Cheap Flights to Spain? - The Spanish Travel Guide

Spain has to be one of the easiest and most affordable popular destinations in terms of accessibility from the UK, with cheap flights available from the main and regional airports in the UK to the main and regional airports across Spain daily.  If you prefer to travel by train, coach, ferry or car there are also many options open to you.

This guide breaks down the main travel options by region.

Northern Spain - The easiest way to access this region is by plane from one of the main UK airports flying directly to Bilbao.  British Airways and EasyJet both offer direct flights to Bilbao and it’s then possible to connect with Iberia flights for connections across the North and throughout Spain.  Alsa and Eurolines have sophisticated coach networks and it’s possible to travel all the way from the UK to Bilbao or San Sebastian and then pick up local coaches or rail connections.  You can also sail from the UK port of Plymouth to Santander with Brittany Ferries, or you could take the P & O route from Portsmouth to Bilbao. 

Castile and La Rioja - The cheapest way to access these regions is possibly to fly to one of the main Spanish hubs - Barcelona, Bilbao or Madrid for example, and then either drive or get connecting flights.  Again, EasyJet and British Airways offer fairly cheap flights to Barcelona, Madrid of Bilbao and you can then connect with Iberia for flights to Logrona in La Rioja or Valladolid in Castile.  You might consider flying Ryanair from Stansted to Valladolid directly as an alternative.  Castile, Rioja and Navarre are serviced by an excellent road network which makes getting around simple and again, Alsa coaches will connect you with major and minor destinations across the regions and the entire country.

Aragon, Navarre and the Pyrenees - As these regions are easily accessible by car or coach from Madrid it may be best to get a cheap flight to Madrid from any of the major UK airports and then drive the E90 to the heart of the region.  Ryanair offer the alternative of direct flights to Zaragoza from Stansted.  As Zaragoza is in the middle of the region it’s a good jumping off point for explorations in this stunning part of Spain.  Alternatively access to this region can be made by rail or coach.  Eurolines coaches will connect you with Pamplona or Zaragoza; Eurostar rail will take you from the UK to Paris where you can catch an overnight high speed rail link to Madrid…from Madrid the options are varied, from local rail and coach connections, car hire, and local flight connections with Iberia.

Costa Brava and Costa Dorada - As we move east to the beautiful Northern Catalonian coastal regions of the Costa Brava and Costa Dorada, so accessibility increases.  Barcelona airport is the main airport for these regions and it welcomes cheap UK flights from BmiBaby, British Airways, EasyJet, Iberia and so on and so forth!  You can fly from the East Midlands airport, Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Luton - even Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.  And if these airlines and departure points aren’t sufficient choice for you, good old Ryanair will fly you from Bournemouth directly to Girona in the Costa Brava region or from Stansted and Dublin to Reus in the Costa Dorada region!  Barcelona itself has an underground train network for access throughout the city, and if you want to travel further afield the Spanish rail service RENFE has many mainline and local services servicing both regions.  The main coastal road in Costa Brava is the A7, with the A2 taking you west away from Barcelona and the C32 taking you south from Barcelona into the Costa Dorada.  Barcelona has a port with ferry services to Genoa, Rome, Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza.

Central Spain and Madrid - Central Spain’s main airport is Madrid and it welcomes direct flights from all the major UK airports and many of the smaller ones as well - from Luton to Manchester, from Birmingham to Edinburgh.  The main carriers include BMI, BA, Iberia and EasyJet.  As Madrid is such a major city you can imagine it acts as an important travel hub for the whole of Spain.  Coach and rail networks and main auto routes all radiate from the city.  Madrid has two main stations with trains departing for regional and international destinations, and the city has an underground metro system as well.