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By admin, January 12, 2010 7:33 pm

Information about traveling to and within the country of Spain including flights, rail and road travel and ferry services

Mainland Spain is situated on the Iberian peninsula in the southwest of Europe. It also encompasses two groups of islands. The Islas Baleares (Balearic Islands), in the Mediterranean, Mallorca the largest island is just over one hundred miles off the eastern coast and the Islas Canarias (Canary Islands) which are situated approximately five hundred miles to the southwest and lie off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Mellila and Cueta are two Spanish enclaves in Morocco on the African continent.

Whilst Spain is one of the world’s leading destinations for the package holiday there is more to this country than the beaches of the costas and islands. The independent traveler will want to move around see what more Spain has to offer.

Getting there – There are thirty one airports on the mainland serving the following cities and towns: A Coruna, Albacete, Alicante, Almería, Asturias, Badajoz, Barcelona, Bilbao, Burgos, Cordoba, Girona, Granada, Jerez de la Frontera, Leon, Madrid, Malaga, Murcia, Pamplona, Reus, Sabadell, Salamanca, San Sebastian, Santander, Santiago, Sevilla, Valencia, Valladolid, Vigo and Zaragoza. In the Canaries the islands of El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, Lanzarote and Tenerife and in the Balearics Ibiza, Menorca and Mallorca all have airports. Gibraltar, the British colony at the southern most tip of Spain, also has it’s own airport. British Airways and the Monarch fly daily to Gibraltar from several departure points in the United Kingdom and Monarch has some very good deals on seats. Major carriers provide scheduled flights to Spain but it is also a principal destination for budget airlines with return flights available for less than 100 Euros from other European cities. It is also possible to pick up bargain seats on the many charter flights serving the tourist industry. Air travel within Spain, with the exception of a couple of budget airlines, is expensive.

Major roads provide access from Portugal to the west and France which borders Spain to the northeast. Road travel within the country can vary. Many roads are not of a good standard but Spain has received billions of Euros in aid from the European Union and much of this has been spent on the infrastructure and so it is also possible to travel on some of the newest and finest roads on the continent. The country is well served by many bus companies linking the major towns and cities with express services. There are also a wealth of local bus services.

The train service is well developed enabling access to the country from both Portugal and France and fast travel between towns and cities within Spain. Fares are cheap compared to some other major European countries. Madrid and Barcelona are served by extensive Metro (underground railway) networks.

In addition to the many inter island services ferries run from the mainland to both the island groups and the two enclaves in Morocco. The Canary Islands are served by a boat running from Cadiz. The journey is long, some 48 hours and the sea conditions often make for a rough passage. It may be preferable to fly although as we have already pointed out this can be expensive. Ferries from Tariffa and Algeciras, in the Andalucian province of Cadiz, run to Tanger in Morroco. Ferries also link the enclave of Cueta with Tariffa, Algeciras and Malaga. Mellila, the other enclave is served by a boats out of Malaga and Almeria. The Balearic Islands have services to the mainland running to Barcelona, Valencia and Denia.

More information about Spain can be found at the Spanish Travel Guide

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By admin, January 9, 2010 7:39 pm

Achieving your potential in any sport requires talent, commitment and dedication. But to reach the very top of their sport, athletes rely not only on their own abilities, but also on things like highly skilled coaching staff, adequate financial funding and access to the best training facilities. You may think that countries such as Australia and the USA lead the world in sports facilities but in Europe there are now some of the finest dedicated sports training centers in the world. The southern countries of Europe such as Spain, France and Italy make ideal locations for these facilities, benefiting as they do from a mild winter climate while still being within convenient traveling distance from most European countries. In this article we will look at some of the biggest and newest facilities available and explore the new and upcoming concept of sports tourism.
The Canary Islands, part of Spain, lie on the southern-most edge of Europe in the Atlantic Ocean. The climate there is consistently mild, never experiencing really cold weather, seeing low levels of rainfall and, even in summer months, remaining relatively cool compared to some European mainland areas. Because the islands are already a popular tourist destination, there are frequent flights to Tenerife, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria from many other countries, making the islands very accessible. Air fares to the Canaries during the months of January, February and March are very reasonable and provide a low cost way of escaping the harsher weather of more northerly regions in Europe.
On the island of Lanzarote lies the long-established sports resort Club La Santa, which opened in 1983 and welcomes sports fans from all over Europe. The club offers year-round training facilities and boasts a 50m open air swimming pool, six lane tartan athletics track as well as huge indoor fitness areas providing Nautilus , Cybex and Tetrix equipment. Also indoors are six badminton courts while outdoors there are 10 hard court floodlit tennis courts. Everyday the center puts on organized events like group runs, mountain bike rides, aerobics sessions and other coaching groups.
Tenerife, one of the other larger islands in the Canaries, is home to a very new centre located close to the southern village of La Caleta. Tenerife Top Training, or T3 as is more likely to be known, is a brand new high-tech sports training center that opened its doors in October 2008. It has 3 swimming pools, 50m and 25m outdoor pools in addition to an indoor therapy pool with water flow technique improvement facilities. Indoor physio and training rooms complement the outdoor tennis and football pitches. Close by is a luxury hotel providing high class accommodation, although visitors may chose to rent one of the many holiday villas close to the resort. The international airport, Reine Sofia is close by ensuring very short transfers times for visitors.
On the island of Cyprus, which is accessible by flying to the nearby and newly renovated Paphos airport, the sports resort of Coral Bay provides fantastic facilities. It was used by the Great British Olympic team as its training camp prior to the Athens Olympics and provides an outdoor Olympic 50m pool which is heated all year round. There are also 4 tennis courts and indoors a well-equipped gym and relaxation pool. Flights to Paphos are available from the UK, and with a flight time of around 4 hours, Cyprus provides a convenient location for mild weather winter training.
If a flight to Cyprus is a little too far for you, then you may opt for a shorter flight to Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands where you will a range of superb sports training facilities. The Son Hugo swimming complex provides two 50m 10 lane swimming pools, one indoors and one outdoors. Also on Mallorca is the MegaSport Fitness center located close to the capital Palma and its international airport. The center provides a range of indoor and outdoors sports areas and is located close to the international cycling velodrome and football stadium.
So for both professional and amateur athletes alike, a trip to one of these warm weather sports training centers will provide a great kick-start to the season ahead. With cheap flights provided by a number of companies to the airports nearby, the trip need not cost too much either.

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By admin, January 9, 2010 7:42 am

There are numerous deals being offered from low cost airlines and the more traditional airlines, and customers sometimes find a deal that interests them and they book it. However, it is important for you to shop around, there are so many airlines around offering various deals on different destinations and spending a bit of time considering your options could save you money.

The first thing to consider is the level of service that you require and the distance you are travelling. Low cost airlines are great but they do not offer the best level of service and the seats are not the most comfortable, for short-haul flights , the best offers will probably come from the low cost airlines where cheap and cheerful offers are suitable. However, most low cost airlines only offer flights within Europe so if you are going on a long haul flight then the traditional airlines are the one to choose and the level of service is considerably better and is incorporated within the price.

In order to find cheap flights , you need to book in advance as even the low cost airlines will charge you more if you leave it until the last minute. If you can book a month or so in advance you are likely to save a lot of money especially with low cost airlines. If it is possible, try flying on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s rather than Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday’s as travelling on “off-peak” days will save you more money as well.

It will be harder to find a cheap deal for long haul flights, cheap flights to Sydney are not easy to come by but again, if you shop around and give yourself enough time to book, you will find a great deal with the many different providers on the internet. One thing to take into account when booking with low cost airlines is the cost and effort of getting to your hotel once you have arrived at your destination. This is because low cost airlines use secondary airports and are often a bus or train journey away from the city centre, i.e. Milan Bergamo is a secondary airport for Milan and one that low cost airlines use, however it is 50 minutes away from the centre and costs €16 euros by bus.

It is important to ensure that you have all costs in mind when booking your flights as there may be hidden costs.

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By admin, January 5, 2010 8:24 am

Travelling by plane has taken a knocking in the past year or two, with many “green” groups blaming airplanes for the declining state of our environment. However, since the dawn of time man has wished to soar the skies and explore foreign lands, something many of us do at least once a year.

And in recent years we have been able to get to these distant locations for relatively cheap, in recent years air travel prices to European cities have been touted as low as some rail fares back home! Places like Germany, Prague and Amsterdam all cost next to nothing these days and has seen many countries such as Bulgaria and Tunisia’s tourism trade skyrocket as a result of people being able to afford cheaper flights to new places for holidays. The best prices have been normally for domestic flights and the usual cheap flights to Spain and other common holiday destinations.

The only trouble is that with all the pressure on governments to reduce emissions it is unfortunately the airline industry that is being targeted for extra taxes in November 2009. This extra taxation is being applied in an attempt to discourage people from flying in favour of other methods of transport where possible (Ferry, Car, and Train).

The pressure has recently come to a head with last year extra duty tax being applied to flights, £10 for short haul flights, and £40 for long haul flights. This caused some annoyance to customers who had already booked flights who were faced with not being allowed to fly if they didn’t pay up the difference either online or at the check in desk in some extreme cases. British Airways supported it’s customers by putting up the money for the passengers already booked before the change, costing a considerable £11 Million in order to do so.

This year the Conservative party (normally known for appealing for tax cuts) proposed an argument to charge purchase tax on domestic flights, but this statement was met with some scepticism from one tour operator who believes that the government could easily extend this idea to all flights, meaning that passengers could end up paying 17.5% extra on their flights.

The main worry for holiday makers is that the recent period of cheap flights is due to end due to the government coming down like a ton of bricks on anything that the public discovers as being cheap. Others believe that with the pressure to appear environmentally friendly, aviation is going to pay the price. Despite the UK being one of the few to have met its commitments with regards to the Kyoto Agreement.