Heathrow to Valencia flight cancelled, is a shorter trip still worth it?

[RowsOfFlowers]

Heathrow to Valencia flight this morning at 10:35 cancelled 😞 was meant to be out there until Monday with my friend. Can’t get another flight until Saturday. Not worth going for 2.5 days is it? Gutted!

I would still go!

Yes it is if home flight is mon eve. There is a tram/train really easy to get to the airport. You can do sea front and port area on Sat, old town on Sunday and something else mon (check gallery/miseum opening times in case you need to work to those). Have a great time its a fab place.

Could you get a flight to a different airport today? Alicante airport isn’t far.

We were in Valencia this summer, you definitely still have enough time for a lovely mini break. Do your research beforehand. Saturday evening you will be sitting somewhere lovely with a glass of sangria glad you are there!

Definitely do this. It’s easy to get to Valencia by train or bus.

It’s 3hrs by train with complicated transport

I don’t know if I agree

It’s really it that bad if you plan the route in advance, transport there is pretty good. I’d rather do that than lose my holiday if it’s an option. Other option could be a flight from Gatwick, there’s an EasyJet flight late afternoon today Gatwick to Valencia.

The train journey from Alicante to Valencia is just 2 hours. You could get a taxi from the airport to Alicante rail station to make it easier

You can get a train to Valencia Joaquin Sorrolla. From Alicante train station it is just over one hour. Take the airport bus (it’s 6 Euros) which drops you outside the station).
Lived there for 4 years, this was s regular journey as Valencia airport didn’t serve my region)

Can you fly from anywhere else?

as you’re ps led and ready to go I’d be looking at every single alternative. The train at the other end would be an adventure too.

just check about your return flight though, as you weren’t able to take the outbound flight I don’t know if the return is automatically cancelled too

No flights to Valencia from another airport near to you? I suppose it depends where you are - near London better chance than the rest of the country.

But Google maps is often way off with transport options in Spain. It could well be that you can get a flight to Alicante today or tomorrow from another UK airport because there's loads more flights that go there.

Have you looked on Renfe for trains or Alsa for coaches? I'd expect it's a fairly easy journey from Alicante to Valencia and both cities are well connected from the airport.

If not, I'd still go Saturday to Monday because it will still be a nice break and there's so much to see and do in the area that you can't cover it all in a short trip whether it's 2 or 4 days so if you like it you can always go back. But I wouldn't just give up the holiday because it's unfortunately cut short due to the ATC problem.

If the OP is booked on Ryanair, Easyjet, Jet2 or similar, they don't cancel the return flight, they're all independent of each other.

There are but they’re very expensive. One from Stansted is £600. I am just concerned well end up forking out more money for such a short trip

We were flying with BA. We booked a return flight. Both outbound & return flights have been cancelled. Fortunately they are offering a refund

As they’re offering a refund, I’d just find something else. However, I went to Valencia for less than 48 hours for the eclipse and would say that was enough to do the city properly. We also flew home from Alicante and the journey wasn’t too bad; the train is rather slow but quite straightforward, then bus to the airport.

Actually ignore that, they have only refunded for the outbound flight

Probably too late as you would need to be enroute by now, but I would do what everyone is saying fly to Alicante. The taxi or Uber from Alicante airport to Alicante station, 2 hour train ride to Valencia, they are running roughly once every hour but sometimes it's a bit longer, and then taxi from station to your hotel in Valencia. Trains in Spain are really good and easy. Valencia is a lovely city.

Ok they’ve now refunded for both

I feel your pain! We were supposed to be flying to Valencia on Tuesday.

BA are apparently refunding us though.

Ah sorry to hear! How long were you going for? I can’t believe how long the impact has lasted!!

We were supposed to be going Tuesday morning, coming back tomorrow evening (Friday).

Not long after we'd booked it, BA summarily changed our Tuesday flight to an evening one, so we'd already lost a day from our trip. Then when it was cancelled on Tuesday, they offered us an alternative flying out of Gatwick on Wednesday - but Wednesday evening, flying via Paris, so we wouldn't get to Valencia until around 10pm! Thus losing another day from our trip.

That’s rubbish and far from ideal! I hope you were able to get a refund.