Spain Train Passes

From Eurorail, we can do the saver package for Spain-Portugal if we always travel together (I assume we will) for $291 for 3 days up to $563 for 10 days. They don't seem to offer 2nd Class Passes.

We would have to add reservations, especially the sleeper car to Lisbon, on to that.

The first class passes for just Spain appear to be more expensive, which is certainly odd. I don't see the Group Saver option, perhaps that's only valid for more than one country.

Car Rental in Spain

I know I dislike driving and much prefer train travel, but figured having a car gives us the flexibility to come and go, take side trips etc.

I can get a car through Avis for about $600 for two weeks (that's the minimum rental period for this cheap rate). Automatic transmission, unlimited kilometers. I made some estimates of fuel efficiency and miles driving, and figured we're looking at another $300 in gas money.

I have no idea if we would need to pay to park at hotels.

Spain Travel Option 8

This is basically like Option 7, but get us to spend more time in Spain.

Spain Travel Option 7

This is like Option 2, but uses your United miles.

Spain Travel Option 6

Like Option 1, but using your United miles.

As you suspected, they are starting to black out dates to use your miles. I had to push back our departure date to Monday, Oct. 21. I think the weather will still be fine. I guess it is what it is. Looks like you can only fly for 30k miles on Mon, Tues, or Wed.

Onto the itinerary!

Spain Travel Option 5

I flipped our route, into Barcelona, out of Madrid. Couldn't find a direct flight from Lisbon to Philly.

Spain Travel Option 4

This is a lot like 3, but we fly into Lisbon and out of Barcelona. We then take the train from Lisbon to Madrid, rather than fly Lisbon to Seville.

Spain Travel Option 3

This one is different. We use United miles to fly round trip to Philly, then fly US Air into Lisbon and out of Madrid.

Spain Travel Option 2

This is much like Option 1 - we still fly roundtrip thru Madrid and take the train to Lisbon, but instead of taking the train back to Madrid, we fly to Seville.

Airline Hubs

I'm not sure how detailed we can get here, but as we're trying to plan logistics, I think it would be good to start thinking about what airlines fly where directly.

Spain Travel Option 1

I'm going to start costing out various alternatives. I kind of guessed at some cities to see, I'm not sure we've made a final decision.

Spain Travel Pass

Here is the link to the rail pass.

http://www.raileurope.com/rail-tickets-passes/eurail-spain-pass/index.html

I haven't got through all the logistics, but it looks like $300 each for 3 day of travel. The more you travel, the more it costs.

Then, reservations would cost more. I don't think this includes the trip from Madrid to/from Lisbon since that's outside Spain. I think that was 50 euro? So like $65? And that's just a ticket, no reservation, no sleeper car?

Madrid to Lisbon

10 hour train ride from Madrid to Lisbon, but doable.  Overnight and that's about all I can decipher right now.  Timetable below.

http://www.cp.pt/StaticFiles/CP/Imagens/PDF/Passageiros/horarios/internacional/sud_lusitania.pdf

United Flights

What dates are you looking at for your United miles? I'd like to track fares, see if we can get my ticket for cheaper by booking a certain time/day.

I see departing Monday, Oct. 14 at 4:10 pm. Land Newark at 7:27. Depart Newark at 8:35. Arrive Madrid at 10:05 on the 15th.

Leave Madrid at 6:30 am on Wed. Oct. 30. Hour layover in Brussels. Arrive Chicago at 1:00 pm.

$1,003.

To Do List

Here are some things I think we need to accomplish in the next couple weeks.

1. Book flights
2. Decide if we are taking a Spanish language course
3. Decide upon destinations, as this may drive our flights. Right now I'm focusing on 2 weeks, but maybe it's more. Maybe we don't want to round trip to Madrid, maybe we should fly into Madrid and out of Barcelona. Or do we really want to try to see Lisbon or Casablanca? May change things. One-way tickets may be more expensive than round trips, but you have to factor in the cost of taking the train back to Madrid.

Feel free to add other things we should do in the short term. I may be missing something. Also, let's start discussing cities we want to see.

Labor Day in Iceland

It's not prudent, nor financially smart, so I doubt it's going to happen, but I want to give it one last pitch.

Flights to Spain

Wait, what? Spain? What happened to Iceland and England? We decided Iceland is a stand alone trip, it's too hard to combo with another trip. So we are toying with a trip to Spain in October.

Shits and Giggles

We could fly to Toronto on Porter Air (which I've never heard of) for about $350. We'd leave Thursday or Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Spend the weekend in Toronto. Leave Toronto on Sept. 3, fly to Iceland, return 9/8 or 9/10 for $850. So that's $1,200 each, which is the cost of just flying to London.

Same general dates, $200 round trip to NYC (on Spirit); $850 round trip to Reykjavik.

So, that's cheaper and easier to coordinate. However, it sure seems less cool than England. I've kind of got myself psyched up for the UK. I should let it go. Be prudent.

Travel Options: Hotel Costs in London

I will try to do a similar analysis in London, but there are an assload of hotels. I am more confident we could find a decently priced hotel there at any time if we try hard enough.

Travel Options: Hotel Costs in Reykjavik

Obviously we have dozens of options everywhere we go for hotels, but I wanted to do a little digging about relative hotel prices before and after Labor Day

Flight Options Try 7: Leave in September

If we don't want to use your miles, round trip to London drops to $1,064 on Labor Day, Monday September 2, then to $1,019 every week day after that. Same flight, leave Chicago at 4 pm. Arrive London at 5:55 am on September 3.

Flight Options Try 6: Shannon's Miles, Leave in September

Can't fly for 30,000 miles until Monday, September 9. Leave 4 pm, arrive 555 am on September 10 in London. Can only fly back on Monday, September 16 or Monday September 23.

So, the first one is a short trip and we miss your dad's 60th. Second one we miss your dad's birthday, the golf outing, and your half marathon.

I'm leaning towards this not being a very promising plan.

Flight Options Try 5: Shannon's Miles

Ok, so if we want to use your miles, we have to leave on Wed. August 21.

Chicago to London to Edinburgh to Reykjavik to somewhere to Chicago?

I'm again looking at all options to get us the most bang for our buck while getting to see some wicked cool stuff.  I haven't figured out the getting to London thing, but we can get from London to Edinburg via train for $85 and then from Edinburg (Glasgow) to Reykjavik for $196 via plane.  Edinburgh seems pretty cool.  I'm not sure if you've checked it out yet.  Also, not sure if we are set on getting to Ireland.  It seems difficult to get to even though it's so close to Britain. 

Day Trip to Greenland

It might be a bit crazy, but we could do a day trip via air to Greenland for about 600 USD.  There are two options and it's a day tour so the cost includes airfare and a guided tour.  I'm not sure we want to do it, but it's an option.  Fun trivia question - Iceland is the closest access point to Greenland.

https://www.airiceland.is/action-packed-tours/greenland/kulusuk-day-tour
http://www.eagleair.is/adventure/daytrip-to-greenland