CPers going to Spain thread

[Tron_fdc]

WTF????

Here's my deal. I booked 4 people on orbitz, and got that cancellation letter on 2 of them. Then I went to travelocity, and re-booked another 2.

Today I get charged for ALL the bookings (6 people)? Did this happen to anyone else?

Hang on a sec.....what should the charges be? Is it $149.00 each on orbitz, and $110 on travelocity????

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

WTF????

Here's my deal. I booked 4 people on orbitz, and got that cancellation letter on 2 of them. Then I went to travelocity, and re-booked another 2.

Today I get charged for ALL the bookings (6 people)? Did this happen to anyone else?

Oh, that's annoying. I didn't experience that because by the time I booked people were getting the cancellation notices from Orbitz already so I went straight to Travelocity.

As long as you still have the emails from Orbitz, hopefully they will refund you??

[cmyden]

And for anyone interested in hitting up Barcelona...I found quite the deal on a five star hotel in september...

http://ca.deals.travelzoo.com/intern...um=email_top20

Nice, here's the TA reviews:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...Catalonia.html

#257 of 611 hotels in Barcelona, mostly excellent reviews.

For anyone looking for something a little cheaper, the Silken Concordia is showing up as $85 USD/night on Kayak through Venere.com (74 euros) (for Sep 7-14)

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...Catalonia.html
^^^ reviews (67th highest ranked)

[cmyden]

Here's my deal. I booked 4 people on orbitz, and got that cancellation letter on 2 of them. Then I went to travelocity, and re-booked another 2.

Today I get charged for ALL the bookings (6 people)? Did this happen to anyone else?

Hang on a sec.....what should the charges be? Is it $149.00 each on orbitz, and $110 on travelocity????

Sounds about right, I'm seeing $108.58 for the Travelocity ones, and $148.06 for the Orbitz ones (although we may have different dates).

I had a cancelled Orbitz one as well, I'll let you know if I see a charge come through for it.

[HOOT]

I'm pissed I missed this! Congrats to everyone who got a great deal!!!

[cmyden]

I've started a Google map with markers for all interesting things to see/do in Barcelona. I'll update it as I find more.

Barcelona Google Map (with interesting things to see/do)
http://tinyurl.com/o6zwsx

cM

[Zarathustra]

Okay guys here is my dilemma. After researching and realizing that this type of opportunity isn't going to come along often, I've decided I really want to go to Ibiza.

Here are the options:

Ferry
Get to Menorca, take a ferry over to Majorca, and then another ferry over to Ibiza. This would take a lot of time, and the total cost to get to Ibiza and back would be over 200 euros.

Flight
Get to Menorca, and then get on a flight to Ibiza, and then fly back to Menorca. The cheapest flights I've seen have been over 200 euros.

Finally the best option would be to go from Madrid to Ibiza on a flight. The cheapest flight I can find is 83 euros return. I would save tons of money doing things this way.

So for those with travel experience, would I be able to re-route my flight when I get to Madrid? What if I fly with the same airline (Spanair), would they allow me to re-route it and pay some extra cash to do so?

[jtfrogger]

With all this talk of Barcelona, has anyone found a good way to cancel a leg of the flight between Madrid and Menorca? Since I am only there for a week, I don't think that I want to do the trip back and forth from the mainland to Menorca twice.

[Zarathustra]

Okay I just got off the phone with a rep from Spanair located in Washington DC. They are indeed honouring the tickets despite their error. However, I talked to them about just getting off at Madrid and they said that this wasn't possible, and that they couldn't change my ticket.

So it looks like I'll either have to take a ferry to Ibiza (I still don't even know if there are direct ferries from Menorca to Ibiza), or somehow get out of going to Menorca at Madrid and take a flight from MAD to IBZ. I'll just have to go with the flow and see what happens.

But the good news is for those that have had their credit card charged, the tickets will be honoured according to Spanair!

[cmyden]

Thanks for the info on getting flights re-routed, I was pretty sure they wouldn't be willing to do that, I've tried it on different airlines without much luck.

Here's a copy/paste of the info I've sent to my friends that want to hit up Ibiza....



--------------

Ibiza (the party island) looks like it could be a bit complicated to get to.

FERRY

http://www.aferry.co.uk/Timetable/Ci...Baleariauk.htm

You would need to take the ferry from Ciutadella to Alcudia, which is the next island to the west. It takes 1 hour, and leaves at 9:45PM, and costs 70 euro.

From Alcudia, you would need to make your way across the island to Palma. It's about 50km. There are buses for 5 euros, no idea if they run at night. A taxi would be about 70 euro.

From Palma, you would take the ferry to Ibiza, and it would be another 70 euro. It takes 2 hours, and they leave at 8 AM.

So, likely, you would need to spend the night in Palma, and leave for Ibiza in the morning.


PLANE

Departing September 22 (the day we land)

7:35PM - ClickAir/Vueling has flights to Ibiza for 48 pounds. They take about 4 hours total, because they stopover in Barcelona.

7:10PM - Flights on Air Europa for 80 pounds. Takes 2 and a half hours.


September 23

9:15 AM - Air Europa - 80 pounds - 2.5 hours
7:10 PM - Air Europe - 100 pounds - 2.5 hours


http://www.skyscanner.net is a good place to look these things up.

[tvp2003]

Any thoughts on staying in an apartment versus a hotel? All inclusive? We will probably need two rooms, so I was curious about websites like this:

http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/Balear...norca-2bed.htm

Any tips or recommendations (not necessarily limited Menorca/Spain, but in general as well)?

[Zarathustra]

Originally Posted by cmyden

PLANE

Departing September 22 (the day we land)

7:35PM - ClickAir/Vueling has flights to Ibiza for 48 pounds. They take about 4 hours total, because they stopover in Barcelona.

7:10PM - Flights on Air Europa for 80 pounds. Takes 2 and a half hours.


September 23

9:15 AM - Air Europa - 80 pounds - 2.5 hours
7:10 PM - Air Europe - 100 pounds - 2.5 hours


http://www.skyscanner.net is a good place to look these things up.

I really appreciate that link, it really helped me out. So here is what I decided to do:

I'm going MAH ->BCN ->IBZ and back again. In total the flights within Spain cost me $210 CAD. In total I'll have 10 flights in 8 days!!!! The good news is that the flights within Spain are very short, 45mins to 90 mins max. And I am also saving tons of money and time instead of taking ferries. That would be a total waste. I also do get to see Barcelona.

Here are the locations I'm spending time in:
1 night plus half a day in Barcelona
4 nights in Ibiza
2 nights in Menorca

This should be pretty hectic. I plan on going out and partying every night in Ibiza and going to the best clubs in the world. I'll mostly just sleep and lay on the beach for the 2 days in Menorca. However, I don't really know what I'll be doing in Barcelona, but I really want to explore the city.

[cmyden]

This should be pretty hectic. I plan on going out and partying every night in Ibiza and going to the best clubs in the world. I'll mostly just sleep and lay on the beach for the 2 days in Menorca. However, I don't really know what I'll be doing in Barcelona, but I really want to explore the city.

Sounds pretty hectic! I think Ibiza will just be at the tail end of the party season, apparently their closing parties are pretty good.

Here's the schedule of who's playing where:
http://www.ibiza-spotlight.com/night...eptember_i.htm

I've heard it's recommended to have your tickets in advance if it's someone you really want to see.

The 'Cream' closing party on the 24th looks amazing. And the 'We Love Space' party on the 27th looks legendary.

Damn it now I want to go to Ibiza!

[Zarathustra]

Originally Posted by cmyden

Sounds pretty hectic! I think Ibiza will just be at the tail end of the party season, apparently their closing parties are pretty good.

Here's the schedule of who's playing where:
http://www.ibiza-spotlight.com/night...eptember_i.htm

I've heard it's recommended to have your tickets in advance if it's someone you really want to see.

The 'Cream' closing party on the 24th looks amazing. And the 'We Love Space' party on the 27th looks legendary.

Damn it now I want to go to Ibiza!

Oh yeah totally I've been planning around that calender. The crazy thing is is that my hotel in Ibiza will be a lot cheaper than the hotel in Menorca! If I had the choice I'd completely avoid Menorca, sounds like a European style Mexico. I'm too young for that.

[Dan02]

yeah we're looking at completely ignoring Menorca, might be getting off the plane from Madrid and getting right back on it to go back..

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Dan02

yeah we're looking at completely ignoring Menorca, might be getting off the plane from Madrid and getting right back on it to go back..

You are running a HUGE risk of not getting back on the plane if you decide to go that route. They can't have your baggage fly without you so they will have to empty out the entire aircrafts luggage and generally they will tell you to go pound sand if you want to get on the flight from Madrid to Toronto.

I would suggest getting off at Menorca and then getting the next plane back to the mainland and from there you could get back on the flight from Madrid to Toronto. You don't run the risk of shooting yourself in the foot for getting back to Canada.

[icarus]

I can't believe how many of you guys don't want to go to Menorca, it is meant to be an amazing island. Boy that sure sounds like a pain in the ass having to go to a natural island paradise and sit on the beach all day relatively secluded from the legions of tourists who go to the other Balearics.

cmyden, thanks for that Ibiza club link. I'll be there for three weekdays next month, so I probably won't be able to see anyone good right? Wrong! I can see Tiesto on the Monday, Groove Armada & 2 Many DJs on the Tuesday and Mauro Picotto or Erick Morillo on the Wednesday--unbelieveable!

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

I would suggest getting off at Menorca and then getting the next plane back to the mainland and from there you could get back on the flight from Madrid to Toronto. You don't run the risk of shooting yourself in the foot for getting back to Canada.

That's actually what i was proposing, except getting on a plane back to Menorca to catch the flight back, not finding another flight

[Zarathustra]

Originally Posted by icarus

I can't believe how many of you guys don't want to go to Menorca, it is meant to be an amazing island. Boy that sure sounds like a pain in the ass having to go to a natural island paradise and sit on the beach all day relatively secluded from the legions of tourists who go to the other Balearics.

Resorts just seem so lame to me. Traveling halfway around the world just to lay on a beach? And from the sounds of things, Menorca sounds just as touristy as the other islands.

I travel for adventure, not to "vacation". I'll have a lot more adventures in Ibiza and Barcelona than I will at some silly resort.

[tete]

The thing is, the whole island isn't a resort, right? I think there must be some great non-beachy things you can do there - the place is an ecological reserve, right? I'm holding out hope that there's stuff to do - though I'm entertaining the idea of at least going over to Majorca - I hear that there's some good siteseeing there too.

I'm really getting excited about this! Time to start planning! (As my husband starts rolling his eyes )