Salamanca
Spain
A university town of golden sandstone, eight hundred years old, with the finest square in Spain and students filling it every night
Photo by Mayte Garcia Llorente on Unsplash
Photos by Beth Macdonald, Beth Macdonald, Carlos de Almeida and Beth Macdonald on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Spain
April to June, and September to October (the students are back in the autumn, and high summer is hot and half-empty)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 45mm in May
Where it is
40.96°N, 5.66°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Stay, rather than coming from Madrid for the day — the Plaza Mayor after dark is the reason
- Find the frog on the university façade before someone points it out
- Look for the astronaut carved on the new cathedral’s north door, added in a restoration in the 1990s
- Climb the cathedral towers at the Ieronimus entrance, and the Clerecía’s for the opposite view
- Take a week of Spanish classes; the town has more language schools than it seems to have room for
Salamanca travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Spain
Good valueEuro, and cards are taken nearly everywhere. A student town is a cheap one, and some of the smaller bars prefer cash for a round.
ATMs & cards
Use a bank’s own machine — Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Unicaja — and refuse the conversion. Avoid the standalone machines under the arcades of the Plaza Mayor.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- standalone machines under the Plaza Mayor arcades
Use these instead
- Santander
- BBVA
- CaixaBank
- Unicaja
A Spanish bank may charge a non-customer; the fee is shown on screen before you confirm. Refuse the conversion either way.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Spain
Very safeVery safe, and lively at night in a way that is mostly students being noisy rather than anything worse. The Plaza Mayor terraces are where a phone left on the table goes. Winters are hard — below freezing on clear nights — and high summer is hot and quiet, with the university out.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the Plaza Mayor terraces — a phone or bag left on the table is the one theft worth thinking about
- the bar streets on a Thursday night — the student night, loud and crowded until the small hours rather than anything worse
- the riverside path late at night — unlit stretches, and quiet once the town has gone home
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Spain visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Spain
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date (MMR, tetanus, polio)
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodJamón from Guijuelo, about forty-five minutes south and one of the four protected names for ibérico ham; hornazo, a pie of bread dough baked round chorizo, ham and egg; farinato, a sausage of breadcrumbs and pork fat fried with eggs. Calle Van Dyck, a walk north of the centre, is where locals go for tapas. Lunch is from two and dinner from half past nine.
Travel tipsNightlife
A university town with tens of thousands of students, and an evening that starts with tapas round the Plaza Mayor and does not finish until the small hours. Thursday is the big night.
- Plaza Mayor — the terraces, and where everyone meets
- Calle Van Dyck — the tapas street, where the town eats
- Gran Vía — bars, and the students
- Calle Bordadores — late bars in the old town
Closing: Tapas from nine, bars until three or later at weekends; out of term the town goes to bed far earlier.
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- CabifyWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
- Against a taxi
- About level with a metered taxi, and where a city sets a flat airport fare the taxi usually wins.
Several cities cap private-hire licences hard, so at peak the app may simply have nothing to send.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Madrid — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Spain, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works hereRevolutIn the app
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Spanish
- HelloHolaOH-la
- PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
- Thank youGraciasGRA-thyas
- Yes / NoSí / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse mePerdónper-DON
- How much is it?¿Cuánto cuesta?KWAN-to KWES-ta
- The bill, pleaseLa cuenta, por favorla KWEN-ta
- Cheers!¡Salud!sa-LOOD
Religion
Catholic
Nominally Catholic and deeply secular in practice. Churches are working buildings as well as sights, and Semana Santa is taken seriously even by people who never attend Mass.
Travel tipsDo's and don'ts
Do
- Eat late — lunch from 14:00, dinner rarely before 21:00
- Greet with two cheek kisses, right cheek first, between women or a man and a woman
- Stand at the bar to drink; it is cheaper than sitting and more sociable
- Say buenos días on entering a small shop, and adiós on leaving
Don't
- Do not expect anything to be open between 14:00 and 17:00 outside the big cities
- Do not order sangria in a serious restaurant — it is a tourist drink; ask for tinto de verano
- Do not tip heavily; rounding up or a euro or two is normal
- In Barcelona, do not assume Catalan and Spanish are interchangeable — the distinction matters to people
Where to stay in Salamanca
No Holistay rentals in Salamanca yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Salamanca on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Madrid Barajas MAD
2h 30mfrom the airport· 183 km as the crow flies
About 2h 30m on the direct coach from T1 and T4; or Cercanías to Chamartín, then the Alvia in about 1h 40m.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
