Barcelona / Madrid trip

[TSQuaker]

Anyone been on any footballing trips to either of the above?

A group of us are planning on taking in a weekend break and going to one of the games next season and haven't done anything like this before.

I know you can go through Thomas Cook, but I don't fancy paying around £500+ just to go through a reputable agent. I've heard if you book these visits yourself, you can probably save yourself a couple of hundred pound per person.

Anyone been, or have any advice?

Cheers,

[lo36789]

I know people who have gone through pre-arranged trips, by the sounds it does take a bit of the stress away but ultimately you are paying somebody wages plus mark up to do a little bit of admin for you.

The pair of the clubs have English websites. Contact the clubs and see if you can get hold of some tickets as long as you are not set on going to El Clasico or the Madrid derby you should be alright!

£75 for a ticket, £40 return sleezyjet flight and a £40 per night hotel for 2 nights should see you through I'd have thought?

If they say you need to be members of the 'club' to get a ticket just plead that it is a one off they usually have wiggle room.

[TSQuaker]

I know people who have gone through pre-arranged trips, by the sounds it does take a bit of the stress away but ultimately you are paying somebody wages plus mark up to do a little bit of admin for you.

The pair of the clubs have English websites. Contact the clubs and see if you can get hold of some tickets as long as you are not set on going to El Clasico or the Madrid derby you should be alright!

£75 for a ticket, £40 return sleezyjet flight and a £40 per night hotel for 2 nights should see you through I'd have thought?

If they say you need to be members of the 'club' to get a ticket just plead that it is a one off they usually have wiggle room.

£40 return flights? The cheapest I managed to find was around £100.

[tezza]

£40 get him to book it for you.

Don't know his day job, but its certainly not a T Agent

[lo36789]

Flights must have gone up a heap since I last had a gander.

I have been Poland/Berlin and Paris relatively recently with EasyJey and not spent much over £50 on flights and I was quite picky on dates!

Just had a quick look and you can get November flights for like £29 each way. Real/Barca have a bit of a tendency to play at 9PM (local time) on a Sunday evening which might help/hinder flight cost.

I got a return to Belfast for 2p once with Ryan Air, plus a £1.99 card charge!

Either way even it were £100 tickets, £100 flights, £100 hotel you are still coming well below the £500 that the agent has quoted you!

[banktopp]

2p return to Belfast with Ryan Air, is that the one that lands a short bus ride away in Cork ?

[lo36789]

It was when they had a 'No tax' sale thing on for a day and you got flights for the price advertised which was 1p each way.

[BaronsCourtQuaker]

Have done a fair few lads weekends to Europe too takein a game, Madrid was the first we went too thinking about it.

You can arrange tickets quite easily via the club, unless your looking for the Madrid derby, El Classico ect. If that fails there are plenty of touts outside the ground selling on tickets, you'll pay a premium but not like you would via Thomas Cook. A clever way for the Derby game is to look at Espanyol v Barca, it often doesn't sell out and you may find a better atmosphere as I'm sure you would at Atletico.

Why and who are going may I ask? If its a group of lads I would advise staying away from Spain. They have a habit of changing games last minute for TV scheduling and the Bernabeau can be quite a boring atmosphere when its not a big game. Fans turning up expecting to see a whitewash week in week out. If there are women involved and its not all about the football then Madrid and Barca are both nice cities to visit if you have never been before Barca is very touristy but offers more sights, Madrid is much more Spanish.

My advice if its a boys weekend, look no further than Germany though, great drinking culture, games are 3pm Saturday kick off and the atmosphere is on the whole brilliant. I have never had an issue getting tickets from the clubs in Germany for up to 15 people. Dortmund is a special place to go for the football, the stadium and atmosphere is immense (I was there when there were not flying high), whilst Hamburg offers two teams and plenty of extra curricular activities.

Hope that helps and doesn't confuse you more.

[TSQuaker]

It's basically about four or five lads going.

I'm told that although they may change kick-off times and maybe even move a Saturday game to a Sunday (or vice-versa), if we book for the weekend we'll still make the game.