platter of flattened sandwiches, squashed cereal bars and banged up apples from your backpack, it&rsquo;s either of Istanbul&rsquo;s airports. Especially if you&rsquo;re vegan or have other dietary restrictions &mdash; the selection available really doesn&rsquo;t cater to dairy-free choices
There are lots of spots where you can set up camp for a few hours, so don&rsquo;t be shy. Fill every last nook and cranny of your cabin bag with hearty snacks that&rsquo;ll keep you going.
5. Sleep it out
We can&rsquo;t all catch 40 winks on a plane like it&rsquo;s no big deal, so if you&rsquo;ve got a longer layover of 3 hours or more, you might want to catch up on some sleep. Cheaper than an airport hotel and located within the terminal itself, both airports have sleep pods you can pay for by the hour.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.istairport.com/en/services/discover/entertainment/iga-sleepod/?locale=en">Istanbul Airport&rsquo;s iGA Sleepods</a> look like some kind of cryogenic chamber from a sci-fi film, while Sabiha G&ouml;k&ccedil;en leans more into the <a href="https://www.keplerclub.com/resting-units">human filing cabinet</a> approach. On their way to Kyrgyzstan, Flight Finders Kash and Kristi were able to simply show up and file themselves away for a snooze without booking in advance. Kash says it was a super comfy sleep, too!
And when an hour&rsquo;s kip costs less than a croissant, I&rsquo;d say you&rsquo;re probably onto something.

<h2 dir="ltr">Getting to Istanbul&rsquo;s Airports</h2>
Another part of what makes Istanbul&rsquo;s airports pricey can be getting between the airports and the city. Thankfully, Flight Finder Larissa has spent a lot of time in Istanbul and knows aaalllll the tricks. Here&rsquo;s her ultimate guide to travelling between Istanbul airports and the city centre:
 So, how do you get from one of Istanbul&rsquo;s airports to the city centre? Well, it depends on which airport you&rsquo;re flying into (unsurprisingly!). Both airports are a fair distance from the city centre, so it&rsquo;s worth keeping in mind that it&rsquo;s going to take you at least an hour to get where you want to go, regardless where you land.&nbsp;
Before I go any further: a taxi/rideshare is usually the worst option to/from either airport. Taxis are notoriously expensive in Istanbul (tourist markup is a real thing!), and depending on the time of day you&rsquo;re travelling, there may be hours of traffic you&rsquo;ll need to sit through.&nbsp;
The only time I would advise a taxi rather than public transport is if it&rsquo;s at a weird hour of the night, or if door-to-door transport is more important than worrying about the cost.&nbsp;
There are plenty of taxis hanging around outside each airport, so you&rsquo;ll have no trouble finding a driver. You can also call a taxi via Uber, which will help if you&rsquo;d like to have some idea of how much your journey will cost ahead of time.&nbsp;

For both airports, your main public transport options each airport are: 
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Metro</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Shuttle bus&nbsp; </li>
</ul>
Istanbul Airport (IST)&nbsp;
This airport is the city&rsquo;s &lsquo;main&rsquo; airport, located on the European side. It&rsquo;s only relatively new, having relocated there from the old IST airport in 2019. Because of this, the metro didn&rsquo;t actually link up to the airport until 2023, which has since opened up more efficient connections to the city centre.&nbsp;
 Metro&nbsp;
There&rsquo;s only one metro line that runs from the airport to the city, and you will likely need to change lines along the way to reach your destination. Presuming you&rsquo;re heading towards Taksim Square or the Historical Peninsula, you&rsquo;ll need to <a href="https://www.metro.istanbul/en/YolcuHizmetleri/AgHaritalari">swap from the M11 line to the M2</a>. Travelling to or from Taksim Square, the entire journey takes about 1 hr 20 minutes in total.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s worth noting that you can use your bank card for contactless payment on all metros/buses/ferries within the city, except for the M11 line from the airport. Instead, you&rsquo;ll need to buy an Istanbulkart from the machines in the terminal, and then load it up with cash for the first part of your journey (around 25TL, plus the 60TL needed to buy the card).&nbsp;
This journey comes in at around &pound;1.65/$2.20 in total.&nbsp; 
 Shuttle Bus
Locals and tourists alike use the regular shuttle buses between IST and the city centre, serviced by <a href="https://www.istairport.com/en/airport/airport-transportation/?locale=en">Havaist</a>. You&rsquo;ll be able to jump off the bus at Taksim Square, Kadık&ouml;y, or even the other airport. The journey time depends on the time of day and the traffic &mdash; it could take 40 minutes if the traffic is light, or closer to an hour and a half during peak times.&nbsp;
You&rsquo;ll find the bus tickets and the buses themselves on level -2 at IST airport (below the ground floor). Ask the bus driver to confirm where the bus is going before you get on, as it&rsquo;s not always clear from the signs. At the ticket counter, you can pay via cash or card (67TL).&nbsp;
This is your cheapest option, at only &pound;1.30/$1.75.

Sabiha Gokcen Airport (SAW)&nbsp;
As Katy mentioned, the secondary airport in Istanbul is on the Asian side of the city. As a tourist, you&rsquo;ll likely be staying on the European side, which means it&rsquo;s technically the less convenient airport to fly in/out of, depending on the time of day you&rsquo;re travelling &mdash; but you can&rsquo;t argue with a cheap flight!
 Shuttle Bus
Just like IST, you&rsquo;ll find frequent shuttle services between SAW and the city centre, this time via <a href="https://www.havabus.com/">Havabus</a>. This company also drops off at similarly popular stops in the city, like Taksim Square, Kadık&ouml;y, as well as an additional stop on the Asian side of the city.&nbsp;
Because of the location of the airport, it&rsquo;s even more important to keep in mind that traffic conditions are going to dictate how long your bus will take to reach the city centre. For example, if you land early to mid-morning, you&rsquo;ll likely be stuck in peak traffic going towards the European side, and so the journey could take up to 2 hours.&nbsp;
You&rsquo;ll find Havabus shuttles outside the arrivals terminal on the left, and tickets are available on the bus with cash (283,50TL), or via the ticket kiosk in the grey building next to the buses.&nbsp;
The total for this journey comes to around &pound;5.50/$7.30. 
Metro/Ferry
There is a metro line (M4) from SAW to Kadık&ouml;y (a main station on the Asian side of the Bosphorus). From there, you&rsquo;ll be able to catch a bus to your hotel if you&rsquo;re staying on the Asian side.
However, if your hotel is on the European side, you can catch the ferry from Kadık&ouml;y across to Kabataş or Karak&ouml;y, and take a connecting bus or tram. The downside is that the metro and bus/ferry combination is typically slower than the shuttle bus, especially if your hotel is on the European side. But at least it&rsquo;ll come in nice and cheap, around &pound;1&ndash;&pound;1.50/$1.50&ndash;$2 depending on your route.
Side note: I highly recommend you take the ferry at least once during your trip to Istanbul! It&rsquo;s cheap (around 25TL), takes 20-minutes, and offers the best views of the skyline!

If you&rsquo;ve made it this far, JFC-er, you must be in serious Istanbul trip-planning mode! You&rsquo;ll almost certainly have an excellent time, and hopefully our tips will ensure you have some change left over to buy a fridge magnet :-)&nbsp;

Surviving Istanbul's Airports

Formerly known as Saigon (a name still used by locals and hashtags alike), Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam&rsquo;s most populous city, and the gateway to the Mekong Delta. Alongside Hanoi, it&rsquo;s one of the two major international hubs that you&rsquo;re likely to arrive at on a trip to Vietnam, however few tourists take the time to visit the city itself. 
During 2024&rsquo;s Black Friday sales, I managed to make my Vietnamese dreams come true and grab a really great fare from London to Ho Chi Minh City for &pound;454 return. Before heading north to Hoi An, I spent 4 days moving to the beat of Saigon&rsquo;s drum. Here&rsquo;s everything you need to know to get yourself sipping&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lordlucy.com/post/vietnamese-iced-coffee">c&agrave; ph&ecirc; sữa d&aacute;</a> in no time!
 A quick note on the links in this guide: we&rsquo;re not affiliated with any external sites we&rsquo;ve chosen to include, so we&rsquo;re not getting any kick-backs or commission. We&rsquo;ve only included resources we think will genuinely be useful to help you make a decision on whether this destination is for you.

<h2 dir="ltr">Getting There</h2>
Ho Chi Minh City is a relatively easy city to reach by air from all over the world.&nbsp;
Vietnam&rsquo;s national carrier, Vietnam Airlines, operates non-stop routes to major hubs in Europe, like London, Paris, Frankfurt and Munich. They also offer connections to major cities across Asia and Australia, as well as one non-stop route across the Pacific to San Francisco.
Connecting flights are even easier to come by, with cheaper fares taking you via China and India, or fancier airlines like Emirates, Singapore Airlines, and Cathay Pacific offering layovers at their hubs.

Here&rsquo;s a handy JFC guide on what to expect when booking your flight to SGN:
From Europe:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average JFC price range: &euro;480&ndash;&euro;580 rtn</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 8+</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: &euro;306 rtn</li>
</ul>
From the UK:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average JFC price range: &pound;420&ndash;&pound;480 rtn</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 8+</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: &pound;330 rtn</li>
</ul>
From the USA:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average JFC price range: $650&ndash;$850 RT</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 8+</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: $483 RT</li>
</ul>
From Canada:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Expected average JFC price range: $900-$1000 RT</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How many cheap flight alerts we&rsquo;d expect in a year: 6+</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Lowest price we&rsquo;ve ever seen: $750 RT </li>
</ul>
Of course, you might be into the idea of ticking off a few more places in Southeast Asia during your trip, like Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. There is a huge range of flights available between Ho Chi Minh City, the rest of Vietnam, and other Asian hubs, both with budget airlines such as Vietjet, and with the national carrier, Vietnam Airlines.
When planning any international transfers, allow plenty of time to navigate security and immigration at Tan Son Nhat International Airport. The lines are long and checks can be quite thorough &mdash; the whole process took me around 1 hour without any complications.
The Domestic terminal is a different story &mdash; check-in/bag drop, security, and finding your gate is all very straightforward. You&rsquo;ll probably find that arriving in this terminal is the more time-consuming part, especially if you need a bus transfer to the terminal or have checked luggage. There are so many domestic flights here that it can take ages for things to move and your bags to be delivered (and the air conditioning in the baggage hall is not cut out for the heat!).

Pre-book an airport transfer, regardless of which terminal you arrive at &mdash; this will take at least some of the chaos out of navigating an otherwise hectic and poorly signposted arrivals area! I got mine via Booking.com after making my hotel reservation, which made the whole transfer process seamless. If you want a cheaper option once you arrive, the local ride-share app, Grab, felt safe and easy to navigate.&nbsp;

Katy's Pro Tip

Ho Chi Minh is also well-connected via bus and rail. Vietnam itself has an extensive rail network running the length of the country, from the Chinese border in the north, all the way to Ho Chi Minh City in the south.&nbsp;
Sleeper trains and <a href="https://vinpearl.com/en/sleeper-bus-in-vietnam-ultimate-comfort-for-your-journey">luxury sleeper buses</a> offer lots of comfortable options that&rsquo;ll help you avoid short-haul flights across SE Asia. From HCMC, you can reach Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in around 6 hours by bus, where there are onward rail connections towards Thailand. If you want to visit Laos, you&rsquo;ll first have to head north from HCMC to Hue, or all the way up to Hanoi.
For context, the train between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi takes around 35 hours and stops off at all the major cities along the coast, including Nha Trang, Da Nang (for Hoi An), Hue, and Ninh Binh. If you enjoy the journey as much as the destination, this is a great way to see the country. Just make sure you book a <a href="https://www.seat61.com/Vietnam.htm#what-are-vietnamese-trains-like">&lsquo;soft sleeper&rsquo; cabin</a>, otherwise you might be in for a rocky ride.
We recommend the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.seat61.com/Vietnam.htm#hanoi-hue-danang-saigon-by-train">Man in Seat 61</a> for up-to-date info on trains in Vietnam and onward connections to other parts of Southeast Asia.

<h2 dir="ltr">Visas</h2>
Whether or not you need a visa to visit Vietnam will depend on the passport you hold. From the UK and much of Europe, you can stay for up to 45 days without a visa, while visitors from the USA and Canada are usually eligible for an e-visa. These should be requested in advance, and cost 25 USD for a single entry or 50 USD for multiple entries at the time of publishing (May 2025).
The rules for each country are updated regularly, so it&rsquo;s important to check your own government guidelines before travelling.
Note: The palm-fringed island of Phu Quoc in the Gulf of Thailand is <a href="https://vietnamvisavoa.com/phu-quoc-visa-waiver-for-foreigners-updated-2024-a252">exempt from all Vietnamese visa requirements</a> for up to 30 days. This only applies if you travel directly to and from Phu Quoc without visiting any other area of Vietnam (connecting flights on the way there or back within Vietnam are allowed).

<h2 dir="ltr">Cash &amp; Currency</h2>
The currency in Vietnam is the đồng (VND), though you&rsquo;re unlikely to ever see one đồng on its own. At the time of publishing (May 2025), $1 USD was worth around 26,000 đồng &mdash; just enough for a local beer in a comfy bar.
Your money will likely go a long way in Vietnam, with a bed in a hostel dorm costing less than 200,000 VND per night ($8/&pound;6/&euro;7.50), and 5-star accommodations for under $100/night.
Vietnam is generally a cash-based society. You&rsquo;ll be able to pay by card in hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and chain stores like 7-Eleven, but you definitely need cash for shopping at local independent businesses or street vendors.&nbsp;
Vietnamese đồng is not a closed currency, meaning you can purchase it outside the country by ordering from your local bank or exchange office before your trip. However, ATMs and exchange services are widely available in the big cities in Vietnam, so you don&rsquo;t need to bring large amounts of VND with you.&nbsp;

Head to jewelry and gold shops to exchange your USD &mdash; they usually offer the best rates! If you need to withdraw cash from a local ATM, use Tpbank and VP Bank to avoid extra fees.

<h2 dir="ltr">Seasonality</h2>
Vietnam is a very long country, so the weather and climate can vary quite a lot from north to south. There are two main seasons in Ho Chi Minh City: wet and dry. But of course, it&rsquo;s not that clear-cut, so let&rsquo;s break it down:
<h3 dir="ltr">December&ndash;February</h3>
You can expect pretty stable weather conditions during the winter months &mdash; daytime temperatures average around 30 &deg;C/86 &deg;F, falling to around 22 &deg;C/72 &deg;F at night. There may be a little rain, but it won&rsquo;t last long. In fact, you&rsquo;ll be glad of a little respite from the humidity!
Lunar New Year (aka Tết) is a major event in Ho Chi Minh City. The date changes every year, but it usually takes place sometime between late January and mid-February.&nbsp;
The two weeks following Tet tend to make the city a little quieter than usual, with many local businesses closing for staff to spend time with their families. Aside from Lunar New Year&rsquo;s Day itself, though, the usual visitor attractions remain open throughout.
Streets, shops, bars, and restaurants across the city are all decked out in red lanterns and yellow trees adorned with traditional red envelopes.&nbsp;
The celebrations on Lunar New Year&rsquo;s Eve itself involve a huge fireworks display, which you should absolutely enjoy from one of the city&rsquo;s many rooftop bars. If you&rsquo;re looking for somewhere central, I recommend <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g293925-d5774553-Reviews-The_View_Rooftop_Bar_Eatery-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html">The View</a>, tucked away atop a hotel, above the madness of Bui Vien Walking Street.

<h3 dir="ltr">March&ndash;May</h3>
The temperature starts climbing in March, with April typically being the hottest month of the year. You can expect it to get up to 38 &deg;C/100 &deg;F during the day. May stays pretty toasty, but it&rsquo;s also when the major downpours start. The humidity definitely starts picking up in April as it moves towards the monsoon season.
<h3 dir="ltr">June&ndash;August</h3>
The summer months are that hair-frizzing combination of hot and humid, sitting around 30 &deg;C/86 &deg;F. You&rsquo;ll likely be in for some rain showers, but they tend to come hard and fast, then clear quickly, so lounging by the pool is still an option.
<h3 dir="ltr">September&ndash;November</h3>
September and October are the wettest months of the year in Ho Chi Minh City. The average rainfall doubles, and skies tend to be pretty cloudy. It&rsquo;s the ideal time to pack your rain jacket and grab an off-season hotel bargain, avoiding the usual tourist crowds at the major sights. Don&rsquo;t be fooled, though &mdash; the city is always busy!
Vietnam&rsquo;s Independence Day celebrations take place on September 2nd each year. If you&rsquo;re in Ho Chi Minh City during this time, you&rsquo;ll be able to catch a day of parades, street performances, and fireworks displays.&nbsp;

2025 marks 50 years since Ho Chi Minh (or "Uncle Ho," as they call him) declared independence from France, so expect these celebrations to go bigger and better!

<h2 dir="ltr">Travel Style</h2>
Ho Chi Minh City is big and buzzing.&nbsp;But despite the hubbub, the city vibes are pretty relaxed on the whole &mdash; street-front coffee and tea shops are the go-to meeting places, usually overflowing with caffeine-seekers lounging by the roadside.&nbsp;
Solo (female) travellers should feel pretty safe going it alone in Ho Chi Minh City. You&rsquo;ll rarely find yourself alone on a darkened street, and despite the hustle and bustle, people rarely invade your personal space here.
LGBTQ+ travellers in Vietnam, particularly in a large city like Saigon, are unlikely to face particular discrimination. Same-sex relationships have never been criminalized in Vietnam, and the ban on same-sex marriage was lifted in 2015.&nbsp;
That said, Vietnam as a whole is a fairly reserved country, so public displays of affection are uncommon and will probably draw stares, regardless of your gender or sexual orientation.&nbsp;
Ho Chi Minh City&rsquo;s gay scene is small but lively. Keep an eye on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/fulldisclosure_vn/?hl=en">Full Disclosure Entertainment</a>&rsquo;s regular schedule of comedy, music and drag nights, or head to one of the <a href="https://housingsgn.com/top-10-vibrant-lgbt-bars-to-explore-in-saigon/">many LGBTQ+ bars</a>. Bonus points for a roof terrace!

<h2 dir="ltr">Getting Around</h2>
I&rsquo;ll be honest, getting around Ho Chi Minh City can be pretty hectic. The roads are packed with mopeds, and just <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/vietnam-where-learning-to-cross-the-road-isnt-childs-play">crossing the street on foot can be a whole ordeal</a>.&nbsp;
Public transportation in the city is not the most elaborate. <a href="https://hochiminhcitymetro.com/line-1/">Ho Chi Minh City&rsquo;s first metro line</a> opened in December 2024, connecting the downtown area of District 1 with the very north of the city. There&rsquo;s not much that would take visitors all the way up there, other than <a href="https://english.suoitien.vn/">Suoi Tien Theme Park</a>, self-proclaimed as the &lsquo;most weird park in Vietnam.&rsquo; However, the metro is pretty convenient for getting between the more central sights without breaking a sweat.
Being pretty new, the stations are shiny and modern. There are three ways to <a href="https://vinpearl.com/en/ho-chi-minh-city-metro#2.3.+Buying+the+metro+tickets">buy your tickets</a>:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Tap your contactless bank card at the ticket gate, and the fare will be automatically deducted.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Download the HCMC Metro app and purchase a ticket. You&rsquo;ll get a QR code ticket to scan on your phone.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Purchase a paper ticket from the counter in the metro station &mdash; both cash and card payments are accepted.</li>
</ul>
The city is currently building a network of 6 metro lines, 2 monorails, a tram line, and a light rail airport link. But until those are completed, public buses are your best bet. There are over 150 different lines, but thankfully Google Maps knows where they all go and will tell you the best route to take to your destination.
While the buses are cheap, you should expect them to be busy, and often a little slow. You&rsquo;ll need to pay in cash once you board &mdash; usually 6,000&ndash;7,000 VND &mdash; and the driver can give you change if necessary.
With the heat and traffic getting quite intense at times, I&rsquo;d recommend downloading the <a href="https://www.travelvietnam.com/traffic-transportation/grab-in-vietnam-uber-alternative-of-vietnam.html">Grab ride-share app</a> and using that to get around when you&rsquo;re travelling longer distances.&nbsp;
You&rsquo;ll need to provide personal details, including a passport number, when you sign up. But after that, it works just like the ride-share apps you&rsquo;re used to back home. As a bonus, you can even opt for the full Ho Chi Minh City moped experience and request a GrabBike &mdash; don&rsquo;t worry, the driver will provide a helmet!

<h2 dir="ltr">Useful Links</h2>
Local Vietnam <a href="https://localvietnam.com/travel-guide/things-to-do/ho-chi-minh-city/">Ho Chi Minh City Travel Guide</a> &mdash; great all-rounder site for any extra info and destination inspo you might need
<a href="https://www.seat61.com/Vietnam.htm#hanoi-hue-danang-saigon-by-train">The Man in Seat 61</a> &mdash; primarily info on trains in Vietnam and beyond, but also mentions where to grab onward bus connections

JFC's Guide To: Ho Chi Minh City

This article was originally published in the detour in January 2024

"Q: Hi!
I&rsquo;m moving to Canada next year on a Working Holiday visa and plan to see as much of the country as I can over the course of a year. Do you have any recommendations for any fun/exciting ways to get around Canada without a car? I know this means missing out on some areas but buying a car will be way too expensive initially (can definitely hire one for a short time though).
Thank you!"

Sounds like you&rsquo;ve got an exciting year ahead of you, reader! Canada is a large and fairly expensive country, so you&rsquo;ll understandably want to be picky about where and how you spend your money on travel. Here are a few tips for making the most of it before resorting to car hire:

<h2>Train travel</h2>
Trains are the obvious choice here, if you&rsquo;re looking for a comfortable and somewhat relaxing way to get between cities, or even across the country, while also soaking up the varied landscapes. But they can be pricey, and the <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://www.viarail.ca/en/explore-our-destinations/trains">limited route map</a> is far from convenient when you want to get off the beaten path.
So when is it worth choosing the train in Canada? Well, for a really memorable trip between Toronto and Vancouver, hop aboard the <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/via-rail-the-canadian-review-longest-train-ride-north-america?r=US&amp;IR=T">&lsquo;Canadian&rsquo;</a>. Over four days, it moves from city to city, passing through lakes, prairies, and Rockies, and it won&rsquo;t even cost you an arm and a leg&hellip; if you go for <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://www.seat61.com/train-from-toronto-to-vancouver.htm#How_much_does_it_cost">standard seating</a>.

According to Flight Finder Fran, it&rsquo;s the 30-ish-hour <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://www.seat61.com/montreal-to-halifax-by-train.htm#Whats_the_journey_like">&lsquo;Ocean&rsquo; route</a> between Montreal and Halifax that is worth splashing the cash on, though. After leaving the cobblestone streets of Montreal, you&rsquo;ll meander along rivers, through hills and forests, past lighthouses and rocky bays, all the way to Halifax, on the vast Atlantic Coast.
Regardless whether you take one of these long, scenic trips or you&rsquo;re just hopping to the next city over, there are a few ways to cut costs: by booking early (yawn), making your booking on <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://www.viarail.ca/en/fares-and-packages/discount-tuesday">Discount Tuesday</a>, and by signing up for the VIA Rail loyalty programme.
While there are also bus services between the cities on the East Coast, the real way locals get around high train fares is in cars&mdash;but not always their own.
<h2>Ride-sharing</h2>
Anyone who watched Race Across the World series 3 will remember some of the <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://youtu.be/ExkaOH96n-Q?si=Mio1ypqTySz49583">highs and lows</a> faced by competitors trying to hitch a ride across remote Western Canada. Luckily for you, reader, you presumably won&rsquo;t be faced with the same lack of internet access and tight schedule as those on the show.
Facebook is the go-to for finding a lift through a ride-share group&mdash;just search, e.g., &lsquo;Canada ride-share&rsquo;, and you&rsquo;ll have plenty to choose from. Post your departure, destination, and travel dates, and cross your fingers that someone will metaphorically swipe right on your trip.
Generally speaking, you&rsquo;ll be expected to contribute cash towards the journey, and on some longer trips, you may find that the person offering the ride wants to share driving duties. If you&rsquo;re uneasy about the casual arrangements and security of a Facebook ride, <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://www.poparide.com/how-it-works">Poparide</a> is a local app that makes it all a little more formal.
The best thing about ride-sharing is that you don&rsquo;t have to miss out on any of those areas you really want to see without buying a car. Of course, sometimes it&rsquo;ll be a little harder to get exactly where you want to go&mdash;maybe you&rsquo;ll only be able to find a ride 50 miles down the road (apparently that&rsquo;s close in Canada). Well, that&rsquo;s where hitchhiking comes in&hellip;

<h2>Hitchhiking</h2>
There are a couple of things to consider before hitchhiking in Canada.
Firstly, like anywhere, is <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://backcountrycanadatravel.com/getting-around-canada/hitchhikers-guide/">safety</a>. Just because we consider Canada to be a generally safe country does not mean that hitch-hiking is entirely risk-free. As well as keeping your wits about you and plenty of charge in your phone, a can of <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/mtn/ours-bears/securite-safety/gaz-spray">bear spray</a> never hurts for those long rural waits.
Secondly, hitchhiking is <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://abrokenbackpack.com/hitchhiking-canada/#Is_Hitchhiking_Legal_In_Canada">not always legal</a> in Canada! In most cases, you can&rsquo;t just stand at the side of the highway and with your thumb out and a cardboard sign in hand. But what you can do is stand with your thumb out and a cardboard sign in hand at a petrol station by the entrance to the highway.
Smaller roads are fine, though, and you likely won&rsquo;t have such a long wait. People on quieter roads in smaller communities tend to be quicker to help out.
In fact, the <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://adventure.com/hitchhiking-canada-advice/">vast majority</a> of hitching experiences will be pleasant, and the people who stop for you anywhere will be well-intentioned. It can be an incredibly rewarding way to see the country and meet locals you&rsquo;d never have encountered otherwise.
Hopefully that&rsquo;s given you a few ideas, reader. You&rsquo;ll find lots more ideas from our members over on our <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/577601325929066/search/?q=canada">Facebook community</a>, including advice on <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://harbourair.com/tours/?depart=vancouver">seaplane trips over Vancouver</a>, wineries in the <a style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'Work Sans',Helvetica, Arial !important; color: #0ebfff;" href="https://okanaganwines.ca/wineries/">Okanagan Valley</a> and more. Everyone there is more than happy to help, so ask away with all your travel questions!

Exploring Canada Without a Car

You guys might have seen some pretty scary headlines about Newark International Airport in the last few weeks: runway closures, air traffic controller shortages, terrible weather, massive delays. And all that right as the peak summer travel season is about to kick off. So, what is happening at Newark Airport right now?
As the resident US airport nerd/aficionado/weirdo here at Jack&rsquo;s Flight Club, I&rsquo;m here to break it all down for you and soothe (or exacerbate) any worries you might have. There are two main causes; Newark Airport has closed one of its two main runways for construction, while the national Air Traffic Control (ATC) shortage has also been hitting the airport especially hard.

Runway Construction: Newark is an old airport that has been undergoing renovations for years. The busiest runway at the airport has needed renovations for a few years, and they&rsquo;re finally doing it now. That meant weekend closures in March&ndash;April and, since April 15th, a full closure through June 15th. Only two runways instead of three has made traffic far worse, as only one runway can handle wide-body jets, and the other is barely long enough for narrow-bodies.
Air Traffic Controller Shortage: This has been a nationwide issue for a few years, but it&rsquo;s gotten far worse recently. When hundreds of government employees at the Federal Aviation Administration were laid off earlier this year, an already-thin department quickly became thinner. The FAA now claims they&rsquo;re 3,000 air traffic controllers short of where they hope to be for most efficient operations.
New York City has the busiest airspace in the country, which has only made this shortage worse. Newark ATCs were moved from a facility in the area to one in Philadelphia, about 60 miles away. That facility has outdated technology, which last week led to a 90-second radar drop. Thankfully, nothing happened in that time, but several ATCs have taken medical leave following the traumatic incident, affected by the knowledge that something could have gone very wrong.
Further Newark Airport Chaos: May is the start of the peak travel season, meaning an increase in flights and travelers going through Newark compared to a few months ago. Plus, the weather in the New York area has been pretty miserable the last few weeks, further delaying and cancelling flights.&nbsp;
So, combine fewer air traffic controllers and fewer runways with more travelers, and you have a perfect formula to create a massive bottleneck at the US&rsquo;s 12th-busiest airport. But there is a solution on the horizon.
For one, the runway will open back up in a few weeks, even if it has to close again on weekends. That should alleviate some concerns. Additionally, more ATCs are being called in from Long Island to fill gaps, and those on medical leave will hopefully be able to return to work before long. Lastly, United (which carries about 63% of traffic at Newark) has already begun to roll back some flights from the airport to help calm this storm. So, while the situation might be at its worst now, it should improve relatively soon.&nbsp;

That being said, if you are due to fly from Newark in the coming weeks, it&rsquo;s probably best to avoid the airport if you can spare the cash to book another. Your flight might get off the ground totally normally, but there&rsquo;s a much greater chance of drama than at other New York area airports.
That&rsquo;s my quick insight into the chaos going on at EWR right now, but to be honest, it has never been my favorite airport. As a reward for making it all the way to the bottom of this info dump, let me rant about my own experience at Newark in 2023.&nbsp;
I got to the airport 3 hours early for the hour-long flight up to Rochester, New York, for my brother&rsquo;s university graduation. After a $50 dinner and catching some playoff basketball, I got to the gate for the 10 PM flight. And then the first delay hit, then the next, and another, until finally, at midnight, a cancellation was announced due to a mechanical issue on our plane.
I was panicking. The graduation was at 4 PM the next day and the plane was absolutely full, creating a super long line at the United help desk. I checked Google Flights and noticed a 7 AM flight from JFK on Delta with only 2 seats left. I booked as quickly as I could, and hopped in a far too expensive Uber back to my Brooklyn apartment. 
While in the Uber an hour later, I received a notification from United: they had rescheduled the flight for 10 AM that morning. Lovely information that I would have really appreciated a little earlier, say, right when we were first cancelled&hellip;
In the end, I made the graduation on about 2 hours of sleep and had a good time with my family. But I have since added Newark to my *ONLY WHEN NECESSARY* list, along with &ldquo;walking instead&rdquo; and &ldquo;seaplane?&rdquo;&nbsp;

Runway Closures, Delays, ATC shortages, and More: What's Happening at Newark Airport?

<h1>Paris Travel Dupes</h1>
This article was originally published in the Detour in January 2024

I&rsquo;m not a big one for leaning into travel trends&mdash;go where your heart truly desires, I say! But if your heart&nbsp;reeeeally wants to go &ldquo;somewhere like Paris but not so touristy,&rdquo; then maybe the travel dupes trend is actually for you.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s be clear, I&rsquo;m not talking about going somewhere that looks exactly like Paris&mdash;short of a visit to Vegas, you&rsquo;re not going to get a selfie with the Eiffel Tower anywhere else. TikTokers jumping on the bandwagon are all about finding somewhere &ldquo;better&rdquo; than the original destination, but for me, it&rsquo;s more about getting to the heart of what you want from a trip and looking for places that offer a similar experience.&nbsp;
So, what is it that visitors want from a trip to Paris? Romantic sunset strolls along the Seine, world-class art and stunning architecture&hellip; some really tasty baked goods and great wine? Unsurprisingly, these are all things you can find elsewhere, too.

We&rsquo;ll start with a suggestion to satisfy anyone wanting to practise their French: Rouen, the capital of Normandy. At first glance, it&rsquo;s a little more industrial than Paris, but stick with me&mdash;it still checks a bunch of boxes!&nbsp;
For those leisurely strolls, you&rsquo;ve got the Seine running through the centre of town. But here, I&rsquo;d say it&rsquo;s best enjoyed as part of the panorama from atop&nbsp;<a href="https://en.visiterouen.com/heritages/nature/the-sainte-catherine-hill-in-rouen/?lid=16g46ynjyt1i">Saint Catherine&rsquo;s Hill</a>. Even&nbsp;<a href="https://arthive.com/claudemonet/works/324044~General_view_of_Rouen_from_the_hill_of_St_Catherine?lid=sttgycdmn1sl">Monet</a>&nbsp;found the views inspiring!
The steeple towering above the rest of the old town belongs to none other than Rouen&rsquo;s own Notre-Dame Cathedral, which spends its summer evenings&nbsp;<a href="https://en.visiterouen.com/heritages/history/the-cathedral-intimate-and-flamboyant/cathedral-of-light/?lid=mgwjjzgs6r0x">bathing in illuminations</a>. And then there&rsquo;s the Gothic church of Saint-Laurent, worth a visit for its unusual museum packed with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.clarkart.edu/microsites/the-art-of-iron/exhibition-(4)?lid=1kppg9ufbm2d">wrought iron works of art</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Just walking through the medieval cobblestone streets will keep you entertained, though. You can hunt down the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, admire the city&rsquo;s astronomical clock from inside and out, and duck in and out of cheese shops (or&nbsp;<a href="https://rouen-bouge.fr/en/fromagerie-bar-bickett-le-premier-bar-a-fromage-de-rouen/?lid=7c1buui4kcaf">cheese&nbsp;bars</a>!) along the way. It&rsquo;d be rude not to sample&nbsp;<a href="https://www.butterfield.com/get-inspired/calvados-a-norman-tradition?lid=c6qz0tgyl3zl">the local tipples</a>, too!

My second suggestion takes us a hop northeast to the Belgian city of Antwerp. This one has already popped up on social media as a suggested Paris &ldquo;dupe&rdquo;, but I actually think it fits more for Amsterdam. That said, I can definitely get behind it from a more historical destination angle.&nbsp;
The&nbsp;<a href="https://aviewoncities.com/antwerp/meir?lid=gv26bcxfilcb">grand boulevards</a>&nbsp;lined with historic buildings, luxury shopping galleries, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1977614/worlds-most-beautiful-train-station-antwerp-belgium" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UNESCO-protected train station</a>&nbsp;all play a major role in setting the tone for the city. Add in the&nbsp;<a href="https://rubenshuis.be/en?lid=t7w2lwhzp3yz">Italian-style palazzo</a>&nbsp;surrounded by lush gardens and stuffed to the brim with Baroque art, and you&rsquo;ve probably got a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Don&rsquo;t worry, Antwerp also has a&nbsp;<a href="https://aviewoncities.com/antwerp/cathedral-of-our-lady?lid=66rfuoyvo8l3">Cathedral of Our Lady</a>&nbsp;for you to visit, complete with more works of art by Rubens and an effigy of Isabella of Bourbon. Bonus activity for anyone who isn&rsquo;t claustrophobic or afraid of heights: free guided tours of the cathedral include the opportunity to climb the small cathedral tower. For the full belfry experience, you&rsquo;ll need to stop by the&nbsp;<a href="https://museumvleeshuis.be/en?lid=jxxel7fzludw">Museum Vleeshuis</a>&nbsp;interactive music museum.
Antwerp also takes care of you boat-trip fans. The Scheldt River is teeming with life&mdash;between the waterbuses connecting the city and the tours that take you around the harbour, you won&rsquo;t lack an opportunity to get on the water. The sunset strolls may&nbsp;<a href="https://www.livetheworld.com/activities/belgium/walking-the-quays?lid=stf13yveldwv">look a little different</a>&nbsp;here than Paris, but they can definitely still be romantic.

My final Parisian alternative is Bucharest, Romania. You can probably surmise from its nickname, &ldquo;Little Paris of the East,&rdquo; that I&rsquo;m far from the first person to suggest that Bucharest might indeed remind you of the French capital.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;ll get the most obvious reason out of the way first: the&nbsp;<a href="https://visitbucharest.today/arch-of-triumph/?lid=848le7bda3sc">Arcul de Triumf</a>. In fact, much of the architecture in Bucharest wouldn&rsquo;t feel at all out of place in Paris. As well as an old town packed with cafe-lined cobblestone streets and hidden courtyards, you&rsquo;ll soon encounter the imposing tree-lined boulevard that was specifically&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulevardul_Unirii?lid=r5k2goalrxk9">designed to rival the Champs-&Eacute;lys&eacute;es</a>.&nbsp;
The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/muzeul-micul-paris-little-paris-museum?lid=mqb4ptyey4d1">Muzeul Micul Paris</a>&nbsp;(Museum of Little Paris) is a good place to get a feel for where the nickname came from. It celebrates Bucharest&rsquo;s golden age in a staged bourgeois house that&rsquo;ll take you right back to the late 19th century.&nbsp;&nbsp;
But Bucharest does have remarkable landmarks of its own as well! Located at the end of Bulevardul Unirii, the&nbsp;<a href="https://visitbucharest.today/palace-of-parliament/?lid=5hcqn3bipel2">Palace of the Parliament</a>&nbsp;is hands-down one of the most jaw-dropping buildings I&rsquo;ve ever seen. It&rsquo;s the largest civilian building in the world, and apparently also the heaviest and most expensive.
There are loads of excellent spots to stop around the city for a browse or a bite to eat, like the beautiful&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C3Som5Do3VU/?hl=en&amp;lid=5wjr5drihwe8">Carturesti Carusel</a>&nbsp;bookshop and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.carucubere.ro/en/venue/?lid=8gs68s5eupwo">Caru&rsquo; cu bere</a>&nbsp;restaurant. And come the evening, you can pop into a&nbsp;<a href="https://draculasguidetoromania.com/2023/10/15/wonderful-wine-bars-bucharest/?lid=i0iuwb5l64s3">cosy little wine bar</a>&nbsp;and find out just how well the local produce rivals Paris&rsquo;.
Now we&rsquo;ve got a few options lined up instead of the City of Lights, your brain might be ticking away thinking about &ldquo;dupes&rdquo; for other destinations. Here are a few ideas to consider:

<ul>
<li>Switch the Maldives for Malaysia. Already popular with diving enthusiasts, the white sand beaches and overwater bungalows of Sipadan and Langkayan just scream relaxation. Or for more budget options, pick the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.timetravelturtle.com/malaysia/perhentian-islands/?lid=bmlbh6zoeah1">Perhentian Islands</a>.</li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>Want the big city vibe without the Big Apple price tag? Head to Chicago. Walk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.the606.org/?lid=trh43lwi3ros">The 606&nbsp;</a>instead of the High Line, sip a cocktail while taking in the views at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C6uxcxDLcxE/?lid=k7176azc4l0y">Cindy&rsquo;s</a>, catch a show at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.secondcity.com/history?lid=x9wzz5t5cgtk">Second City</a>. And of course, treat yourself to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/november-2023/chicago-25-best-pizza/?lid=opq344i9pwwk">slice</a>&nbsp;(deep-dish or otherwise).</li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>The busy temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia are high on many lists, but Indonesia&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/unusual-place-of-the-month-borobudur/?lid=onhk8ub8xkdl">Borobudur</a>&nbsp;deserves just as much attention. It&rsquo;s the largest Buddhist temple compound in the world and which took 75 years to build. Its 3-tiered stupa is made from over 2 million stones and surrounded by 72 smaller shrines. Unsurprisingly, sunrise is a popular time to visit.</li>
</ul>

Paris Travel Dupes - alternative destinations to the City of Light

Here at Jack's Flight Club, we're all about hunting down cheap flights to help our members travel the world while spending less. But we also know there's more than one way to up your travel game! And that's where airline points programs come in.
Our members frequently ask us for more flight hacks than simply finding those cheap fares, like how to collect air miles without spending the big bucks, and is it actually possible to travel business class without breaking the bank? So I went straight to the source on all things points, and sat down for a chat with&nbsp;<a href="https://thepointsguy.com/">The Points Guy</a>'s very own Nicky Kelvin.

<h3 dir="ltr">Hi Nicky! Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us today. Please tell the good people of Jack&rsquo;s Flight Club how you got so clued-up on all things points.</h3>
Thank you so much for having me, Katy. I'm very happy to be here. My name is Nicky Kelvin, and I work at The Points Guy. We help people maximize their travel through points, miles, and loyalty schemes. But in terms of how I found myself being an expert in this space, it was thanks to my sister!
She was British Airways cabin crew, and I had a very charmed teenage life and early 20s flying around the world with her on very cheap tickets. Taxes were lower back then. It was like the dream. And then she ruined my life by getting married and having kids and taking me off her concessions!&nbsp;
I ended up having to find another way to keep travelling in the way I'd become accustomed. And so I got into the world of credit cards points and miles, learned it, became an expert, started talking to more and more people about it, started a blog. I was actually a solicitor for the bulk of my serious career, until I had the opportunity to join The Points Guy to launch it in the UK. And that's how I found myself here.

<h3 dir="ltr">JFC-ers love a flight bargain, and airline points sound like another way to spend less while travelling more. First up, what are airline points, and are they the same as air miles?</h3>
Points and miles &mdash; I think the language is a bit fuzzy around it because, first of all, you&rsquo;ve got the generic terms of points and miles, but then there are also a lot of brand names. So different airlines or hotel groups or loyalty programs will use different words for what they call their currency.
But if we're going to break it down effectively, all of these points, miles, or whatever they are, are a currency that is awarded by businesses for your loyalty. You usually earn it by spending money with a certain company, and you can redeem that currency in different ways, and those earning rates and spending rates will be completely different program to program.
Generally, in the aviation and airline world, they tend to be called miles. And then elsewhere, they tend to be called points. Hotel points or supermarket loyalty points.&nbsp;
But there are some exceptions; Virgin Atlantic actually changed the name they used from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles, and now they're called Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Points. But really, getting bogged down in the language is not helpful. The important thing is to make sure you're just earning that currency and spending it in the very best way that you can.&nbsp;

<h3 dir="ltr">So, can normal travellers actually collect enough points to go somewhere? Or is that just for frequent business travellers?</h3>
It's a very good question, and I think a very common misconception that this is only for the most frequent flyers or business travellers. That's what you imagine &mdash; people who are on the road all the time &mdash; but it's just not the case.&nbsp; There are so many ways that you can earn these points and miles. When I take you through some kind of the headlines of the places you can earn them, you'll see how easy it is to rack them up.&nbsp;
For example, in the UK, you can earn supermarket loyalty points like Tesco Club Card points or Sainsbury's Nectar points. They both convert into airline miles. Nectar points you can convert into Avios, and Tesco Club Card points you can convert into Virgin Flying Club points. So immediately there are millions of people in the UK able to collect points when shopping in Sainsbury&rsquo;s or Tesco, or spending in other places where you can earn Nectar points, like eBay and Argos. So that's one way.&nbsp;
There's also the online shopping portals, and that's a way where you can earn massive multiples of points. They&rsquo;re a bit like QuidCo or Top Cashback, if you know them. They're quite common sites that millions of people use, and those cashback sites operate where you can go on a certain website, you click through to a retailer, and you'll earn a certain amount of cash back. Sometimes that can be as much as 12%.
Airline shopping portals will allow you to earn seven, eight, nine, 10 air miles per &pound;1. These are huge multiples, and that's on almost every retailer you'll find online &mdash; Next, M&amp;S, ASOS. Name your retailer, almost all of them are on there.&nbsp;
In addition to that is credit card earning.&nbsp; So, if you have a rewards credit card &mdash; they're not for everybody those cards, but if they work for you, if you can pay them off in full on time every month, those rewards credit cards will mean you're earning on every single purchase.
All of those are ways in which you can earn a lot of points, and you've not stepped foot on a plane or stayed in a hotel.
Add on to that any flight or hotel where they do have a loyalty program, and you earn the points from those flights as well. You just punch in your loyalty number, and then you earn those points for free in the background. Combine all those things &mdash; maybe not even the ones from flights and hotels &mdash; and you're earning enough to redeem them for something really good.&nbsp;
On the redeeming side, just to give you an example: let's say you are buying a new TV. You're going to spend &pound;1,000 and a retailer is offering 5 Avios per pound. So you're going to earn 5,000 Avios through the online shopping portal by buying that online &mdash; a one-way flight to Europe can be as little as 5,000 Avios. So, even just from that one purchase using a shopping portal, you could unlock a free flight!

<h3 dir="ltr">Once you&rsquo;ve saved up lots of points, how do you redeem them against flights?</h3>
Let&rsquo;s use Avios as the example here, because lots of people across the world are earning them as their primary currency. It's now the currency of airlines including British Airways, Qatar Airways, Finnair, Iberia. Just this week, Scottish airline Loganair joined and also has Avios as their currency now.&nbsp; Aer Lingus does too. And the points can actually be moved between these different programs as well, mostly for free, back and forth.&nbsp;
In addition to that, once your Avios are in one of the programs, you can then access multiple partners. So if that&rsquo;s inside British Airways, you can spend your points on all British Airways partners, of which there are many. You can move them to Qatar and then spend on some additional partners they have that the others don't. So you're opening yourself up to a huge array of options for redeeming.&nbsp;
But let's just talk about British Airways and Avios within the British Airways Executive Club program, or The Club, as it's soon to be known.
They allow you to redeem in two main ways for flights.
&nbsp;Firstly, you can buy cash tickets, and this is the simple way &mdash; I think some people only know this method. You go to book a flight, and if you're signed in to your executive club, it'll say, &ldquo;do you want to discount your flight by X amount of pounds for X amount of Avios?&rdquo; once you get to the checkout. There's usually a few little check boxes, and it lets you reduce the cost by &pound;20 for 4,000 Avios or &pound;50 for 10,000 Avios.&nbsp;
That's not a great way to use your Avios at all. The value you're getting per point is not very good, and you want to avoid that.
But this is the bit of knowledge you need: the best way to use your points is by logging into your Executive Club account and clicking on &ldquo;Book a flight with Avios&rdquo;. It has a separate search engine where you're actually searching Avios seat availability. It's separate availability, where British Airways releases eight economy seats and four business class seats on every single flight 355 days before they fly.
You want to try to nab one of those seats, because that's where you're going to get the really beneficial pricing. The Avios amount you'll pay is somewhat fixed, and there is now a way that they fix the amount of taxes you pay to keep them lower. It's called Reward Flight Saver. It's capped at &pound;17.50 for a one-way in Europe, but you can now pay as little as &pound;1 tax on some flights using that method. And then you pay the Avios on top. So that's how you always want to search first.
The tricky thing there is availability. My secret app or tool that I use to find availability is a website called <a href="http://seatspy.com">Seatspy.com</a>. I find it a very easy way to find availability across many dates, and many destinations. I go to Seatspy first, find what I want, then go on ba.com, log into my executive club account, and book the flight.
For the best value, always try to do that first, before just using your points to knock a few quid off your flight. Let's say you're booking a flight to Dublin and you use 4,000 Avios to knock off &pound;20. You're paying &pound;80 plus 4,000 Avios to get your flight. But if you had booked the other way, a flight to Dublin would have cost you something like 4,000 Avios and &pound;17.50 tax, or 8,000 Avios and &pound;1. So you would have saved a huge amount.
With the Avios tickets, you also end up with a ticket where BA doesn't restrict you on bags or changes. You can cancel it for free. Basically, if you've paid &pound;35, you'll lose your tax that you paid up to &pound;35. But there are more benefits attached to the ticket, and you're paying much less. So, it's always great to think about it that way around.

<h3 dir="ltr">So you said that these flights are released 355 days ahead. Is that the best time to look for rewards flights &mdash; about a year in advance?</h3>
That is the day when you're guaranteed that availability with British Airways, but every program is slightly different. It&rsquo;s especially important if you're trying to travel at peak times and to popular destinations, though, or somewhere there are not many flights.&nbsp;
Say you're trying to go to Sydney over the Christmas period &mdash; if you're not poised on that moment at midnight when the flight gets released, you're probably never going to see that availability.&nbsp; Conversely, if you want to go somewhere like New York, where availability is usually pretty great year-round, there&rsquo;s less of a rush. Between the British Airways partners, they fly 15 times a day to New York from London.
And then add in all the other partners, and there are flights from Manchester with American Airlines or Dublin. There is so much supply on that route that you'll find availability. If you want the Sydneys or the Cape Towns or the Buenos Aires, the ones that have fewer flights but are very popular, you're going to really struggle unless you're poised on that day to get them.

<h3 dir="ltr">What if I&rsquo;m not able to travel for a while? Is there any point in still collecting points? Will they expire, or can I use them on other things?&nbsp;</h3>
Sticking with Avios, there are lots of different ways to use them. You can spend them on hotels, you can spend them on wine. There's a business called Wine Flyer which is in partnership with Avios, and you can buy lots and lots of wine with your Avios, if that's something you&rsquo;re interested in. Or you could also transfer your points back to Nectar. If you really feel like you can't travel, or you don't want to travel, you can just send them to Nectar and spend the money in Sainsbury&rsquo;s to do a huge Christmas shop &mdash; you always have that option.
Any of those are usually going to get you somewhere between 0.4 and 0.5 pennies&rsquo; value in Avios. Whereas, if you're using them to redeem flights in the way we were just talking about, you're probably going to achieve, if you do it right, between 1 and 1.5 pennies per Avios. So, you're going to probably get double to triple the amount of value using them on flights.&nbsp;
Now, what's better? Spending it on wine versus not being able to spend them at all, and they're just sat there forever. Get the wine! Do what works for you.
Some people get a bit caught up on needing the best ever redemption, the best value in the whole wide world. But the offers might change, taxes might go up. So don't sit on your points &mdash; you're better off using them. But for now, the best value for sure comes from flights. Especially for short-haul flights in Europe in economy. That's a big value spot for me, especially when cash prices are high.

<h3 dir="ltr">We&rsquo;ve all read those articles where people say they&rsquo;ll never fly economy again, and talk about upgrading for free using airline points. What&rsquo;s the best way to achieve the business class dream?</h3>
I get asked this question all the time: How do you get upgraded? What do you wear to the airport? What do you say to the crew?&nbsp;
The answer is just to earn your points, plan ahead and get that redemption. Book your flight using points in business class, and you've got your ticket. You go to the airport, you know what you're getting.&nbsp;&nbsp;
It's very achievable. Especially on those routes like New York, where there are many business class seats available on points every single day of the week throughout the year. You'll even find them at the last minute. It's more than possible to just be buying business class seats outright with points and miles.
There is also the option to use your points to upgrade. It's often really good value, especially in cases where you can find cheap or discounted premium economy flights and then use your points to upgrade to business. That's one of the best value uses of points and miles.&nbsp;&nbsp;
You can sometimes find return premium economy flights to somewhere like New York on Virgin or BA at around the &pound;600-&pound;700 mark when they&rsquo;re at their cheapest. Economy flights usually run between &pound;300 and &pound;500 on a route like that, but cheap economy tickets are generally not upgradable with points on most airlines. However, all premium economy tickets tend to be, and the difference in the points is not always that much.&nbsp;
You could be buying a BA ticket for, let's say, &pound;650 for premium economy return, and the cost to upgrade one leg to business might only be between 10,000 and 25,000 points, which is within the reach of most normal earners. So, it's all always something to keep an eye on.
British Airways allows you to do that all in one go. They have an option where you buy with cash and upgrade with Avios. It searches the cash tickets, finds that pricing in premium economy, and then adds on the Avios price and books you straight into business. That means you're not taking a risk on buying the flights and then worrying is that availability going to disappear once you booked it.&nbsp;
But every airline does it differently. Take Emirates as an example; Emirates will allow you to upgrade tickets, but they ask for different amounts to upgrade. If you've bought an economy ticket, it depends on the type of economy ticket. And then what they ask for you to upgrade into business class may vary. If you have a fully flexible economy ticket, the upgrade cost might be 30,000 points, while if you have a very cheap discounted one, it might be 50,000 or 60,000.
But this is important for JFC-ers to know &mdash; if you grab an unbelievable deal on return economy flights, you may be able to upgrade those into business class even on those tickets, so long as you have the points on tap to do that!

<h3 dir="ltr">It seems like airline loyalty programs are much more common in the US than other countries. What points should Jack&rsquo;s Flight Club members be collecting if they live in the UK, Europe, or Canada?</h3>
Well, it's going to depend on what's available in your territory and then what suits you if you do have an option. So, for example, if you're in Ireland, really the only option to play with there is the Aer Lingus AerClub, and so you're going to focus your attention on that.
In Canada, the Air Canada Aeroplan program is actually brilliant. People around the world use it; lots of people in the UK and US love the Aeroplan program. Air Canada is part of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.staralliance.com/en/members">Star Alliance</a>, so it opens up the whole of Star Alliance for you. I know people who have never been on an Air Canada flight in their life, may not even be earning Aeroplan points from anywhere, but they go and buy the points straight from Air Canada when there&rsquo;s an offer on, and then redeem them to save huge amounts of money that way.
You're right in saying that in the US there are bigger points bonuses, more earnings, and more competition. But there are options around the world. I would say that Canada's got it all right. The UK and Australia are probably next best in the world. And as you start to go into smaller territories, it becomes more limited.
I think you've just got to look usually to your national airlines, which probably offer the most places to earn the points and the most opportunities to spend them. But it does differ greatly by territory.
Katy: That makes sense. I've actually been a Flying Blue member for most of my life, because growing up in Aberdeen, there's a lot of KLM flying to be done.
Nicky: That's a really interesting point, actually. British Airways is often accused of being &ldquo;London Airways,&rdquo; and whilst they do have seasonal flights from Manchester and Edinburgh to places around Europe, generally Heathrow and Gatwick are their homes. And if you're not in London, they&rsquo;re not really the airline for you unless you're going to London. By contrast, KLM now flies to 18 UK airports.
So, actually, if you're in Aberdeen, Leeds, Newcastle, or Belfast, you're probably far better serviced by Air France or KLM, where you can fly to their hubs in Amsterdam or Paris and then fly to the entire world. It actually makes more sense for you to be a Flying Blue member if you live in those places, and do what you can to earn points and status with them.&nbsp;
There's no Flying Blue credit card in the UK at the moment, but maybe that will come back. There used to be different airline credit cards in the UK, but we lost a lot of them. But for example, if you have an American Express card that earns membership reward points, you can convert them into Flying Blue points, along with many other airline programs.
And also bear in mind that Virgin Atlantic is part of SkyTeam now, the same alliance as Air France KLM. That means you can use your Virgin Points on Air France KLM flights, and also earn Virgin Points on those flights.
So if you're in the UK, even if you're in regions where it doesn't quite make sense to be thinking about Virgin Atlantic because they only fly from Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh, it could still be the sensible choice. Virgin points are far easier to earn in the UK than Flying Blue points are, so it's always worth thinking outside the box in terms of how to earn points that work the best for you.
You also might not know that you can spend your Virgin Points on Virgin Voyages. They have really great rates on week long cruises for 70,000&ndash;80,000 points, all-inclusive. It's brilliant!

<h3 dir="ltr">Are there any airline points schemes that you would not recommend? Why?</h3>
I think there are schemes that are better than others, for sure. Is a scheme inherently bad? I don't know. I think if you're an obsessive in this world, the kind of schemes we don't like are ones that are very mathematical and transactional: we give you this, which means this much off the next thing. There's no fun to be had.&nbsp;
So let's say you earn 10 points per pound, and 10 points is always worth 10p, and there's no change there &mdash; it's kind of boring. Some hotel programs are like that. Whereas most of the airline programs, they really allow you to buy very expensive flights for a much smaller amount of cash, and as prices fluctuate, the price of points stays the same.&nbsp;
But rather than there being bad programs, I think it's more that there are just bad ways to redeem your points. 
<h3 dir="ltr">Do you have any other top tips about airline points that our members should keep in mind?</h3>
The big advice is just to earn points wherever you can! Never ever leave them on the table. Really be conscious about how you're using them, and spend them in the best way.&nbsp;
Don't let your miles expire &mdash; that's another thing. That can happen with lots of points programs. Virgin points don't expire any more at all. But with Avios, for example, if you have no activity on your account for three years, you're just going to lose them. That's such a shame. So just make sure they don&rsquo;t expire or devalue as the programs change.&nbsp;
Get out there, use them, do something fun!

<h3 dir="ltr">What trip has been your personal best points bargain?&nbsp;</h3>
I&rsquo;ll give you two. First, probably the craziest redemption I ever made.&nbsp;
The Executive Club program with has something called a multi-carrier award. If you're flying with two or more One World airlines, you&rsquo;re booking on a completely separate redemption chart where the multiples to fly in business and first class are less than in the usual program, and it's based on mileage. So you can build a ticket, you add all the flights together, and you find out the mileage. You see where that falls on the chart, and then you pay the amount that you need to pay.
I did this round-the-world trip where I flew from London to Hong Kong, Taiwan, back to Hong Kong, down to Perth, then up to the north of Western Australia to a place called Learmonth. Then back down again to Perth, across to Singapore, and then home to London. Lots of that was in Cathay Pacific&rsquo;s first class, as well as some business class in there. I figured out that if you booked it with cash, the cost of the ticket would have been about &pound;23,000, and I paid 200,000 Avios and about &pound;250 tax. That was pretty crazy!
It took a lot of work to pull that whole thing together, to get all the perfect availability for everything to match up.&nbsp; That's a very extreme example, and they're hard to achieve, those tickets. But I knew I'd killed it with that, I was very happy!
Secondly, I'll give you a route that is easy for everybody. I mentioned before that expensive short-haul tickets in Europe are an amazing way to use Avios. In the past, I booked a flight to Geneva that cost &pound;300 cash, and I got it for like 4,500 Avios and &pound;17 &mdash; that&rsquo;s a massive, unbelievable saving!

<h3 dir="ltr">And finally, what destination would you recommend everyone visits once in their life, and why?</h3>
It may not be my ultimate, ultimate, but one that is just forefront of my mind because I've been quite a few times in the last year is South Korea, specifically Seoul. It is just the most brilliant city!
The people are amazing. The food is amazing. South Korea is having a moment on the world stage. Culturally, pop is everything. Whether you're into it or not, you go there and there's just something so cool. You walk around on the streets there. It's a vibe. It's so safe and easy to be a tourist there.&nbsp;
I love Japan, and Tokyo is amazing. But it's kind of chaotic and Tokyo feels touristy. You walk down the street and there's a million tourists everywhere, which doesn't take away from it how incredible it is. But Seoul is maybe what Tokyo was like 30 years ago, or something like that. I'm a massive fan. I just absolutely love it. Every time I go there, I just feel like this is just the most awesome place.
And if you're into skincare, it is the world home of skincare! So if you want to get the best whatever you want to get done, go there. I know people who are literally going to Seoul every six months or every four months for their skin, the food, the shopping, the vibes, the people. I just I love it. Underrated big time!

<h3 dir="ltr">Thank you so much for chatting to us, Nicky, and sharing all of your points and wisdom! No doubt the good people of JFC will also be grateful.</h3>
Thank you very much for having me!

How to Collect and Spend Airline Points - with The Point's Guy's Nicky Kelvin

If there's one thing I love about travelling, it's the surprising moments that offer a glimpse into another way of life and seeing the world.
During my time in Guatemala, I had many. But one little place that stood out to me along the shores of Lake Atitl&aacute;n was a teeny tiny village called San Juan La Laguna.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s just a quick boat taxi from Panajachel (party central) and San Marcos (cosplay hippie central) yet felt fairly overlooked by the masses. Probably down to its size &mdash; you&rsquo;re most likely only there to do one of two things; shop for textiles or start a hike. And that&rsquo;s precisely why I was there, too.&nbsp;

Known for its rich Tz'utujil Maya culture, San Juan La Laguna is home to inspiring<a href="https://www.sanjuanlalaguna.com.gt/en/culture/handicrafts/lema-association"> women-led weaving cooperatives</a> called Asociaci&oacute;n de Mujeres Tejedoras. It was here where I was schooled on the sacred connection of the moon and the importance of Mayan cosmology.
Each hand-woven piece not only carries beauty but is also encoded with <a href="https://www.mayanleague.org/maya-cosmovision">Mayan cosmovision</a>. No pattern is accidental; zigzags represent the mountains, the guardians of the lake, while diamonds represent the four corners of the universe. And that&rsquo;s all guided by the ancient wisdom of the moon.

The moon (known as <a href="https://www.spanishacademyantiguena.com/blog/2021/07/10/ixchel-mayan-goddess/">Ixchel</a>, the goddess of weaving, fertility, and wisdom) influences the energy of creation and plays a crucial role in shaping not only Mayan mythology but everyday life too. The women of San Juan observe the moon&rsquo;s phases to determine the best times for:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Spinning thread &ndash; It is believed that thread spun under a waning moon will be stronger and less likely to break. </li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Dyeing fabrics &ndash; Natural dyes (made from plants like indigo, cochineal, and avocado leaves) are said to absorb better during specific lunar phases, ensuring vibrant, long-lasting colours.&nbsp; </li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Beginning a new weaving &ndash; Starting a textile during a new moon is considered auspicious, as it symbolizes new beginnings and growth.</li>
</ul>
Avoiding weaving on certain days &ndash; Some weavers refrain from weaving during the full moon, as it is thought to bring excessive energy that may disrupt the balance of the work.

As a visitor, I was encouraged to take weaving workshops and learn about the natural dyes made from plants, insects, and materials such as:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Indigo (jiquilite): Associated with the night sky and the underworld, indigo dyeing is often done in quiet, meditative conditions to honor its depth.&nbsp; </li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Cochineal (tiny insects on cacti): The vibrant red symbolizes lifeblood and is linked to feminine energy. Harvesting and dyeing with cochineal is sometimes timed with the waxing moon to "draw up" its intensity. </li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Avocado leaves, basil &amp; other plants: Each carries their own story. For example, avocado pits create shades of pink&mdash;a color tied to dawn and new beginnings.</li>
</ul>

Cooperatives like <a href="https://www.woven-gt.com/pgina-nueva">Flor Ixcaco</a> and <a href="https://www.nomacollective.com/pages/lake-atitlan-women-s-weaving-cooperative">Noma</a> work tirelessly to empower local women, both socially and economically, ensuring fair wages. In many ways, these cooperatives are an act of resilience. Colonialism and globalization suppressed Mayan traditions, but the women of San Juan strive to reclaim their heritage and preserve their ancestral weaving techniques.&nbsp;

This glimpse into local life and ritual allowed me to witness something truly authentic and important to the people of San Juan La Laguna. I&rsquo;d encourage anyone visiting Lake Atitl&aacute;n to take the time to spend a day experiencing the lifestyle here for themselves.&nbsp;
So how can you engage ethically with these traditions?&nbsp;
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Listen and learn: Ask weavers, "How does Ixchel inspire your work?" or "What moon phase is best for dyeing?" Be open to learning about their rich traditions and beliefs without judgment.&nbsp; </li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Buy directly from cooperatives: Support collectives like Casa Flor Ixcaco or Asociaci&oacute;n Batz&rsquo;. Avoid markets and online shops where resellers exploit artisans. Sadly, this is a common occurrence.&nbsp; </li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Honor the sacred: Some designs may be ceremonial. Ask before photographing or touching, and the same goes for taking pictures of women weaving. And if you do join a dyeing workshop, participate with reverence &mdash; it&rsquo;s a spiritual process.</li>
</ul>

The Sacred Art of Lake Atitlán’s Weavers

How to find cheap flights using Google Flights 

As you might have noticed, many of the lowest fares we find are offered through an Online Travel Agency (OTA) aggregator such as Momondo or Skyscanner. 
If you've previously booked all of your flights directly with the airline, you might be wondering if it's both advisable and reliable to book your flight with smaller, lesser-known OTAs found on Skyscanner and Momondo. 
To address this, we've put together this set of FAQs to give you our take.
<h2>1. What are flight fare aggregators, and how do they work?</h2>
Momondo, Kayak and better-known websites like Skyscanner all function as flight fare aggregator engines. 
These tools collect and display the best fares for any particular flight route by comparing prices offered both by the airline and by the various Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) selling tickets for the same flight.
This is not dissimilar to what Google Flights does. The difference is that while Google Flights compares only fares offered directly from the airlines and other major booking sites (such as Expedia and eDreams), these aggregators compare fares from smaller booking sites as well.
These smaller sites are the ones that are more likely to sell flights at a discount to the price offered by the airline itself. They also sometimes include routes that Google Flights doesn't.
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/ce08872475107063e61d69c2daa88994b9092537" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<h2>2. Is it safe to book with these smaller Online Travel Agencies?</h2>
This question comes up a lot, and we remember how confused we were when these websites first began to pop up. Here's how we see it:
The biggest fear for some travelers is that an Online Travel Agency will take your payment and keep it, without ever issuing a ticket for your purchased flight. Based on our experience, this is an incredibly rare occurrence that only occurs as the result of an error. 
The OTAs listed on Skyscanner or Momondo are vetted for legitimacy to some degree before being listed on these aggregators, and do not do this on purpose. That's not to say that they are all ethical, pro-consumer companies, but they do not try to scam people in this way.
Online Travel Agencies are lawfully required to issue a ticket for the price at which you made the purchase in order to process your payment. Many OTAs in the United Kingdom are also<a href="https://www.caa.co.uk/atol-protection/"> ATOL protected</a>, which means you have an extra layer of consumer protection against any wrongdoing. EU countries have similar protection schemes.
If you want to be extra certain, simply google: "Booking site name + ATOL" to make sure they are ATOL Protected. You should see a verification similar to this:
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/b8b77033f2f4d52ee8c92be6689b7bfc67670c36">
Or you'll be able to find this in the company's Ts &amp; Cs:
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/1d881fd56d6cea92d65aa5fc9b3840f5001feaea">
In the US, though, there is no agency that booking agencies can register under like the ABTA (for rail, cruise and coach holidays) or ATOL to protect consumers in case a company goes insolvent. But check out our guide on what happens<a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/what-happens-when-flights-from-the-united-states-are-canceled"> when flights to or from the United States are cancelled</a> if you are in search of some guidance on what else you can do to protect your booking.
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/3e95fc6bb418eac711142fec72c534da3aa27a77" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<h2>3. Are there other OTA tricks I should be looking out for?</h2>
Indeed, some of these sites are known to try and squeeze a few extra fees out of you in other ways. Here are the most common tricks to look out for:
<h4>Avoid booking over the phone </h4>
Most of these booking sites offer a phone number if you'd like to avoid booking online. When possible, I advise using the online portal instead. Phone agents, who often earn a commission, will sometimes see that you're trying to book a cheap fare and will try to find another way to increase the price you pay. Calling over the phone also opens you up to the next two items as well.
<h4>&lsquo;Fare no longer available&rsquo; trick </h4>
Every now and then, an Online Travel Agency will call you within a few minutes of your booking to tell you that the price you booked at is &ldquo;no longer available&rdquo; and you must accept a refund or agree to pay a higher fare. If that does occur, don't panic! Simply decline their new fare, accept the refund, and go on to book with another agency offering the next best fare.
<h4>&lsquo;Extra bag fees&rsquo; trick </h4>
Keep an eye on the bag rules throughout the booking process. While rare, we have heard of agencies claiming that you have to pay extra to add a checked bag, even on routes where bags were definitely included in the fare. Again, this generally only happens over the phone.
<h4>Extra service fees </h4>
Make sure you double-check all the passenger details you enter when booking tickets via an Online Travel Agency. Many of them will find ways to charge extra, often high, service fees for tiny changes.
<h2>4. Are there ways to save on airline baggage fees when booking with an Online Travel Agency?</h2>
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/4c176c96077bfeb5fc5b2f2e40416251bf4f88d7" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
In 2022, airlines will now charge you anywhere between 0 and 140 pounds or euros return, or as much as $180 RT from the US, to add a checked bag to your itinerary. The actual amount varies wildly by route &amp; airline.
Online Travel Agencies will often get incentives to sell bag-inclusive tickets and are able to sell you a checked bag at a cheaper fare than the airline. Some OTAs choose to do this, while others choose to keep the price the same or even mark it up in order to earn a higher margin on your ticket.
For this reason, it's important that you always compare the bag fee charged by the OTA you are booking with against the fee charged by the airline itself (or even other OTAs).
If an Online Travel Agency is offering the cheapest fare but is pricing up checked bags, you can always just buy the ticket from the OTA and add a checked bag directly with the airline after the ticket has been issued.
Note: It's also not uncommon for some OTAs to sell economy-standard ticket class fares, which include early seat selection, meals, checked bags, and other perks, for only slightly more than the airline itself sells economy-basic tickets, and the savings can be quite significant. We often see this with Virgin Atlantic, for example.
<h2>5. How are smaller Online Travel Agencies able to offer cheaper fares than the airlines themselves?</h2>
Firstly, many airlines - primarily major international carriers - offer incentives and discounts to third-party agencies to market their tickets. This allows OTAs to pass some of those savings on to you in order to secure your business.
That said, not all airlines will do this, and there are other ways Online Travel Agencies can generate revenue, some of which are less consumer-friendly:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Fees - Expect hefty service fees for making any future changes to your booking. That includes name changes, date changes, cancellations, etc.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Reselling reserved tickets - OTAs are able to reserve a number of seats months in advance. Many will often hold a certain number of seats on popular routes at a low price, knowing that they'll be able to sell them at a higher rate later in the year.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Poor customer support - They tend to outsource customer support to third party companies in order to save on costs.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cdn.jacksflightclub.com/id/4268bb876f66e76a4f0ab97669ad7346adb91e97" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<h2>6. What about all the bad reviews Online Travel Agencies have?</h2>
It's true that most OTAs, even well-known ones like Expedia, have plenty of negative reviews online. As a rule, customers will generally go further out of the way to report a negative experience than leave a positive review when everything goes as expected, resulting in a high rate of negative reviews.
While it can be a sign of poor customer service, it doesn't mean you won't get the ticket you purchased. As you've read above, some OTAs can be clever about trying to make as much as possible from each customer, but they won't (usually) take your money and run. You can find our reviews of the most popular OTAs <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/reviewing-the-most-popular-online-travel-agencies">here</a>.
<h2>7. When should I book directly with the airline vs. booking with an agency on Momondo?</h2>
This just depends on your situation. We reckon it&rsquo;s worth booking with an agency and saving the extra cash if your travel dates are set in stone, but here are some general guidelines for like-minded travelers:
<h3>Book with an Online Travel Agency if:</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Savings exceed at least &pound;/&euro;20-&pound;/&euro;30 or $50-$60 for a long-haul fare.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">You are 100% certain you will be taking the trip on these dates.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Book directly with airline if:</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">You're the type of traveler who is more likely to extend your trip later on or change travel dates.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The flight is with a budget or charter airline, such as Spirit, easyJet, Wizzair or TUI, none of which offer discounted fares to OTAs.</li>
</ul>
For more information on Momondo, Skyscanner and Online Travel Agencies, take a look at our <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/reviewing-the-most-popular-online-travel-agencies">reviews of the most popular OTAs</a>, or visit our<a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/find-cheap-flights-to-anywhere/"> ultimate guide</a> to finding cheap flights to anywhere.
. . .
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