Does anyone know of an inexpensive way to get from London (or points south in England - we're flexible) to anywhere along the northwestern coast of Spain this summer? So far my research has been limited to checking with British Airways. I'm sure there are other ways - cheaper flights, ferries... We'd rather not use goggles, flippers, rafts, or anything you have to blow up first or that involves getting wet.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hi Diana

I know that Go fly from London to Bilbao - check out their flights (they are a no frills operation, like easyJet) Go, the low cost airline

Cheap Flights now have a page dedicated to low cost airlines have a look at Cheap Flights list of low cost airlines (with on-line booking direct)

Brittany Ferries might be worth checking out if you are foot passengers (to Santander), but in August last year, it was cheaper for my family of 5 to fly with easyJet to Madrid and then hire a small car up the the coast. But I realise this isn't what you want to do. We had worked out the cost including taking our car over. Brittany Ferries

Hope this might help.

Jo

Think you can get ferries from Southampton,Portsmouth,Poole etc on the South Coast to Santander.

Thank you, Jo and mick nick, for your recommendations. They give me some direction, and I will check them all out.

Jo, the idea of flying to Madrid, renting a car, and driving north actually did cross my mind. I'm still a bit embarrassed about totally skipping Madrid last year when I was in Spain (Barcelona was as far south as I got in over a month!), and I have a lot of friends there I'd love to see. So it was interesting for me to hear that that was the best plan for you and your family. We may actually end up doing the same.

Again, thanks!
Diana

Diana - if "NW coast" means Galicia, Iberia fly about 5 times a day Barajas-La Coruña. The flight takes about 1hr 10 mins. Combined with a lo-cost (easyJet, Go) from London to Barajas, this might be the fastest way to get there. You can make the reservation on Iberia's web site.

[ 02-28-2002: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

http://www.Brittany-ferries.com
operates a ferry Plymouth-Santander: takes 24 hours. I have met several 'Brits' there in Santander who had come by ferry - some with motorcycles.
Get a sleeping cabin: it can be part of your vacation.
From Santander, you can catch a bus (about 500m from the ferry dock) to Asturias or Galicia.

Well, I have tickets, and I thought I'd share with the board what we decided to do, in case it might help someone someday.

I checked out both Easyjet and Go, and got prices from them, flying with Go, Stansted - Bilbao, and Easyjet, Luton - Madrid. I then checked Iberia, and found Heathrow - Bilbao, among many other combinations. Go and Iberia were within very few dollars of each other. Easyjet was cheaper, but since it was to Madrid, I had to add the cost of traveling north. Since our home base in London is quite close to Heathrow, it was an easy choice - we went with Iberia, Heathrow - Bilbao. Not only is Heathrow more convenient for us (saving money we'd have to spend to get to Luton or Stansted - or even Gatwick), but the times of the flights were much more convenient. I was even able to arrange to fly Bilbao - Heathrow - Philadelphia all on the same (long!) day without having to change airports in London.(We're flying my favorite airline, British Airways, for the transatlantic part.) The London - Bilbao leg came out to US$187 (about 129 GBP) each, round trip - not bad. AND, we get frequent flyer miles with Iberia, AND, I could get the tickets easily here in the States, something I don't know if I can do with Go or Easyjet (I might have had to ask someone in England to do it for me). So it all worked out quite well.

Again, thanks for all your help!

(PS: regarding the ferry - I looked into it, but the dates they "sail" are very limiting, and didn't work well at all with the dates we were to be in Spain. Maybe next time...)

It looks like everything turned out just fine, but just in case anyone wants the info, there is also a ferry that runs between Portsmouth and Bilbao. It can get really cheap. I think I saw the other day you could take it for 49€ and it had a 2 for 1 offer so that two people could go for the price of one. I´ve heard that the restaurants are a little on the pricey side, but I knew some people (students) that took their own wine and food and had fun cheaply. The ferry takes 2 days each way.

also what you can do is to do London - Biarritz ( France ) , from there it takes 30 minutes to go to Irun ~ San Sebastien

Has anyone suggested National Express coaches yet? Go to www.gobycoach.com click on the Eurolines link and then click on "Book Online" at the top of the screen and and type "London" in the "Start Location" part and then select "Spain" from the list of countries in the "Destination Location" part, and it will show you all of the stops they go to in Spain. You can travel from anywhere in Britain, but sometimes the site has problems dealing with connections so it may be better to book the portion of the journey to London separately (I think all of the coaches to Europe go from London). It's quite cheap and I'm almost certain to cost includes the ferry, but the prices do change - I was thinking of booking a ticket to Granada recently for £89, but when I returned to the site the next day it had gone up to £148! Needless to say, I booked the £90 Easyjet fare to Madrid from Liverpool instead, and will be paying the princely sum of 12 euros to bus it from Madrid to Granada - a total journey of 24 hours (including a night in Madrid) which would have taken about three days by coach...