THIS Christmas, if you’re planning to spend the holiday season here in Spain, then do so with a fashion. Reserve your flights now because there are no more flights to look forward to this Christmas if you will board the airliner only then. And remember to book flights as round trip ones and not just standalone flights. You know, there are lots of people spending the holidays here even though if Spain is just a summer destination. You may spend your holidays stranded here in Spain if you don’t book round trip tickets.
Hotels here too are booked tight when it comes to Christmas season. Even vacation homes and villas are hard to come by here if you don’t reserve early. For bookings, there is just one click of a finger. Just log in to Expedia or Travelocity websites and you can browse for available villa deals. These villa deals are usually merged with your plane tickets here in Spain. For example, your flight will end up at Madrid International Airport.
But your destination is Benidorm. Yet international and reputable travel agencies such as the ones mentioned earlier do offer even the villa rentals in these areas in Alicante . Some of these villas are located close to the coastline such as in the Mediterranean areas of Costa del Sor or Costa Blanca. In these cases when villas really hug literally the shorelines, make sure not to wander along the coasts alone. Lifeguards often guard beaches but they do not make the rounds at remote or isolated beaches. You must be informed beforehand regarding the status of the place. For example, make sure that the beaches do not have a history of overflowing in case of a storm. There is no such thing as a very violent storm in the Mediterranean coasts of Spain but there are some instances when weather is unpredictable and there is a little bit of flooding and water may seep into the property that you are renting.
Remember that Christmas is in the middle of winter and the weather is not as sunny as it is during summer. Temperatures here tend to be as low as -3 degrees Celsius. You need layers and layers of clothing and you must stock up literally dozens of this in your holiday home. You don’t want to go out in the cold and snowing, right? So all you’ve got to do in the villa that you have rented is snuggle up with your loved one and wait for the weather to be sunny again. That may happen during midday where you can warm yourself up with some hot soup from fish stock that you may happen to secure after befriending some local fisherman at the shore.
Make sure too that the villa that you are renting is equipped with a very operational heater. Test this beforehand and test all appliances before committing to rent that particular villa. There are various kinds of villas here in Spain. Prices vary depending on your negotiation with the owner.
CHRISTMAS is the right time to rent a villa in Spain. Spain has the most religious and most fanatic Roman Catholics all over Europe. For example, you will see in its churches the uniqueness of the design. Aside from the Gothic imprints associated with cathedrals all over the continent, Catholic churches all over Spain have been designed with Islamic art, owing to the Moorish era. It has never been erased by the Catholics who reconquered them because they found the art fascinating, attracting even UNESCO which calls them as world heritage sites.
To come here in Spain during winter, you need not a visa if you come from Europe. If you come from Portugal which is just located in the Iberian Peninsula where Spain is also located, you just need a train or even your own car in hopping to here. There is nothing else that you will need except maybe a few extra clothes just in case coldness sets in the way during your trip. Because Spain is part of the Schengen agreement, then no guards will accost you down in the land bordering Portugal.
Once you’ve arrived here, you can scout for the various vacation homes and villas available for rent in a two-week vacation. You may accompany your wife or a girlfriend or even your child. Extra precautions for your child’s safety have already been underway because of the Madeleine McCann kidnapping. Vacation homes and villa compounds here in Spain have installed sophisticated cameras and high-tech surveillance equipment to impress its foreign visitors. There are lots of visitors here during Christmas season, most of them coming from Britain and other colder countries such as Denmark and Sweden.
They like it here during Christmas because it’s relatively warmer here in Spain especially in the Mediterranean areas. For those who want to go skating or mountain and ice skiing, then go to the Pyrenees. The Alps is still the number one destination as far as winter sports in Europe are concerned but the Pyrenees has long been attracting several people here. Near the Pyrenees particularly at its foot lie a number of villas and vacation homes ideal for renting this Christmas season. For just a reasonable and negotiable price, you can already settle you and your kids for the night with a heater and an even authentic and original fireplace. Make your kids feel at home but at the same time, let them feel struck with the surroundings around them just like snowfall and the full moon while snow is falling.
But if you are wary of the cold, then you can always settle down at the various villas and vacation homes along the Mediterranean coastlines in Spain such as Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol, Malaga and Valencia. These communities are mostly composed of devout Roman Catholics and it’s nice to see them praying in unison as they commemorate the birth anniversary of Christ. In fact, they celebrate Christmas here for seven weeks straight from Advent to the Feast of the Epiphany in the second week of January.
THIS Christmas, when you plan to spend your holiday right outside the country, go to Spain. The Mediterranean areas of Spain are having relatively temperate climate during Christmas season with the lowest temperature you can get at about -3 degrees Celsius only. That’s way 5 degrees higher than what is usually pegged at the United States and Canada the next season. That’s why many Americans and even Britons go to Spain this Christmas for relatively warmer ground.
And when they do come here, they do not want to spend the holidays in five-star hotels and even at three-star ones because that’s too expensive. You may want to be here, you may want to spend it at a villa. A villa has all the nice amenities in spending your Christmas with your family or if you’re a singleton, your loved one. Villas here in Spain are situated from Madrid to Benidorm, from Valencia to Barcelona. There are even villas in Spanish territories overseas such as those in Palma del Mallorca and Tenerife as well as in Ibiza and all the rest of the Balearic archipelago.
Whether you’re located here in the Iberian Peninsula or overseas, the amenities in the villas here remain the same. There are even so-called mountain villas in the Pyrenees region where people troop to find shelter from the cold after a grueling day of skiing in the snowy mountains. This early, you need to reserve for your mountain villa here in Spain because they tend to be filled out early especially during the weeks preceding Christmas Eve and New Year. During those nights, it’s nice to see fireworks emanating at the sky with snow falling as the foreground.
In the Mediterranean areas, villas here are so serene. There are complete amenities that you can think of such as cable television, high definition DVD player with your own LCD screen and a choice between wired and wireless Internet connection. But at remote areas, there can be a problem with the communication amenities because if a DSL provider has no central office there, it can certainly not provide you any connection at all. However, there is still satellite connection hooked to your cable television and computer for that but this tends to be expensive. Therefore, home owners tend also to increase the rentals of these holiday homes so be aware of that. If you have the money to pay and you stay in a remote area all by yourself, then do so.
However, don’t stay alone. Always have a date with you or in lieu of that, a temporary butler. There are a lot of Spanish folks who are more than willing to help you out especially the foreign tourists. After all, tourism is one of the lifeblood in their economy and besides, they are natural in accommodating tourists. They are one of the most hospitable people in the world so to speak. And when you rent a villa, make sure that you know the road going to the nearest hospital and make sure too that your companion knows how to drive. Also make sure that you have a vehicle with you parked in your garage and it is in good running condition as well.
