Trips (Internships)
Program excursions include two day trips.
The first will be to the city of Segovia, where students will visit the Royal Fortress that inspired Walt Disney´s castle, a Roman aqueduct, the gardens of the Royal Palace of La Granja, and sample local cuisine.
For the second we’ll visit the natural park of Arribes del Duero on the border of Spain and Portugal, where students will take a boat trip through a nature preserve, visit a winery, and sample local wines in Fermoselle.
Throughout the stay in Salamanca, students will tour sites around the city, including the 800-year-old University, the Old and New Cathedrals, a Jesuit Park, the Casa Lis Decorative Arts Museum and local hot chocolate shops.
Group travel is a required academic component of the program.
Copy the trips dates to your agenda and make sure that you don’t plan any personal trips on those dates.
Only program participants may travel on group transportation and lodge in group facilities on all official trips. Any friends or family seeing students during group trips must work around the group schedule in order to visit the students.
On the bus…
- No eating or drinking (except water)
- Keep your seatbelt fastened
At the hotel…
- Most hotels require to show your original passport. Take your passport always with you on all group and/or personal trips, but leave it in your suitcase during visits (a copy will be sufficient)
- It is required to be silent in the room after 11.00pm
- Do not speak loudly in the hallways (there are other guests who may be sleeping).
- The doors of the rooms need to be closed all the time.
- It is totally forbidden to buy alcohol and to bring it to hotel rooms (alcohol policy)
- It is not allowed to take food out of the hotel breakfast for later.
- you will choose a roommate for the first trip, and provided there are no problems, you may continue with the same roommate. If, for any reason, you want to switch, make your own arrangements, but let the directors know, at least, two weeks prior to the next trip.
On visits
- Pay attention
- Allow tour guides to finish speaking before you ask questions.
- wear comfortable shoes
- Go easy on the water. Bathrooms are not always available.
You will certainly enjoy the nice accommodations and the ease of having everything arranged for you on the group trips. But don’t hesitate to take advantage of the weekends to travel on your own. When ever you go on a personal trip, you are required by Wake Forest for security reasons to inform your directors of the dates when you plan to be away from Salamanca and the places you plan to visit. You can fill in the official form with your travel plans (see below).
When you plan your trips you may find it helpful to talk to the on-site Director Prof. Garrido or to the Cultural Advisor and tour guide Prof. Fernando Díaz. Because of their experience living in Spain, they can point out to you numerous sites of interest in the country (Recommendations in Spain and Portugal). You may also use some of the travel agencies because they often have inexpensive and interesting offers. They are open until 8 PM and were always very helpful. A travel agency can help you book flights or find a package tour to different destinations.
However, most students agree that it is best to steer clear of the package deals unless you are going someplace dangerous, like North Africa. A tour may sound convenient, but you have to follow a schedule – getting up early in the morning and not having the luxury of deciding how much time you want to spend in a place. Even traveling in a country where you don’t speak the language – Portugal, France, or Italy – you should be able to make your way without too much difficulty. Salamanca is connected with the South and East of the Peninsula through Madrid. To travel to Madrid you may go by bus or by train:
- Bus: The bus company to Madrid and the airport is called Monbus: Salamanca→Madrid (Moncloa station or Estación de Monbus in the bus station Méndez Álvaro). The trip takes 2.5 hours. Buses depart from Salamanca and from Madrid every hour from 6:00am until 11:00pm.
https://www.monbus.es/en The bus station is located in the northwest part of Salamanca. Several different lines come through it. Travelling by bus is the most efficient way to travel all throughout Spain, but the Salamanca station will not have print copies of schedules. You will need to look them up online. Salamanca has a municipal bus system that can carry you to more distant areas of the city, including the Centro Comercial Tormes (Salamanca’s mall) across the river. You can buy tickets right on the bus. You can download an app to your smartphone with all the routes: “Bus Urbanos Salamanca” - Train: RENFE is the name of the train company in Spain. Trains go to Madrid (the trip takes 1.30h or 2.30h depending on your schedule), Barcelona, Portugal and other sites in the North. Whenever you buy train tickets (billetes) make reservations (reservas) in advance to avoid problems. You can also make your plans ahead of time by going to www.renfe.es, which has schedules and connections for trains all over the country. A Carnet Joven can be obtained for about $3 in the youth section of the office building located in Plaza de la Constitución near the post office on Gran Vía. With this card you can receive up to a 20% discount on train fares over a certain mileage within Spain. The train station is in the northeast section of town. Credit cards accepted.
- Airplane (low-cost airlines)
- RyanAir and Vueling fly out of Valladolid, which is located 1.30 hours to the North of Salamanca by bus. You will need to take another bus to take you from Valladolid city to the airport.
- EasyJet and remaining low-cost airlines fly out of Madrid.
- Car Rental in Salamanca: You must be 21 or older to rent a car. Cars do not have automatic transmission.
In any major city, take advantage of the Metro subway system if there is one. Madrid and Barcelona have speedy, safe and relatively clean metros, and your guide book will generally tell you which stop the sight you want to see connects to. Passes are usually sold individually or in packs, and one pass is good for one ride, no matter how long the distance. Keep in mind, however, that the metro does not run all night, so if you go out late you will have to get a cab.
If you do take a cab anywhere, rates will be reasonable. But insist that the driver use the meter so that you won’t be ripped off. A good strategy is to approach a driver and ask approximately how much it will cost to take you to a certain location. This way the driver won’t take you for a ride around the city. If the estimate sounds high, ask someone else. Be aware that there are extra fees for luggage and going out of the city. Taxi drivers are good people to ask if you are lost or are trying to find something.
Remember that you chose Salamanca to immerse yourself in the language and culture of Spain. If you spend many weekends traveling to other European countries, you will miss opportunities to speak Spanish and get to know Spain more intimately. Take advantage of the opportunity this program provides for you to improve, to the best of your ability, your Spanish proficiency and your knowledge of Spanish culture.
Be aware that professors will not change due dates to accommodate your personal travel. If you use allowed class absences for travel to distant destinations, you are likely to encounter flight delays that will lead you to miss class. These absences will count. More than 2 absences will lower your grade.
If you do want to do extensive traveling, and it is at all possible, stay after the program and go then. This is also an excellent time for your parents to come visit you if they are planning on doing so. You’ll have more time, fewer obligations, and won’t have to cram places in. After days of travel, you’ll want more than a few hours to spend in a city once you get there. Trying to go somewhere like Paris or London for a weekend usually requires taking an extra day (or more) to justify the time and expense. You will have the opportunity to see different parts of western Europe, but don’t do anything really ambitious – a trip to Amsterdam, Berlin, and Prague in one week, for example, will cause more pain and exhaustion than it’s worth. A week is enough time to visit two major cities and one smaller town within the same country, while enjoying your travels.
We recommend seeing Spain first – it’s diverse, beautiful, and cheap. And most importantly, always remember that you are on a wonderful, exciting, once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Travel everywhere, see everything, meet everyone and have the best time of your life!
Summarized:
- Make sure your personal travel plans don’t interfere with the academic calendar of the program. This calendar is scheduled according, not to the Wake Forest academic calendar, but to the University of Salamanca’s own one.
- In the unlikely event that you lose your passport, you must contact the US embassy immediately, and make the necessary arrangements for a replacement as soon as possible.
- Check out the interesting and cheap weekend or one day trips in Spain on the WFU Salamanca facebook group
- Don’t hesitate to ask the directors for recommendations to plan these personal trips in Spain. Their experience is vast.
- Students are required to share personal travel plans in advance any time they plan to leave Salamanca filling out the independet travel form:
Group trips in Summer
- 1 day trip: Segovia and La Granja
- 1 day trip: Arribes del Duero and Fermoselle
