Cheap ish getaways in school holidays are possible. To my initial disbelief.
My previous post has a few pictures of beautiful Majorca, we only went to Cala D'Or and a little bit of Playa De Palma. Speaking to people who've been there many times, Cala D'Or is probably the nicest place there (no clue of comparisons).
Given the beautiful beaches, lovely salads and better weather than England, all of Majorca would have been lovely for us I think.
We were told to avoid Magaluf and Arenal........
Starting with H saying we needed to go away, bit surprised because he does.not.like.travelling.at all. At all. Anyway, this was a few weeks before half term. Anyway, we decided on Scotland - Loch Ness etc and decided to drive there and stop at hotels on the way. Pricing it up made more sense to stay at home, so I began looking at Ryanair flights to Spain. Greece came up as an option - Corfu, for the 5 of us for £420 return, I was excited and began to look at hotels, by which time the fares had gone up. Never mind.
Randomly entering Spain in the search, found this Ryanair flight to Majorca half term Monday to Monday (Teacher training day bonus) for £330 for the 5 of us.
Spoke to H.
Booked.
On travel republic, booked 6 nights at Hotel Cala Gran half board for £240 and a night at the Iberostar Royal Cristina for roughly the same price. Less than £300 for half board. The Iberostar, we just got lucky, its usually much more expensive and I'd found the Helios which was the same price.
Booked, after seeing the reviews of the hotel.
Booked an airport transfer for £43 and came back by bus for £20. For the 5 of us again.
Half board meant no lunch, we bought nice bread, a huge jar of olives, mussels and sardines every couple of days and had the mandatory ice cream/water bottles - around 25 Euros. Oh and a 2 Euro bottle of lovely Sangria included.
And thats it - around £700.
Yes, we did spend 5 Euros on phone calls, 6 Euros on a towel, 8 Euros on little treats for the children and not including tips which were at each meal in the hotel etc but didnt bring back much stuff, other than a few turron packs for friends. Chorizo is cheaper in Sainsburys as I have found out after carrying 10 packs from the Canaries.
So whats the point of my post - expensive half term doesnt have to be so, the only caveat is that you have to keep looking and keep looking until the last minute.
And be prepared to sit at home with day trips out if nothing materialises (else there's always our good old Holiday Inn)
£700 was what it was going to cost us for hotels and meals going to Scotland. Plus the driving and the cold. We will go someday of course, but Majorca was a lovely bargain break and I hope hope hope we get a similar deal again.
Lastly, we were apprehensive about flying Ryanair, too many stories of how they fleece people. Happy that we had a very pleasant flight both ways, spoke to some lovely co-passengers and overall had a good experience. As long as you stick to their rules (eg print boarding passes at home, luggage right size and weight), everything's fine.
How many bags did we go with? 4 rucksacks and a trunki, each weighing less than 5 kgs. Seriously.
:)
My previous post has a few pictures of beautiful Majorca, we only went to Cala D'Or and a little bit of Playa De Palma. Speaking to people who've been there many times, Cala D'Or is probably the nicest place there (no clue of comparisons).
Given the beautiful beaches, lovely salads and better weather than England, all of Majorca would have been lovely for us I think.
We were told to avoid Magaluf and Arenal........
Starting with H saying we needed to go away, bit surprised because he does.not.like.travelling.at all. At all. Anyway, this was a few weeks before half term. Anyway, we decided on Scotland - Loch Ness etc and decided to drive there and stop at hotels on the way. Pricing it up made more sense to stay at home, so I began looking at Ryanair flights to Spain. Greece came up as an option - Corfu, for the 5 of us for £420 return, I was excited and began to look at hotels, by which time the fares had gone up. Never mind.
Randomly entering Spain in the search, found this Ryanair flight to Majorca half term Monday to Monday (Teacher training day bonus) for £330 for the 5 of us.
Spoke to H.
Booked.
On travel republic, booked 6 nights at Hotel Cala Gran half board for £240 and a night at the Iberostar Royal Cristina for roughly the same price. Less than £300 for half board. The Iberostar, we just got lucky, its usually much more expensive and I'd found the Helios which was the same price.
Booked, after seeing the reviews of the hotel.
Booked an airport transfer for £43 and came back by bus for £20. For the 5 of us again.
Half board meant no lunch, we bought nice bread, a huge jar of olives, mussels and sardines every couple of days and had the mandatory ice cream/water bottles - around 25 Euros. Oh and a 2 Euro bottle of lovely Sangria included.
And thats it - around £700.
Yes, we did spend 5 Euros on phone calls, 6 Euros on a towel, 8 Euros on little treats for the children and not including tips which were at each meal in the hotel etc but didnt bring back much stuff, other than a few turron packs for friends. Chorizo is cheaper in Sainsburys as I have found out after carrying 10 packs from the Canaries.
So whats the point of my post - expensive half term doesnt have to be so, the only caveat is that you have to keep looking and keep looking until the last minute.
And be prepared to sit at home with day trips out if nothing materialises (else there's always our good old Holiday Inn)
£700 was what it was going to cost us for hotels and meals going to Scotland. Plus the driving and the cold. We will go someday of course, but Majorca was a lovely bargain break and I hope hope hope we get a similar deal again.
Lastly, we were apprehensive about flying Ryanair, too many stories of how they fleece people. Happy that we had a very pleasant flight both ways, spoke to some lovely co-passengers and overall had a good experience. As long as you stick to their rules (eg print boarding passes at home, luggage right size and weight), everything's fine.
How many bags did we go with? 4 rucksacks and a trunki, each weighing less than 5 kgs. Seriously.
:)
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