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: 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: 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.

im looking at car hire from barcelona airport for 5 days , looks pretty cheap , just trying to find out if u can take car into france with out incuring charges,

thanks salford 1961, but i wont be touching ryan air ever again, waste of time,

they have not even got a phone number where u can complain

Just a thought,but has anybody ever thought of getting a coach load and stopping overnight half way etc. With a full coach the cost could be about the same as fifty airfares.I think it's about a thousand miles. Just a thought.

Hertz don't charge to take a car into France,from Spain. The other ' cheaper ' car hirers charge 8 euros per day

Flying with Monarch manchester to barcelona thurs till tues, plus car hire for 5 days,( poss cheaper than one way car hire).

So back on track for some fun in the sun and 2 points. cum on you reds.