Visiting itineries

[olive]

Lavanda’s Cordoba post got me thinking.

Some years ago, we had a fairly mediocre experience visiting Jaen. For sure the cathedral was mega impressive but the rest was a real downer.. We vowed to return one day to address the situation. The only saving grace was our trip up to the parador and castle. Stunning views. Free parking and a nice coffee in the beautiful parador.

We generally have this problem when visiting places despite research on the internet. About three years ago we vowed to take the tourist train on arrival to get sighting but that has been a 100% failure. Not running, Covid or once “ don’t take dogs”.

Despite numerous visits to Cordoba, we have always been to the same parts Bridge Alcazar, Mesquite and the out of town old city.

Great experiences but a bit like doing London and visiting Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

How do you plan your city breaks and any tips for Jaen.?

[Lavanda]

Yes. It is possible to spend ages on research etc and still miss the best bits. Guides are good. To see the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona last May we downloaded the app via the app scanner. It was brilliant and we could replay bits over and over and tackle the cathedral in any order we liked. Highly recommended. Maybe there is something similar for Jaén?

[Wicksey]

Some towns and cities are woeful on their tourist information and signposting of places of interest. It's a shame if you are only somewhere for a day and feel like you may have missed somewhere interesting.

We've just returned from our first ever trip to Italy. We stayed in Treviso for 5 nights using trains to travel around. Arriving in Venice I knew where to catch the vaporetto waterbus and which line to catch as I'd already done research, but we never came across any tourist information kiosks and we never did get ourselves a map. I know I can look on the phone but much prefer to have a map in my hands. We did manage to follow some signs back to the station from St Mark's Square but I feel that we must have missed out on sights that may have interested us on the way. We were only there a day and just the experience of sailing down the Grand Canal was enough for us (we're picky about art galleries and museums).

However, on arriving at another town in the north (Conegliano) the tourist info was brilliant and properly signed. We came away with a booklet, a nice big map and also details of a walking route around the town taking in all the sights and up to the castle. There was a dark red line painted on the road along the route to make it easier to follow. This was such a good idea and should be taken up by other cities of interest. Some do produce a walking map of the town (if you can find the tourist information office, and it's open) but so many don't. I just quickly Googled but couldn't see such a map for Jaen. We prefer to do our own thing and go at our own rate and so wouldn't want a tour guide. I think when we went to Jaen years ago we just wandered around the centre and had lunch. Tourism is such a big earner for so many places, but I think they often have a lax approach and probably think everyone nowadays will just be on their phones following Google maps.