Buying a Cheap Flight to Spain

Where does a travel writer go on holiday? Your travel blogger books a cheap Ryanair flight to Vitoria in northern Spain, near Pamplona, Bilbao and Rioja wine country

Where does a travel writer like to go on holiday? That's a question every travel writer gets asked several times a year. My usual answer is that I like to stay at home, as that's a real holiday from the constant tiring traveling. But who could resist a special cheap flights offer from Ryanair this summer, when the budget Irish airline were giving away 5 million flights across their European network?

My wife and I love Spain but hadn't been for a while. We checked out Ryanair's Spanish destinations and noticed the name of Vitoria. It's the airport they use for flights to Bilbao, which is a short train ride away. But we'd been to Bilbao and, as lovely as it was, decided to stay in Vitoria instead.

Vitoria sounds an interesting city, and has good train connections to places like Bilbao, Pamplona, Santander, San Sebastian and even Madrid, if we wanted to go that far. It's also the gateway to Rioja wine country, which is a good enough reason by itself for going.

The Ryanair cheap flights weren't totally free. You did have to pay 1p for them, but airport taxes and all other charges were included. So we got two return flights to Vitoria for 4p, something our friends in America couldn't believe. Oh how the US airlines need a Ryanair and an easyJet to shake them up a bit.

Of course then we discovered that we had to pay extra if we wanted to take our luggage to Vitoria too: £5 per checked bag each way. Against this, the Ryanair hand luggage allowance is a very generous 10kg (22.05lbs), so we can still take plenty with us. And paying 1p is still a ridiculously cheap flight to Spain. Vitoria here we come....

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