Salamanca Travel Forum

i only have a little more than three weeks to spend studying in spain and i was wondering if i should spend all of those three in salamanca or if it would be ok to spend two in salamanca? ill be studying at a language school and living with a host family. i was wondering whether i shouldnt move around too much. i wanted to go to alicante for a week too. and then to barcelona for a couple of days. should i just stay put in salamanca?

Spanish is spoken everywhere, so from that point of view staying in one place is no better nor worse than moving around.

So it depends on whether your course(?) requires you to stay put and on whether your host family is expecting you to stay with them for 3 weeks (and perhaps pay for that amount of time?).

Otherwise, it matters not...although you should make sure you speak as much Spanish as possible whilst visiting elsewhere.

Certainly try to stay in Salamanca and immerse yourself in Castilian Spanish. If you move to Barcelona you are surrounded by Catalans ! And foreigners ! And distractions.

Actually is not so easy to "immerse" in Castilian Spanish in Salamanca during summer. There are so many international students (and the locals are on vacation) that you'll be surrounded by other languages and distractions too. I was having breakfast once at the Plaza Mayor and it was funny the waiter automatically addressed to me in English, I think I was the only one Spanish speaker there LOL

and the truth is that being "surrounded by Catalans" in Barcelona city center is not so easy... Spanish, English (and maybe Urdu) are a lot more prevalent that Catalan in Las Ramblas and the touristy areas! Anyway, I doubt that spending here only a couple of days would make any difference on your learning, positive or negative...

Don't know about Alicante

So, actually it's up to you, and as said above, your course/accommodation conditions. You'll have to force yourself to speak Spanish all the time, wherever you are. It is possible, but it takes some auto-discipline. I did summer courses in Scotland being mainly surrounded by Spanish and Italian speakers, so I know it is possible to learn if you really want to, and if you really focus on learning.

Have a great time!

I do agree that living with a host family in Salamanca with locals who speak Castillian Spanish is going to potentially be of great help. But it takes two to tango so to speak, so it is really up to the learner to make that extra effort ! And maybe the best time of the year to go is not during the summer when all the locals have disappeared and its full of foreigners !

Salamanca is a great school town, with folks from many lands too who study there. You have the chance to stay with a local family and will improve your spanish/castilian skills,even for 3 weeks. However, the fun of being there is also to explore other areas and accents as well. Alicante is in the southeast by train to Murcia will be nice,if you can afford it. Barcelona will give another dimension,not only castilian but the local catalan language too; or from Salamanca why not visit Zamora or Avila gorgeous jewels in the Castilian plains.

Only you can tell your time and money to go out of Salamanca. You can see VT destinations for those cities here, plenty of tips there to help you decide.