Our Own Place in the Sun – (3) Planning the reccy to southern Spain
Written by Karen Bryan
We’re planning our reccy to southern Spain in our quest to find Our Own Place in the Sun. We want to cover the area from east of Gibraltar up the coast to Valencia. We want to get a feel for the different areas and properties. We’ll visit early in 2009, so we can see what the weather is like in Winter and we have nine days set aside for the trip. We want to spend around 3 nights in each of these area – Alicante, Almeria and Malaga.
Playa de Agua Amarga, Almeria
Flights
Our nearest airports are Newcastle and Edinburgh. We’d like to do a one way trip, either north to south, or south to north. I couldn’t find cheap flights from either Newcastle or Edinburgh to Valencia, so Alicante will be our airport in the north and Malaga in the south. Easyjet fly from Newcastle to Malaga and Alicante and Ryanair fly from Edinburgh to Malaga and Alicante..
We found flights with Ryanair to Alicante, at a total cost of £83 using online check in and only taking maximum permitted 10 kgs of hand luggage. I paid for the outward flights with a Visa Electron to avoid paying the £4 per flight card fee which would have added another £8 to the total cost. The return flight from Malaga to Edinburgh was “free” but there was a charge of 20 euro for taxes, using online check in and only taking 10 kgs of hand luggage.. There was a £1.50 fee made by the Halifax for paying in euro with my Visa Electron card, so the cost was £19.. Therefore the flights cost £52 return per person.
Flights with Easyjet for the same dates cost £100 per person.
Car Hire
I’ve booked a one way rental for pick up at Alicante airport and return to Malaga airport through Economy Car Hire. The basic cost was £82 for a diesel supermini eg a Renault Clio, which includes two drivers and no excess to pay on the insurance in event of theft or an accident. However we decided to pay another £10 to cover us for damage to tyres, glass and the underside of the vehicle. There is an additional 35 euro plus VAT one way rental charge, so the total cost will be around £125.
Accommodation
We’re happy with budget accommodation and not too bothered about specific location as we plan to be out and about most of the time. I used the HotelsCombined price comparison to compare rates from different suppliers and I also checked prices on the Holiday Nights bed bank site (which isn’t included in the HotelsCombined search) as Holiday Nights often have low prices for self catering apartments.
Night 1 – Alicante
We wanted to stay close to the city centre, the best deal in Alicante was at the Kris Hotel, booked with BookinHotels.com for 57 US dollars (around £39) including breakfast. The hotel is located close to the Castle Barbara. Postiguet Beach and the city centre.
Night 2 – Valencia
We wanted to stay close to the city centre, an accommodation search in Valencia came up with the SH Alubferia Hotel, 3kms south of Valencia city centre for 64 US dollars (£44) including breakfast. As the hotel is south of Valencia, it gives us the option to stop off there as we head north, before visiting the city centre.
Nights 3, 4 & 5 – Cartagena
I couldn’t find reasonably priced accommodation in Cartagena, so opted for the Palmera Beach Apartments through the Holiday Nights bed bank for only £41 for three nights in a one bedroom apartment. The Palmera Beach Apartments are located on the Orihueda Coast, about half way between Cartagena and Alicante.
Nights 6 & 7 – Almeria
A HotelsCombined search for Almeria found the Mar Y Golf Apartments on offer for 56 euro (£48) for two nights in a one bedroom apartment through Gtahotels.com. The Mar y Golf Apartments are located in Roquetes del Mar, on the coast, south of Almeria.
Night 8 & 9 – Malaga
Holiday Nights were offering a good rate of £41 for two nights in a one bedroom apartment at the Beunsol Apartments in Torremonlinos. Torremonlinos lies to the west of Malaga which is convenient for our drive down the coast towards Gibraltar and Day 8 and for the Malaga airport for our return flight to the UK.
Total Cost – for flights, car hire and accommodation for nine nights is £440.
Flights £102
Car Hire £125
Accommodation £213
Total £440
Please note that prices and the exchange rate can vary from day to day.
The Our Own Place in the Sun story
(3)Planning the reccy to southern Spain
(4) Why we won’t be buying a property in Spain
Thanks for sharing all those details and enjoy your trip – we’ll all be waiting to hear the results… and take lots of pictures :)
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I recommend Valencia – it has a little bit of everything you’d want and is lively but with a Spanish feel. You can see a lot of my Valencia posts on my old blog here. I’m sure there must be some excellent beach resorts near the city.
http://heatheronhertravels.blogspot.com/search/label/Spain%20-%20Valencia
I’d recommend Deluxe Rooms in Valencia as a place to stay, it has nice rooms but also self-catering facilities & it also has a garage which is useful if you’re touring.
Heather, thanks for your tips about Valencie.
You might be interested in this post on Notes in Spain about where to live in Spain & the comments from readers with suggestions.
http://www.notesfromspain.com/2008/12/10/where-to-live-in-spain/#comments
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