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The high-speed AVE train between Madrid and Barcelona opened in 2008 and has been making travel between the two Spanish giant cities fast-and-easy ever since, creating real competition with the airlines. Or has it?

Not so long ago, the trip between Barcelona and Madrid would make any traveler cringe with the thought of a slow, 8-hour ride trip with the countryside going by at a not-so-fast rate. It was cheaper to go by train then, however. Now you have no choice for the train; it's the AVE or nothing. They don't even have the slow, overnight train anymore.

With faster service you also get higher prices - unless you plan your trip one month or more ahead of time. The RENFE website, although a bit difficult to maneuver through the steps, does eventually reveal a myriad of daily departures, pricing schemes, and 3 classes of tickets.

Last month, when I first started scanning plane and train prices for my trip to Barcelona later this month for the Alimentaria Barcelona 2010 Food and Beverage Exhibition, I found good prices all around - with airplane fares cheaper than the train.

Until just a week ago I was sure I'd be flying on Spanair as they had round-trip airfare of 88 Euros total, no extra charge for checking one one suitcase and one carry-on bag. Even better was the flight takes only 1 hour 20 minutes. Can you beat that? And they have flights from Madrid to Barcelona every 1.5 hours out of Barajas Madrid Airport. That's a great deal.

Sure, I realize it would take me 1 hour to get to Madrid Barajas Airport by metro, then another 1-2 hours waiting in line or waiting for plane departure, then, undoubtedly another 1.5 hours to recover my checked bag and get transportation from El Prat-Barcelona Airport to my Barcelona Hostel. All totaled, and estimated travel time from door-to-door of about 5.5 hours. But it just SEEMS so much faster, doesn't it? Afterall, you're only traveling for 80 minutes in the air!

Now the train. My round-trip ticket from Madrid to Barcelona on the AVE train cost about 165 Euros all totaled. They don't charge extra for baggage, either. It takes me maybe about 45 minutes by bus (waiting for bus to arrive, changing buses once) to get to Atocha train station in Madrid. And the great thing about the train is you only have to arrive a couple minutes early to get on. The security line is always fast and the lines are generally short as it takes so little time to pass through. The trip itself takes just under 3 hours. Mine is not a "direct" route so I guess it makes at least one stop along the way. The direct AVE trains from Madrid to Barcelona are approximately 10 minutes faster and the tickets are significantly more expensive. Not worth it. Upon arriving to the downtown SANTS train station, I only have to get off the train and go directly to the SANTS metro station, traveling maybe 20 minutes to the Plaça de Catalunya. 20 minutes later I'm at my first hostal (of 3 during my stay). Total door-to-door travel time: less than 5 hours.

So the question now is, WHY am I taking the train if it's ONLY 30 minutes faster total and costs twice as much as the airplane? This is a good question. I guess you could call it "The Comfort Factor".

Taking the plane is cheaper, that's true, but the travel from home to the airport via metro takes one hour, potentially all spent standing, not to mention changing metro trains twice, going up and down some steps with my luggage. Then upon arriving at Madrid Barajas you have to wait in line to check your luggage, then wait some more in the security line. ONLY THEN do you get to sit down before your flight leaves - unless you want to do some shopping.

It's much more comfortable taking 2 Madrid city buses over 45 minutes, likely sitting the entire time, and then sitting for the 3-hour train ride to Barcelona. And, you can't beat the views from the train. Sure, it's a bullet train so everything whizzes by so fast your brain can't register what it was you just passed at, what, 350 kilometers per hour (218mph), although I doubt we actually reach those "potential" speeds. "They say" the AVE ride between Madrid and Barcelona is very smooth. I'll be the judge of that.

As mentioned before, AVE ticket prices can be quite good - VERY GOOD, in fact - if bought more than 1 month in advance - and when bought online at RENFE.es. When I first started looking I was finding round-trip prices around 100 Euros. Prices go up with availability issues as time draws nearer to the departure date.

Turns out, totally by chance, that I ended up getting a CLUB CLASS ticket for the leg from Madrid to Barcelona and Tourist Class for the return route. There are three classes on AVE trains, listed from low-to-high: Turista, Preferente, and CLUB class. I doubt I need to translate those three for you. The discounted Turista class tickets almost always get sold out first as they're the cheapest. But as I bought my tickets just 2 days ago there weren't any tourist class tickets left at discounted rates for the hour I wanted to leave. Now, those retail tickets go for 114 Euros. My club class ticket from Madrid to Barcelona direction cost 123 Euros. There was a tourist class ticket for 113 but I decided to "splurge" and get more comfort. In club class you have a 2-by-2 seat configuration, wider seats, no-doubt leather, more leg-room, and free breakfast. (free breakfast is also given in Preferente Class)

The ticket for the return trip from Barcelona to Madrid was much cheaper, costing only 46 Euros, also a 2-by-2 seat configuration, no free meals or other goodies. They do give you free headphones to watch the movie - if they even have a movie on the less-than-3-hour train ride, that is.

So I'm traveling to Barcelona like a King and returning to Madrid like a pauper. It'll be interesting to compare and contrast the two classes - which I'll do on my BarcelonaMan Barcelona Blog. It's also there at BarcelonaMan.com, not here, where I'll be detailing my daily activities in Barcelona so keep that in mind if you'd like to follow along.

There's a part of me which wonders WHY I've been here in Spain for 4 years and I've STILL not traveled throughout Europe. What the heck am I waiting for??

Really, when I moved here I was sure I'd have intimate knowledge of all of Europe's nooks and crannies, but no. I haven't visited Paris. I haven't visited London. I haven't visited Istanbul. I haven't visited Rome. I haven't visited Berlin. I haven't visited Athens. So what's my friggin' problem???

I'm constantly seeing British movies and some series on "the telly" and I ask myself, "My goodness! How is it that I can get to London on EasyJet for like 88 Euros Round Trip and I still haven't gone??" It makes absolutely no sense! I'm totally ashamed of myself!

Maybe it's because I'm waiting for someone to accompany me. Maybe not. There are certain elements of travel which makes it easier - even more enjoyable - traveling by oneself. But there's another which holds me back because I'd rather share the experience with someone else.

It's not a money issue. I have the money. So what's holding me back??? Age, maybe? Dedication to that which I have here in Madrid? I ain't gettin' any younger, ya' know!

Maybe THAT should be my New Year's resolution, to travel more throughout Europe. It's just that there's so much more of SPAIN I want/need to see. Maybe that's it. Not sure. I WANT to see Europe! What am I waiting for??

On Friday, 11 December 2009, I attended the day-long Madrid Travelthink 2009 conference in one of the upstairs theater rooms at the Reina Sofia Museum, across from Madrid's Atocha train station. The new addition to old museum is very nice, modern, and the outward portions are full of light via its glass & steel exterior.

Madrid Travelthink is an annual conference, its third, to help educate travel professionals in how to better promote Madrid as a tourism destination using, mainly, the Internet and all that which is now available to "get the word out". Google Spain, esMadrid, and the City of Madrid sponsored the event.

Last year I wrote a somewhat steamy blog entry about Madrid Travelthink 2008 event entitled, "Conference: Time of Crisis in the Tourism Sector". There, I detailed the aim of the conference while obviously upset that the organizers, the City of Madrid, would dare charge 75 Euros to those wanting to learn how to better promote it. Sure, they included a large meal, coffee breaks with snacks, and who-knows-what treasures in their "goody bag" to those attending. But come on. That's just wrong. I registered but never attended & didn't pay the 75 Euros. I even wrote a detailed comment on their website, in Spanish, that it should be open to the public as well as be broadcast live on the Internet. Afterall, we whom promote Madrid are doing THE CITY a favor, not the other way around. We travel professionals take a small percentage of that which is gained in tourism Euros and the rest goes to city businesses. Madrid should be sending us Christmas baskets, for crying out loud.
<end rant>

This year, smartly, they charged nothing to the approximately 440 people whom were lucky enough to get passes to the quickly "sold-out" event - although about half the seats were empty. And also, wonderfully and for the first time, they offered the event to the public via live Internet broadcast through their website. Unfortunately, it seems they haven't (yet?) posted videos. Comparing this year's Madrid Travelthink to last year's, it seems this year's was a greatly scaled-back conference in a smaller venue, maybe for the economic crisis or maybe because of demand. Who knows.

It is my presumption that Madrid Travelthink is aimed mainly towards traditional travel agents and not those already using the Internet to any great degree. I say this because everything discussed as useful promotional tools (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google AdWords) were already known & utilized by me. No secrets were divulged by the success-story speakers of TripAdvisor, Google/YouTube, Air Berlin & Vueling whom all mainly shared their business models & showed corporate growth charts. I was hoping for more details about web design, visitor demographics, and maybe some other insightful, cutting-edge nuggets of tourism gold. If only there existed something for those of us in "The Next Stage" of tourism, for those of us further along.

Many of you will read the above paragraph and say, "But MadridMan! If you're already doing all of the above, why aren't you even one-millionth as successful as those companies you mention above?" That's a fair question. The only answer I can give is that, by contrast, MadridMan is a one-man-show and doesn't have a staff of ten thousand or even five hundred as do those corporations. I do what I can as time allows it.

I was very impressed with the efforts made to make the conference very "technological", passing out headphones for translated versions, remote control voting devices, big-screen projection, and a nice split-stage setting with a common seating area, interview area, and podium. All very nice. Oddly though, at least one or two of the heads in the common seating area (see photo above) were only visible from the back while they were discussing topics among themselves. Unfortunately for the translating device they only worked for English portions translated into Spanish and not for Spanish portions translated into English so I never used mine. As for the remote control voting devices for polling the audience, these were cool for real-time voting but didn't work for the second session and these devices were constantly being dropped with an loud, interruptive "THONK!" at least 30 times during the before-lunch break at 2:30pm. And many times the microphones didn't work or were under-volumed, causing the audience to shout, "We can hear you!"

I was, however, impressed with the people in attendance! Wow. At least 90% of the men were in suits and ties. The women were stylishly & professionally dressed. There were also a small few, like me, casually dressed in jeans, button-down shirt, and old leather shoes. Only the camera and audio guys were dressed worse than me. Men-to-women ratio was about 50/50 and the average age may have been about 45 years old.

To sum-up, Madrid Travelthink is a useful conference to answer questions, address doubts, educate traditional travel professionals, and to confirm the importance of the Internet to convey information to the public. The book they gave us about the history of Gran Vía during the years of 1910-1935 is very interesting.

Perhaps I seem to be too harsh on Madrid TravelThink but I don't mean to be. One should always express the positives while carefully mentioning the negatives without appearing critical. It's just that we all have different expectations & view things from different perspectives. Surely many of those in attendance were better educated with every breath. I'm looking forward to the possibility of a "next level" of travel & tourism promotion.

Today's Friday - and the last day in July. So technically, we're about midway through the summer holiday season. What does that mean? It means that half of the Spanish population is returning home from a monthlong summer holiday and the other half of the Spanish population is preparing to START their monthlong summer holiday.


So I repeat, "what does this mean"? Answer: GRIDLOCK

If you thought the July 1st summer vacation exodus traffic jams were bad, just wait! Today, tomorrow, and Sunday will show BOTH outbound AND inbound traffic jams throughout Spain. Best to stay home - or better, stay on vacation - for a few days to let it pass. But a lot of people don't have that luxury. Many have to be back at work on Monday morning.

I recently returned from my own holiday vacation; nearly 3 weeks in my small, Midwestern hometown in the United States of America. The visit was to north central Ohio, near Lake Erie, and the temperatures were unseasonably and blessedly cool and and with low humidity. Every day was roughly 15-20 degrees (Fahrenheit) cooler than normal. The nights, OH, THE NIGHTS, were so cool that - with the windows open - not only the bed sheet was required but also the blanket and even, sometimes, the comforter! Ah, man, I was in weather heaven as compared to this HOT and dry weather we have here in Madrid. I kept reading the Madrid weather reports while in Ohio and thinking, 'Man, I'm so glad to be here right now,' knowing I'd soon be returning to the Phoenix-like summer heat.

But now I'm home and happy to be here. The food, the people, the things all around which which make Spain SPAIN - even if half of these things are now closed for the entire month of August. Hmph! Just yesterday morning I went to my favorite bar to pick up some porras and they too were closed! I wasn't surprised, though. It's something you have to live with here.

Although it's already July 3rd, many workers finished out the week to start vacations this Friday afternoon. This fact is verified by 32 kilometers of traffic jams on all of Madrid's (and in nearly all of Spain's cities) out-going highways by 3pm. The outpouring of Madrid's residents, it is said, should continue through Sunday, July 5th, leaving a shell of the otherwise bustling Capital City.

By Monday, 6th of July, the city becomes somewhat dormant until September 1st. Many say August is the more popular month for Madrileños to take their month-long holidays. So if you think July is quiet, just wait until August! You'll never again have so much parking available as during this month. Sunday mornings in Madrid are usually quiet but a Sunday morning in August reminds one of a ghost town.

People NEED their vacations, that's definitely true, but finding an open restaurant in Madrid in August - outside of the Puerta del Sol tourist center, that is - can be a challenge. Many times tourists come to Madrid during the summer months with the desire to try a new restaurant about which they've heard, only to find it frustratingly closed.

But terrazas abound! And the Madrileño masses - as well as their tourist counterparts - take advantage of the slightly cooler evening temperatures and pack those terrazas full. It's usually at these moments, while you're standing off to the side with the group of others waiting for a table to become free, when you ask yourself, "And I thought there was no one in Madrid in summer!"

Some of these terrazas - usually the fancier ones like those around the Plaza de Oriente - have incorporated a kind of water-misting-canopy system which sprays its clients with fine droplets of cooling water. I don't know about you, but I don't think I would appreciate having my glasses sprayed over while dining or having drinks, HOT OR NOT! These are usually the same terrazas which use these gas-powered tower radiators to keep their clients warm - during colder months (the clients patronizing THESE terrazas are almost always tourists because no Spaniard would be caught dead dining outside in the winter. It's just not sensible!!). In my opinion, these gas heaters are just a waste of energy. I understand the concept that you can seat more people - and outside - if you have these heaters but come on!

So where to people go on summer holiday? The most popular destination is still "al pueblo" - to the family village to spend time in the old, family home. This destination is becoming less and less popular, however, as the elders die off and the family home in the village is sold. So apart from "the village", many Spaniards travel to the coasts near Cataluña/Catalunya/Catalonia, Galicia, Cantabria, Valencia, and the Costa del Sol (those whom have the wherewithall, that is). The coastal beaches are PACKED with not only Spaniards but also with Germans, English, Dutch, and even some from the colder northern European countries. This year, what with the economic crisis, may be a sharp contrast to previous years occupancy, however. I remember complaints were made last summer about lower-than-expected hotel occupancy so I imagine things will be much worse this year.

Apart from Spanish coasts, more and more young people are using their summer time off to visit other worldly destinations like Russia, The United States, England & Ireland, Morocco, and some of the "newer" (i.e. newly accessible) Eastern European countries. Again, young people don't usually tend to have much money so this year may be much different and more home-spun travel destinations may be chosen instead.

I have to wonder if, because of the economic crisis, the typically high hotel prices during this HIGH season will drop significantly or only slightly to entice more travelers - or, maybe, stubbornly, not at all. We'll see how it plays out. But since Spaniards are passionate about big family vacations, expensive or not, (have credit cards will travel!!) I expect turnout to be high still.

Places mostly avoided by Spaniards during their summer vacations include, among many, the hotter summer destinations, almost all of which are in the southern region of Andalucia, like Seville, Córdoba, and Granada but also Salamanca, and Zaragoza will likely be excluded for the most part. Non-Spanish tourists, however, will drive themselves to these destinations no matter the temperature.

Ahhh... "The Village". The village can be quite lovely (using a British expression). I too have been fortunate to spend a little time, one week or two, in a particular northern valley village with only 25 inhabitants and surrounded by tall yet gentle mountains. There, days can be warm but nights cooler, mosquitoes can be pesky but the natural beauty and its accompanying silence far out-shadows them.

In "The Village", life is definitely simpler. In some of them, the smaller ones like the one I've stayed a few times, don't even have any stores, bars, or restaurants. A van goes from village to village every morning, with their horn-a-honkin', raising attention to their arrival. Of course, each van uses their own "style" of horn-honking so the residents know which horn belongs to which van. Different vans sell different things. There's usually the bread van, the cheese van, and the meats-and-chicken van. Sometimes there's even a fish van. Resident will often make minor, daily purchases from these vans, sometimes making once-a-month trips to the big stores to stock up on other things, frozen foods, canned foods, milk (non-refrigerated), soft drinks and the like. The days in "the village" are quiet except for the sounds of distant cow and goat bells, dogs barking, kids shouting while riding their bikes, neighbors chatting while walking the streets, and maybe the sounds of some traffic from the distant main highway. So if the days are quiet, the nights are totally peaceful, making every chirping cricket sound like a live orchestra. Village life is different from City Life. In "the village", neighbors come over (unannounced) for coffee and a casual chat while you're hanging your laundry or reading a book on the porch or patio.

I've yet to experience and entire "beach holiday" in the summer months but they certainly look like decadent fun, that which I see daily on Spanish TV news reports. All those people laying about on the sand, packing into the beachfront terrace restaurants for seafood meals, working on their tans, reading books and taking walks. It all seems so relaxing and, well, totally self-indulgent too. hehehe.. But every now and then, well, we have to take extra special care of ourselves, right? I'll be sure to put that on my To-Do List.

I'm already looking forward to my week away this summer. Although I love the city, I don't care much for the heat which gets absorbed by its asphalt, concrete, and brick. It's amazing the notable temperature change just when passing by a grassy park or alongside a fountain.

People often ask me which is the best way to travel around Spain for the visitor. Answering this question is always difficult because "the best way" means different things to different people and many details must be considered before deciding.

Below, I'll detail the pros and cons of each form of travel. Please feel free to add your own comments to this travel blog posting.

Spain Bus Travel:

pros: by far the cheapest form of travel in Spain, the bus line network is vast, buses are comfortable and modern, many long-distance routes show movies (in Spanish) and have recorded music channels like on airplanes, you can carry-on practically anything, sometimes good highway views through large windows, comfortable & spacious seats, sometimes buses travel as fast as trains, bus stations are usually in or very near the downtown, sometimes a more expensive "Express Bus" is available along some routes which makes fewer or no stops.

cons: buses don't go everywhere or one must change buses at major city hubs, tiny toilet - if any, morning/afternoon sun can be annoying, sometimes inadequate air conditioning, sometimes nasty bus stations, low-security in bus stations and bathrooms, always complaints about luggage theft, sometimes buses travel slower than trains - particularly slower than high-speed AVE trains.

Spain Train Travel:

pros: the most comfortable method of travel, wide & long seats, many and large bathrooms, great views of the countryside, fast travel on the AVE trains, lots of luggage space, faster lines at train stations, train stations are generally located within the cities, long-range trains usually show movies (in Spanish) and have music jacks and free headphones, the cafe/bar car.

cons: expensive, trains may not go where buses will, the possibility of getting a rear-facing seat.

Spain Airplane Travel:

pros: fast point-to-point travel, can be cheap with low-cost airlines like Easyjet, RyanAir, and even Iberia if you get very lucky, best when going from coast to coast or extra long distances.

cons: traveling from/to the city to/from the airport in the outskirts can take time and traffic jams are always a possibility, can be very expensive if tickets are bought without anticipation, waiting in check-in or security lines can take a long time, carry-on restrictions of liquids and other items, no view from airplane windows, narrow seats, no movie.

Next week I'm making my fourth visit to the city of Granada, Spain. This time, for the first time, I'm going by bus but have taken the train the two previous visits and have gone by car once. To give an example, I'm paying 31 Euros for a round-trip bus ticket from Madrid to Granada. The train would have cost about 130 Euros. That's a 100 Euro difference! And the trip takes about the same amount of time; 5 hours. My only concern about taking the bus for the first time is the fact that one cannot stretch their legs like on a train, plus the toilet is roughly the size of a small broom-closet - and you NEVER see anyone using it. There must be a reason why.

I've only traveled Spain by bus a couple of times and, generally speaking, I don't care for bus travel ONLY because of the lack of mobility and the issue of the toilet on long-distance trips. But this time around, considering the cost difference, I'm going to try it and will report my experience later.

How do YOU prefer to travel around Spain and why?

Hay cientos de Hostales en Madrid y más de 150 de ellos tienen página web. Yo tengo todos en un directorio aquí en MadridMan.com.

Cuando se celebran ferias en Madrid, como FITUR ("Feria Internacional de Turísmo"), los hoteles en Madrid siempre están completos. Por eso, en estos días de ferias, es difícil para un turísta común que busca alojamiento en Madrid encontrar una habitacion disponible en un hotel.

Sin embargo, mucha gente debería considerar la opción de alojarse en estos hoteles pequeños, encantadores, familiares, limpios, seguros, y, ademas, muy baratos. Este tipo de hoteles es lo que se conoce como un hostal o pensión. Otra ventaja de estos hostales o pensiones es que están, generalmente, situados en la zona más céntrica e histórica de Madrid, sin olivdar sus excelentes precios.

Debido a que hay mucha oferta de hostales, algunos con incluso 45 habitaciones, es siempre mucho más fácil para el visitante encontrar una habitacion disponible y a buen precio en un hostal que en un hotel.

La verdad es que decidir dónde alojarse en Madrid es difícil. Hay cientos de lugares dónde pasar la noche que están muy bien situados y que tienen buenos precios. ¿Qué es más conveniente: dormir en un hotel, ir a un hostal o compartir habitación en un albergue juvenil? Sólo tu puedes decidirlo, pero aquí incluyo una lista con todos los hostales de Madrid que tienen página web por si quieres conocerlos y hacer una reserva.

En mis visitas anteriores a Madrid, me he alojado en algunos de estos hostales de Madrid y siempre he quedado muy satisfecho de su servicio, su limpieza, de la amabilidad de sus dueños, de su buena situación, y, por supuesto, de sus precios baratos. Debes saber que en algunos de ellos, los menos, a veces no disponen de ascensor, ni de aire acondicionado, o aceptan tarjetas de crédito. Sin embargo, más y más de estos hostales disponen con mayor frequencia de conexión Wi-Fi a internet.

Por eso, si estás en Madrid para la feria de FITUR, para otros negocios o como turista de vacaciones, ¿por qué no considerar un hostal limpio, céntrico y económico en tiempos de crisis, como la mejor opción para alojarse en Madrid?

Madrid taxis can be found throughout the city - but fewer in the neighborhoods immediately outside of the downtown (where I live). Taxis are always found around shopping centers, hospitals, and, of course, bus & train stations as well as long lines of them at the airport.

Generally speaking, taxi drivers in Madrid are always very professional, nearly always men, and always Spanish. I've yet to encounter a non-Spanish taxi driver. Why is that? Because the taxi driver permit or license can only be passed from family member to family member but can also be rented, although this is rarely done.

Taxi drivers normally own their own car and are responsible for its maintenance. You rarely see a dirty taxi, either inside or out. Most drivers spend long periods of time at the train station and airports, waiting their turn to serve, and pass the time cleaning their cars, doing Sudokus, talking with other drivers, or even practicing musical instruments. I've seen one television report of a small garden outside of the Atocha Train Station in Madrid where the taxi drivers care for and cultivate plants and vegetables in their spare time.

Today, I had the opportunity to take two taxis. Both were men. Both were Spanish. And both had GPS units on their dashboards. It's a good thing, too, because on the second trip today I couldn't give directions, only an address. On two occasions I'd had women taxi drivers. One was a terrible driver, using the break and gas peddle too liberally, giving us that constant stop-and-go, jerky feeling along the ride. The other, oddly enough, claimed openly to be a witch, of all things. The former of these two women was interestingly - and constantly - smoking a smokeless cigarette, which I'd yet to see here in Spain.

Most taxi drivers are talkative. They like to not only share their opinions about the traffic but also about local government and the usefulness (or uselessness) of the tunnels and their camera-vigilant speed limits. Some complain about Real Madrid's latest loss and others complain about other drivers. But one thing seems to be true throughout, few (if any) speak any English. For this reason, it's a good idea to take a written address whenever entering a taxi if you don't speak some Spanish. Luckily, I now speak Spanish well enough to get by.

Taxis in Spain, I think, get a bad reputation for being crazy drivers but I don't find this to be true. Sure, they may exceed the speed limit most of the time, dart offensively in and out of lanes and between cars, but these guys are true driving experts and are ultra-aware of the size and power capabilities of their vehicles. You RARELY see one in an accident.

Normally, I don't wear a seat belt while riding in a taxi in Madrid. It's not required by law (at least in the back seat). And, I have to admit, with the seat-belt-wearing awareness in the USA I always feel somewhat naked and vulnerable when I don't wear it. But whenever we get on the M-30 or are on our way to the airport, accessing the faster highways, I ALWAYS lock-and-go.

Taxis have a complicated array of pricing. Prices depend on several things including hour, day, airport/train pickup or drop-off, luggage or no luggage, and maybe there's more of which I'm not aware. But generally speaking, prices are not high like in New York City. One can essentially cross the city for no more than 15 Euros. A trip to/from the airport can cost up to 30 Euros, however, depending on the destination/origin within the city.

Hailing taxis is pretty easy. Just like in the USA, one stands on or near the curb and raises his arm towards an oncoming taxi which has the "LIBRE" sign visible in the front windshield and the green light turned illuminated on the rooftop next to the "TAXI" sign.

Robberies of taxi drivers does happen in Madrid but not very often at all. When it does, it makes the news. Most taxis do not carry the Plexiglas barrier separating the passengers from the driver but I have seen a few of these before. During the day, these barriers are always open but at night they're more often closed, causing the passage of payment through a small slot.

I actually like to take taxis. It gives me a fleeting feeling of luxury, although I tend to opt for buses as they're much much cheaper - and there's a bus stop around the corner from my house. Sometimes, if I have an appointment for which I'm running late, and if the bus doesn't come along quickly, I'll usually grab a taxi and bite the payment bullet.

There has been some talk over the years about unfair or illegal charges for taxi rides. Sure, there are a few bad apples everywhere in any profession. ALWAYS be sure the taxi meter is turned on upon getting in or shortly after moving. The vast majority of drivers are nice, honest, down-to-earth people simply trying to make a living or to augment their day-job income. I always tip them something although it's rare for Spanish clients to do so.

So treat your taxi driver with respect and kindness and they'll always return the sentiment.

Little Known Fact Among Tourists:

The Old and decrepit La Sepulvedana Bus Station on the Paseo de la Florida, 11 has moved across the street to the new "Intercambiador" at Príncipe Pío Station and Shopping Center. This happened about a year ago, by the way.

All the old guides - and some of the new ones - list the Old station as the location to travel from Madrid to Segovia by bus. It no longer exists. Now, a PC City computer store occupies the space. I LOVE this computer store chain. And now it's RIGHT on my local bus route. Woo Hoo!!

For years, the old bus location had received many complaints about bad smells, dirty conditions, beggars & drunkards hanging around. Even I, MadridMan, recall going to Segovia at least twice through this "hole in the ground" entry. Upon entering the front door you would have to go down a series of ramps to get to the lower-level where one could buy tickets, wait in the waiting area, eat something at the cafeteria, and wait for your bus to leave - HOPING you'd get on the correct bus.

The new station across the street at Príncipe Pío, located also underground in the "intercambiador" - joining buses, metro, and train - is newer, cleaner, and patrolled by police. The buses leave the station through a series of tunnels until they leave after crossing under the Manzanares river and out the Avenida de Portugal.

While I haven't been able to get a very current price, last year's one-way ticket price was about 6.43 Euros. That's cheap for the 1-hour trip to Segovia, in my opinion.

The bus station in Segovia is not far from the Old downtown either. You can walk from the station to, say, the Roman Aqueduct in about 15 minutes maximum. And on the way you pass a number of old churches. This bus line JUST invested in a brand new, ultra modern fleet of buses.

If you have any doubt about the departure or approximate price of the tickets, ask at any Madrid Tourist Check Point or Tourist Office around the city.

Links of interest:

http://www.adn.es/local/madrid/20071008/NWS-0120-Sepulvedana-cambia-acera.html
http://www.nortecastilla.es/20071009/segovia/parada-sepulvedana-madrid-trasladara-20071009.html
http://www.lasepulvedana.es/