I’ve recycled a bit of the text from my Rome travel summary because, not surprisingly, we plan trips in similar ways year over year.
PLANNING
At this point, we’ve settled on a fairly clear division of labour:
- Booking hotels and flights are almost exclusively John’s responsibility. We discuss dates and times but, ultimately, I leave the final decisions to him. He always knocks this out of the park. He also takes the majority of our pictures. I tend to focus on pictures of people and he captures incredible shots of buildings, skylines, and other scenery.
- Regarding day-to-day itineraries, I handle most of the planning. I am definitely better able to enjoy a vacation when I feel there is a clear plan. That said, I like to believe I’m still quasi-spontaneous and open to new adventures…but I appreciate having an itinerary to provide a general structure for our days.
Major landmarks in a city are usually low-hanging fruit (we knew we wanted to see Sagrada Familia, for example). It’s filtering through the “hidden gems” of a city that takes more concentrated research. These are literally the search strings I used when planning our Barcelona itineraries: Hidden gems to visit in Barcelona and Unique places to see in Barcelona. It takes a lot of time to read through all the descriptions and decide whether a particular hidden gem is worth the effort or expense. As a general rule of thumb, the more times the same “hidden gem” shows up, the greater the likelihood we’ll enjoy it! CosmoCaixa was one such hidden gem – what an incredible museum, but not something that tends to show up as a main tourist attraction (it should, especially if you have kids in tow). These search strings are also how I discovered Teatre Grec, the cacti garden, the FCB logo hidden in stained glass, and the Spanish Inquisition Blazon.
I start by setting up a spreadsheet of potential places to visit; I will often list important details off to the side (for example: entry to the labyrinth park is free on Wednesday; knees and shoulders have to be covered to enter such and such church) or include relevant links.
After several weeks of picking away at this list, I drop pins for our top must-see locations into a Google Map. Generally (in a city at least), clear geographic patterning will show up. Based on what I’ve pinned on the map, I’ll write out an outline for daily itineraries. This is flexible; we mix and match and change things up but it’s nice to have a fall-back plan. I also print out a physical copy of my map; after a few days, I get the basic geography down pat, but I referred to this map A LOT when we first arrived in Barcelona. This time, instead of printing off my Google map, I photocopied maps from a travel guide (sourced at my library, so it was free) and then circled all our must see places in red. I also wrote up a daily itinerary with the top things we wanted to do. Every day I would pack the yellow map that corresponded to the area we were going + the white paper with the summary of the day’s events.
I’m in charge of my passport + A’s. John handles his + L’s. It’s impossible to tell passports apart and you often need to present them in a specific order, so I labeled the top corner with a little sticker!
TRAVEL
We flew Halifax to Montreal and then had a long layover. We are so fortunate to have access to lounges because of John’s frequent flyer status and it does make a very big difference in the travel experience. I practiced hair styles on A, L did Pokémon Go. We played some paper games. I read on my Kindle.
Our flight to Barcelona went smoothly. As per usual, I slept zero minutes. Sigh. The man behind me, however – and eventually his wife – slept like logs. Human, snoring logs. Seriously. I think he was asleep before we took off and woke right before landing. And he snored the WHOLE TIME. No shade, cuz’ I wasn’t sleeping anyway, just immensely jealous of this superpower (minus the snoring).
We arrived around 7 am local time.
The return trip was a bit more exhausting but I slept! On an airplane! Several hours! It was amazing. Our flight left Barcelona around 9:30 am. We grabbed a taxi in front of our hotel at 7 am on the dot and made it in plenty of time (though I ended up in a line with a very persnikity security guard so everyone seemed to have to pull out extra things or walk through the line again).
Unfortunately, due to a mechanical issue, our flight from Montreal to Halifax was delayed. We ended up in the Montreal airport for EIGHT HOURS. Again, we were so, so fortunate to have access to the lounge which meant quasi-comfortable chairs, nice bathrooms (this matters!), and food. The kids both slept for good chunks of the time (it was the middle of the night to our bodies). While they slept, I took a few hours to write up all my trip recaps, so it felt like a productive use of time. We had to pivot a bit with our transportation plans. My dad was planning to pick us up at the airport but since everything was still so up in the air (just noticed the pun as we literally WANTED to be up in the air and weren’t) – and we weren’t going to land until almost 1 am – I said we’d get a taxi. This ended up working out…see “Footnote” below.
WHAT DID OUR TRIP COST?
Traveling – especially internationally – tends to be cost-prohibitive. I wasn’t on an airplane until I turned 19. I have NEVER been on an airplane with any of my immediate family members (parents/siblings). And I didn’t travel outside of North America until A was a toddler. This was the first international trip L has been on. All that said, I realize we are incredibly fortunate to be able to take a trip of this nature.
While this wasn’t our most frugal trip to date (well, until the footnote arrived), we had some major savings that left us feeling more flexible in what we said Yes to.
We booked our flights on points. Aeroplan, the reward provider we use, had a great priority rewards deal at the end of 2023, so the cash outlay was very low ($95.96 per ticket/round-trip). Credit card reward programs and/or airline reward programs can be incredible! (John gets points every time he flies, but we also have annual subscriptions to Aeroplan credit cards and put all business – and most personal – expenses on a reward cards.)
Here is what it cost in Canadian dollars for a 6-night stay in Barcelona – plus two travel days – for four people. The exchange rate is not great; €100 is about $145 CAD (€ and USD are basically par).
- Flights: $95.96 each | $383.84 total
- Accommodations: $280.78 per night | $1,684.65 total (*this included a daily breakfast buffet which was big and delicious!)
- Food + Drinks: $683.62 (works out to $21.40 per person/per day)
- Souvenirs + Gifts + Misc (e.g. e-Sim for my phone): $353.17
- Trains + Trams: $307.21 total (transport from the airport, train to Montserrat, furnicular to/from Tibidabo, and all Metro transport – works out to $12.80 pp/per day)
- Taxis: $284.28. This one stings a bit; because our return flight was so delayed we ended up taking a taxi from our local airport for $216; in terms of our Barcelona taxi budget, it was only $68.28 to get to the airport for our return flight.
- Entry fees: $280.59 – Park Guell, Sagrada Familia, Cosmo Caixa
Grand Total: $3,977.36 CAD (~€2,693.81 or $2,926.00 USD)
This works out to ~$125 per person for each day of the trip – including flights, food, transportation, and accommodations!
BIGGEST COST SAVINGS
- Looking up when entry to places was free; on this trip we were able to do the Parque del Laberint d’Horta, Picasso Museum, and Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya on days with free entry.
- Booking a hotel with breakfast included. We would have spent a lot of money on breakfasts, and it was so convenient to be able to go down with just a room key – no coats to manage, no icky bathrooms.
- Walking. We used the Metro daily, but we saw a lot of the city on foot. John made sure our hotel was close to a Metro station – 300 m!
- Using an e-sim (Airalo). John uses an e-sim regularly for work travel; I think I spent about $10 for enough data to get me through all the navigating and Google searches I needed during our 6-day stay. Works like a charm with no expensive roaming fees.
- Flying on points. This was the biggest cost savings for us. We also chose to go Monday-Monday as it was far cheaper than leaving Canada on Friday or Saturday. Also, we selected Barcelona as a destination primarily because it ended up being MUCH cheaper than the other places we had looked – Florida, Denmark, Portugal and some other cities in Spain!
- Buying food/snacks at a supermarket. Twice we carried picnics along with us which was lovely. It meant we didn’t have to waste time looking for restaurants AND the food was delicious and inexpensive. For example, at Montserrat the dining options are limited and pricey. But we brought food in our bookbag from a supermarket right by our hotel and got to picnic with incredible views. I also brought two containers of mini M&Ms and a few packages of gum from home which I would dole out in the middle of the afternoon when energy levels were flagging.
AN UNEXPECTED FOOTNOTE
Remember how our flight from Montreal to Halifax was delayed? John was on the case! We weren’t expecting anything, but when a flight is delayed for more than 3 hours, in Canada/with Air Canada at least, you can apply for compensation. He filled out all the forms, and a few weeks later we got word that we were getting €600 EACH for the delay. For some reason, this compensation fell under European airline rules – much more passenger-centric – so we were paid in Euros. This works out to $884 CAD per person, on tickets that cost less than $100 per person.
While we’re likely never going to be able to recreate this situation, IF YOU ARE DELAYED MAKE SURE YOU APPLY FOR COMPENSATION FROM THE AIRLINE. (This applies to operational delays only – which means the issue is within the airlines “control” – not weather or mechanical issues which are directly tied to safety.) Every once in a while, something awesome might happen.
So our trip cost $3,977.36…but then we got $3,536 of it back so we were $441.36 out of pocket for the trip. (In the end we put the $844 per child into their respective bank accounts so technically, it was “only” $1,768 back to us. Still, not a bad payday for waiting a few extra hours.)
And that, finally, is a complete wrap on our trip to Barcelona. What’s your best travel hack? Favourite place to spend? Favourite way to save? Do you sleep well on planes?
Erin
Thanks for sharing all of these details!! What an amazing footnote 🙂 I once got $900 to be bumped from a flight from MSP to Midway Chicago (which is 45 minutes long) to a flight from MSP-ORD Chicago that left an hour later – I felt that I’d reached the peak of my life at that point, especially because it was a work flight I hadn’t even paid for 🙂 Knock on wood, but I haven’t had any significant delays on flights since my honeymoon in 2005 but I do wonder if that law existed then because we DEFINITELY would have qualified (flight delayed from Berlin to Amsterdam, causing us to miss the Amsterdam – MSP flight, then re-booked to Amsterdam to Montreal but they put too tight of a connection for customs so we missed the Montreal to MSP flight, had to go to Chicago and then finally home…. since that time I’ve prioritized direct flights perhaps to my own detriment!!).
I am deeply into using credit card points for travel and am already looking at figuring out where to go for spring break 2025… we went to Japan this month using points for flights and half of our hotels and there is NO WAY we’d have been able to do that without them. Barcelona is on my list of options so I am saving these posts!!
Elisabeth
That’s a great paycheque for an hour, Erin!! Little moments like that can be so elating!
John corrected me to make sure it’s clear that not ALL delays are covered. It has to be within the airline’s control (for example, if they don’t have enough crew members to work a shift, so the plane is grounded…that should be covered if it results in a certain length of delay).
Direct flights are the best! We don’t have that option where we live. Almost everything (London is a rare exception) requires a connection through Toronto or Montreal.
Credit card points can be incredible! An under-utilized option for many, for sure!
Japan is an epic destination. John really, really enjoyed his work trips there and I think we’d like to make a family trek there someday…but Europe is just so accessible; I suspect going back will be our next international trip. Maybe Portugal? Or Sweden – John has been to Stockholm a few times recently and it just looks LOVELY. Though a trip to Copenhagen means our lodging is free since I have family that lives there.
Maria
Wow! What a footnote! You definitely lucked out on it being the return leg – typically rules and protections on international flights are governed by which country your first leg is from. This can also apply to baggage allowance… We visited my FIL in Eastern Europe last year and we hauled ourselves and two kids (3 and 1) and all our baggage through four airports on the way there because we cheaped out and bought tickets with no free checked bags. On the way back we paid to check a large suitcase because we had a bunch of things to bring back. To our surprise at a layover in NYC when we had to recheck our bags, we found out that actually we could check four bags for free because of a difference in baggage rules on the way back because our flight had started in Europe. Needless to say we checked as many bags as we could 😂. Would have been nice though if the airline had told us that in our originating city. 😂 (That was also the stop on the trip where we had to go through US customs and the kids were so squirrelly that a border guard ushered us to the line for diplomats which was not too surprisingly completely empty so we could get through quickly.)
Elisabeth
I felt exhausted and sweaty just thinking about going through FOUR airports with all that baggage. We don’t check anything, but it was a huge help to only have each child responsible for one bag (even though L forgot his).
And wow! The diplomat line. How fancy and, more importantly, a short wait.
Nicole MacPherson
I did NOT know that about airline delays, but I am tucking that away into my brain. Eight hours, eep. This is why I hate connections! But now that I’m in Kelowna – like you in Halifax – connections become part of life.
Your flights were so cheap! That’s incredible. I am a person who can sleep on a plane, in fact, I can sleep for HOURS on a plane. I always wake up with a sore neck though, but still. Hopefully I don’t snore.
Elisabeth
So it doesn’t apply to all (or even most) delays. But if it’s operational and within the airline’s control, there can be compensation!
Connections are basically unavoidable for us. We have a direct flight to London and there are a few flight options in the summer months that are direct, but they’re few and far between.
I wish I could sleep on the plane! I think the 2-3 hours I dozed is the longest I’ve ever slept on a plane ever. I slept 30 minutes total on the 13.5 hour flight home from Sydney, and 0 minutes on the way there. It is NOT my superpower.
Jenny
Ha, I’m reading Nicole’s comment above and imagining her snoring away happily on an airplane (her snores would be very dainty, though.) To have an eight hour delay at the end of an international trip like that would be hard, but BOY WAS IT WORTH IT!
I love your and John’s division of labor in the trip planning. It was definitely a team effort. Planning the whole thing would feel overwhelming to one person, so it’s great that you could each do what you’re good at.
About the picnics- having been vegan for a very long time, I’m very used to packing my own food. Nowadays there are more vegan options around but if I were in Barcelona, or any foreign city, I wouldn’t want to rely on restaurants. Oh, and to answer the plane question- I can pretty much sleep ANYWHERE. (Except, strangely, in my bed at night… hmmm…) So I have slept on many airplanes.
Elisabeth
It really is funny how getting compensated makes me think about the whole waiting experience so differently. Though, to be fair, it wasn’t THAT bad.
Trips are a team effort for sure.
I wish I could sleep on airplanes. Alas, it is not something I do well…:(
J
Oh goodness, what a footnote! I’m sorry you had that horrible delay, but I’d say it was worth it. What a savings!
I love your planning. That is one of my favorite things about travel, thinking of the places we will go and mapping out the days, looking at maps and seeing what is close by, etc. I mean, in Alaska everywhere we went was small so I didn’t do it there. But definitely in Paris, especially since we walked so much, it was good to know what was next to what else, etc.
My sleep on an airplane rate is questionable. Sometimes I am able to sleep, sometimes not. When I went to France in 2018, I think I got a couple of hours each way. When I went again in 2022 with my cousin, I think I slept maybe 1 hour on the way there, and not at all on the way home. Bah. On the way there, though, we arrived in the afternoon, and by the time we got to the hotel it was almost time for dinner, so we just had dinner and went to bed. Zero jet lag, woke up at the right time, etc. The way home felt the same, but after the first night sleeping fine, I didn’t sleep for almost a week. It was HORRIBLE. Still, I’d do it again in a minute.
We don’t have any travel plans this summer. Sad emoji. So much money for Hawaii in 2021, France (me only) in 2022, and then Alaska in 2023. Though I had a LOT of savings on all 3 trips, due to points and discounted tickets that we won (for Hawaii).
Elisabeth
Paris is surprisingly spread out so paying attention to “zones” matters! I didn’t do a great job of this when we visited in 2019 and we ended up walking more than I would have liked criss-crossing the city. That said, it’s a great way to find all sorts of hidden gems along the way.
The jet lag/vertigo challenge from your Paris trip was such a hard time for you, so I’m glad that’s all better now. Jet lag was pretty good for me this time. I had a quick power nap the first day (30 minutes) and we basically got on Spanish time zones right away. It’s tougher coming back East, but I feel like we get reacclimated fairly quickly. It helped that we left during the DST change, so everything was already a bit messed up in our sleep cycles.
Daria
I’m happy to read I am not the only one who prints her maps lol ! Wonderful savings after all with the delay!
Elisabeth
I prefer paper over digital for almost everything! Call my old school, but it works! And I can visualize things better when I can actually hold something in my hand…
Colleen Martin
That refund was incredible!! I always feel that way about money – God giveth and taketh away – and it helps me not worry about finances too much when unexpected little windfalls happen! Good job on taking that international amazing trip for that little money. Our driving trip to Florida from MA cost us double and I always try to do things as inexpensively as possible!
Elisabeth
Yes! Everything is a blessing, I try to take nothing for granted and it’s all His anyway.
NGS
What a lovely bonus! It feels almost like you were getting paid to do international travel!
The level of planning, though. LOL. This is 75% of why we don’t go anywhere. LOL. (Hating traveling, food, expenses are the other 25%.) I wish one of us wanted to plan things like this, but we don’t, so here we are. I want you to know that your level of planning is incredibly impressive to me!
Elisabeth
It was unexpected but VERY WELCOME.
I am absolutely chuffed you’re impressed with the level of planning I do. I feel like I’m middle of the pack? I read some recaps and am like – Whoa, does this person have a PhD in taking trips? But I also could never completely “wing” a trip, either. *Shudder*
Stephany
I am SHOCKED at that footnote. What a nice little bonus – almost like a free trip to Barcelona?! SIGN ME UP. I’ll take a delay like that to get most of my trip paid for, haha.
I’m also impressed by spending less than $700 on food for the week! I feel like I always spend SO MUCH on food, even though I’m not a foodie by any means so I’m not sure how that happens.
Elisabeth
We couldn’t have scripted it better.
We’re not foodies and having breakfast included was a BIG boost. As did buying simple things – veggies, sandwiches, granola bars – from a local supermarket!
Lisa’s Yarns
Wow! I have never heard of compensation for delays! I need to keep that in mind for the future. I feel like it’s unheard of in the US but I could be wrong about that!
We just got back from our trip to FL last night. We learn something on every trip. I thought a later return flight would be fine, but then it kept getting rescheduled later in the months leading up to the trip and then we were delayed so it was a very late night for all and that was unpleasant. So I need to be more picky about flight times. For this trip, we were so limited because the airport we flew to was tiny and only one airline had a direct flight and it is a budget airline that only has one flight/day. So note to self – don’t go places that require us to fly on a budget airline like that.
Otherwise my ‘hack’ if you can consider it one is to only stay in a VRBO or Airbnb and to have a separate room for the boys even though that adds to the cost. It’s worth it. We are many years away from being able to stay in a hotel room together and not be miserable. Ha.
Elisabeth
Honestly, I just don’t think flights ever work properly. Despite the best of planning, something always seems to go wrong. Like you had a great idea for flying home later, but then the delays made it not ideal. The reverse could have happened, too. A part of me just feels like I have to throw my hands up in the air because I know SOMETHING is not going to go to plan. That said, budget airlines definitely complicate things. John has sworn off a few airlines (and airports) for this reason!
Everyone having their space is ideal. Originally we were planning to rent an apartment in Barcelona. For a few reasons this didn’t end up working out, and the kids are great/the hotel room was fine…but we were a bit worried how everyone would do crowded in to a space together. I think it helps tremendously that the kids are old enough they really sleep on the same schedules we do. And they can be quiet/entertain themselves if they wake up early…which they NEVER did! Trust me, there is a time in your future where you’ll be the one waking up your kids not the other way around.
Coco
Wooo! I’m amazed that you got the trip for free! I never think about filing for reimbursement for delayed flight. Good to know they actually refund. How do you find out about the policies?
I enjoy reading your other tips too.
Elisabeth
I’m not sure of specifics, but I know there was an official form John had to fill out for all of us (a separate application for each). I suspect it’s in the small print section of the ticketing information?
San
Wow, my jaw dropped at the price for a 6-day international trip when you shared the initial cost (you were able to travel cheap – it sure pays to have a husband who’s a frequent traveler!) but then you also got compensation for the delayed flight which basically made your whole trip free (I figure you’d have paid $400+ for food and stuff if you’d stayed at home). Now, nobody likes delays, but I guess it it happens than THAT’s the way to get compensated. Nice!
P.S. I loved the part where you were planning the sightseeing and dropping pins on a map. That’s so clever! 🙂
Elisabeth
What a good point. We WOULD have spent almost that much on food, and definitely on food/gas for the car/utilities at home. I like this spin on things, because it might have been even cheaper to be away than at home!