Spanish city with teen DS? How to arrange!

[LetMeJustCheckMyCitrusPocket]

I'd love to take my teen DS for a short break to a small Spanish city, possibly Seville or Malaga, flying from Birmingham either Feb half term or Easter.

It's just been so long since I've done anything like this that I'm not sure where to start!

I guess I try to book flights first (through the airline?) and then hope to find accommodation for those dates afterwards?

Any tips, advice or recommendations about useful websites for bookings would be very welcome! 🙂

I always book my city breaks via the BA website, so that it comes in a package. They have a good selection using their Holiday Finder tool.

Last time, our flight was one of a number that were cancelled due to an ICT outage, but it meant that they helped to sort out additional accommodation and flights.

Malaga is super easy. The train station is right outside the airport and you can get the train to Malaga central.

I would then book yourself a hotel or airbnb at a location you can walk to.

@LetMeJustCheckMyCitrusPocket
I'm planning on doing the same.
Booking.com is good for accommodation.
Flights for us would be easyJet or Ryanair.

I always book flights first as not all airlines fly every day, then book hotel. I usually use Booking.com and pay for reserved rooms where yo pay at the hotel on arrival as opposed to cheaper non refundable rooms.

Use something like 'sky scanner' website - this will show you a whole month of flights and prices from one airport to another, so you can pick cheaper dates. Instead of typing in exact days, you can pick the 'whole month' option.

When you have found dates that suit, then try something like Booking.com and put in the exact dates and city centre.

Then, when you have found accommodation you like, go onto Trivago.com or Kayak.com and type in the name of the accommodation and the dates. These companies will search the interweb to find out where the exact same room is offered the cheapest.

Then - look on trip advisor or similar to cross check the reviews on there. You can look at other travellers photos too. (Last time, I thought I found a brilliant hotel for long weekend, read the trip advisor reviews and they mentioned noise on the roof bar, I dug a little more and found that it was owned and run separately by a nightclub until 4am each morning!! So hotel had 4, but reviews for sleeping were 1 )

Look to see if they include breakfast or not.

Then, reserve!

Sometimes you can reserve and pay at the hotel desk on arrival. This can cost more, often 'non-refundable' rooms are cheaper, but are non refundable if you don't travel!

Have a lovely, lovely time. If you are unsure about doing it separately like this, Jet2 are a great company for Spanish city breaks, and include flights and transfers.

You could do a search in Expedia for flights and accommodation then check out the reviews on tripadvisor.
I'm currently doing that for a 3 night trip to Salamanca. Flights will be with 2 different airlines due to timings, I did this last time and it worked fine.

Here is the first screen from Skyscanner for Feb, Birm to Spain.
These will go up at half term though.

And here's an example of Birm.to Málaga in February.
When you choose a 'going out' flight, it can change the prices of the returns, so click them to get an accurate price. And sometimes seat reservations need extra payment too, but it should be cheap enough.
Enjoy your hols.

I always book budget flights direct with the airline as some of the secondary sites add on extras that the airline don't. I usually do flights first then accommodation.

Have been to both with teen DS.
Great places to visit.
Seville is one of my most favourite places.
Remember to check your passports!

Thank you all so so much for each taking the time to reply. I really do appreciate it.

I'm going to sit down and go through all the responses and see if I can make a plan.

I may be back with more queries 🙂

Any other North Easterner’s come get thinking OP was going on holiday to Whitley Bay?

Do not book through skyscanner or any other search sites.
Find your flights then go to the airline site to book them.

I often use Holiday Pirates
https://holidaypirates.lastminute.com/s/hdp/search?destination=136285&datefrom=M,2024-02&dateto=T,2,3&origin=BHX&search_mode=DP&sort=recommended&businessProfileId=HOLIDAYSPIRATESCOUK&source=widget_openx_map&bf_subsource=S07HPV10S07RR01&adults=2&search_id=zr9snbywzcv38x8oqr&bfSubSource=S01RRV10S10RR01

I went to Malaga with my 14 yo DS, just the two of us.We stayed in the Barcelo Hotel at the train station. Great location and the rooftop pool was fun for him. We walked to Malagueta Beach. We took the train to Granada for a night too.

We booked the flights then direct with the hotel.

Good advice to get started. When you start planning what to do I recommend using google maps to map it out (How to Use Google Maps As a Trip Planner (businessinsider.com) ), but I wouldn't make too busy schedule as you'd want to just walk around etc

We flew easyjet to Malaga and then stayed in a couple of lovely airbnb apartments in really good locations. It was all very easy.

We go to both Malaga and Seville regularly and DS goes with us since he was a baby.
We book with budget airline directly then either airbnb or use Veoapartment which is a local holiday rental company in Seville. Then we have the flexibility and space to either eat out or self cater. Malaga is easier for transport and has a mixture of culture and beach. Seville is more culture, it's such a nice city! You can get a train or coach between Malaga and Seville.

Not sure when you plan to go. One thing to note is July and August in Seville most locals go to the seaside and lots of local restaurants close. Since covid more are open throughout summer but it's super hot. Late spring or early autumn is the best time to go.

I would decide first how long and when you want to go, what you want to do, then pick a location. There are more flight options to Malaga but budget airline also fly to Seville. Then pick your accommodation. Google map is really useful for marking places you want to visit.

Thanks everyone for your further comments, really appreciated. Would love to take him to Seville either Feb half term, or Easter would be amazing, just for a couple of days, but flight timings from Bham are so limited and crazily early that hardly any time there.

If you want to do this cheaply- Ryanair fly to Malaga regularly and it’s very reasonable. The airport is very short distance from the city so either jump on the tram (15 mins and about 5euro) or get a taxi 20-25 euro (20 mins).

as for accommodation, booking.com, hotel.com all have a good choice incl. apartments if that’s more your thing!

otherwise package holiday it but just bear in mind you’ll pay a bit more for someone else to put the bits together

There's so many more flights to Malaga than Seville from many airports unfortunately.

However, you can get the train from Malaga to Seville really easily - it's a high speed train so an experience in itself. And the cake counter in McDonalds of all places in Seville railway station is a sight to behold.

We went on a tour of Andalucian cities that included 4 days in Seville (with a day trip to Cordoba), a couple of days in Granada, a couple of days in Malaga and a day out to walk El Caminto del Rey in the mountains above Malaga. It was one of our best holidays ever, we did it all by public transport and really easy to arrange.

Spain at Easter is great too - if you're there on Palm Sunday, there's the parades where they carry the big floats.

I usually filter hotels by looking at tripadviser ratings and reviews then I book directly with the hotel on hotel website ( not booking.com) or phone hotel directly. You usually get best genuine rate, more chance of an upgrade and less chance they will deny your booking because middleman agent has screwed up.
A Google of 'Mumsnet and (named city) accommodation' has also proved very useful to me in the past 😃

Much easier to get a flight to Malaga than Seville if you are going from Birmingham. Ryanair and Jet2 fly most days to Malaga and I think Tui goes once a week (this is in February - maybe more often in Spring/Summer).

We will be in Malaga in February and I'm debating whether to get a train up to Seville to visit for a day or two, or whether to leave for a separate short break . As you say, flights appear to be only once or twice weekly to Seville.

Are you planning on self catering or hotel? I would investigate options for accommodation with a shortlist - then book flights and as soon as they are booked , then book accommodation . We normally use booking.com for hotels or VRBO or AirB&B for self catering . Personally I prefer an apartment as it gives more space and freedom .

Valencia is another option you could consider - but again flights are not very frequent from Birmingham.

Expedia is my first port of call.

op did you sort and are you heading off?