I prefer the North. We spent a few days in Chiang Mai, then hired a car & drove the Mae Salong loop NE to the Burmese border. The Mae Hong Son loop is another well regarded road trip NW of Chiang Mai. We then flew South to Krabi & the beaches, including a couple of days sea kayaking in Phang Nga Bay + Christmas on the quiet Muslim island Ko Yao Noi. Phuket old town was OK for a night or two, but generally, I’m not so keen on heavily touristed beach resorts.
Anyone flown Ryanair?
It comes about that we have to get from Lisbon to Seville on Apr 27. Buses take 11 hours, and there are 2 morning flights and 2 evening flights (direct flights). There are some that go via Madrid, some go via Barcelona and take up to 12 hours. It’s only a 65 minute direct flight. No particular interest in going via the Algarve - full of Germans and Poms, and we’ll get enough beach in Cadiz and Malaga.
There’s a Ryanair flight at 6.30am and a TAP flight at 7.30am. The base price for Ryanair is €24 per head, and for TAP, $A400. Add another 35 odd euros for 20kg checked luggage.
Checkin to the hotel is about 3pm, so the suggestion is to dump the bags, wander about Seville (Las Setas, Triana, bullring etc), check in after lunch at 2’ish, maybe a few hours’ siesta, then back out for tapas and fino.
Yep flew from Dublin to Zadar in Croatia last September.
Budget airline personified, I think we paid more for our checked luggage than we did for our seats. You have to weigh and check in your own luggage, not something that I’m used to. Would use again as a long weekend away trip where you can just bring hand luggage, but in your case it looks like a valid choice.
Also took ages for our luggage to be offloaded in Zadar, but that is the Croatian airport crew’s fault, not Ryanair’s.
Haven’t flown Ryanair but not many of the reports I’ve seen are especially positive. Still, it’s only an hour. I’d be up for it. 6.30AM is certainly … challenging!
What time is the evening flight? Is it worth considering flying in the night before?
Cross-border PT in that part of the world is beyond pathetic, isn’t it.
No to the night-time flight, and no to the night before. Nighttime flights quite late. I’m just surprised there are so few direct flights, with Seville being the biggest city in southern Spain…and so many that go via Barcelona.
We’ve paid for the hotel accommodation.
Years ago, when I travelled in the US, I’d always take the earliest flights so I didn’t waste too much of the day.
Have flown RyanAir a number of times around Europe. Prices are good and it was like Jetstar. Only did short flights but was always on time.
Fair enough. Certainly not worth changing your accommodation.
For a LCC Ryanair have some of the best OTP’ ratings there is and being the first flight of the day there shouldn’t be any issues with staffing, recovery etc. I’ve used them before as they fly some routes that that mainline carriers won’t service. They do fly in and out of secondary ports in many countries which is a pain but on your route you are fine and the difference in price between Ryanair and TAP is huge considering the seats, product isn’t much better
1 Like
Been in Egypt for five days now and am currently on the road from Cairo to Alexandria. Not a lot to see at present so thought I’d share some pics
At The National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation
10 Likes
13 Likes
Heading to South America and then an Antarctic cruise Nov-Dec. (unfortunately just cruising by but it is what it is).
Any thoughts on whether Credit Card travel insurance is enough- or fork out the dollars for other travel insurance?
Any recommended companies? (I have a quote from Covermore….$3-4K)
I’m only looking at about $330 for Covermore
1 Like
That sounds better! Which countries were involved? (We do both have pre existing conditions but they’ve been approved)
I’m not sure how much the cruise section inflates it all either.
the cruise bit changed mine from about $400 to about $800!
1 Like
Did you see any of dem geezer birds?
(in pommie accent)
Wow…I’m going to need to do a little more digging.
Is that with Covermore? (I guess I should’ve halved it as there’s two of us… but still a sizeable difference!)
that was with RACV. I checked a few others, and the cruise bit increased them by a fair bit too. RACV were more expensive, but based on experiences friends and family have had with battling insurance carriers, and given where I was going, I was happy to go with them!
Have gone with Bank First for the trips this year though.
1 Like