What's happened to cheap flights

 flight prices are begining to creep up but i can recall paying £180 gatwick to alicante but that did include a transfer to calpe (which at times was a scary ride with the driver nodding off)

It would seem it will soon be cheaper to drive out if you are a family of 4 of more as you can forget your car hire charges which also seem to be going up.

Instead of flying, has anyone tried going by train from central London to Alicante

 my brother in law is on the train at the moment on his way back from the south of france just had a text saying so is melvin bragg so it maybe another possibilty.Although i would probably go from ebbsfleet as its a short distance from my house 

just done  a quick search and it would cost £832 so no great saving and a lot longer journey

 Dartboy, from your comment just, does this mean Melvyn Bragg knows some thing no one else does?

 he knows my brother in law  sent a text lol

dartboy

It would seem it will soon be cheaper to drive out if you are a family of 4 of more as you can forget your car hire charges which also seem to be going up.

Not if you read this current thread. Off course depending on your status and where you are going.

Driving a Spanish Registered car in the UK

Hi all,

Interesting discussion.

It's easy to travel from London to Alicante without flying - you simply take an afternoon Eurostar to Paris, the excellent overnight 'trainhotel' from Paris to Barcelona, then a connecting high-speed 'EuroMed' train from Barcelona to Alicante.

Option 1, London to Alicante by Eurostar, Elipsos Trainhotel & EuroMed...

Train times London ► Alicante

• Travel from London to Barcelona by afternoon Eurostar and overnight trainhotel as shown in the London to Barcelona section. The trainhotel arrives at Barcelona França station at 08:05.

• Travel from Barcelona to Alicante, first taking the 09:19 local train from Barcelona Franca to Barcelona Sants arriving 09:33, then taking the 10:00 'EuroMed' high-speed train from Barcelona Sants to Alicante, arriving 14:48. The EuroMed train has a cafe-bar car, and a meal with wine is included in the first class fare, served at your seat.

• To drive from London to Alicante, according to Viamichelin.co.uk it will take 20hrs.44mins, cost £236.85 each way plus ferry crossing of £71 = £307.85 x 2 = £615.70 / 4 = £153.92 each. I assume you would require a hotel each way say £50 x 2 = £100/4 = £25.00 total £178.92 each.

• In our family it would be horrific with the kids in the back and the wife giving directions, cost of divorce unknown.

• Conclusion, cheaper to fly

 Well Damatt the  train from London to Alicante sounds very romantic, and relaxing, but you forgot to mention the cost!

I think you will find it is about £250 each way,I though you would look via the link.

Flying is not that bad, even at £180 return, the problem is that we have had flights at £25 return and still look for them, but realistically, the price should be something like that, but we all want them back to the good old days, like house prices in Spain, we want them back to the old days when we are selling, but want them at todays prices when we are buying.

Flying from London is still reasonable, it is when you have to fly from places like Cardiff when there are limited flights so the prices are higher. I could travel to London and addan other £80 for train costs, though Bristol is very good and has a number of options.

The best deal I have ever had in 6 yearsof travelling to and from Spain is £2.40 return from Gatwick at 6.15 on Monday morning, those prices have gone forever I think.

 you say that those days have gone, but heres a thought for everyone....... calculate exact dates you wish to travel, months in advance, and book them all at the same time, but dont book them in the UK, but from the Spanish end. I used to work a person who lived in Spain and came to the UK for work contracts, and would work for say a month at a time when he was here, so knew his travel dates. And how much was his booked flight from Spain you ask? ONE POUND!!!!

OK so he had to book flights back but this was 4 or five years ago when a flight from the UK was 38 pounds -ish! so a return flight for less than 40 pounds? wonderful!

The 1 euro flights were all probably an advertising stunt. Those days seem long gone.

 Hilairious, but it highlights all the trimmings an air firm adds to the basic ticket price. It raises the point of Ryan air and airbridge charges and as i have said in an earlier post, eventually an air firm charges for any extras on the ticket price which has to be paid for somewhere. The only thing i disagree with about it is that these charges are there anyway, so why not operate a transparent pricing structure and just add all these different costs together and charge the ticket price as one total?

For one person to travel you are looking at 200 pounds these days, well for around 450 to 500 pounds you can take your car through Dover- Calais, and when you are done return to the UK within that price. So if you and your family (2 adults, 2 children) travel in your car, the fuel and ferry cost is only about two thirds what 4 air fares would cost. Therefore the only extra cost would be staying in a room somewhere on the trip down. That being the case if it was planned well there is the opportunity to see some countryside on the way down too, and still beat the airfare!

The other upside is the use of your own car too, so no hire car charges on top of your travel costs. the cost of air fares does not seem so attractive.................

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2194205/Which-study-reveals-Tuesday-cheapest-day-fly-UK.html