Spain

I’ve never been to Spain, but I kinda like the music.

Go to San Sebastian. Look it up. The food scene is out of control

Thank you, R2. Any good restaurant recommendations? It used to be said that the best and most innovative food in the world was coming out of Spain. Still true?

I would suggest doing one's best to see Flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortes perform live. He's magnificent and currently very popular.

We find the public restrooms in Barcelona endlessly enjoyable and full of size-meat gratificatia!

Places worth seeing aside from Madrid and Barcelona include Toledo, Sevilla, Sitges, and Mallorca. Maybe Ibiza, but I've not been so cannot say. The fairly new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao designed by Frank Gehry maybe. It was many years ago, but I was denied entry to a leather bar in Madrid because I wasn't leather enough. Don't be a skinny guy in a polo and expect to get in.

What are your interests, OP?

I'd wait until 2022 to start traveling internationally unless you have to go for work.

R6 it was your gunt, hon,

You need to be more specific. Where did you visit last time you were there?

Madrid, Barcelona, Grenada, Costa del Sol, Malaga

It was a high school trip.

Fly into Barcelona.

Take a flight to Malaga. Drive to Granada, Cordoba, Seville and spend a couple days. Drop one of these if you want to take a slower paced trip.

Return to Barcelona.

Thanks, R12. No Madrid?

R12, would you have different suggestions if I had never been to Spain? If so, please share because I'm going with a friend who has never been so I want to plan the best trip regardless of my having been there when I was a sophomore in high school.

I used a company called Tripmasters.com when I visited 2 years ago. You can tailor your vacation however you want and they handle everything. You plug in where you want to go, for how long and they do the rest. Airfare, trains, hotels and excursions if you’re interested. It’s all online. And it’s inexpensive. We stayed in Madrid and Seville and did day trips from each city. Had a great time.

If you go to Barcelona you will find that the cathedral of the Sacred Family (Gaudi’s masterpiece) will be twice as big.

And eat eat eat. From Vigo to Barcelona, From Madrid to Malaga, Sevilla, Granada, Murcia, there’s good food and drink EVERYWHERE.

Thank you, R15. Do you recall what hotels you stayed in?

Make sure you don’t try to retrieve a lost cell phone from inside a dinosaur

Try the Franco fritters.

If you have the time, Madrid is nice. But, to me, it's the difference between going to LA and San Francisco.

It's the issue of available time. You can only do so much on a trip before it become too jam packed. If it were me, I'd pick either Madrid or Barcelona to fly in/out. Then, take a flight to Malaga. Rent a car and drive to the other locations.

If you went through Madrid, you could return the car after the Granada/Cordoba/Seville portion and take a train back to Madrid. Also, you could switch in Toledo for one of them if you really wanted.

The Feria of Jerez is a must IMO. A seek long festival with hot guys every where.

Much better than the Feria of Sevilla which is snooty and many areas are private. Jerez is open to all.

I really liked Cádiz. Nice beaches on the Atlantic, history, an echoing evocative cathedral, and good food there, too.

I hope you saw the Rocio Jurado memorial.

The Rocio Jurado Museum should be open soon in Cadiz and full of weeping queens (like myself).

[quote] A seek long festival

I seek long, uncut pinga.

I love the south...Costa del Sol is a must see.

The Iberian Peninsula is covered with hanging jamon. Watch your head.

I hear there are some things to see in Madrid and Barcelona!

Try their olives!

I would spend 9 days divided between two places at most. All my memorable holidays in my life have been 2 to 6 weeks in one place. How else do you get a feeling for life and people and place and culture?

Also when I was young I was hot, into my late 40s, so I could have an adventure! Spain is a lovely place for an adventure!

If I only had 9 days I would do a maximum of two cities. It's not worth going if you are going to just rush from place to place without soaking in any of it. You might as well just look at photos on Instagram and save the cash. Barcelona and Sitges sounds good to me.

They smoke like chimney, just like the odious Frenchies. Nauseating. I can only hope covid-19 has taken care of all the heavy smokers though.

R32 really lives by the motto, when in Rome....

[quote] [R32] really lives by the motto, when in Rome....

Honestly? In Yemen, the law states that unmarried gay men will be punished with 100 whip lashes or one year in prison, but married gay men face death by stoning. Gay women are to be imprisoned for up to three years.

Further proof you're a provincial tight-assed deplorable. I had a love affair in Jeddah and enjoyed the culture immensely.

[quote] Further proof you're a provincial tight-assed deplorable. I had a love affair in Jeddah and enjoyed the culture immensely.

Glad you didn't get put in prison or executed.

I have no trouble judging another culture.

Sitges

R32 = big pussy who can't see past a bit of smoke. Stay home with your TV tray, prissy queen.

I second San Sebastian with a side trip to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Museum. The Basque Country is like another world.

I give a third vote for San Sebastian. The Basque country beautiful, the people are very friendly, the food is amazing, and it's not that expensive. If it were me, I'd go to cities I hadn't been to the first time around (except the one you fly into if it happens to overlap).

I'd go somewhere where they speak American and have plenty of Starbucks around. I can't live without my daily Starbucks mocha frappuccino.

Does no one go to Marbella any more?

[quote] Does no one go to Marbella any more?

I hear they have a great chicken dish there.

I would want to spend a whole month in Spain at least. There are so many amazing cities in Spain, all of them walkable and dense. Even a small city like Bilbao is 10x better than an American city triple its size.

Here is Bilbao

(17) I’m 15 replying to your inquiry. Tripmasters gives you all kind of hotels to choose. They’ll recommend hotels when they give you the initial cost for you trip. But if you want to change from their recommendations just plug in a hotel from the drop down list and select it. Then they’ll reconfigure the final cost. I always use Tripmasters first choice. In Madrid we stayed in a boutique hotel right in the middle of Madrid. The hotel in Seville was on the river and very contemporary. We had to walk across the river to get into old Seville. We used tripmasters for Italy and the hotels were perfect. All were near the train stations and with breakfast. Really good for hoping on the train for day trips. My sister and her husband were traveling with us but stayed in a very expensive hotel next to the Vatican. They were saying how much a shot of vodka cost…$20 and were were saying our little hotel had a courtyard and our drink was $4. Also the young woman that prepared breakfast for us and made us cappuccinos each morning would give us hugs when she saw us. Paying an arm and a leg won’t necessarily give you a local experience. Oh and our Italian trip with airfare from AZ, all hotels and train travel was $1,500/person. That was in 2018.

I knew you boring people would spout off the regular Spain cities.

Barcelona, Mallorca, San Sebastian, Sevilla, Ibiza, etc.

BOOOOOOOOORING!!!!

Op, look for someplace AWAY from the tourists.

Barcelona is a fucking tourist trap. Overpriced crap and crowded as hell. Same for the other cities I mentioned.

Find your own hidden gem and explore it.

Think about what YOU would like to see, and then find a match in Spain. That's how to do it.

And here's a good video for some Spanish garbanzo stew, to whet your appetite!

So helpful, r47!

^^ Hey, I mentioned Jerez de la Frontera!

Seville, Cordoba and Granada are interesting cities to visit, include them with a tour around the Costa del Sol.

The women are total bitches and very few people speak English.

Just stay in Andalucia, the soul of Spain. They don't even speak Spanish in Barcelona.

Nobody in Madrid speaks English, not even the younger people. Also, their airport is very outdated and unfriendly.

Barcelona is gorgeous and very walking/biking/metro friendly. Easy to traverse. There’s touristy stuff but the national museum is GORGEOUS and worth the gothic art and the city views from the top. Sagrada Familia probably isn’t worth going inside and waiting in that horrible line to go inside the church, but is worth at least seeing the freaky and interesting exterior. Huge up close.

KK hotel in there El Born district is lovely. Smelled like cologne inside when I went in 2017 and friendly staff who seemed gay and were also gay friendly.

I was shocked about that too. What kind of government doesn't make sure kids don't have at least 6-8 years of English at school.

R55 Exactly. And then Spain wonders why their country is so poor. Maybe if they knew how to communicate better with the English-speaking world they would have access to more opportunities.

Spain doesn't care about English bullshit.

Op as you can see from this thread, Spain has a lot to offer. Too much for one trip. As was suggested upthread it would be wise to focus on one area. Here are suggested cities/towns in five trips - conventional wisdom would say prioritized in this order. (Personally, Basque country is my favorite...)

Madrid - Toledo - Salamanca

Barcelona - Sitges - Cadaques - Besalu

San Sebastian - Bilbao - Cudillero - Mundaca (if there's surf)

Granada - Cordoba - Sevilla

Malaga - Torremolinos - Marbella - Mojacar

[quote] r53 Nobody in Madrid speaks English, not even the younger people. Also, their airport is very outdated and unfriendly.

You may be right about the airport, but I spent two weeks in Madrid in 2019 and never used Spanish once. They spoke English everywhere.

What makes San Sebastián so popular here? Is it just the food?

I am vegan, and so food in San Sebastian wasn't the draw. The city is beautiful, small enough to walk all over, two matching bays with fort/mountain in the middle, great old town, and culture. The Basque people and the Spanish immigrants there who've adopted Basque culture, are endlessly curious. Coastline east and west is like Big Sur.

R58 offers good advice on itineraries. You could pick the one that seemed best to fit your interest and not easily go wrong.

I would only add that the geography and cities change substantially one place to the next, to the extent that you could plan from each of his schemes and each trip would be a very different Spain: the architecture, the people, the history, the food, the geography, the look and feel of the place.

You could stay, for example, in the cliff-side medieval town of Cuenca in a huge 17th Century monastery turned parador (a national initiative of mostly historic hotels) with only 40 some guest rooms and many public spaces for around €100. The experience would be very different from any surrounding city large or small. It's a gorgeous country.

Hotel grading is fairly strict in Spain. A 3-star hotel in Spain is better than a 4-star in many other countries; a 4-star has some genuine luxury to it.

Most cities will have many food tour options, some aimed at "fun and entertaining and popular", others more scholarly and more genuinely local experiences. It's worth some effort to locate a good guide who can give you some solid advice on where to go and what to try.

What about the men? Why is no one reporting on them?

R63 The men seemed meek IMO.

Hawtest guys in Europe.

They're supposed to have the best weed I've heard.

Spain is a culinary bust for vegetarians and vegans. Leave out the shrimp, chorizo, ham, pig's trotters and chicken, and everything ends up tasting like smoked pimentón.

I heard that Spanish men ( or Spanish gay scene in general ) are more fat-tolerant than the usual shallow and narcissist homos in the US. Good news for all the fat bottoms in the DL.

R67: There are some vegetarian choices, only one of these often has smoked pimentón. (For vegans, you're on your own finding vegan restaurants or, better, the best Arab restaurants in any city and explain that you are a vegan & they will have excellent choices.)

Espinacas con garbanzos

Berenjena frita con miel (o miel de caña)

Berenjena con queso de cabra

Berenjena con salmorejo

Salmorejo (sin jamón)

Tortilla de patatas

Gazpacho

Zanahorias aliñadas

Pimientos de padrón

Lentejas

Papas aliñadas

Tomates aliñados

Espárragos con huevos

Croquetas con queso; con espinacas y piñones (o pasas); con setas

Pisto

Ajo blanco (almond and garlic soup, chilled)

Setas a la plancha

Patatas bravas

Have a look here OP

Prado in Madrid is a must

Spanish men are not hot, that is a total myth. Most of them are very plain, a lot of them smoke. The Spanish people in general are not as nice and friendly as they like to appear to be. My experience comes from working with Spanish people and numerous trips to Spain.

R72 Preach it! For those of us that have been to Spain, we know the reality.

R69 Gracias!

Mentira, R72. They are HAF. They even have blondes up north. I lived there and young Spanish men are hot, horny, and smell good.

Try the saunas if open OP.

I guarantee you after an experience there you will sleep relaxed for a week.

I think I will go to Spain this year. I have already been though. I will make an extra thread though.

The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain.

Sitges is horrible...don't go. Go to Barcelona...then take the train for a few days to Costa Del Sol. Its about 6 and half hours.

[quote]Spanish men are not hot, that is a total myth. Most of them are very plain

[quote]Mentira, [R72]. They are HAF.

And this is why Almodovar cast both Carmen Maura and Rossy de Palma.

OP if you see my lads Xabi & Nando about, please tell them that I love them and I still miss them like mad.

Do people still go to Mallorca?

R79. What is it you loathe about Sitges?

R83 The Laguna Beach of Spain? The Provincetown of Spain?

"What is it you loathe about Sitges?"

Too crowded and dirty. The place is just kind of ugly to me. Compressed and frantic. The beach reminds me of the Dominican Republic and not in a good way.

Just my opinion. I have lots of friends who love it. But they mostly love it because of that massive sex club with the underground catacombs.

Queens who want to get laid go to Sitges. Queens who want a great beach go to Manuel Antonio.

The issue with Sitges like every super famous den of depravity, is that you'll get sex but your give up local flava. Head to Valencia or Malaga and have an adventure with a Spanish guy.

Granada is my favorite Spanish city. It’s large enough to feel cosmopolitan, but small enough to feel intimate. The Alhambra attracts a ton of tourists, especially in the summer, but don’t go in summer.. It’s a college town, best experienced during the academic year.

Despite its reputation for crime and grit, I have always liked Cadíz and its environs. There are lovely beaches that are not crowded, a lot of Moorish era structures, and Jérez de la Frontera — famous for winemaking — is an hour away. It’s less overrun than destination cities, like Madrid and Barcelona, but very interesting.

Don’t get me wrong; you should visit Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia sometime. But if you’re looking for relaxing, sun-filled places, I highly recommend southern Spain. Fly into Málaga and rent a car. Drive to Gibraltar and take the road that crosses the runway at the airport. Take a ferry to Ceuta and see what the fuss about Moroccan migrants is about. I have made some version of this itinerary three times and discover new things each time.

While traveling around southern Spain, we happened upon the whitewashed village of Arcos de la Frontera, where we decided to have lunch in a lovely courtyard overlooking the valley below. We ended up spending three hours there, enjoying what was arguably the best, most beautiful and serene lunch we ever experienced.

The wine was good too,

R89, that looks amazing.

Anywhere but Valencia.

R88 has some good suggestions. I would, though, knock Gibraltar and Ceuta of the list unless you're a current issues in geopolitics junkie or have a great deal if time at hand.

Granada is stunning for its hills and the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada, giving the Alhambra an air of otherworldliness beyond its architecture. It is a tourist and a student city and for me comes up somewhat short as a city too much under the pull of it's temporary and very temporary residents. It takes a third day or more to get a richer sense of the place.

The pueblos blancos that R89 describes are wonderful, and there are a lot of them, each with some architecture you won't see and some food you won't taste in another.

Traveling by car is easy and inexpensive and let's you see places where you and a couple Spanish families mat be the only tourists anyone encounters that day. If driving in any part of Spain, do a search of "most beautiful pueblos in Andalucía" or "...near Málaga" and you will get lots of good lists from Spanish newspapers. Malaga is a center for visual arts, has a fine historic center, and then spreads out in small towns along the coast, some chic, some gay and retro like Torremolinos.

Cadiz is an ancient city, 3100+ years old; Cordoba was the largest city in Europe in the year 1000; Seville was one of the largest from that time to the 15thC. Both are considered among the most beautiful of cities, and in both it's easy to step a block or two away from the most famous historic sites and see neighborhoods not overrun with tourist apartments.

Valencia os the 3rd largest city but not the third most interesting. It's nicely situated, it has a small but interesting historic center, there's nothing wrong with the place but on whole it's a less beautiful, less interesting, less cohesive city than others larger and smaller.

Do NOT go to Spain in the summer! Burning hot and no air conditioning in the majority of places!

I stayed in Madrid but took a day trip to Segovia, which was very nice.

There's a castle at the top of a very steep street with shops all along the way up. There's also a huge aqueduct at the bottom of the hill, which is beautiful.

It's nothing like The Alhambra, but it is a pretty castle with a beautiful view.

You should also visit Ronda, Spain. I've never been, but Madonna filmed "Take A Bow" in Ronda, and it looked gorgeous.

Here's a photo of the Castle in Segovia.

And here's the aqueduct.

R93: Burning hot? Yes, in many places. Without air conditioning? Have you mistaken Belgium or Paris for Spain? Spain has air conditioning. Everywhere

I was in Madrid 10 years ago. Loved it. Amazing museums, not overrun with tourists the way Barcelona is, great restaurants and big gay scene. Chueca is a must. With that said, it's obviously not a beach vacation since Madrid is inland. However, Valencia, another beautiful city, is just two hours away by train. You can either do a day trip or spend a couple of days in Madrid then a couple of days in Valencia.

When I came to Spain… I lost my self control 😩

I’ve been to Barcelona many times, and it is infested with tourists. It is a wonderful city with lots to see, but it’s too frantic for me sometimes. It must drive the local people crazy.

Sitges is a pretty little town, but it is so gay it squeals. If you want something a bit more interesting, try Tarragona. It has beautifully preserved Roman sites, and the town itself is very attractive, with a beautiful 13th Century Cathedral.

All I know about Barça is that their football team is shit, and their telenovela are some crazy white shit.

Just remember: Barcelona is Catalan, not Spanish. If you want quintessential Spanish, try Andalucia. Seville, Granada, Malaga... add Torremolinos for the gay aspect.

And if you want to sample cuisine NOT heavily influenced by Muslims, head for Bilbao and San Sebastián in Euskal Herria, Basque country. Basque cuisine centers mainly on seafood. Guggenheim Museum, lovely towns and beaches on the Bay of Biscay.

About five years ago I got a bit of extra money, and I sent my mother on a city break to Seville for a few days. She hasn’t shut up about it since, and she wants to retire there. So there’s probably something quite special going on there (I’ve never been to Spain myself, so can’t confirm).

R16- EAT EAT EAT

You sound like a- FAT WHORE

[quote] The women are total bitches

Why would Datalounge care about that? What about the MEN?

[quote] it's obviously not a beach vacation since Madrid is inland

Geographically, Madrid is like Denver. High up in elevation, smack dab in the middle of the country. Cold in the Winter, and hot in the Summer.

Barcelona's weather is like California, but it's on Spain's East Coast.

Western Spain, from San Sebastian down to the border with Portugal, is like the Pacific Northwest. Rainy and cool.

Southern Spain is like our desert Southwest. Hot and dry.

[Quote]EAT EAT EAT

Spanish gays EAT which is refreshing. Eat, drink,dance, sing.

Barcelona can go right to separatist hell. The spirit of Spain is in Andalucia.

Andalucia rocks. It's gorgeous and SO spanish.

But JFC don't go in the summertime or you'll melt.

R107 Exactly. It might be an unpopular opinion, but I don't like Catalonia because most Catalans are VERY nationalistic. I don't like the separatist movement. I also personally find their language ugly. They prefer to speak Catalan but I prefer Spanish. That's why I'd rather visit Spain, as in Andalucia/Madrid. I also can't stand overrun tourist areas, which is another reason for me to not visit Barcelona.

R107 Yes, Madrid is like Denver. However, not quite as far to the beach. Spain has very good public transportation. They have high speed trains. You can travel from Madrid to Valencia, and the beach, in two hours. Granted, Valencia is a bit like Catalonia since Valencian is basically a Catalan dialect (though I know it's recognized as a language). However, Valencians are a lot less chill when it comes to language etc. They're not nearly as nationalistic as Catalans in Catalonia.

Sorry, meant MORE chill when it comes to language.

Torremolinos is the biggest gay beach town in southern Spain. A bit like Sitges, but Sitges is in Catalonia. As I said, I don't like Catalonia because of the Catalan language and because of the separatist movement. I prefer Torremolinos in Andalucia. Only a 20 minute drive from Malaga to Torremolinos.

[quote] Spain has very good public transportation. They have high speed trains.

Yes, very good.

In Madrid, you can take day trips anywhere in the country, because it's like a central hub.

Funny, because I always used to travel through Atocha, and I was horrified when that station was bombed back in 2004.

OP, while in Andalucia I'd make a point to catch at least one night in a small Flamenco club. One locals frequent. I assure you it will be memorable.

Don’t forget about the Canary Islands. Three hour flight from Madrid. Each island is very different. Tenerife is green and mountainous for the most part. They even have a tall volcano named El Teide. Gran Canaria has a huge gay tourist area near Playa del Ingles. Lanzarote is much drier with white wash villages that look like Greek isles.

R109 I acknowledge and agree that Catalan is an uglier language than Spanish; somehow, though, I find Catalan a bit easier to follow, learn and speak than Spanish. Why d’you suppose that is?

Do you speak Portugese, French or Italian, R116?

That could be why.

Catalan is closer to those languages, than it is to Spanish.

Here's Madonna's "Take A Bow" video, filmed in Ronda, Spain.

Beautiful scenery.

Madonna had a real thing for Spain in the 1990's.

The video at R118 doesn't really show much of the town.

Here's a nice photo of Ronda, though.

It honestly looks like a fantasy town from Lord of the Rings.

Another view...

The Spanish really love their cities and buildings to have splendid views, that's for sure.

The only place I don't love in Spain is Barcelona -- overpriced tourist trap and not particularly beautiful. (I have to admit though that La Sagrada Familia is one of the most amazing places I've ever visited.) Valencia Granada Ronda Madrid Bilbao San Sebastian Salamanca Galicia is undertouristed (except for Santiago de Campostela) and has some wonderful, off the beaten places to visit

[quote]Sagrada Familia probably isn’t worth going inside and waiting in that horrible line to go inside the church

It is worth it. There was no line at all when I was there

[quote]Sagrada Familia probably isn’t worth going inside and waiting in that horrible line to go inside the church

In many ways it's a more impressive building inside, and while that is down to personal opinion I don't think many people who have been inside thought their time wasted. It's a very different if complementary experience to seeing the exterior.

Book tickets in advance for easy, timed entry, Google how to skip the lines to find various options.

Barcelona is crap.

Over priced, crowded, touristy CRAP.

Don't go there.

If you want slutty good fun, fly into Barcelona, and then take the train directly from there to Sitges. It leaves directly from the airport and it's about 30 min. Sitges is gorgeous, has nude beaches, tons of bars, and dining. It's a really nice mix of chic Mediterranean town with lots for gays and straights. Just an FYI - the bath tubs in Bukakke are not meant to be instagram props. They are full of piss, so don't climb in one to take a cheeky photo or you'll be covered in piss the entire evening. Trust. Spend a few days there and then take the train back to Barcelona for a few nights.

Fly out of Barcelona to Gran Canaria, which is about a 5 hour flight. The islands are part of Spain off the northern tip of Africa. Don't worry. The weather is awesome year round and it's very gay in Maspalomas/Playa del Ingles which is the touristy/gay part of the island. They have a massive gay nude beach, these incredible sand dunes that everyone fucks in, and there is a fun gay pub on the beach. It's a great mix of young and eldergays, so you will fit in no matter who you are or body type. Europeans aren't as hung up on nudity or prudes like Americans. I recommend this gay resort called Villas Blancas, which has 2 pools, clothing optional, nice meals (they have a poolside casual restaurant where you can get anything all day and everyone hangs out), drinks, and breakfast. At night there is the "Yumbo" which is like this 3 story mall only except instead of stores, there is every type of gay bar you would want in the complex. There are drag bars w/ British drag queens just for fun, there are bath houses and sex clubs, bear bars, German bear bars, twink bars, gay karaoke - you name it, they have it. You can do this whole trip totally solo and you will end up meeting tons of people. I LOVE Spain. These are my favorite places. I've not been to Mallorca or Ibiza, which I really want to visit. Ibiza is a party island on one side, but there are more low key options as well.

R126 Do you think I will find someone to lose my virginity there?

For the gay scene, you have Torremolinos in Andalucia or Gran Canaria. Both better options than Barcelona. I personally avoid Catalonia for the reasons stated in this thread. Not a fan of the separatist movement. Also, Catalonia is not Spain. Andalucia is much better, it's quinessential Spain and has a ton to offer, Seville, Granada, Malaga, Torremolinos etc.

GermanGayGuy @ R127, there are so many German gays there willing to pop your cherry. There are at least 3-4 german bars. The is one called the Bärenhöhle. I like to hang out there even though the guys barely speak english. Mixed crowd.

When I arrived in Malaga two years ago I took the bus to Granada and with me in that bus was the most beautiful Spanish man (my age). But he was talking to another guy sitting next to him (didn't know him, just casual conversation). He was also straight, I think (and rather built).

What a fascinating story, R130.

R130 is kind of adorable. LOL

R132 Thank you, darling.

I remember fucking some very hung hot guy in a park at like 3 in the morning in Madrid. He (or maybe I) came all over my partner's jean jacket. I soaked in the sink when I got home.

I mean I soaked the jacket, oops

I feel like I missed my opportunity to have hot sex with Spaniards. Wish I had gone in my 30s.

OP, you just cannot go wrong with Spain. They are friendlier than the French and just as hot as the Italians. Unfortunately, like many Spanish speaking countries, pickpocketing is a reality. Keep your wallet close to you and enjoy a beautiful culture.

Thank you, Grandma.

[quote}Unfortunately, like many Spanish speaking countries, pickpocketing is a reality. Keep your wallet close to you and enjoy a beautiful culture.

Do you think the pickpocketing is some sort of offshoot of the language, R137?

Pickpocketing occurs mostly in the most touristic of areas in Barcelona which has the reputation as the worst city for pickpocketing in Europe. Guidebooks have warned tourists of Las Ramblas for decades; and in recent years the problem has spread to other tourist hotspots and places where masses of people press together (subways, for example.) Madrid experiences the problem to a lesser extent, with the Plaza del Sol as its pickpocket center. Pickpocketing exists elsewhere, but in much smaller numbers and police are better able to respond as reports of activity arise; it's infrequent enough to make the news if there is any pattern or new tactic observed. Outside a few of the biggest tourist spots in two cities in Spain, it's far from a huge problem.

Pickpocketing targets the easy prey of distracted tourists, especially in the last few years Asian tourists who sometimes carry large sums of cash. Tourists who set their mobile phone on the edge of their sidewalk cafe tables in high tourist areas are sometimes liberated of them.

Spain has been recognized as the safest country for several years at least as the safest country for women traveling alone which is a pretty good indicator of how safe Spain is generally. Walking home at 4.45 in the morning, the people you encounter are doing the same thing as you — walking home from a party, going to one, walking to to or from work, taking the dog for a walk. No guns, and very little serious danger.

R139, per the concierge at the hotel my friend stayed at in Barcelona, "be careful with the gypsies, they try to pickpocket everyone".

[quote] Unfortunately, like many Spanish speaking countries, pickpocketing is a reality

Yes.

Because it NEVER happens in Italy, France, Germany, or the UK.

Avoid the French and enjoy Spain.

Why is that, R142?

Try a guy from Galicia, OP. They taste different.

Sample the men from Alicante.

R145: That puts me to thinking that I've never heard much regret expressed for time spent with Spanish men.

Spanish men are some fine chorizo.

In my personal experience, Spanish men practice excellent groinal hygiene. Even after a night of drinking and dancing, they seem to avoid stinkiness down under.

[quote] Even after a night of drinking and dancing, they seem to avoid stinkiness down under.

What's their secret?

All Mediterranean men are clean down there, because their climate demand this attention and also it's part of Islam.

R150 is an amateur phrenologist-anthropologist who knows the truth about the Nazca Lines.

Love sexy Spanish men and their intact cocks.

Viva el prepucio!