Travelling to Barcelona

Hayley20013
Hayley20013 Posts: 49 Forumite
First Post
in Overseas holidays & travel planning
Hello, I’m so upset. I have a weekend in Barcelona booked for this weekend for my birthday. My first time abroad, kids are going away with my husband while I go with friends. We’ve had this booked for a year and now everyone is scared to go due to the riots and the airport situation there this week. Would we be silly to still go?
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  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,281 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Hayley20013 wrote: »
    Hello, I’m so upset. I have a weekend in Barcelona booked for this weekend for my birthday. My first time abroad, kids are going away with my husband while I go with friends. We’ve had this booked for a year and now everyone is scared to go due to the riots and the airport situation there this week. Would we be silly to still go?


    Ask your insurance company; if they tell you not to travel then stay put. Ask your airline if they are still flying and whether they have any advice for you.

    As a general rule, if a place becomes even remotely risky then flights stop and insurance cover is withdrawn.
  • Hayley20013
    Hayley20013 Posts: 49 Forumite
    First Post
    I’ve just spoken to them, and as the riots aren’t currently close to the airport they are still flying there. They said They are constantly being updated and will contact me if anything changes. :(
  • Pollycat
    Pollycat Posts: 34,681 Forumite
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    Voyager2002 wrote: »
    Ask your insurance company; if they tell you not to travel then stay put. Ask your airline if they are still flying and whether they have any advice for you.

    As a general rule, if a place becomes even remotely risky then flights stop and insurance cover is withdrawn.

    I'd check on Gov.uk to see what advice the Foreign Office are giving about travel.
    I'm not sure exactly where the riots are.
    Are they in one specific area or dotted randomly around the city?

    If it was me, I'd check that and see how close it is to where I want to go.

    I hope you manage to get away. :)

    We visited Colombo (Sri Lanka) during the Tamil Tiger fighting and just kept away from areas of unrest.
    We were advised to move in the opposite direction if we saw a large crowd of people.
  • bradders1983
    bradders1983 Posts: 5,684 Forumite
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    Aye unless the Foreign Office advise against travel, quite sure no insurance policy will pay out if you dont go.
  • pinkthinks
    pinkthinks Posts: 77 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Hi there

    We just returned from Barcelona yesterday - we were supposed to be flying home tonight :(.

    Our experience was that during the day we'd come across peaceful protest marches, and would just wait for them to pass or go in a different direction. At night the situation turns more violent with burning barricades and such, however it's a big city and these things are localised. The only trouble is you won't know where unless your friendly hotelier gives you the heads up or you turn a corner and see the police and protesters facing off.

    We decided to return a day early mainly due to today's planned strikes. We were told that commerce and public services would be affected. It seems they must run a minimum service of some sort but we didn't want to risk it. It was a shame because we had a great few days there despite all the shenanigans.
  • blues
    blues Posts: 268 Forumite
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    I wouldn’t go personally. It seems to be escalating today. Just not worth the risk in my opinion.
  • Sharon87
    Sharon87 Posts: 4,011 Forumite
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    The gov.uk website says to exercise caution, but doesn't say it's a no go area.

    https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain

    It's up to you whether you want to go or not. You could visit other areas of Spain on day trips to avoid the confrontations.
  • Hayley20013
    Hayley20013 Posts: 49 Forumite
    First Post
    Hello again. We decided to go in the end and so glad we did. Had a lovely time with no disruptions. It was business as usual during the day and as it got dark there were lots of police around keeping an eye. We think we saw some trouble in the distance of one of the streets but we just went the other way the city is big so easy to avoid! �� I think the worst of it was over before we arrived
  • princess23
    princess23 Posts: 103 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Name Dropper First Post
    could you offer any advice on where to get tickets at best prices for things to see/visit we are going in July 2020 thank you in advance.
  • jonesMUFCforever
    jonesMUFCforever Posts: 28,898 Forumite
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    princess23 wrote: »
    could you offer any advice on where to get tickets at best prices for things to see/visit we are going in July 2020 thank you in advance.

    Do you want a package or just flights?
    Kayak or Flight scanner will show hundreds of combination of flights although personally I would buy the flights direct once you know the price to avoid problems.
    There are many hotel booking sites.

    Booking a flight and hotel together makes it a package and you get ATOL cover.
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