IT’S SNAIL SEASON IN SEVILLA
When I first moved to Seville from the North of England in2011 there were direct flights from Liverpool to Seville so travelling back home for Christmas and other holidays was easy and relatively cheap. However a year or so later the direct flights between Liverpool and Seville stopped and i had to find other ways to get back to the North of England.
I found the easiest option was to travel down to Malaga which can be done by train or bus from the centre of Seville. Malaga is convenient in that the bus station and train station are located next to each other and the tube station that takes you to the airport is located in the same place. In addition Malaga has a lot of flights back to the North on all days. Although this adds a good few hours to my journey home it is the cheapest and most reliable option. From leaving my door in Seville to returning to my door in England it is roughly a twelve hour journey at best.
However, take care when booking your flight from Malaga as you will need to take into account that if the flight is early morning you will need to spend the previous night in Malaga, as the first train or bus from Seville will not get you there on time. This is the same for arriving back in Malaga. If you arrive after seven pm there are no trains or buses you can catch to get back to Seville the same evening.
Another option involves flying to London direct from Seville and then taking a train from London to Preston, where I am from. However, the train journey on the English side is a lot more expensive and more of a hassle when you need to go across London to get to the train station. There is also the option of a bus but, of course, though cheaper than the train, who wants to spend five hours on a bus compared to two hours forty-five minutes by train between Seville and Malaga?
For a shorter travel time I’ve flown from Seville to Barcelona and then Barcelona to Manchester or Liverpool. This takes around six or eight hours if you get a good connection time and sometimes you can find flights at a reasonable price. However, the downside is it is only convenient if travelling with hand luggage otherwise you need to pay for hold luggage twice.
I have also flown to Dublin and then on to Liverpool, however, I had to stay overnight in Dublin to get the connecting flight the following morning. Another option is to travel to Malaga by train or plane and fly to the North from there.
However there is a light at the end of the tunnel for us expats from the Midlands and the North of England, Ryanair are starting direct flights to Seville from the end of October 2017. At the moment flights to and from Manchester are only on a Friday and Monday but this gives us the perfect excuse for a weekend break back home or for family and friends to visit us more often.
For now, however, I will stick with the most convenient and cheaper route of travelling down to Malaga for a flight back home.
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