Great "Cheap Holiday Excursions" Hunt: Costa Del Sol

MSE_Jenny
MSE_Jenny Posts: 1,312
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MSE Staff
What’s this about? The weak pound means buying things abroad costs up to 30% more. To help, we're launching a Great ‘Cheap Holidays & Excursions’ Hunt, tapping the massive collective resource of all MoneySavers. Did you find a bargain way to book outings, or cut costs on places to go?

We've split this into popular holiday destinations.
This discussion is specifically to talk about tips for attractions & days out in:


Costa Del Sol
(Torremolinos, Malaga, Marbella etc)


If you want to discuss other excursions for other destinations, please go to the appropriate discussion below.

If you’ve got a suggestion/tip

Simply click reply and add your suggestion, though its worth scanning down first to check it's not been duplicated.

Related Cheap Excursion Hunt Discussions



Related guides:


Cheap Package Holidays
Cheap Flights
Cheap Hotels

Comments

  • jeni-b_2
    jeni-b_2 Posts: 170 Forumite
    Shop around! Most of the smaller shops will beat your tour operators prices hands down. We just returned from Benalmadena and paid 12 euros per adult and 8 for our son to go to Gibraltar for the day. The coach was comfortable, air con etc, with a bilingual tour guide. Our tour operator (Thomson) were charging 24.90 (euros) for the same trip. Some of the shops along the main road will charge a few euros more than the shops in the side roads, but not much. We booked ours with Arman Travel on Avda. de la Telefonica (opposite Hotel Bali) and had no problems at all.
  • rmch
    rmch Posts: 1 Newbie
    edited 6 July 2009 at 4:03PM
    If you are going to the Costa Del Sol and are planning on going to Gib for the day then my advice would be to go early on in your holiday. For those that smoke and drink then the bargains are even more so than at the costa supermarkets. I recently purchsed 1 litre of vodka and 1 litre of Jack Daniles for £11 sterling whilst in Gib. Especially easy savings for those that have a car as it is only 45 minutes drive from Marbella. Enjoy the sunshine one and all
  • jol_2
    jol_2 Posts: 2 Newbie
    Don't use the small supermarkets or shops attached to hotels and resorts in Spain, and don't buy 'british' foods. For example, a typical British sliced loaf can cost up to 3 euro... whereas a baked baguette is only 45 cents, and is baked fresh on-site in the big supermarkets. It sounds obvious, and I know most people won't want to spend their holiday time 'doing a big shop' but in terms of both cost and quality, it really is worth it.
  • jol_2
    jol_2 Posts: 2 Newbie
    oh, and watch out if you're hiring a car out of Malaga airport - most of the cheaper deals come with a full tank of petrol which they charge you for when you pick up the car. But, if like us you were only there for a week, there is absolutely no way you'll use all the petrol, so effectively you're subsidising the next customer and paying for things you don't need. Check the small print - a deal that looks more expensive may work out cheaper in the long run if you don't have to fork out for a full tank.
  • Capt_Slog
    Capt_Slog Posts: 119 Forumite
    jol wrote: »
    oh, and watch out if you're hiring a car out of Malaga airport - most of the cheaper deals come with a full tank of petrol which they charge you for when you pick up the car. But, if like us you were only there for a week, there is absolutely no way you'll use all the petrol, so effectively you're subsidising the next customer and paying for things you don't need. Check the small print - a deal that looks more expensive may work out cheaper in the long run if you don't have to fork out for a full tank.

    Yes it's true about the car/petrol thing, I think they all do it.

    I have to say though, if you hire a car and don't even use one tank of petrol, then what was the point of having a car? We had one for two weeks and must have had to refill it at least three times.

    We too went to Gibralta. Get there early in the morning and park on the roads in the Spanish side. Walk in and then get a touring bus ticket for the day. This will allow you to roam a lot of Gib, we went out to the point where you can see Africa, getting off the bus and then taking the next one back.

    I think the Spanish customs are quite strict on what you can bring back into Spain with you when returning from Gib, have a good look at the allowances on the way in.
  • Capt_Slog
    Capt_Slog Posts: 119 Forumite
    (This is a bit of a "What I did on my holidays", but does give some useful tips to anyone wanting to do the same, it's long but bear with me. :p )

    I looked into traveling to Africa from Spain last year before I went on holiday. The prices for the day for the ferry from Algeciras to Ceuta were around £60-80 per person return! A few days before i was due to depart I checked the booking site again and the page loaded slightly differently and I found that it was possible to go on the Saturday crossing for a special rate of about £20 each.

    So I booked. Online, in English because I wanted it sorted here before I went, it was part of my youngest son's Birthday present, and we were going on his birthday.

    For those who don't know, Ceuta is a little province of Spain on the tip of Africa much the same as Gibralta is to the UK. Going over there means that you are on the African continent for the day but still in the EU (I think. Tip:- Please check with your insurers on this, you might not be insured if you cross into Africa as we did.)

    When we arrived on the day, all went fairly smoothly, we booked in and then had to collect the tickets somewhere else :confused: No, I don't know why.

    The were obviously lot of Africans using the route too, and it looked unlikely that they paid £20 per ticket. On closer inspection of our tickets it looked as if the ticket price was around £2 and the rest was a booking fee! Tip:- I don't know if these tickets are available if you just turn up on the day, but it's certainly worth some research.


    The trip over is great. You sail down the side of Gibralta, porpoises follow the boat etc.

    As you come out of the ferry terminal at the other side you are met by people who want to be your friend for the day for money. We ignored all these, had a look around the town and got on a bus for the border into Morocco. A few Euros for the four of us. You get off the bus at the border post.

    Crossing the border is not for the faint-hearted, it's like anything you've ever seen on films about the Berlin Wall, but the guards on those films smile sometimes! We had to fill in visa forms each; passport numbers, place of residence etc. Possibly 12 entries on a piece of A5 form, where the instructions were in French, this is then handed through the window grill to the man inside who stamps your passport and lets you in.

    On the other side of the border you're definitely somewhere else, suddenly a long way from home where people don't give a damn about the EU! People are having a poo on the beach, small boys want to sell you bits of paper. Tip:- Buy the papers for pence now, these are entry visas to get you back into Spain, fill them out at your leisure somewhere quiet and cool.

    Taxi drivers hassle you, they want 20-40 euros to take you to Tangiers and promise to return to fetch you back in an hour. This seemed a recipe for disaster so we walked along the road in blistering heat for about 1.5 miles to the nearest town. FNIDEQ. Later when heading back we were tired and asked a taxi driver how much for the border. Price 2 euros. TIP:- know where you want to go and ask for it, we could have done this on the way in had we known the destination.

    The town was fascinating, and well worth the trip. Just wow. Markets, spices, smells and sights we'd never seen before.

    Tip:- Ladies need to be dressed in something long, get covered-up, shorts just won't do. It's like walking around town in your undies according to Mrs Slog.


    Tip:- Hide your camera before you get to the border. The border guard asked to see my digital photos to check that I hadn't taken any inside the crossing on the way in. Good job he didn't check Mrs Slogs camera, I had the feeling we would still be there now if he had!

    Getting back through the border is tense. So smile, you're on holiday, take your time, keep calm. Get your bit of paper filled in, get your passport stamped. The border guards checks your passport carefully, and then you're through, breathe out, ignore the impulse to run. :rolleyes:

    A great day out. And a brilliant birthday for young Matt who's ambition was to go to Africa one day. I can recommend it but go prepared.

    Hope this helps someone, thanks for reading this far.
  • Try supermarkets like Mercadona, they are often much cheaper than the others and sell most things as well as some english foods eg cheddar cheese for €4.80 per half kilo and Heinz beans are less than 90 cents a tin, Coca cola and water is cheaper here too. Fruit and veg is often nearly nothing if you buy from a back street shop, the markets tend to be expensive in comparison as everything is sold in kilos and if you want less than that you will pay nearly as much.
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