Spanish weekend away; more trouble then its worth

madeinchina

OH and I are considering a weekend getaway in May. We dont go abroad often, but I fancy Spain for a change as we've never been. Is a long weekend going to be a waste of money with regards to the effort of flying, the cost of flights etc, or do people enjoy this kind of break? Or do we stick with Blighty, as per usual?

dmg24

I take long weekends to the US, so Spain is like being at home!

Have you looked at the low cost airlines? Ryanair have a £1 sale on at the moment.

Bronnie

Go for it!
If possible, try to find a flight early in the day Friday and late back Sunday to maximise your time. Consider booking single flights with different airlines if this helps.

serena

I took my daughter and three friends on a post-GCSE and 16th birthday treat mini break to Santander last June. We flew from Stansted with Ryanair, for £20 return each, carrying hand luggage only.

We stayed at the Hotel Santemar, which wasn't by any means the cheapest option, and had a brilliant time! Lovely beaches, very good restaurants, plenty of night life in the city - although we were out of it a bit, lovely scenery.

The bus links are excellent and cheap.

I would say however that you'll need a bit of Spanish, as we found very few English speakers; I have a very dusty O level in Spanish, but managed just about, although it took a long time to work through menus with a phrasebook!

The year before we took a family mini break to Carcassonne in France, which was wonderful, stunning place to visit, plenty to see, and lovely food. We went Thursday to Saturday, but it felt much longer!

I would recommend that you look carefully for flights that are at reasonable times, so you arrive say early afternoon, and leave late afternoon/early evening to maximise tha time that you have there. I used Skyscanner and the flightchecker on this forum, and then moved dates back and forth until I found the best options for us.

While the flights may be very cheap, I have found that the accommodation isn't always!

mobby-2554

Decide where you want to go then have a look at this site.

http://www.skyscanner.net/

It's reallly good for searching out cheap flights!

Could you not do Friday - Monday?

mobby-2554

If you can cheap flights you could use my previous post for hotels.

Just looked four nights 4* half board £69 in Ibiza 5th May with Thomsons.

There will be other dates and places.

geri1965_2

We live in Bristol and we are going away to Cornwall for a few days in May - it's £60 each on the train and takes 4 1/2 hours.

We can get flights to Barcelona with Easyjet for about the same amount of money, and the flight is shorter! (although you have to factor in waiting to check in at the airport etc then getting from the airport to the centre).

Barcelona is great for a short break. Loads to do, and no problems with the language as most people speak English.

madeinchina

There's some really good food for thought here, especially the Santander suggestion.

Thanks everyone.

richardw

Depends how close you are to the airport at each end and how long the total travel time is.

terryya

We've done three night breaks to Spain for the last two easters and had a great time. One thing I've noticed with weekend stag dos is that Sat-Mon flights seems to be cheaper than Fri-Sun.

lily_the_pink

I have also been to spain for the last 3 years - no worse than being stuck in a traffic jam on a motorway!

Having just returned, I would say that everything is a little more expensive than it used to be due to the £ weakness. Eating out can still be relatively cheap if you hunt around but hotels and even drinking are no longer the bargains they were. (I am talking about Barcelona and Madrid rather than the coast which will probably be cheaper).

Although I love Madrid (and would live there except it is too cold in winter and too hot in the summer), I think Barcelona is the more tourist friendly city. I would advise flying into the main barcelona airport and not the one used by a lot of the cheaper airlines (which is about 2 hours away from memory) if you are only going for a few days.