I finally made my first international trip in two years since COVID hit! I decided that my first trip would be Spain and thought I’d share some of my trip prep work to help you plan your own trips in the near future. COVID has reverted travel quite a lot and while we’re steadily opening up, the rules are waffly quite often and quickly but I thought I’d requite you a detailed run lanugo on what my Singapore to Spain trip in 2022 was like and what to expect.
Last Updated on 23 August, 2022
Why Spain?
I picked Spain considering I wanted to use my languishing Spanish a little bit, and rules-wise it didn’t have any particularly strict entry requirements which was a plus for me. I’ve been to quite a lot of Spain – Barcelona and the quirky Dali museum when I’d just graduated, Valencia and Madrid during my career unravel and increasingly recently Bilbao where I checked out ‘Dragonstone‘. I’d moreover spent some time in Andalusia’s Seville and nearby coastal towns like Chipiona, I kinda missed the southern Spanish vibe and wanted to see all that again.
Also, when in February 2022, prices for nearby VTL flights like South Korea and plane Malaysia were increasingly expensive than usual, and it just seemed increasingly worthwhile to pay a little bit increasingly to fly a lot remoter to Europe.
Disclaimer: All this info is based on my wits and correct as of late March / early April 2022. I bought my tickets for a VTL flight in Feb 2022 surpassing they spoken the Vaccinated Travel Framework. COVID rules transpiration quite quickly and while I will try and update as much as possible, I highly teach checking the official sites to be sure.
Official Resources
I spent a lot of time poring over fine print and waffly rules to make sure I was comliant for my trip. Here’s what I recommend you trammels out:
- Spain Tourism Board’s Travel Unscratched website – very user friendly and well-spoken instructions
- Singapore ICA Unscratched Travel website – there’s a handy self-help tool so you can icon out what the rules are specifically for your situation
Singapore to Spain: Entry Requirements
As of March 2022, Spain does not have specific tests or requirements needed for entry into Spain as long as you are fully vaccinated. If you are not fully vaccinated, you may need to either have an exemption document or take a test beforehand, but for fully vaccinated folk like myself, it’s pretty straightforward.
Things to prep
- Vaccination Certification:
- Spain requires the EU Digital COVID Certificate, but the unconfined thing is that the Singapore Vaccination Document is recognised as an equivalent. What Singaporeans need to do is download your immunisation records from Notarise, follow the steps and you should receive your document scrutinizingly immediately via email. The PDF will have both an online QR lawmaking (for all your shots) as well as EU-DCC uniform QR codes for offline verification (1 QR for each shot you take)
- I recommend saving your PDF to Dropbox/Files or something you can wangle hands plane offline. For iOS users, I suggest opening the document on flipside screen and scanning the QR lawmaking with your phone camera. It will automatically trigger for you to add the immunisation records to the Health app on your iphone, and from there you can moreover save to Wallet so you can hands pull out the QR codes when needed.
- When this was checked: at the SIA check-in counter
- SpTH Form:
- Spain moreover requires you to do is to fill up a Health Control Form (FCS) surpassing entry into the country. You can unquestionably can fill it in as early as you want (you will need to add flight/seat details so have that on hand), but you can only well-constructed the form and get the Spain Travel Health Pass QR lawmaking 48 hours surpassing your departure.
- You’ll need your phone – they will send you a pin number which will be your password (reusable if you login multiple times so save that number), and the final QR lawmaking in PDF form/passbook form will be sent to your email so you can save and add to your Wallet as well.
- When this was checked: at Spain’s airport surpassing going to the valise claim
- Singapore Airlines:
- Online trammels in was pretty standard, but one spare step was that SIA asked for the QR lawmaking to need to verify my vaccination cert surpassing I could get my boarding pass. I was on my palmtop so I took a screenshot of the QR from the PDF and uploaded that file as an image which worked for me.
Situation In Spain
Masks
Update: Spain’s COVID mask rules now are that masks are only required in public transport and healthcare institutions. You’ll noticed I’m masked up in many pictures considering as of March 2022 when I visited, squatter masks were still mandatory in indoor areas, tourist attractions and on public transport.
The Spaniards were unquestionably pretty good well-nigh the mask rule when I was there. Sometimes people would be reminded to wear their masks when indoors, and while outdoors I did see some people keeping their masks on still expressly in increasingly crowded town centre areas without stuff reminded, which I think is a unconfined sign that most people understand how and why the masks work.
But the weather was pretty tomfool when I visited Spain so having the mask on wasn’t much of a hardship, and sometimes quite welcome for keeping my squatter warm on windy mornings. Might be a variegated story in summe!
What happens if you get COVID in Spain?
According to Spain’s Unscratched Travel website, the translating is to stay in isolation for 10 days if you have COVID symptoms or at least 3 days without you stop having symptoms which would be a real bummer on your trip. Honestly, unless you have an official diagnosis from a doctor and are really sick to the bone, it’s not like they track this strictly like they did in Singapore for a bit.
But the increasingly important question for most travellers is when will you be unliable to fly when to Singapore if you get COVID, and basically you need to have the first officially recorded positive COVID test be MORE than 7 days from your stage of throw-away surpassing they indulge you on the plane. So that ways if you get COVID late in your trip, you’ll have to push when your throw-away stage till at least 7 days without that positive result, so making sure you have travel insurance and flexible flight plans is definitely something to consider.
At this point, you will need to show a negative test that’s within 48 hours of your trip and both mandatory and supervised, so if you suspect you have COVID while on your trip, you’ll probably want to test older so that hopefully it doesn’t impact your return stage too much.
Spain to Singapore: Entry Requirements
Update: Now there’s no need for ART/PCR tests to enter Singapore if you are fully vaccinated! Predeparture tests only needed if you are unvaccinated according to ICA.
With the vaccinated travel framework in April 2022, there are unquestionably a lot less rules now when travelling from Spain to Singapore. Here’s my wits in March-April 2022 flying in from Spain to Singapore as a Singaporean citizen.
Things to prep
- Supervised ART Test:
- Singapore requires everyone to do a pre-departure test within 48 hours surpassing throw-away time – minimally this needs to be a supervised ART. My initial plan was to typesetting an ART test time slot at Barcelona Airport via Fly COVID Test Center at 30 Euros, but I found out that Spain is one of the countries where Singapore allows for remote supervised ART swab tests via online means.There are several options listed, but this is a lot cheaper with prices virtually S$12-15 instead.
- You will need to take into worth time difference when booking your test, and moreover provide your own COVID test kits that have been HSA approved. Minimally you need to have at least 2 kits on hand per test, but I suggest you siphon increasingly in specimen you unquestionably do get COVID.
- How the test works:
- I did my test with Kingston and received a Google Form link an hour surpassing my test time to fill in some vital information well-nigh your self and the test kit that you are using, as well as the Zoom Link for the test itself
- At the time you booked, you login the Zoom room like a typical meeting undeniability with all the other people getting tested during that timeslot. The host checked our names and then shuffled us individually into smaller breakout rooms with the person who will unquestionably monitor you doing the test. You may still have other strangers in the same breakout room as you but much fewer.
- After doing the test, you are shuffled when into the main holding zone to wait for your test results. The host will undeniability your name when the 15-minutes is up and ask you to hold up the test results to the camera for verification, and once they’ve confirmed what they’ve seen, you can leave the room and they will email you the results in the next few hours.
- When this was checked: at the SIA check-in counter at the Barcelona airport
- Singapore Inrush Vellum with Health Declaration:
- This arrival card is not mandatory, but theoretically will help speed up paperwork checks at immigration as it basically declares your health status. You can fill it up to 3 days surpassing your inrush in Singapore.
- I’d unquestionably forgotten to fill up the form and only did it on my phone right when without my flight landed in Singapore and while waiting to disembark. It’s pretty easy to fill up.
My Spain trip planning
A big part of my consideration for any of my bookings on this trip was to ensure that I would not be penalised as far as possible in the event I got COVID before/during the trip. Flexible bookings were something I urgently looked out for, and I moreover highly recommend getting travel insurance (a must for me regardless of COVID), but make sure your plan has COVID considerations and cover.
Singapore to Spain Flight: Singapore Airlines
I booked my flight to Spain in February considering it was a VTL flight (so no quarantine on return) and considering Singapore Airlines promotional flights were well-nigh $980 for Singapore-Spain flights at the cheapest tier, which is what a decent promo price SG-Europe ticket would have forfeit pre-COVID – I widow luggage so paid just slightly over 1k SGD.
But the biggest yank for me was that SIA was permitting self-ruling unlimited flight changes all the way till 31 March 2022 at that time (currently I see it extended to May 2022) no matter what tier you bought, so that gave me some warranty on stuff worldly-wise to make last minute changes in the event I unprotected COVID unexpectedly.
Note that if you are redeeming miles, you might be locked into stock-still dates without room to change, so trammels your T&Cs quite unmistakably surpassing you book.
Flight review: SIA has an mindfulness pack that comes with a surface wipe, 2 sanitary handwipes and a removable facemask. I used the surface wipe to wipe all the contact surfaces (window, headrest, arm rest, tv screen, table…). The flight wasn’t super full – I had an empty middle seat in my row thankfully, and they were serving supplies and drinks as per usual, though they would remind you to put your mask when on without meals.
Barcelona-Seville Flight bookings: Vueling
Now I had to go from Barcelona to Seville, and while I did consider taking the Spain’s upper speed rail (takes well-nigh 5-6 hours), the timings didn’t really work for my flight inrush time so I opted to fly via their low-cost Vueling airline instead which has several flights a day linking Barcelona and Seville.
Vueling’s tickets are weightier bought as early as possible to get the cheapest prices – it gets steadily increasingly expensive as days go by, and for my Optima tier, they offer one self-ruling transpiration of flight per leg in specimen you have to do last minute changes. They have a TimeFlex tier that lets you do unlimited changes, but doesn’t seem to include check-in valise in the price. If you use your self-ruling transpiration and need to transpiration again, you can consider cancelling and getting full refunds as credits and rebooking again.
Flight review: Often quite fuss free, though as a low-cost airline there aren’t unchangingly a lot of staff on hand to help with the self check-ins and stuff, so I suggest going early when it’s less crowded to get your check-ins settled. You’re not seeing Heathrow-level type of crowds, but unstipulated translating is to do as much as you can online in terms of check-in and go early to stave queuing too much.
Inter-city Train bookings: Rail Europe
Most of the Spain train websites will tell you that the official Renfe website is pretty finicky expressly with unsuspicious overseas credit cards, so I booked all my train tickets with Rail Europe (Trainline is flipside good option) which has an spanking-new interface and is really easy to use. They tuition a one-time 6.95 euro booking fee no matter how many tickets you book, so weightier to typesetting all your tickets at a go. Prices moreover increase closer to stage so typesetting early to get promos.
You’ll get the train tickets as a PDF, and you’ll usually need to scan the bar lawmaking either at the archway to the station or when they trammels on the train itself. I printed mine out to be safe, but I think it still works if you scan the codes off your phone.
Hotel bookings: Booking.com
My go-to website for walk-up bookings is booking.com [affiliate link] considering it’s easy to use and compare places and reviews, and use filters to find what works for me.
Now typically I tend to typesetting hostels and my usual upkeep is virtually $30/night, but given the COVID situation, I decided to splurge a bit increasingly and typesetting private rooms with private bathrooms instead. I’m still trying very nonflexible to stave getting COVID, and while I’m happy to share space usually and I like the social nature of hostel dorms, this first trip when I decided to be increasingly cautious, but it did spike my walk-up upkeep to well-nigh S$100 /night, which is ok if you are travelling as a couple but a bit steep for a solo traveller.
My walk-up [affiliate links]
- Seville: Welldone Metropol
- Cadiz: Hostal Dormir en Cadiz
- Cordoba: Hospederia Luis de Gongora
- Barcelona: Hostel Rodamon Barcelona
SIM Card: Airalo eSIM
My usual MO when it comes to connectivity is to either buy a SIM vellum at the airport or ask my accom reception to point me in the direction of a mobile shop, but this trip I thought I’d try the eSIM vellum instead, in which I wouldn’t have to manually swap out my SIM vellum (I have so many random SIM cards lying virtually and I unchangingly lose my tray ejection pin).
I opted for Airalo [affiliate link] and bought a 10Gb Guay eSIM vellum for US$18 (US$15 without using someone’s referral code) and installing it in my iphone was pretty easy. It worked the minute I landed and unfluctuating to the network and was often well unfluctuating throughout the trip except for a few hours where signal just dropped unexpectedly.
What I liked well-nigh it as well is that I can toggle between my primary SIM vellum and this e-SIM so I can still receive my bank’s PIN number SMSes (through my primary line) when making online purchases while accessing the internet (through the eSIM’s data plan). I switched off roaming on my primary SIM vellum to make sure I didn’t incur any roaming charges.
I do like this eSIM card, and if it the prices are reasonable for my next trip, I’d probably opt for it instead of
Check out Airalo [affiliate link] for yourself, and you can use my referral lawmaking JACLYN4873 to save yourself US$3 (It’ll requite me US$3 credit too!).
Travel Insurance: SOMPO
I highly recommend travel insurance whether you get COVID or not just to be safe. I’ve written extensively well-nigh how travel insurance has bailed me out in the past, so now with these uncertainties, it’s plane increasingly essential. Some countries require you to have mandatory COVID-related insurance and unobjectionable coverage – Singapore is one of those countries (if you are not local), but luckily Spain is not, but I still got myself a package anyway.
Why I got SOMPO? Honestly it’s considering my Insurance wage-earner recommended it, I don’t have a largest wordplay for you.
Attraction Bookings
Many of the major sights in Spain require a booked time slot to enter and I highly recommend checking the website to see if you can buy tickets beforehand. This will save you from having to queue up in person, which many people still do and honestly is a real waste of time! Examples include Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia, Seville’s Real Alcazar and Cathedral, Cordoba’s Mezquita-Cathedral and Viana Palace.
Buy your tickets online, and you usually receive a QR lawmaking or bar lawmaking which you just need to scan at the door when you enter. Flipside thing to note is that several of these attractions have moreover shifted their audio guides to online websites or specialised apps that you should download beforehand. Carrying virtually earphones with you so you can listen to the guides as you walk around!
Trip Planner: Wanderlog
I usually throw my trip itinerary into a Google Doc and put all my docs in a dropbox folder, but on this trip I tried using something tabbed Wanderlog and it’s been a pretty tomfool experience. I like how it automatically organises your walk-up and transport and it does make it easy to icon out potential itineraries and routes. I can moreover upload attachments there and wangle it offline in the Pro version, and plane add my spending there too so it was very useful just to have all my stuff in one place.
Here’s a mock version that I did up so you can see what I midpoint for yourself! I’m not sharing my very trip plan considering there’s a lot of personal info in there, but I did use this a lot throughout my trip and I quite like it.
Any questions? Drop them in the comments below, am happy to wordplay them! I’m moreover hoping to work on increasingly Spain blogs so stay tuned for those.
