SP18 - Tour de Extremadura

The Tour d'España has come about really because we wanted an early holiday.  Most often we have been to the US in May but with the changes to my contract at work, where I am stuck with school holidays for the bulk of my leave, it has meant that two week trips are out of the question unless done at Easter or Summer.

I would like to have gone back as we did in August 2014 on the Explorer - Revisita España 2014, and on the bike but it is not practical with Claire's hip and her gradual worry about being on the bike!

The next best thing is to fly/drive. I have been checking on Skyscanner and the way it works it seems impossible to get the flight out and back into UK when you want them at a reasonable price. 

A quick click to one-way revealed a lot more flights. It also revealed that their website creates round trips groups of flights that when checked as singles come out at a very different (and lower) price. 

In the end I booked Iberia out from London Gatwick to Madrid for €141 out for the two of us and with British Airways for €100 back and that includes rounding-up to the nearest € for charity.

The single fares check produced flights when I want to fly and at acceptable prices for both legs but they needed to be booked as single journeys. Also at a saving against the round trip fares it put on screen. As an example the two flights I booked didn't get offered by the system as a round-trip, and the nearest to them came out about €120 more.  At the paltry Brexit blamed exchange rate that's about £110 or $140 - not to be sneezed at.

BA and Iberia are part of the same trading group and both flights are operated by Iberia Express, the budget wing of Spain's national carrier. The downside is that there is a hand luggage only stipulation. We have smaller cases that are airline approved for hand luggage use.

Over the coming months I will start looking for car hire and places to go in late May 2018. The dates are in the team diary at work.