Almeria Medio Maraton (merged threads)

[ladyrunner]

Hi Folks,

It's that time of year again when we need to start planning our annual trip to Almeria for the half marathon (and possibly 10k) which takes place on Sunday 30th January 2011.

The plan so far is to fly over to Malaga on the Saturday 29th with Easyjet from London Gatwick on the 6:10am flight (Flight 8601) and return to Gatwick on Tuesday 1st Feb on the Malaga 15:15 Easyjet flight (Flight 8606). At the moment the cost of the return flight is £51.98 without any extras like baggage, extra leg room etc.

In the past we have stayed at he Tryp Indigo Hotel which is currently taking double room bookings for £37.59 per night (another bargain). We are not sure at the stage if we want to stay in this hotel again and will need to decide this when we know numbers.

Both the hotel and flights will need to be booked independently by yourself, but we will also need to hire a car to get us from Malaga to Almeria and back. This will be booked by myself and Sweder and once you have decided that you are coming you will need to pay upfront for your seat in the car. The cost being £45 per person, but this figure will be checked upon collecting the car and any extra paid can go into a drink fund for our primera cerveza o una botella de vino.

Once in Almeria we generally meet up with Antonio and his spainsh running friends for a pre-race pasta meal, then again we meet up for a post-race celebration. There is also time to do other things, like a dip the sea, shopping, drinking coffee on the beach, climb a mountain, running in the desert - people are free to decide their own schedule for the weekend or make plans with the others depending on what they want, but it is not an organised weekend with a timetable devised by myself and Ash. We are both going along to enjoy ourselves too, hopefully relax and spend some time practising our bad Spanish with Antonio.

Anyone interested at this stage please make it known on this thread.

Nos vemos amigos,
Julie
    Almeria 2010
    What a wonderful restaurant this was!! Please please can we go again??

[Sweder]

What a wonderful restaurant this was!! Please please can we go again??

Yes!!!
That really was excellent.
I suppose you'd like the dishy Spanish fella to come along as well

[ladyrunner]

Yes please to the Silver Fox . But I would prefer a dishy single spanish fella this time!! LOL

Ooohhh, and that wine in that restaurant was to die for ..... Playa de Canas Restaurante.

[Antonio247]

It will be great to meet all of you here in my hometown again.

If you need any help, just tell me.

I´m sure we all will have a wonderful time together.


http://es.solmelia.com/hoteles/espana/al...a/home.htm


http://www.plazadecanas.com/plaza/


Saludos desde Almería

Antonio

[El Gordo]

Good post, Julie - you seem to have sussed out the Almeria experience pretty quickly

I'm trying to work out a way of getting to Almeria from Zurich non-intermodally (sorry, new job lingo seeping through), or at a reasonable cost. So far, my research finger has scratched a deep groove in the back of my head.

Any lateral-thinking travel agents out there?

[ladyrunner]

I'm trying to work out a way of getting to Almeria from Zurich

Any luck yet Andy??

Just to let you both know that Moylebird and myself have booked our flights to Malaga.
Saturday 29th 6:10am Easyjet flight (Flight 8601)
Tuesday 1st Feb 15:15 Easyjet flight (Flight 8606)

Julie

[Antonio247]

I'm trying to work out a way of getting to Almeria from Zurich

Any luck yet Andy??

Just to let you both know that Moylebird and myself have booked our flights to Malaga.
Saturday 29th 6:10am Easyjet flight (Flight 8601)
Tuesday 1st Feb 15:15 Easyjet flight (Flight 8606)

Julie

It will be fantastic to meet you and Moylebird in Almería, Julie, as well as any others who may come.

As to Andy´s flights, I think a solution could be to go from Zurich to Gatwick and join Julie´s group there. However, it would mean to leave Zurich on Friday. Then, on Tuesday he could fly back to Zurich from Gatwick again with Easyjet. Another possibility could be travelling from Basel airport to Málaga or Alicante with Easyjet. The easiest way would be travelling from Zurich to Madrid or Barcelona and then Almería with Swiss Air or Iberia but it would be more expensive.

Best of luck!

Antonio

[Sweder]

As soon as you get Swiss Air or Iberia involved you can triple the price. I looked at early bookings with Iberia over Madrid. There are a lot of options but the lowest fare I could find from London (any airport) was GBP 167 return. So El Cuckoo's rate of GBP 240 isn't bad by comparison.

My guess is Easyjet Zurich/ London would be similar to the LGW - Malaga leg, so around GBP 110 - 120 round trip plus car share. If overnight at LGW EC is more than welcome to visit Chez Sweder. How early is that flight?? : )

[ladyrunner]

Does anyone know how the Easyjet pricing system works??

Since looking at the prices of the returns flights fror Zurich to Gatwick this afternoon at 5pm, the price at 11:30pm has dropped considerably.
This afternoon the Friday evening flight was £76.99 and now it is £46.99. And I think that the Tuesday evening return flight was £46.99 and is now £26.99.

It seems that if you book now you would save £50 on the price this afternoon.

And the flight to Malaga has been reduced too. It is now only £46.98 return - £5 cheaper than I paid yesterday!!

That's £55 saving for anybody flying return from Zurich to Malaga - sounds like a bargain to me or maybe Sunday night's supply of beer tokens taken care off??

Julie

[Sweder]

Just heard from Steve Sheekey that he is planning to join us in Almeria. He's working on a schedule now and will let me/ Julie know ASAP. Also asking others (Jeremy, Terry) if they want to come

We're putting the band back together ...

[El Gordo]

Sorry, I've not been paying attention.

I'll take another look at options this evening, though I really don't fancy an over complicated journey for a weekend away.

Will post an update later.

The other negative is that I certainly won't be running. Again, more info later. Time to hit the Zurich rush hour traffic.

Andy

[Sweder]

The other negative is that I certainly won't be running.

Bugger. Sorry mate.

[Antonio247]

Sorry, I've not been paying attention.

I'll take another look at options this evening, though I really don't fancy an over complicated journey for a weekend away.

Will post an update later.

The other negative is that I certainly won't be running. Again, more info later. Time to hit the Zurich rush hour traffic.

Andy

It´s a pity that you´ve got an injury again, Andy. Let´s hope it can be cured soon so that you can go for a run again.

It´d be great if you could come to Almería next year.

I´m gald you´re enjoying your new life in Switzerland.


Saludos desde Almería

Antonio

[El Gordo]

It´s a pity that you´ve got an injury again, Andy. Let´s hope it can be cured soon so that you can go for a run again.

It´d be great if you could come to Almería next year.

I´m gald you´re enjoying your new life in Switzerland.

Saludos desde Almería

Antonio

Have I got an injury? Damn. Didn't realise.....

[ladyrunner]

I've made an executive decision last night to book a hotel room for myself and Cam. I booked the usual Hotel Tryp Indalo - once again they have a fanastic offer of a double room for £36 a night (Breakfast extra).

http://www.solmelia.com/hotels/spain/alm...a/home.htm

We need to finalise numbers at the start of January so that we can get a suitable car booked.

We also have a couple of new recruits to add to the squad. Jason Knight and his friend Simon Roberts have both booked their flights. Jason is currently injured but may hope to walk or jog around the 10K (if there is one) and Simon is a Triathlete and I think that he is probably reasonably fit (maybe 1hr 30-40 for the Half). Simon will probably be a new recruit for the late night drinking session on Sunday night but I don't think that Jason will be there with him.

So who is definately in and where are you at with your booking and training??

Julie

[Sweder]

Definitely in. 99% certain I'll be on your flight.
Will confirm when booked. Training? What's that?

[ladyrunner]

Training? What's that?

We missed you on the ten mile snow run yesterday

[Antonio247]

It will be great to meet the new recruits as well.

Apparently, the half marathon website will be operative tomorrow. There is going to be a 9 km race that can be done running or walking.

Saludos desde Almería

Antonio

I've made an executive decision last night to book a hotel room for myself and Cam. I booked the usual Hotel Tryp Indalo - once again they have a fanastic offer of a double room for £36 a night (Breakfast extra).

http://www.solmelia.com/hotels/spain/alm...a/home.htm

We need to finalise numbers at the start of January so that we can get a suitable car booked.

We also have a couple of new recruits to add to the squad. Jason Knight and his friend Simon Roberts have both booked their flights. Jason is currently injured but may hope to walk or jog around the 10K (if there is one) and Simon is a Triathlete and I think that he is probably reasonably fit (maybe 1hr 30-40 for the Half). Simon will probably be a new recruit for the late night drinking session on Sunday night but I don't think that Jason will be there with him.

So who is definately in and where are you at with your booking and training??

Julie

[El Gordo]

Have to say, it's looking quite unlikely that I'll be in Almeria in 2011. A great shame, but I can't find a cost-effective way of getting there from Zurich.

I can't rule out the possibility of 'doing a Nigel' but at the moment, this isn't likely.

The running just hasn't happened either, which doesn't help. I'm fiull of good intentions for January, when we move to our new apartment in a town full of trails, plus close to a gym with spinning classes, plus not far from cross-country ski-ing trails -- all of which will help to get the old blood pumping again. But it isn't going to bear fruit b y the end of January, unfortunately.

If I don't make it, I'll be there in spirit.

Andy

[Antonio247]

If you can´t make it, El C., we´ll also have you there in spirit.

Good luck with your running.

Saludos desde Almería

Have to say, it's looking quite unlikely that I'll be in Almeria in 2011. A great shame, but I can't find a cost-effective way of getting there from Zurich.

I can't rule out the possibility of 'doing a Nigel' but at the moment, this isn't likely.

The running just hasn't happened either, which doesn't help. I'm fiull of good intentions for January, when we move to our new apartment in a town full of trails, plus close to a gym with spinning classes, plus not far from cross-country ski-ing trails -- all of which will help to get the old blood pumping again. But it isn't going to bear fruit b y the end of January, unfortunately.

If I don't make it, I'll be there in spirit.

Andy