Property viewing trips - important information

Flying from the UK to Galicia

Galician Airports

The three international airports in Galicia are at Santiago de Compostela, la Coruna and Vigo.

If you rent a car the Northern Portuguese airport of "O Porto" is a short drive from the Galicia – Portugal border and this opens up direct flights from additional UK airports.

Budget airlines - direct to Galicia.

1. Ryanair

Ryanair fly direct from 2 UK airports. Details below.

• Ryanair fly from Stansted, London to Santiago de Compostela throughout the year. They operate on two separate seasons with the following (approximate schedule).
• April to late October - flights every day.
• Late October to March - 3 flights per week.

Flight costs

Anything from 99 pence to £250 per person depending on when you book.

• ryanair.com You can check and book flights with Ryanair from this link. When you reach the page you will see a title (ONLINE CHECK-IN) in a red box at the top left of the page. Enter your dates and destination in the boxes.

2. Iberia (Clickair)

Iberia with the budget airline Clickair, are Spain's national airlines and they operate daily flights from Heathrow, London to la Coruna.

Iberia flight costs

Very cost effective.

• www.iberia.com You can check and book flights with Iberia from this link.

Other airports, airlines and routes

Porto airport, Northern Portugal (airport name - Francisco Sa Carneiro, airport code - OPO)

This airport opens up direct flights from numerous additional UK destinations including (correct at the time of posting)-

• Gatwick, London city, Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen.

If you plan to arrive and depart from this airport, a rental car will be a necessity.

Connection flights

There are numerous routes to Galicia (Santiago de Compostela or la Coruna) that can be put together using a connection. The most popular option is to use a direct flight to Madrid or Barcelona, and then use an airline like Spanair to connect to a Galician airport. Prices can be economic, but the drawback is waiting time between the connections.

Ferry and car

If you are combining a property search with a driving tour of Northern Spain, the ferry port at Santander (in the Spanish Basque country) will allow you to travel with your vehicle.

If you have a GPS (Sat Nav), you will normally be able to download a Spanish route map over the internet, or buy a suitable DVD to update to European routes (although there will be a charge).

Accommodation

You will have no problem finding hotels in Galicia. Santiago de Compostela, la Coruna and Vigo receive massive numbers of business and recreational visitors and these (and most other Galician towns and cities) are served by a multitude of hotels.

To find a hotel, or see what is on offer, take a look at the following hotel booking websites. The links below should give you access to well over 200 hotels in Galicia. You will also see the same hotels on different sites, so compare prices for the best deals.

• The hotels search page of Galicia Guide This site gives you access to over 140 hotels across Galicia and there are automated buttons allowing you to search by city, town, airport etc.
• Trip Advisor's Galicia hotel page If you go to this site and look in the box at the top right of the page you will see a heading titled – Best Deals – Galicia Hotels. Use the links in the box under the heading.
• all-hotels.com This site has a large selection of hotels and you can search by town or city (they have divided Galicia up into 40 different areas).
• hotelclub.net This site has plenty of hotels on offer, but you need to enter your search criteria, i.e, country, city etc before you see the hotels that they offer.