Visited Portugal, Spain and Italy with my mum using Ryanair. We got the £0.01 and €0.01 fares (excluding taxes) to Porto, Barcelona and Milan.
Porto & Fatima
We went to Porto on the 10th. Stayed at Residencial Aviz Porto. The hotel has good location. It's near the bus station and shopping area. Simple furnishing, not air-conditioned, but I guess it's ok for its price (about €45 for a twin room) and good location. Porto has a nice airport. Looks new. And its easy to get to the city centre via the Metro. Just ask at the info desk. We asked how to get to our hotel and the lady told us to get the Metro and stop at Bolhão station. The hotel is about 10 - 20 minutes walk from the station. When we purchased the Metro ticket we were told to keep it, as it can be reloaded by inserting the ticket into the machine and selecting new journeys; by doing so the fare is cheaper. One way to Porto city centre costs €1.85, with the ticket it costs €1.35. We found a small restaurant serving a set meal for €5. The set came with 0.5Lt wine (or any sort of other beverages), soup, main course, bread and coffee. I think the place is called Murda, that was the sign on the building anyway.The next day we went to Fatima by bus/coach. The bus station is pretty near to the hotel. We took the 'Rede expressos' coach which was €12.15 per way. The journey took about 2hours. The Fatima church is approximately 15minutes walk from Fatima bus station. There is an info kiosk within the church grounds which has a map of Fatima town area. The last day in Porto, we decided to check out the nearby area. We took the bus to 'El Corte Ingles' shopping centre (this particular shopping centre has a few branches in Barcelona), the bus fare was €0.70 per way. Had lunch at the food court just outside the supermarket, got a whole chicken with 400g of rice for €8.45. The people are friendly and helpful.
Barcelona
Arrived in Barcelona around midnight, so we waited at the airport till morning to catch the coach transfer to city. The transfer was €21 for a return ticket. We stayed at Agora BCN University Residence. Its pretty far from the city. From the bus station we took the Metro to Catalunya and from there we changed to Line 3 (i think) and stopped at Mundet where the hotel was. There's an info desk at the bus station where you can ask for directions to your hotel. The room looks like modern student dorms and it's air-conditioned. There are 2 computer stations at the lobby which offers free internet access, however users are requested to use it for 30minutes at a time. The hotel is pretty near to the Metro station. It's best to buy a multi-journey ticket as it works out to be cheaper per journey; and one ticket can be used for more than one person. A one journey ticket costs €1.25, and a 10-journey ticket costs €6.90. We toured the place, saw Sagrada Familia and Casa Batllo, and walked down La Rambla. We had buffet lunch at a place called Lactuca, €8.50 per person. Buffet included salad, pizza, spaghetti, fish, ice-cream, sodas, fruits and coffee (i might miss out some other food). The next day we went to the harbour area. Nice place, theres a shopping mall there with a Barcelona FC store. We tried to walk to the Barcelona Olympic Stadium but it was too far so we headed back to the hotel for our luggages. Our flight to Milan was an early morning one so we went to the airport the night before and waited there.
Milan & Venice
From the airport we took the Terravision transfer to Stanzione Centrale (train station), €12 for return ticket. We stayed at Edolo Hotel which is about 20 minutes walk from the station. The hotel is not bad. Simple furnishing, air-conditioned, and has sky tv. There's a tram stop near the hotel. Tickets can be purchased from the newspaper stand. One journey costs €1; a full day card costs €3 which is valid on all forms of public transportation (except for trains), ie trams, busses, metro. We had 3 nights in Milan, so we decided to spend one in Venice. We got the train from Milan to Venice (Santa Lucia station which is on the Venician islands). We checked the ticket machine (and online) which quoted €24 fare per way. We approached the counter which gave us a cheaper fare of €21, but when we requested for the cheapest they told us that it's €12.90 per way; ETD Milan to Venice: 0715 and Venice to Milan: 1519 (tickets valid for 2 months). In Venice we stayed at Allogi Agli Artisti Hotel which is very near to the train station. The room is kinda small but nicely decorated and air-conditioned, with shared bathroom which is pretty clean and neat. Venitians are pretty helpful. It's not hard to get around Venice althought it's like a maze. There are directions pointing to the famous monuments. It took about 1 - 2 hours to find our way to San Marco by foot. However that is the cheaper (free) option to getting the waterbus. Plus we got to find some interesting shops along the way. Last day in Milan which was the 18th, we got the day ticket, and went to see Duomo and the shopping area nearby.
All the hotels we stayed came with breakfast. Breakfast mostly consist of bread, butter, jam, hot drinks, juice.... the usual. Agora in Barcelona had omelette, sausages and ham, whereas the Italian hotels came with yoghurt. And all except for Venice, had a supermarket nearby.
Most of the people we've met were helpful, there were some who were totally not. But I suppose it's the same everywhere. And I'm grateful for those who helped us find our way, eventhough some of them couldn't speak english they still tried their best to help us.
OK, I guess that's all.
>>> Over and out...
