Arriving in Spain
I started to draw our trip as early as October and check for the deals on our dates. I came up with an itinerary starting in Malaga and then going up North to escape big heat and for 26 days.
Unfortunately we couldn't use a big company this time as most had later flights to Spain making us to lose 1 day at the airports and being exhausted. Also, this year Air France came up with a low cost own airline Joon, and to Malaga it is in association with a Spanish company. The very bad reviews abounded. So, I was ready to use one of the charter like Air Transat or low cost like Air Canada Rouge.
I could book a reasonable direct flights to Malaga and return from Barcelona with Air Transat. They fortunately just reintroduced back meals aboard transatlantic flights. Yes, they replaced them for a while with sandwiches, but brought back meals and a glass of wine after horrendous reviews. My mother travels with AT mostly and is happy with them, to Spain they offer good prices and direct flights. She used British Airways many times too, but they always lost her luggage, every single trip. I like BA myself, they have good service, nice planes and often are even more competitive than AT or AC, Air France is also a very good one. KLM good.
AT called me before our flights to offer the seats, Optionplus and Daniel Vezina meals. The woman was nice, she didn't try to scare me and just told me to check in as soon as it will open. I didn't want to pay extra, but we were lucky to get our seats together. It seams AT public don't travel with other airlines and are whiling to pay extra. On other international flights I never had problems having seats together either in advance or even 24h in advance at check in for free. If you take into account all the extra cost with just the seats, their fare is not that cheap nor competitive anymore. For the return flight I reserved our seats for a fee as the plane was filling in.
We took a taxi to the airport and got stuck literally at the entrance to the airport. Fortunately our taxi driver was honest and dropped us at a hotel from where we only had maybe 100 meters to walk to the airport. Many taxis and cars were stuck for long time there.
The VIP lounge at Dorval airport brought back alcoholic beverages and we were pleased with food and drinks.They have a kids section, but the parents can get a glass of wine or a cocktail from adult section. In addition in kids section fries and pizza were served, although no salad bar was provided. Olives and nibbles, soft drinks. You have to come before rush hours otherwise people were lining up for a long time before getting a place.
Food was good on our flight, the personnel nice. I could still get 3 seats together in the middle end of the plane which was actually better for space for free. We didn't have the choice of a meal since noodles were the second but also the vegetarian choice. But chicken was fine. I just want to get to destination and this flight only took 6h15. Seats were leather, they were narrow but the leg room was good and we could move armrests. Entertainment, we used general or brought ours since no chargers were available. It was ok
I congratulate myself for choosing direct flights this time. We arrived in Malaga at 9AM. Tired but still had forces. It took a while to get our luggage, one 23 inch suitcase each. In fact we weren't to get them any time soon, but there were a group of students going to Cadiz and they guide starting shouting at the luggage handlers through the hole. After which the luggage came in promptly. We spent more than 1h30 for this. The Malaga airport arrivals are not air conditioned. I was happy to be on a firm ground and our check-in was around 14h, so we were in no rush.
After buying our Cercanias tickets from a machine we ran to the train and after 2 short stops arrived in Torremolinos. Taxis were awaiting, so 10 minutes later we arrived to our hotel, Residencia Hotel Miami. We were too early, but the nice gentleman at the reception offered to hold our luggage and there was a clean and big bathroom to change. He even hold our documents so we could go to the beach and spend a couple of hours there.
Torremolinos is bringing back Spanish families to our delight. We stayed in La Carihuela area. It was sunny and hot but not overwhelming. We stayed at the beach for 2 hours, then back to the hotel, which was very close. On our way back we located a small supermarket and a bakery. Of course our son has forgotten his flip flops. We could buy them there. They were cheap and cheaply made, but lasted for our beach stays. We also bought wine, beer drinks and a pizza for our lunch. This is the good thing about direct flights, we still had forces to go to the beach in the afternoon and to a dinner place called MGJamon.
Unfortunately we couldn't use a big company this time as most had later flights to Spain making us to lose 1 day at the airports and being exhausted. Also, this year Air France came up with a low cost own airline Joon, and to Malaga it is in association with a Spanish company. The very bad reviews abounded. So, I was ready to use one of the charter like Air Transat or low cost like Air Canada Rouge.
I could book a reasonable direct flights to Malaga and return from Barcelona with Air Transat. They fortunately just reintroduced back meals aboard transatlantic flights. Yes, they replaced them for a while with sandwiches, but brought back meals and a glass of wine after horrendous reviews. My mother travels with AT mostly and is happy with them, to Spain they offer good prices and direct flights. She used British Airways many times too, but they always lost her luggage, every single trip. I like BA myself, they have good service, nice planes and often are even more competitive than AT or AC, Air France is also a very good one. KLM good.
AT called me before our flights to offer the seats, Optionplus and Daniel Vezina meals. The woman was nice, she didn't try to scare me and just told me to check in as soon as it will open. I didn't want to pay extra, but we were lucky to get our seats together. It seams AT public don't travel with other airlines and are whiling to pay extra. On other international flights I never had problems having seats together either in advance or even 24h in advance at check in for free. If you take into account all the extra cost with just the seats, their fare is not that cheap nor competitive anymore. For the return flight I reserved our seats for a fee as the plane was filling in.
We took a taxi to the airport and got stuck literally at the entrance to the airport. Fortunately our taxi driver was honest and dropped us at a hotel from where we only had maybe 100 meters to walk to the airport. Many taxis and cars were stuck for long time there.
The VIP lounge at Dorval airport brought back alcoholic beverages and we were pleased with food and drinks.They have a kids section, but the parents can get a glass of wine or a cocktail from adult section. In addition in kids section fries and pizza were served, although no salad bar was provided. Olives and nibbles, soft drinks. You have to come before rush hours otherwise people were lining up for a long time before getting a place.
Food was good on our flight, the personnel nice. I could still get 3 seats together in the middle end of the plane which was actually better for space for free. We didn't have the choice of a meal since noodles were the second but also the vegetarian choice. But chicken was fine. I just want to get to destination and this flight only took 6h15. Seats were leather, they were narrow but the leg room was good and we could move armrests. Entertainment, we used general or brought ours since no chargers were available. It was ok
I congratulate myself for choosing direct flights this time. We arrived in Malaga at 9AM. Tired but still had forces. It took a while to get our luggage, one 23 inch suitcase each. In fact we weren't to get them any time soon, but there were a group of students going to Cadiz and they guide starting shouting at the luggage handlers through the hole. After which the luggage came in promptly. We spent more than 1h30 for this. The Malaga airport arrivals are not air conditioned. I was happy to be on a firm ground and our check-in was around 14h, so we were in no rush.
After buying our Cercanias tickets from a machine we ran to the train and after 2 short stops arrived in Torremolinos. Taxis were awaiting, so 10 minutes later we arrived to our hotel, Residencia Hotel Miami. We were too early, but the nice gentleman at the reception offered to hold our luggage and there was a clean and big bathroom to change. He even hold our documents so we could go to the beach and spend a couple of hours there.
Torremolinos is bringing back Spanish families to our delight. We stayed in La Carihuela area. It was sunny and hot but not overwhelming. We stayed at the beach for 2 hours, then back to the hotel, which was very close. On our way back we located a small supermarket and a bakery. Of course our son has forgotten his flip flops. We could buy them there. They were cheap and cheaply made, but lasted for our beach stays. We also bought wine, beer drinks and a pizza for our lunch. This is the good thing about direct flights, we still had forces to go to the beach in the afternoon and to a dinner place called MGJamon.
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