2011
20
January
How to get to the south of Spain for $649 roundtrip after tax
20
January
So, Air Transat has dropped the price of their late January and early February flights to London, UK down to $560 roundtrip after tax. I could write another blog post about that, but writing about cheap flights to London all the time can get monotonous.
Instead, I'll turn this into somewhat of a tutorial on how to use cheap fares to London as a gateway to get to other places in Europe, cheaply.
First, you would line up a cheap flight to London. Taking a look on AirTransat.ca, we can see that there's date combinations in late January/early February that are showing for $560 roundtrip after tax.
Try January 29 to February 9th for example:
Screenshot:
This is pretty much the bottom for flights from Calgary to Europe these days. Ok, maybe on rare occasion I've seen it down to $520. I think there were some around that price in November on Thomas Cook.
So, now we're off to London on January 29th. Our flight is direct, but gets in on January 30th at 7AM London time, due to the time difference.
Now we need a cheap flight to somewhere in Europe. There are plenty of them, to pretty much anywhere, but I want a really cheap one, preferably to somewhere that's not as cold as everywhere else in Europe in January.
Greece & Turkey would be logical places to start, with the highest average temperatures in January and plenty of flights for around $200 roundtrip after tax.
But I want cheaper, so I set focus on Malaga, Spain. Located in the very south part of Spain, it has some of the warmest winter temperatures in Europe. It's not exactly hot in January mind you, with an average January high of 16.6C, but I'll take that over -10C or colder in Calgary.
To get there, I take a look at http://www.Easyjet.com - one of Europe's largest budget airlines. There's a flight from January 31 to February 8 for 66 Euros, roundtrip after tax. That works out to $88 CDN roundtrip, after tax.
For comparison, London to Malaga is about 1600km and costs $88 roundtrip. Calgary to Las Vegas is nearly exactly the same distance and costs us $300 on a very good day. Try not to cringe.
However, it should be noted that while super cheap fares can be had in Europe, they also nickle and dime you for everything. There's always an additional fee for bags, and in this case on Easyjet, it costs 14 Euros ($18 CDN) each way to bring checked luggage.
The flight from London to Malaga departs early the next morning, so I would have nearly 24 hours to check out London in the meantime.
I would need somewhere to stay in London and I notice that the 245th highest ranked TripAdvisor accommodation in London is going for $50/night...
245th best may not sound great, but with 1,054 hotels in London at least it's in the top 30%. And that price in London for a 1 bedroom apartment is a steal. It's also close to the Tube (London Subway). And really, I'm just using it as a place to crash before my flight to Spain in the morning.
cM
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4 Responses to "How to get to the south of Spain for $649 roundtrip after tax"
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Love this deal! I hope there is something great like this in April when I'm able to travel again!
This is genius, I've never seen air transat come up in my search with websites I use the most - ticketpilot and flightnetwork, perhaps due to the locations searched, but with the tactic you described this could be a very good way of saving money. Thanks a lot!
We did this exact trip in May 2010 and we paid way more than 649, what a great deal! Once you arrive in Malaga head to the littlel town of Estepona, you won't be disappointed and it's in a great location for daytrips.
Another hotel option for London is to stay @ Yotel right at the Gatwick airport...you can take the tube right into London from the airport and it's a comfortable bed once you are done exploring the sights. The convenience of waking up and already being at the airport for your flight to Spain is another bonus!!
I spent a january near Malaga in 2003. it was nice enough that i could go out in shorts and a tshirt, but too cold to swim.
Believe it or not, it actually snowed on one day. ( i was there all winter)
I recommend Mijas as a cool day trip if you are in the area.
Matt