Expo Zaragoza 2008 Opens This Weekend

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The big travel destination for Europe this summer should be Spain, because this weekend the Expo Zaragoza 2008 opens up, ready to entertain travelers for the next three months. From now on, Zaragoza should be hitting the headlines with a whole lot more regularity.

World Expos like this are scheduled about four years in advance, so Zaragoza - you might know it as Saragossa, which it’s often named in English, although the version with the Z’s is more correct - has been preparing for a while. The city is almost 200 miles directly west of Barcelona, in north-eastern Spain. It’s easy to reach these days with the Spanish fast train system, called the AVE - it takes one and a half hours from Madrid and less than two hours from Barcelona. Expo Zaragoza is expecting at least seven million visitors during the summer.

What to See at Expo Zaragoza

Spain is already a popular tourist destination for many reasons - the relaxed lifestyle and siestas, the beaches and warm climate, and the tapas bars and delicious foods. There’s no beach at Expo Zaragoza but you’ll probably get a taste of the rest of Spain there, plus there’s the huge advantage of also getting a taste of the life of some one hundred other countries who have set up exhibits at the new pavilions.

If you visit Expo Zaragoza you’ll firstly be able to spend many hours checking out the exhibits from countries that interest you. The rules are that any marketing or promotion of products must take less than 20% of the space which means the emphasis is on entertainment and interest. The Expo also has an overarching theme of “Water and Sustainable Development” so green travelers will find plenty to interest them.

There are also regular parades and shows - a la Disneyland. For example, every evening you can see a multimedia show centered on a (not real) iceberg; there’s a group doing “air bound theater” throughout the Expo and each day at lunch time there will be a parade called the Awakening of the Serpent.

The media’s just starting to saturate the airwaves with hints and tips for Zaragoza. It’s a fast frenzy because the opening day June 14 (and the closing is September 14), but with a three month time span, you still have enough time to plan an Expo trip with all the trappings and see what all the fuss is about. But even if you miss out, the new infrastructure and investment in Zaragoza is going to make it an interesting destination for a long time to come.