Initially I thought ‘big deal £10 is hardly an offer’ but I thought I would look into it and see what ‘bargains’ they are offering.

Firstly I have looked at the October half term from the 24th to 31st October for 2 adults and 2 children (under 12). By ticking the box ‘I am flexible with these dates’ you get to see the prices of the flights on other days. Disappointly the fares are quite high over the half term period but really no surprise there.

I received the following quote for flying Sat 24th Oct returning Sat 31st oct.

I then moved the outgoing flight to a day early on the Friday 24th October and the return flight to Friday 30th October

Do you remember the days when you would amble to the beach with your bucket and spade and the highlight of your day was building a very simple sandcastle? And you felt pure joy if your sandcastle stayed up and didn’t crumble? I remember my father getting very creative one year and buiding a speedboat in the sand, which naturally we were all very excited about and thought he was marvellously creative but looking back on it it was two holes dug in the sand with the bucket as a steerring wheel! Not so impressive when compared to the photos I have for you in the video below…..

Building sandcastles these days seems to have got a little bit more extreme and such that even the most competitive of dads can’t compete with these ones!

When you visit the Costa Blanca coast and Alicante and Benidorm in particular you will see some stunning ’sandcastles’ or ’sand sculptures’ built by talented artists. These amaze me and I have put together a little tribute to them in the video below.

Enjoy!

If you would like further information about visiting Alicante please see our main site www.discover-alicante.com

There is an opportunity to get up to 40% off any flights that you book.

If your child isn’t returning to school until the 7th September (and there are a few) then you might be able to get a cheap flight into Alicante and have a last minute holiday in the first week of September.

Or you may be looking to book a cheap flight to Alicante over the October half term. Well now is your chance to grab a flight at a 40% discount.

So if you are lucky enough to be able to travel from one of the following airports

• Birmingham
• Cardiff
• East Midlands
• Manchester

Then it might be worthwhile looking into whether you can grab a bargain flight to Alicante.

Terms and conditions are available on the bmibaby website but a summary of them are below;

• Fares may rise throughout the promotional period.
• For travel from 1st September until 16th December 2009
• Bookings made using a debit card are subject to a processing fee of £2.75 per passenger per one way flight.
• Bookings made using a credit card are subject to a processing fee of £3.75 per passenger per one way flight.
• There is no charge for payments made using a Visa Electron card.
• fares are subject to availability
• limited availability during school holidays
• no refunds permitted
• conditions apply

I hope you manage to grab a bargain!

Firstly I will start with the Flybe offer. They have today released 7 million seats that are discounted. These seats are priced from £21.99 one-way including taxes.

I understood that as part of the offer you were to also receive a £40 voucher to use towards a case of wine from Virgin wines if you book your flight before July 23rd.

But it seems that if you visit flybe.com and click on their advert promoting this offer that it takes you straight through to Virgin Wines. Virgin Wines then credit you with the £40 voucher and you don’t even have to buy the flight!

This voucher can only be used against a case of 12 bottles with a minimum basket value of £79.99 (ex p&p) and it needs to be used by November 2009.

So if you go ahead you can actually get 12 bottles of wine for about £3.50 per bottle.

Seems a good deal to me, I am on my way to order my 12 bottles of wine right now

The information for Virgin Wines voucher is as follows
CODE: FLYBE40WB
PASSWORD: WINEBANK

If you do find a cheap flight via flybe then be aware that

• There may be a 21-day advance purchase necessary on some routes.
• Travel before October 31.
• Book via Flybe’s website (www.flybe.com) so you don’t incur the telephone-booking charge.
• Be aware of the booking fees: debit cards - £1.50 with a minimum charge of £2 per transaction except if paying by Electron, credit cards - £2 on all bookings with a minimum charge of £3.50 per transaction.

The following guest complaints have been released by a well known holiday company. Sometimes it seems you just can’t keep anyone happy………

“I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts.”

“It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during ’siesta’ time - this should be banned.”

“On my holiday to Goa in India , I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food at all.”

“We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels.”

A tourist at a top African game lodge overlooking a waterhole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant, complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel “inadequate”.

A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she’d been locked in by staff. When in fact, she had mistaken the “do not disturb” sign on the back of the door as a warning to remain in the room.

“The beach was too sandy.”

“We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white.”

A guest at a Novotel in Australia complained his soup was too thick and strong. He was inadvertently slurping the gravy at the time.

“Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women.”

“We bought ‘Ray-Ban’ sunglasses for five Euros (£3.50) from a street trader, only to find out they were fake.”

“No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled.”

“It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England it only took the Americans three hours to get home.”

“I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends’ three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller.”

“The brochure stated: ‘No hairdressers at the accommodation’. We’re trainee hairdressers - will we be OK staying here?”

“There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners.”

“We had to queue outside with no air conditioning.”

“It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel.”

“I was bitten by a mosquito - no-one said they could bite.”

“My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.”

……. very funny!

We can recommend hoping on a ferry and going out to see Tabarca Island. It is approx 1 hour away from Alicante and it promises to be a fun day out for everyone whether you are young and old.

Tabarca Island Video - a snapshot

Tabarca Island is a marine reserve with a great beach, lovely restaurants, interesting buildings and despite being an Island it has a fascinating history.

There is only one beach at Tabarca Island which can get quite crowded over the summer season but if you wander away you can find your own little cove. The beach and coves offer opportunities for ‘cove-jumping’.  You can jump off the coves into the sea. You can also snorkel and admire the wonderful sea-life that surrounds this beautiful island.

For those that don’t fancy throwing themselves 20 foot into the sea you can walk around the island in about an hour and a half and you can visit the buildings that date back to the 18th Century.

For more information about Tabarca Island why not visit our main site where we have full information about the beach, the history of the island, the hotels and restaurants and how to get there.

If you do visit Tabarca Island on your next visit to Alicante I can promise that you won’t be disappointed.

I have searched high and low for jet2.com discount codes but it appears that this airline does not provide them. What it does instead is offer highly competitive discounts to all its travellers.

At the moment they have a sale on and you can book cheap flights to Alicante - even during the summer holidays. For a family of four (2 adults and 2 children under 11)  you can depart Leeds this Thursday 24th July and return Thursday 6th August for only £547.88. This fare is for a family travelling at the height of the Summer holidays and is excelptional value.

I didn’t think I would be able to get a cheaper fare than this but then I looked at Ryanair for the same journey and their cost came in at a lot cheaper.

£440 for a fmaily of four for the same journey but obviously different flight times.

I did look at mixing the flights - flying out with Jet2.com and returning with Ryanair.com and vice versa but this actually proved more expensive. When looking for independent flights don’t forget that you can do this - fly out with one airline and return with another.

If you want to travel out of school holidays then of-course the cost does come down even further. Ryanair are currently offering a million seats for £5 plus taxes.

Airlines also now offer car hire and hotel booking. If you are booking a car hire in Alicante then don’t forget to read all our important information tips on alicante car hire. You will save yourself a lot of money!

They claim that there are still some cheap flights on special offer and these are as follows;

East Midlands from £34.99
Liverpool from £27.99
London Gatwick from £29.99
London Luton from £35.99

I had a look online and I did find flights out  from London Luton on Easyjet on the 25th August for £30.99 per person. The return flight was a lot more expensive but if you can return on the 3rd September this would cost £76.85 (which was the cheapest around this time). I also looked at Monarch for the cost of a return journey with them but they couldn’t really offer anything better. These dates just about keep within the summer holidays.

This all came to £503.36 for 2 adults and 2 children.

I reduced the baggage to 2 on hold bags and I took off the travel insurance.

I personally think this is a great cost for flights for a family of four during the school holidays.

I did look for an Easyjet August promotion code but I don’t think they have released any yet as I couldn’t locate any.

If you are visiting Alicante please see our main site all about Alicante city and everything this beautiful city has to offer.

Well you have landed on the right page!

You need to catch the C6 bus which leaves from the number 29 stop opposite Spain Alicante airport (Terminal 1). This is operated by a Spanish company called Subus.

The bus stops on this C-6 bus route are as follows:

Spain Alicante airport - Starting point
1 Ctra. N 340 - Colegio Aitana
2 Ctra. N 340 - Desguace
3 Ctra. N 340 - Báscula
4 Ctra. N 340 - Dulevo
5 Ctra. N 340 - Danone
6 Ctra. N 340 - Butano
7 Ctra. N 340 - TIR
8 Ctra. N 340 - Matadero
9 Agua Amarga II
10 Av. Elche - Oficina de Patentes
11 Av. Elche - Estación de Tren -  Spain Alicante RENFE Train Station. Get off here for national train journeys
12 Av. Elche (C/ Federico Mayo)
13 Av. Oscar Esplá Nº 10
14 C/ Reyes Católicos Nº 23 - Spain Alicante Bus Station. Get off here for the bus station
15 Av. Federico Soto Nº 10
16 Pza. Luceros Nº 2 - 4
17 Av. Alfonso X El Sabio Nº 17 - Get off here for the Alicante TRAM. TRAM lines 1 and 2 depart from here called Mercado  TRAM station
18 Rambla Méndez Núñez Nº 35
19 Rambla Méndez Núñez Nº 7
20 PLAZA PUERTA DEL MAR - Last Stop. Get off here for the Alicante TRAM. TRAM Line 4 departs from here

The following is a map that shows each of the stops of the C6 bus - but in Alicante City only. I haven’t mapped the whole route.
View C6 Bus Stops in Alicante in a larger map

If you would like more information about Alicante Airport please see our Alicante Airport Guide

Usually boat owners have to pay year round costs to moor their boat at a harbour or Marina along the Costa Blanca. These fees can be quite expensive and in todays climate people might just want to look at other options.

There is a removal firm who specialise in removals between Spain and the U.K. who have branched out into boat storage and maintenance with the help of another company TM Marine Services. They are called EspanEura Boat Storage and they are based between Alicante and Mar Menor. Their specialist removal services also mean that they can collect the boats from the harbour and take it directly to their storage facility or they can organise your boat to be brought down from the U.K.

The following information is taken directly from their website;

They have two 5,500 ft warehouses just off the AP7 in Catral.

• Secure premises with CCTV, alarmed and insured
• Easy Access from AP7 motorway, exit 730
• Fully staffed
• Long and short term storage
• Trailer storage
• Yearly contracts to store and launch at pre-booked dates
• Your boat will be stored under cover in our own premises

By putting your boat in storage, especially over the winter, it is possible to save approx 25% on fees and of-course your boat will be protected from the winter weather.

If you would like to find out more information about this service then visit their website at http://www.espaneuraboatstore.com