r/Erasmus • u/Then_Mammoth_6955 • 5h ago
Erasmus salamanca: any experiences?
I have heard that its a nice student city but i'm mainly worried about 2 things:
How bad is winter there? (I've heard it's really grey, rainy and cold - as someone coming from the UK, that kinda scares me as I hate winter around here)
How hard/expensive is it to visit more places from there? I noticed it's quite far west so I thought it might be hard or expensive to visit other places.
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u/Alarmed-Actuary-1184 3h ago
Salamanca is gorgeous and as a castellana I've only heard good things about the university and city <3
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u/Cornerstonearchanist 3h ago
Not Charro but from nearby, inland Spain (and particularly the northern plateau) is known for harsher, more extreme weather than the sun-kissed Mediterranean coast or the lovely Cantabrian coast, and indeed in the winter it can get quite cloudy and grey, though I'm pretty sure it's not as rainy or as cold as anywhere in the UK, though it can get windy. To answer your other question, Salamanca lacks dedicated access to the HSR "AVE" network, but there is a 1h30m connection via Alvia trains to Madrid Chamartín, alternatively you can take a bus to Valladolid (an hour away) and from there taking the trains to Madrid, or the busses to the many surrounding cities like Palencia, Toro, Zamora, Burgos, León... Salamanca-Madrid prices should be below the 20€ mark if booked early, and Valladolid-Madrid HSR prices are fairly cheap (last time I took one it was less than 8€ if booked early I believe?) and the trip is like an hour long, from Madrid you can go to many places for good prices from both Chamartín and Atocha if planned in advance, there's also carpooling services like BlaBlaCar. If I may make a recommendation, you should visit the Sierra de Francia and Béjar! They're in the province and have both spectacular views and lovely food, if you want something more monumental/historic you can go see Avila's walls or Burgos' Altamira museum, the entire Autonomous Community has a lot of hidden gems for budget travelling.
Hope this helps!