barcelona to edinburgh

Would it be cheaper and save time to fly via low-cost airline to Edinburgh?

I live in Spain but wouldn't embark on driving from Barcelona to Brussels without considerable thought, plenty of time and very good reasons to do so. Maybe you have done all of this. Personally I would fly - either Barcelona to Edinburgh or Barcelona to London and then train to Edinburgh. I have taken the train from London to Edinburgh and it is generally quite straightforward - we had a bit of messing about as we had to change trains, which may be standard, I forget, and then do part of the trip on a bus due to them working on the railway. However it is still the way I would go from London.

I have one daughter who is a Spanish speaker and another who is a French speaker. We were planning to drive so each would have the opportunity to practice her respective language. We are assuming that Catalan and Spanish will be similar enough to get by. By driving, I assumed we could maximize our opportunities to avoid heavily touristed areas and English speakers. I was allowing about a week to get from Barcelona to Bruges.

Issue number 1 is the drop off charge for picking up a car in one country and leaving it in another. Make sure you get this amount in any price quote, and be prepared for sticker shock. Issue number 2 is your statement that Spanish and Catalan are similar. They are as close, and as far apart, as Spanish and French. The language that we call "Spanish" will be called "castellano" (Castillian) in Spain. Sometimes, it is true that Catalan is like a cross between French and Castillian, as in "exit": salida (Castillian), sortie (French), sortida (Catalan). But other times, there's no relation, as in "closed": cerrado (Castillian), fermé (French), tancat (Catalan). Catalan also has more kinds of vowel sounds than Castillian. However, Castillian will be understood in Catalunya; it may not be spoken fluently except in Barcelona. In other words, if you want to practice Castillian, don't go to Catalunya. It will help you get around, but Catalan is the first language of most people in the region (again, Barcelona is an exception to this). Of course, there are other reasons to visit Catalunya; I just didn't want you to be disappointed when they don't "speak Spanish."

Harold - thanks for your advice. I will be sure to ask about any extra fees associated with not dropping the car off at the same place. I also appreciated your language insight.

You might consider mixing car and train. We've taken trains between Barcelona and southern France to avoid that drop fee. It's about the same in time, but easier than driving. Prices are usually lower if you buy online in advance. Rail Europe is easy to use but can be a bit higher price, although lately it seems they've become more competitive and dropped the requirement to have tickets delivered, with the accompanying fee. Or you can put your Spanish to work and book directly from the Spanish rail line at www.renfe.com. You could easily get from Barcelona to Avignon on the first leg (or any of the cities in between). You could rent a car at the station and drive to northern France, drop it off and take the Eurostar from Paris to London. If you really want to see Bruges, you could take a tour from Paris. When we do this, we usually spend a couple of nights in Provence and two more in Burgundy. That limits the travel time between stops to about four hours.

The overwhelming majority of people in Barcelona use Spanish as their primary language and virtually everyone who's not an immigrant speaks it anyway. As for transportation plans: you can make an awesome (scenic)car trip through the Pyrenees between Barcelona and Carcassonne, via Andorra, Foix and nearby areas.