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Ernestas and Darina are a couple who magically met after an airplane broke down in China. On the first day, they fell in love and decided to travel the world together. They always try to take a unique path and look at things from a different perspective to inspire people to find their travel inspiration! You can connect with Ernestas and Darina through their Instagram @dreamteam_travels.
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SUBSCRIBEIn the first part of the year, we were stuck on different continents due to the Pandemic. As soon as one country opened up, we decided to reunite and travel across Europe. As Ernestas has never been to Spain, and I’m a huge fan of Barcelona, we decided to spend the whole month exploring this sunny country.
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Coming down from France, with our car, our first stop was San Sebastian where we fell in love with the city because it had the best seafood in the world, was incredibly pet friendly, and there were kind people all around. We even considered settling down here after 4 months of non-stop traveling.
Our next destination was Zaragoza, which impressed us with beautiful architecture and unique buildings all over the city. We would definitely love to come back and explore the city further.
After exploring such beautiful cities in Spain we were excited to go to Valencia. Here we set unreal expectations which the city did not meet. We thought it was quite dirty and not very pet friendly as it lacked parks or grass areas in the city. However, the people were quite nice and it was cool to see Mandarin treas all over the city. They also had a nice beach for surfers.
Our next stop, Tarragona, quickly became our hidden gem, because the apartments on the beach with the incredible views were just perfect. The beautiful sunny weather, people participating in healthy lifestyles, and fitness made us feel more energetic, motivated, and creative. We found this city perfect for Nomads.
Barcelona- Darina was here numerous times and was absolutely in love with the city. However, the pandemic has changed the city a lot. Empty streets, closed bars, and restaurants took a lot away from the atmosphere of the city. The lack of tourists made us the prime target for theft. While we were sitting in our car a guy came up to our driver's window and distracted us as his friend opened our car's back door and attempted to steal our backpacks from the car. Luckily we realized what was happening and jumped out of the car in time to chase them off empty-handed.
Overall, Spain has brought us all sorts of feelings from laughter to anxiety, but we will never forget our trip to Spain.
We did not pack anything specific, we were coming with our car after 4 months of traveling all over Europe. We were however excited to finally wear our summer clothes as the weather in Spain was just perfect. Our dog was also excited to be here to enjoy the sun!
Our trip to Spain was very spontaneous as we tried to escape the rainy weather in Germany and France. We booked everything last minute, a day or two out.
It was easy to just book any accommodation we wanted and not have to worry about transportation because we had a car.
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We spent about 1 month in Spain. It was enough time to visit the places on our list. However, we could have spent a lot more time exploring other areas of Spain.
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As we traveled during the Pandemic, we did not meet any other tourists and sometimes it felt like we were the only traveler in Spain. But the locals were very kind to us, especially our AirBnB host in Valencia who provided us with a huge list of the best local places to eat and drink at.
In San Sebastian - Tapas was like a local religion and is a must-try. It was definitely the best seafood in our lives.
For Ernestas, it was the first time he had tried Churros, and he thought it was the perfect breakfast for someone with a sweet tooth.
The local drink in Valencia named Horchata was a drink we just had to try. However, we really did not understand why the locals were crazy about it.
The beach in San Sebastian was absolutely stunning and perfect, furthermore, after coming from a not-so-pet-friendly and rainy France, our dog Cosmo the Borzoi absolutely loved running around on the beach, playing with other dogs. He even helped save the little fishes that were washing up to shore.
When you are traveling you know that sometimes you have to go out and try the local cuisine like Tapas in San Sebastian, but we often kept our cost down by choosing to cook our own food at our AirBnB's.
We also usually rent AirBnBs instead of hotels as the prices tend to be a bit cheaper, and you often get to have your own Kitchen.
In Barcelona, parking was extremely expensive, so we drove out 10km out of the city to leave the car and chose to take the bus or walk to places we wanted to visit.
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Zaragoza is a city we never heard about until we were there. This city felt like a must-visit and explore while in Spain. The beaches in Badalona, unlike in Barcelona, were empty and quiet. We would recommend a nice picnic on the beach away from the crowds.
If you are traveling with a dog, places like Valencia are not so pet-friendly as other cities in Spain. If you’re traveling to a big city like Barcelona, be cautious of theft or parking as cars often get towed if parked improperly. But besides that, just enjoy the beautiful weather, cheap food, and drinks, stunning beaches.
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What a great trip !