1. Baño = Bath, not restroom. Restroom is Aseo, or WC
2. Toilet paper runs out quite often at the Pension, and they do not refill it often enough. Either buy a pack for yourself at the Mercadona (a supermarket with really cheap stuff), or you can go through the hassle of asking the housekeeper.
3. Do not try to run errands during siesta, nothing besides the restaurants/cafes/food places, the Mercadona, and the Chino stores are open during this time
4. Alex's Daughter has PERFECT hair (what celebrities spend hours trying to achieve)
5. The sun goes down at around 10pm
6. Paper size(transparencies) here are roughly 8.25" by 11.75", so remember to change your paper dimensions in your pdf files, unless you want your prints to be the wrong scale
7. Either buy a reusable bag (60¢), pay 2¢ for a plastic bag every time you go to the Mercadona, or just carry everything in your arms.
8. You do not need to tip restaurants!
9. Waiters/Waitresses at Chinese Restaurants speak English pretty fluently in comparison to the rest of the citizens in Guardamar.
10. Water at restaurants are never free, unless you are in Granada, and ask for tap water (best tap water on the entire continent according to Alex)
11. The Pension serves you a LOT of food, not just bread and salad, so do NOT make the silly mistake of stuffing yourself with bread and not leaving space for the first course and the second course.
12. If you are taking the bus from Alicante to Guardamar when you arrive (which is a lot cheaper than taking a cab), do not bother trying to get to the Alicante bus station if your flight arrives at night (the cab ride from the airport to Guardamar is cheaper than the cab ride from Alicante to Guardamar), the last bus is at 8pm (at least for this year it is).
13. Have the address of the Pension(or wherever you need to be) written down somewhere so that if you get stranded somewhere and are unable to speak in Spanish, you can just show the address to them, and they will get you there.
14. ALWAYS plan ahead, because if you want to get something "important" done last minute, it might not happen, people do not rush, and "business" hours are very limited. i.e. the bank closes at 2pm everyday.
15. Barclays (if you are planning to draw money out from and ATM) does not charge a transaction fee if you are with Bank of America. However, Barclays no longer exists in Guardamar, so either make your money withdrawals in Alicante or Torrevieja when you visit those cities, OR any other big city. And of course, you can use other banks, but they might charge a bit for transaction.
16. If you have a PC, bring a PC. According to Alex there have been Mac tragedies(knock on wood, I am using a Mac) every year. WHY? It is still all a mystery.
17. Learn a bit of Spanish, it is very useful, OR get s Spanish phrase book.
18. Street names are tiled onto buildings, it takes a bit of time to get used to.
19. Bring a flashlight, it comes in handy when the electricity goes out.
20. Always ask for the price of your drinks, because they will not tell you and it will just appear on your bill, they also often don't have a menu for drinks.
21. Unlock a phone (if you have an old phone lying around-not the nokia phones with the snake game on it, I am not sure if this works for smart phones). Just call the phone company and they will do it for you for free (at&t did). This way, you can go to Orange (a mobile phone company), and buy an international sim card without having to buy a phone. This is cheaper than getting an international plan with whatever phone company you are using. 25¢ connection fee and after that 1¢ per minute, so if you talk for more than 25 minutes it is under 2¢ per minute.
22. If you are planning a weekend trip, it might be cheaper to bus to Valencia (bus to Valencia is about 20€ and 2.5 hours each way, but your ticket price is probably a lot cheaper) and fly from there, because flights to and from Alicante tend to be pretty pricy(known to be the priciest in the region).
23. Shopping does not happen until July, if you wait until July, everything is on sale, 50%+ off sales everywhere.
24. Treat Guardamar as if it were a small city in the United States that nobody knows about.
Vivian Yu
21. Unlock a phone (if you have an old phone lying around-not the nokia phones with the snake game on it, I am not sure if this works for smart phones). Just call the phone company and they will do it for you for free (at&t did). This way, you can go to Orange (a mobile phone company), and buy an international sim card without having to buy a phone. This is cheaper than getting an international plan with whatever phone company you are using. 25¢ connection fee and after that 1¢ per minute, so if you talk for more than 25 minutes it is under 2¢ per minute.
22. If you are planning a weekend trip, it might be cheaper to bus to Valencia (bus to Valencia is about 20€ and 2.5 hours each way, but your ticket price is probably a lot cheaper) and fly from there, because flights to and from Alicante tend to be pretty pricy(known to be the priciest in the region).
23. Shopping does not happen until July, if you wait until July, everything is on sale, 50%+ off sales everywhere.
24. Treat Guardamar as if it were a small city in the United States that nobody knows about.
25. If you are Asian and in Spain, getting offended by every remark that people say when you are walking down the street will just make you unhappy. It is nowhere as bad as how Asians were treated in the US a hundred years ago (they don't tell you to cut off your queue, nor do they put you in Interment camps), Asians are just new to them, so give them a bit of time. Also, the media usually do not have Asians Americans representing America, therefore many Spaniards get confused when you say you are an American (this is if you are Asian).
26. Place your laptops and valuables either in a drawer or a plastic bag. The watertank will never break and make the ceiling of your room cave in...well it happened this summer, so it is just better to be safe than sorry.
26. Place your laptops and valuables either in a drawer or a plastic bag. The watertank will never break and make the ceiling of your room cave in...well it happened this summer, so it is just better to be safe than sorry.
27. Booking with ALSA (bus that you will be using a lot if you plan to travel), you either need a Spanish credit card, or you need a paypal account, or find someone to book it for you. Remember, if you don't have an account, and want to book it with someone, make sure to book it in one transaction (multiple seats in one transaction rather than one seat at a time.)
Vivian Yu
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