23
votes
An American traveling to Spain/Portugal
I am taking my 70 year old mother on a guided trip to Spain and Portugal. She is very excited. The trip starts in Barcelona, goes down the cost and over to Lisbon and Porto and then ends in Madrid. We then plan on taking a train to the coast. Before going back to Barcelona and traveling home
I have three main questions
- Can I bring my unlocked pixel 5a and add a secondary sim card? How does that work?
- Are there any must have items I should pack that I may not think of?
- Anyone have any advice for me?
This is my first trip to mainland Europe, and probably her last international trip so I want it to be easy, stress free and memorable.
It looks like one sim will be an esim card and one will be a physical sim. Just go to a corner store or phone store and pick up a cheap prepaid plan. I know Orange has a pretty decent tourist plan with a shit load of data for relatively cheap (30-50 eu). You can find better deals but Orange is a premier carrier and tends to have pretty good coverage.
Pack as light as possible. You’re gonna have to be hauling stuff around on and off trains, over cobblestones, etc. The less you have the nicer the trip is going to be. Remember you can buy emergency needs types of things there.
Also you’ll need EU plugs. You can buy adapters here in the states but honestly I’d probably just bring a battery pack to get you through and then buy a native wall plug in over there. It’s liable to be cheaper and sometimes the adapters aren’t shaped right. You don’t need a converter for most things like phones or modern electronics.
For stress free I’d recommend moving less and instead sticking around somewhere, traveling is inherently tiring and stressful and it’s often times easier and more pleasant to just plant yourself somewhere. And definitely always plan a day or two grace period when traveling so that if something gets delayed or you miss a train it’s not the end of the world.
Not just pack light but pack for hauling it over cobblestones so if you are using wheely bags, keep that in mind!
If you eat meat and there is a tapas place that has a leg of Jamon Iberico on the counter eat some.
I think it is wonderful you are going with your mother. Great memories will be made!
I second Airalo! I have a Pixel as well and the app works well with its eSIM capabilities. I live in the Netherlands and use it when I visit family back home in Canada, so your use case here should be fine.
If you're visiting in the summer and aren't used to heat, pack a (stylish!) sunhat for you and your mom and carry a thermos of cold water when you're out. I'm built for heat and still do this myself.
Download an offline copy of digital essentials, like maps, translations, and such. Google Maps and DeepL let you do that in-app. Good for when you find yourself without WiFi and roaming capabilities!
Carry some cash with you. As someone who's used to nothing but card machines everywhere, I've found myself in a pinch or two with cash-only vendors while traveling. Also, bathrooms in Europe are sometimes paid, so you'll need coins.
Have fun! We're traveling in Portugal right now and having a blast :)
My wife and I went to southern Spain (Andalusia) several years ago, and Portugal (Lisbon and Porto) last year:
absolutely. Busses in Lisbon work great and are very cheap. You buy a card (at the station? I forgot) with some money on it, and you tap that every time you enter a bus. Google maps works great with Lisbon busses.
tripled. You can buy whatever you need/forgot in Europe, and it'll be warm so you won't need a lot of layers anyway. It might be different when traveling with your mother, but with light(er) luggage you can take the normal public transportation to you ho(s)tel. It's a bit scary, but it's more fun and for me it always help me to get to understand the city better.
Random general Europe trips tips (context: I'm from Europe, and I'm not exactly 18 anymore either):
Sadly this is the absolute state of international rail in Europe, truly a shame we can't ride at high speeds at least between capitals yet. At least Spain/Portugal have the mountains as a temporary excuse hah
If I remember from my trip several years ago Spain and Portugal use 2 different gauge sizes for trains, which causes problems.
Both use the wider Iberian gauge, with Spain sprinkling in a few lines of Standard gauge for interoperability with the rest of the EU. The problem lies most likely with train control systems. Spain uses ETCS while Portugal works with CONVEL and has only awarded the contract to upgrade to ETCS within the last two years, meaning there is still plenty of work to be done.
Hey, Portuguese person here. Feel free to ask any specific questions if you have them.
Yes you can (source: I own a pixel 7 Pro). You can just install a prepaid eSIM, there are many European companies that sell them.
People already mentioned it but I'll say it again: please bring sunscreen because it's really sunny over here. And on that same note, most places don't have AC so always have a water bottle on you and possibly a portable fan or something to cool yourself off, especially for your 70 year old mother.
In no particular order:
When you're in Portugal, please please please don't speak Spanish. Portuguese people are really proud of their language and don't like when tourists just assume we'll understand Spanish because it's "close enough". Speak English if you don't know any Portuguese, we always prefer that and most people have some grasp on it.
If you have any medical emergencies, you can go to the hospital and still benefit from our free health care system. Don't ever hesitate to go.
Tipping is never mandatory or expected and the only places where you'd tip are restaurants, but only if you feel like it (ie they gave you a great service). Some more touristy spots might be using those payment terminals with the tip pre-selected, just de-select it.
In Portugal at least, if you need to withdraw physical money, ignore the Euronet ATMs. They are a huge tourist trap meant to mooch fees off of you. You can use any Multibanco (our national ATM network) ATM in Portugal with your card just fine. Though most places should just accept your credit card with no issue so you probably won't run into that situation often.
Lisbon and Porto have very robust metro and bus systems. (I also recommend taking the famous trams at least once!). Don't bother with Uber and the like unless you absolutely need to (like late at night). The app citymapper works great in Lisbon for giving you the schedules, and I assume Porto too.
Beware of random strangers trying to sell you weed on the street. It's not weed, it's spices. Weed is not legal in Portugal. Also beware of pick pocketers which are way more prominent in those cities.
Be careful if you buy any electronic appliances here because they work under different (higher) voltages and might not work properly where you live.
And above all else, enjoy the trip!
If you're going to do big touristy things, you probably need to buy tickets in advance. This could be as little as the night before (though you might have to change your plans if they sold out or have limited time slots), but attractions like Park Guell and Sagrada Familia (not sure if they even sell tickets on-site) will sell out on the day of.
Depending on how you're getting around (and how long you're staying in Barcelona), there are a lot of different options for transit passes. I personally bought the T-Usual when I went since it's only 20 euros for unlimited travel within a month. There's also the T-Casual which covers 10 journeys for 11.35 euros. Unless you're planning to go waaaay out into the outskirts (typically these places have different city names than Barcelona), a 1-zone ticket will be just fine. A nice thing about the T-Usual pass is that it is valid at the L9S station at the airport, which most other passes are not valid for (it requires a special fare for a one-way journey).
Do make sure long-distance travel is planned out in advance, tickets will get significantly more expensive as you approach the day-of. Since I assume you're doing high-speed trains, Spain is unique in that they have a security check before you get on the train. It's not too dissimilar to TSA in the states, but it's less strict. Your bags get xrayed and I think you walk through a metal detector. Either way, just make sure to give yourself maybe 15 minutes to get through this check, rather than expecting to be able to walk directly onto the train. Most other countries you can essentially just walk onto the train though.
You posted this twice. I will get back to you about my experience in Porto. tldr I really enjoyed it.