You plan to travel to Spain as a tourist, you have spent time informing yourself with friends, reading on the Internet, you have heard so many things that you do not know what to believe, while some comments give you confidence and you think you are prepared, others make you doubt.
If even the officials themselves argue and travelers with similar stories give you different opinions, how do you know who is right? For you to clarify, I will return to 15 points that lend themselves to misinterpretations and I will analyze them in detail. Traveling to Spain as a tourist how true is everything they say?
- An acquaintance was not asked for anything to enter Spain, so they will not ask me
Believing that because someone you know did not ask for anything to enter Spain you are not going to be asked is one of the biggest mistakes. Entering Spain is random, there are several factors that count the official’s humor, the rush he is in, the confidence you inspire, and even the stamps in your passport. So the fact that your friend has not been asked for anything in immigration controls does not mean that it will be the same with you.
- I travel with an invitation letter, I do not need financial justifications
That is another false belief. Many imagine that by having an invitation letter they are exempt from presenting financial justifications, which is not true.
The invitation letter is only one of the requirements to Spain for tourism. Although it is true that the official can take it into account and be flexible in the amount, it is also true that there are few cases in which after showing an invitation letter they ask you to show your available means for the trip, but is not always like this and it may even be the case that you have to show how much money you have.
- I have to have a ready itinerary
It is not mandatory but it serves as a backup for the border police. Usually, there is talk of an itinerary when you travel with an all-inclusive package, although it is not your case and when entering Spain they do not ask you openly, they may ask you which cities you are traveling to, which tourist sites you are going to visit. This to ensure that you are not traveling with other intentions.
It is good to anticipate and respond without hesitation. You do not need to be a regular connoisseur of Spain to design a possible travel route, you can be inspired by the Voyage Prive site, where you can find practical information and data. There are somewhat distrustful officials who may even ask you to show the tickets to a certain place or the tickets of the medium that you are going to use to get around, it is very rare, but you should know it.
- The hotel reservation must be paid in full
On the official pages of the government of Spain and other countries of the Schengen area, there is clearly talking of confirmed hotel reservations, not paid reservations. Although there have been cases in which tourists have been denied entry for not having paid reservations, this is more of an excuse that they use in the controls when they suspect that the traveler is going to stay and not for tourism as it says.
Talking about a confirmed reservation means that it has not been previously canceled. There is no shortage of those who want to be astute, make the reservation and in order not to pay the penalty for not canceling within the stipulated period, cancel it before entering Spain. Although it is not common, it has happened that officials take the trouble to call the accommodation to validate the information, so be careful with that.
- They require a return ticket to my country to enter Spain
The law, rather than requiring you to have a return ticket to your country of origin, indicates that you must have an exit ticket from the Schengen area within the authorized period. In other words, you can enter Spain as a tourist showing that before 90 days you will leave to another country that is not part of this space, it does not matter if it is a ticket bound for the United Kingdom, Morocco, Turkey, or any other destination.
- With a tourist visa, my entry is guaranteed
A visa never guarantees entry into a country, officials always have the last word. In fact, the same documents that you presented to obtain it may be required again at the entrance.
- It is mandatory to have international insurance to travel to Spain as a
tourist
With or without a visa, travel insurance is mandatory, it must cover you throughout the Schengen area for a minimum of 30 thousand euros during the entire time you plan to spend there.
- A copy of the invitation letter is valid to enter Spain
If you are going to stay at the home of a friend or relative, you must have an invitation letter issued by the police station in your place of residence. It is not enough that they send you a copy online, the day of your trip they may demand the original. There are specific cases in which, underproof that the letter was lost on the way, the copy of it, and the host’s DNI or NIE, the border police excuse you for not having the original.
- Hotel reservations have to be for the entirety of my stay in the Schengen
Regularly, it is enough for officials to see a couple of hotel reservations, but by law and if they want to, they can require you to show the reservations for the entire time that you are going to stay not only in Spain but throughout the Schengen area.
- It is more reliable to make reservations for hotels, tourist plans, and flights through an agency than through the Internet. Not necessarily. 80th the services offered by the agencies and those you find on the Internet can be safe, but they can also hold surprises for you. If you do not have complete confidence about the website you are going to use or about the agency, seek the opinions of other users. Personally, I prefer to buy online for practicality and because I find better deals.
