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The best weekend trips from Madrid

When you come to our school to learn Spanish, you come to Madrid, the capital of Spain. It´s the most populated city in the country and, as you probably already know, the sunniest capital of Europe. Madrid city has plenty of monuments and activities for everyone, you can visit the best museums in Spain or spend the night partying. But if you are planning to visit other places in Spain, being in Madrid is already an advantage to travel. That’s why on this occasion I´m going to write about the best weekend trips from Madrid.

Madrid is in the very center of the country and since it was stablished as capital, more than 500 years ago, it has been the principal node of the means of transport of Spain. The result is that nowadays the main roads and high-speed railways radiate from Madrid to the rest of the country, so travelling to almost anywhere of Spain from Madrid is quite easy, there are many options and ways to get both to the coast in every direction, and to the cities closer to Madrid. But before starting your trip, go to Puerta del Sol and take a picture of the Km. 0, the starting point of the 6 radial highways and the reference for the numeration of the streets in the capital: the first number of any given street in the city is the closest to this place, the Km. 0.

Now let´s go over the means of transport in Madrid.

If you are travelling by train, the main stations in Madrid are Atocha and Chamartin. You may get to both of them via metro, Atocha is in Line 1 and Chamartín in Line 10, or via city bus, check EMT website to know which buses are the best choice for you. Atocha and Chamartín are the origin or destination of many long and medium distance trains, as well as commuter service. Spanish high-speed rail, AVE by its initials in Spanish, the longest of its type in Europe and second longest in the world after China´s, can get you to many destinations in a very short time and with a varied range of prices, depending mainly on how much time in advance you buy your tickets and the season. Always check out for discounts, either for students or special promotions. By train some of the best weekend trips from Madrid are Barcelona or Seville in 2 and a half hours from 90€ (that´s the price for a Friday to Sunday trip, if you can travel during the week, is cheaper), or to Valencia in 1 hour 50 minutes from 55€. If you prefer the north, a ticket to Santiago de Compostela, with a 3 hour trip, can be as cheap as 60€. Or closer, get to Segovia in 20 minutes for 13€ or to Toledo in 30 minutes for 11€.

The best weekend trips from Madrid

A cheap option to travel is getting a bus. The main bus station for long distance buses is the Estación Sur, its metro station is called Mendez Álvaro in Line 6, however, it’s probably better to start checking out the websites of the main bus companies and they will refer you to the appropriate station once you get your ticket. Other bus stations are: Intercambiador of Avenida de América, Intercambiador of Moncloa, Príncipe Pío, all of them reachable via metro. (Intercambiador means that it’s a big station where you can change from/to metro, bus, or train).

A ticket to Barcelona is just 22€ and you can get a night bus and take advantage of your time, the trip by bus takes about 7:30 hours. One ticket to Granada in Andalusia, in a 5 hour trip, is 20€. If you want to go to Bilbao, there are buses that takes 4 hours to get there for 45€. Toledo or Segovia are one hour away from Madrid via bus and you can find tickets as cheap as 4,2€. These are just a few options of some of the best weekend trips from Madrid by bus.

Last but not least, Madrid Airport whose whole name is Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, is the second largest airport in Europe, by size, and the sixth busiest airport. There are many flights to other capitals in Spain as well as many international destinations. You can get to the airport by metro, line 8, commuter train, bus, or taxi.

Visit the Canary Islands in a 2 hours and a half flight from 85€ or go to Ibiza in a little more than 1 hour for 150€, of course the prices may vary depending on the season and whether you buy your ticket with enough time in advance. If you schedule your trip in advance, you may get a return flight to Barcelona, for a weekend, for just 65€. With this many options, there´s no excuse to travel a bit when you are in Madrid. Choose a destination in line with your interests: Spain is not such a big country, which is a good thing when planning for a weekend trip, but we are proud to have a little bit of everything. Nature, culture, great food, even not so warm climate in the north, if that´s your preference… Pick a destination and enjoy your time here!

Spanish expressions to use in bars & restaurants

One of the aspects of the Spanish culture foreigners appreciate much is its gastronomy. For this reason we would like to offer you in this post some Spanish expressions to use in bars & restaurants.  After reading it, you are going to be ready to order something in a bar like a real Spaniard.

First of all you should know what are the most typical dishes in Spain. Although the variety is quite huge, we are going to introduce you here the ones you cannot miss in Madrid:

Tortilla: is a Spanish omelette, made of potatoes, eggs and onions, and cooked in olive oil.

Paella: is a rice dish originally from Valencia. It is a saffron-scented rice, cooked with rabbit, seefood and vegetables. And there are different versions for all tastes, even for vegetarians.

Ensaladilla rusa: the Spanish Russian salad is a very popular dish and it is cooked with potatoes, carrots, boiled eggs, cooked peas, tuna, and mayonnaise.

Patatas bravas: “spicy” potatoes, cut in chunks and fried in olive oil, are served with a special sauce (made of tomatoes, smoked Spanish paprika and flour).

Pimientos de Padrón: they are a variety of peppers from Galicia. The small, bright green peppers have a special flavour and are served fried.

Huevos revueltos: it is a dish of scrambled eggs mixed with other ingredients according to your taste (i. e. ham, onions, asparagus, shrimps, etc.)

Bocadillo de calamares: it is a very beloved dish in Madrid. It typically consists of a French baguette, stuffed with fresh and crunchy calamari rings.

When Spaniards eat out with friends, it’s quite common to order different dishes to share. The Spanish tapas, worldwide known nowadays, are small portions of food and are usually served with a drink as a appetiser. But you can also order several tapas as a main meal and of course, it has a very important social aspect: sharing different tapas with friends is a really nice gastronomic experience.

Our Spanish school offers a program of activities to practice Spanish outside of class hours so that our students can have fun, meet people and enjoy our wonderful gastronomy.

Spanish expressions to use in bars & restaurants

Regarding the kind of tapas, they are either just simple like queso manchego, jamón serrano or olives or a small portion of a dish: for example, meatballs or paella. In some Spanish regions and bars tapas are served for free when ordering a drink.

Along with tapas, you can find pinchos. Pinchos are quite similar to tapas but they are always served with bread. For example, a pincho de tortilla consists of a slice of white bread with a piece of tortilla. Pinchos are traditional in northern Spain.

But it could be that you would like to share bigger portions of food with somebody, and in that case the best options are raciones. You can order, for example, a ración de ensaladilla rusa or media ración (half portion).

Regarding drinks, Spaniards drink as much wine as beer. But if you look around in outdoor bars, what people drink the most with tapas is beer and we are sure, you probably too. There are different Spanish brands and kinds of beer for all tastes. The most popular beer brands in Madrid are Mahou and Estrella Galicia. But you should better know some Spanish expressions to use in bars & restaurants regarding beers. There are different measures. Caña is a small glass of beer (a little less than half a pint). A doble is double the size of the caña. A tercio is a 330 ml bottle. And then there is also botellín, a 200 cl/ml. bottle.

Tipping is welcomed in Spain, but it is a much less common practice than in other countries. When ordering just a drink, nobody leaves a tip. Some people leave simply the coins they are given as change if they have ordered food. On the other hand, at a more expensive and elegant restaurant, tipping is more common (about 5 percent of the total bill).

And here we can provide you with some useful Spanish expressions to use in bars & restaurants:

1. To order a beer: Quería una cerveza.

2. If you are a beer connoisseur, you can ask for different brands and advice: ¿Qué marcas de cerveza tienen?, ¿cuál me recomienda?

3. If a single person orders something to eat: Para comer quería una tapa de + name/ una ración de + name

4. If several people order together something to eat: Para comer queremos + food name / vamos a tomar varias tapas.

5. To ask the waiter what tapas they have, you can say: ¿Qué tapas tienen?

6. To ask for suggestion, you can say: ¿Qué me recomienda pedir?

7. If you are a group of people and want to order something more substantial to eat and get full, you can order several raciones: Nos gustaría pedir varias raciones.

8. To ask for the bill, you can use either La cuenta, por favor or ¿Cuánto le debo?