Group getaways

Barcelona’s famous Sagrada Familia
© NickLavigueur ()

The advent of budget airlines in the north has made a weekend in Barcelona as convenient and cheap as a trip to Bridlington. A two night jaunt to Spain’s second largest city including a whirlwind tour of its attractions in between extensive trialling of its bars, restaurants and nightlife; can easily be done whether you’re on a stag do, hen party or other group trip thanks to the quick and easy availability of local flights.

Leeds Bradford Airport based airline Jet2 has clearly seen a market for jetting roving packs of party hungry celebrants out to the Med and has developed a very successful group booking system on their website. The company offers both group flight and group holiday bookings for groups of ten or more. To help save the organiser having to subsidise everyone they only request a 25% deposit until eight weeks before departure.

And for those flaky friends in the party, names can be changed until two weeks before take-off. Prices range from about £70 to £120 a person.

And if you chose the flight only route you need not worry about expensive hotel rooms for every member, after all you’ll need to save those valuable euros for the bars and nightclubs. Cheap apartments are available in most big cities and you can even rent a group of flats all in the same building. Simply type the city you are heading to and ‘apartments’ into an internet search engine and look for the best deal. With no other guests to worry about and no hotel reception, apartments offer the flexibility and privacy to come and go as you please without inconveniencing any staff or other guests. For roughly £70 each for two nights it’s hard to beat. Most people live in the city in Barcelona so most apartments will be a short walk from the city’s efficient and cheap subway system, meaning that transporting your group to the nightlife of the bustling Ramblas or Port area will be a piece of cake.