Spanish Travel News - March 2008 Edition

Dear {!firstname_fix},

With Easter fast approaching and many of you starting to book your spring and summer holidays, we have been busy updating all the flight and travel pages of the Spanish Airport Guide to provide you with the latest information.

When booking flights to Spain it is important that you check with the airline for the latest timetables and also any special deals on fares, as although we update our information very frequently it is always subject to change at a moment's notice. With all the "add ons" that the online flight reservation systems are now charging for (travel insurance, hold bags, seat reservations, etc) make sure that you check exactly what you are paying for before authorising your credit card payment.

Hiring a car is a very competitive business over here so if you are coming to Spain over the next few months it is worth getting a Free Car Hire Quote Here By making a reservation well in advance you can often also get offered the best deals.

With the amount of luggage being lost at airports all over the world it is also worth considering joining a scheme like GlobalBagTag which offers protection for your baggage and valuables by providing heavy duty luggage tags and security stickers which fix securely to your bags. They hold full details of your luggage, travel itinerary and contact details on their secure database, so if you lose your baggage or valuables they are traceable worldwide 24 hours a day. You can find out more at www.globalbagtag.com

Gary Ingram

Here are a few things you should know before you hire a car in Spain: What's included in the price as some amazing looking prices do not include unlimited mileage, local taxes or insurances. The quote should include third party insurance, airport fees, breakdown cover, all local surcharges, loss/collision damage waiver, unlimited mileage and air-conditioning is important as summer temperatures are often as high as 30ºC and sometimes 40ºC (over 100º F). If you book a diesel car as it will be much cheaper to run.

Book ahead as the car hire desks at Spanish Airports are often very busy and can be quite chaotic with long queues and stressed staff during the height of the season. If you have a reservation with a reference number at least you know they will have a car waiting. If they do not have your requested car, the car rental agency will have to upgrade you for free. You also tend to get a better deal by booking ahead.

When you collect the car check it for any damage and make sure the car hire company acknowledge any bumps and scrapes on it. If you don't you may find that when you return the car they may blame (and charge) you.

We often get asked whether you can hire a car at one of the Spanish Airports and return it to another nearby country like France or Portugal. Most of the large hire car companies like Avis and Hertz allow you to hire a car in Spain and drive it to other European countries, but you must obtain their prior consent and pay extra European insurance which can be pretty hefty and will bump up the hire charges quite considerably. It is completely forbidden to drive a hire car in North African countries like Morocco or Algeria.

We have just completely updated all the flight pages on the Spanish Airport Guide. This mammoth task is done twice every year to coincide with the release of the airline winter and summer timetables. Every year we add a large number of pages because of all the new routes which are being introduced.

Some of the latest additions are a number of new Easyjet routes which have come about with their acquisition of the GB Airways arm of British Airways and they are now flying out of Gatwick and Manchester Airports to Gibraltar, Gran Canaria, Manchester and Tenerife South; more Flyglobespan routes out of Aberdeen Airport to Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga and Palma; and a number of new Ryanair routes from Bournemouth, Liverpool, Manchester, Newquay and Shannon to a wide range of Spanish Airports including Alicante, Malaga, Murcia, Palma, Reus and Valencia.

The charter airline Thomsonfly have added Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Exeter and Gatwick to their UK airports operating flights to Palma in Mallorca.

Delta Airlines are operating flights to JFK Airport in New York slightly earlier than expected. You can fly from JFK to Malaga on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays starting on 4th June and from Malaga to JFK on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 9th June, 2008.

For more information visit the Delta Airlines Website

DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION ACT

The second part of a European Regulation comes into effect in July 2008 which means that airport operators will become responsible for disabled passengers’ welfare from the moment they arrive at the airport.

Tour operators and agents will be responsible for informing passengers of their rights and is drawing up a revised list of guidelines in preparation.

If you are planning on finding employment in Spain then a new website has just been launched Working in Spain which offers a forum for those interested in working here. Employers can add vacancies at no cost and all are welcome to discuss their experiences of working in Spain.

Another new website is a resource for everybody looking to learn Spanish. It offers an open discussion form and visit www.learningspanish.com to find out more.

Why not spend spring in our own 1 bedroom apartment! Its just 2 ½ hours by car from Seville and is the perfect place to recharge your batteries!

You are welcome to come and stay for as little as 3 days to as long as 3 months!

If you would like more information and photographs on the apartment then please click here!

www.lamaestranza.eu

We are still receiving a large number of requests for information on our message board, and again we ask that you give us as much as notice as possible if you need information on bus and train timetables in order to plan your journey as they can sometimes take some time to find.

And please carry on sending your travel tips or advice as we can pass them on to other travellers and include them in our monthly newsletter.