Any experience with studying Spanish in Spain?

Just general advice, no personal experience, Region may play a role in the decision in that in your time away from class, if there is a heavy regional difference between local and "formal" Spanish, that will affect what you learn. Add to that some strong regional differences in the Basque area, and the prevalence of Catalan in Barcelona. Madrid or nearby may be the safe, standard option, but others with experiences may have more detailed advice.

Good points, Paul, and I am keenly aware of the regional, cultural, political and linguistic differences within Spain. I've read that the Schools offer/focus on Castillian Spanish; but, then again within the cities, the primary language may not be Castillian Spanish - i.e., Basque in Pamploma or San Sebastian, Galegos in the north west, Catalan in Barcelona and north east, and an Andulusian dialect in the south.

Hey Craig,
The previous poster made some very good points about regional dialects (Catalunya and the Basque areas) and I would like to add to that. I would not recommend the Valencia area because of a very strong regional dialect - I speak so-so Spanish but was totally unable to understand what people were saying to me in Valencia last year - and I would also not recommend Seville if you are looking for the traditional Castilian accent. In Seville then tend, for example, to make Ess sound for many Cees and Zees, much as they do in many Latin American countries (as opposed to the Castilian Th). I would recommend either Madrid area or especially Salamanca (also maybe Salamanca because I just love that city!) as very good choices.

.For God sake... a dialect is a linguistic variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers, but all share the SAME language nonetheless. Despite their differences, these varieties known as dialects are closely related and most often mutually intelligible. That's certainly not the case in Spain. In Spain, there are four different LANGUAGES spoken, some of which bear no common anything. Spain is not a country in the traditional sense, not a common language, not a common culture either.

Albeit Spanish (referred to as Castillian for political reasons) is supposed to be "the common" language -having been imposed in certain areas- it's not the local/native language neither in Basque Country nor in Catalonia, and to a lesser extend neither in Galicia nor in certain parts of the old territories of the Crown of Aragon (like Valencia and the Balearic Islands). While everybody knows how to speak it -it's compulsory to learn it-, to many is a second language, not their mother tongue neither the day to day communication tool if you catch my drift. Does it mean nobody speaks Spanish as his mother tongue in these areas? not, of course, migration moves native speakers of other languages everywhere, doesn't it? but you're going to find more Spanish native speakers in the areas where this language is "local"... namely Castille, Andalucia or Extremadura among other.

If you decide to learn Spanish anywhere say in Catalonia (ie. Barcelona) --which local language is Catalan-- is like say learning Italian in Paris, while both languages (Italian and French) derive from Latin and have common roots and many similar words... one is obviously not a dialect from the other. Are they mutually intelligible? yes, they can be, depending on the ability of the listener and the pronunciation of the speaker, but they're clearly different languages. Same goes with Catalan and Spanish, or with Galician for that matter. So, do you want to really learn Spanish?... better stick to areas where Spanish is the local tongue, because at the end of the day, learning a language is not only a matter of studying in a school, it's also a matter of mingling with native speakers in their natural habitat, listening to their TVs and radios, reading the street signs and other signage, etc. ...and that's unlikely gonna happen in Catalonia (or Valencia or Basque Country) where Spanish is not the local/native language. As in the case of learning Italian in Paris, there'll always be, if I may, a "distortion" in the learning channel.

Yet, if you prefer to do so in Barcelona for example, there are excellent schools to learn Spanish (or English, or Chinese or many other languages) and you won't find it difficult to practise it with us Catalans -we "also" speak Spanish. Yet note that from those of us Catalans which Spanish is not our mother tongue you might not be getting all that you might be expecting since we naturally we'll be mostly speaking in Catalan in our day to day.

PS. As in any other part of the world, for "local" reasons, certain words can be highly sensitive (and explosive!)... Besides being simply incorrect the use of the word "dialect" in the context at hand in this post -from a linguistic point of view that is-, so it happens the word is very politically charged in these shores and unless you want to cause offence, better learn the difference between 'dialect' and 'language'.

Just throwing this out there. The school is called the La Rioja Spanish School.

They have week long Spanish plus wine classes. Both Spanish and Wine are two things that they do well here in La Rioja.