A hot trend in travel is to go somewhere and well, do something… something of value that is. You can go green, do some volunteer work, or take a crash cooking course. Since we love food that’s finger lickin’ good, we’ll take the latter please!

Spanish cooking is a huge international trend too. It’s long been known that some of the best restaurants on the globe are located in the country, particularly El Bulli, which has held the title of world’s finest restaurant for three years running.

Though you may not come out as fine a chef as El Bulli’s Ferran Adria, you can give Spain’s gastronomical gems a whirl at one of Barcelona’s GoLearnTo schools that offer crash cooking courses. Half a day is £48 while a lesson that includes a visit to the Boqueria market is £57. We say shell out the extra £10 and get a private lesson with an English speaking Spaniard chef.

So when you come home and everyone says, “What’d you do? What’d you see?” You can reply back, “Why don’t you come over and have a taste?” That’ll certainly throw them for a loop!

Try these Barcelona hotels that are conveniently located near the schools.

3 Star Hotel Jazz

3 Star Hotel Montecarlo

4 Star Hotel 1898

Some animals like to hang in packs but none more so than the mauve stinger jellyfish. These slimy critters have been seen massing in millions for miles on end. In recent years, they have been making their way inland to Spanish beaches and are now slowly but surely heading for France and Italy.

What is causing these jellyfish to go from the ocean to the beaches? The rising ocean temperatures and over fishing have seen a decline in the number of jellyfish eating animals like sea turtles causing a population explosion. And this year the Cote D’Azur, particularly the beach of Darse, has also had near perfect weather for the mauve stingers to breed causing them to invade.

The jellyfish are easy to distinguish. They are bright purple by day and glow yellow by night. They have eight tentacles that can grow up to six feet long each. These tentacles can wrap themselves and invoke a powerful, painful sting that can bring on asthma attacks and sometimes heart failure.

In order to keep these unwanted creatures off the beaches and in the ocean, city’s like Cannes have put up floating barriers while Italy’s coast has launched an off shore program called Jellywatch.

Want to check out this uncanny sight? Check out some of these coastal hotels for a closer look… but not too close!

2 Star Alexandre III in Cannes, France

4 Star Beau Rivage in Nice, Italy

4 Star Parador in Aiguablava, Italy