Morning Guys

After reading the fixtures, very excited at the new season!

Thinking of maybe heading out to catalans for the game as it is on the bank holiday!

It will be my first time and I haven't organised the trip before and haven't got a clue where to start.

Any help on this would be appreciated!

Thanks

You could try these guys...

[urlhttp://www.catalansporttours.com/sltours.php[/url

Having not been yet but have talked to others that have, the best option (not the cheapest) is to go with the club. you get to travel with the team as well. other than that the best option I think is to fly drive from Barcelona!

Girona Airport is closer, I have flown from there when holidaying in Lloret de Mar about an hour north of Barcelona.

Airports at Perpignan,Beziers, Carcassonne worth checking out

A quick check on Skyscanner suggests flights may be an issue this year. It seems Liverpool to Gerona or Carcassonne are not very frequent in 2014. Flights into Perpignan are difficult to find and seem very expensive.

More searching seems to be essential!

Not checked Beziers though.

Manchester to girona, Thursday till Tuesday. £109.98 return stay over in llrot de mar, easy peasy.

Manchester to girona, Thursday till Tuesday. £109.98 return stay over in lloret de mar, easy peasy.

There are plenty of options to get there. My favourite route so far was on the train/Eurostar via Paris with GT - there's an overnight train down to Perpignan. Via Barcelona proper was good as well, I think SNCF/Renfe were on the verge of launching a non-stop service between Barca and Perpignan when we did it so should be even easier now.

Tried to make the logistics of going via Bilbao or Mille work for 2014 but the connections are too time consuming.

I looked into flights the other day and I'm considering Birmingham-Perpignan which, IIRC, came in around £85-£90 with Ryanair or Easyjet. I quite fancy taking my tent over and notice Canet Plage only looks around 8-10 miles from Perpignan. There's a Eurocamp there too which could be a decent option. Cheap as xhips as well,

not a lot of flites left anywhere, or hotels for that weekend , looks like there should be a few salford fans there next season. 5 days for me from birmingham stopping ibis . not cheap but who cares.

we will be top of the league by then.

Had anyone booked on the ryanair 6.30 am flight Manchester to girona the day of the match? , I did but got an email from them on xmas day telling me they'd rescheduled the flights till 7.30pm . Another reason to hate that Airline. Cost me an extra €50 one way fee on my car rental as ive got to fly to barcelona and fly from girona back to Charleloi.

We've gone Manchester to Beziers (Ryanair), fly out Friday return on the Monday. It's about a 1 hour direct Train Journey to Perpignan. Total cost £78.00 return. There are quite a few decent hotels in Beziers too.
Going to stop over in Perpignan at the Ibis on the night of the game. Total cost for Flights and 3 nights accommodation about £170.00

Flights- gerona usually the best option as cst will pick you up and you to Perpignan.

Hotel de France is a good option as it's smack bang in the centre next to the castillet and river.

Cheaper option is hotel de lodge next to hotel de France. It's a hostel but more of a hotel in truth.

Don't rule out staying in canet on the beach, could split your time between the two.

Then when you get yourself inside the Gilbert Brutus, enjoy the system for buying beer...

Best value would be to go friday to Beziers, train to Perpignan is an hours journey and it's a nice trip, back Monday morning, i did Liverpool to Nimes twice this year and Beziers is on same train line , return fare from Nimes to Perpignan was about £60. Beziers will be less as its half the distance

Flying Birmingham to Perpignan seemed a sensible idea, but those kind people at Ryan Air have now cancelled the flights and we have had to re-book. We are now flying Liverpool - Barcelona on the Thursday and returning on the Tuesday. Other fights to Gerona, Carcassonne and Beziers were full or unavailable.

Accommodation is booked in Perpignan from the Thursday night to the Monday night. Now considering whether to hire a car for the five of us to make the Barcelona - Perpignan trip or whether to investigate bus or train travel.

Has anybody tried this route before? Any advice?

Quote ="RedDave"Now considering whether to hire a car for the five of us to make the Barcelona - Perpignan trip or whether to investigate bus or train travel. Has anybody tried this route before? Any advice?'" I got the train from Perpignan to Barca a few years back and it took about 4-5 hours all in, but that included a decent sized wait for a change of trains at Port Bou. At the time they were building a TGV that would do Barca to Perpignan in about 50 minutes. It was delayed repeatedly but a quick google suggests that it opened in December: www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4fdf78b2-55c0 ... z2pjIrNBYD www.lindependant.fr/2013/10/09/d ... 798220.php (French)

Quote ="RedDave"Now considering whether to hire a car for the five of us to make the Barcelona - Perpignan trip or whether to investigate bus or train travel. Has anybody tried this route before? Any advice?'" I got the train from Perpignan to Barca a few years back and it took about 4-5 hours all in, but that included a decent sized wait for a change of trains at Port Bou. At the time they were building a TGV that would do Barca to Perpignan in about 50 minutes. It was delayed repeatedly but a quick google suggests that it opened in December: www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4fdf78b2-55c0 ... z2pjIrNBYD www.lindependant.fr/2013/10/09/d ... 798220.php (French)

The new non stop train,between Barcelona and Perpignan,I think only runs once per day. The other trains,are as previously described.
Ther is a company called Frogbus which runs between Barcelona and Perpignan,via Girona airport,but is notoriously unreliable.
Remember when the game finishes at 8pm on a Saturday evening,public transport will be difficult.
Having had connections in Perpignan for a number of years,I would say the safest way to commute back to Spain,would be by organising your own transport,or one of the rugby associated companies.

Quote ="Iain"I got the train from Perpignan to Barca a few years back and it took about 4-5 hours all in, but that included a decent sized wait for a change of trains at Port Bou. At the time they were building a TGV that would do Barca to Perpignan in about 50 minutes. It was delayed repeatedly but a quick google suggests that it opened in December: www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4fdf78b2-55c0 ... z2pjIrNBYD www.lindependant.fr/2013/10/09/d ... 798220.php (French)'" I'm staying Thurs to Tues in Perpignan so I thought about doing Barcelona for a day on either the Friday or Monday but I've been to the Rail Europe site (uk.voyages-sncf.com/en/) and a quick search won't return a single train! Doh!

Quote ="Iain"I got the train from Perpignan to Barca a few years back and it took about 4-5 hours all in, but that included a decent sized wait for a change of trains at Port Bou. At the time they were building a TGV that would do Barca to Perpignan in about 50 minutes. It was delayed repeatedly but a quick google suggests that it opened in December: www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4fdf78b2-55c0 ... z2pjIrNBYD www.lindependant.fr/2013/10/09/d ... 798220.php (French)'" I'm staying Thurs to Tues in Perpignan so I thought about doing Barcelona for a day on either the Friday or Monday but I've been to the Rail Europe site (uk.voyages-sncf.com/en/) and a quick search won't return a single train! Doh!

Ive just got the same email from f in ryan air, what a bunch of wan kers,

well thats 4 in my party not going, unless we can some how get flites to perp dont fancy train n coach into perp on the day.

hotels booked the lot,

now gonna have to fight with ryan air to get all the money back.

what a bunch of wan kers.

one pi ssed of salford fan.

Thanks for the replies. We need to investigate further but at the moment I think we may hire a car at Barcelona Airport for the day and drop it off in Perpignan and then hire one in Perpignan on the Tuesday to return to Barcelona Airport - but we will have to look into the ins and outs of it. The train times look a bit dodgy.

I share other people's frustration with Ryan Air, particularly as we were abandoned in Carcassonne once year. At lease we're now going with Easyjet!

Good luck with that. I am sure you'll get your flight money back, but Ryan Air are very difficult to deal with and will probably claim they are not responsible for your hotel bookings etc..

Good luck.

The same thing happened to me a couple of years back and I had to cancel the Ryanair flights to Carcassonne as I was taking my 8 year old with me and it would have meant him missing another 2 days of school in addition to the 2 I'd already got permission from the school for. Plus had I gone with what Ryanair offered as an alternative I would have had to book two extra nights hotle in Perpignan and 2 extra days on the hire car. The only saving grace was that Ryanair let me cancel without any penalty. Fortunately for me, I had some airmiles and re-booked with BA to Toulouse so I could still take advantage of all the other stuff I'd booked and already paid for (car hire and hotel) otherwise it would have cost me a load of money not to go. I vowed then never to use Ryanair again to get down to the Catalans game. This time, I've used airmiles again to Toulouse with BA, it's not ideal but at least I can rely on the flights!

Have a look at the Manchester - Beziers Flights (Sorry Again with RyanAir but theyshouldn't charge for transfer) I got them for about £80.00 Return Fri - Monday. There's a direct Train about an hour each way £28.00 return.