Madrid Travel Forum

I am taking students to Madrid,Barcelona and Lloret de Mar in August, and would like some info on the more unusual sights and sounds of the local area's.

Have you got the basic outline sorted with an educational travel company ?

When I, my children, and now my grandchildren, have had school trips abroad, they were all arranged by specialist school tour operators.

Unless the school tour was arranged by a reputable educational tour operator or recc-ied beforehand by responsible members of the school staff with full insurance quarantees, I would not be happy to stump up the £xxx required for a school trip.
Nor would I allow my children to go abroad in the charge of a person who was, apparently, ignorant about the country s/he was taking them to!

In case you can still change, Lloret de Mar is not the kind of place I would choose for a student's trip (btw, age of the students?)

I'd assume the trip is meant them to learn and experience the local country culture. In this sense Madrid and Barcelona may be good places (even IMHO big cities are never the ideal representatives of a country), but a heavy touristy resort as Lloret, without virtually anything local left, with a well deserved reputation of being a place based on "booze tourism" and with many problems... I would not really like having my kids (if I had) going there.

How long will you stay? It's difficult to advise about "unusual sights and sounds" without knowing how much time you have. Both Madrid and Barcelona need at the very least 3-4 days to do the basics. As well, "when" in August? There may be local festivals (like Festa Major de Grącia in Barcelona, around 15th Aug)