as the title says really, my Sister is stuck in Barcelona and at a hotel of £150 per night its starting to get a bit pricey.

Ive checked for car hire but one way car hire to paris is around £1200.

No ferry spaces from Santander till the 28th April

Apparently there is a strike on the trains in France and the Spanish will only send people to the border. Where people are massing in a refugee style

any help would be much appreciated
ta

Um, just a thought, but why not move to a cheaper hotel in the meantime?

If hiring, she needs a french (or better, UK) registered hire car
The major part of her quote will be for leaving a spanish car abroad so get her to ask around for Fr or GB cars to hire and then drop the car in its "rightful" country

she could find cheaper hotel/hostel or is that too obvious?

Try one of the cheap holiday companies that bus down to the Costa Brava?

Siesta etc. – they may well have capacity on a coach coming back

Buy a tent?

I believe that the hotel situation is pretty dire, people are waiting in the foyer to take any room that somebody leaves, so nobody is moving. I forgot to mention that there are 2 of them at £150 per night.

Scardypants, thanks for the idea Ill get her to see if there are any uk or french cars in

cheers

You can get a bus or a train from Barcelona to Santander – from there, take the ferry back to Plymouth as a foot passenger

buy a bicycle and have a lovely ride home

uplink, thanks for the info, ive tried siesta and while they are closed today that might be an option to try for tom.

Ive called the santander ferries and the next space they have is on the 28th !!

Its not drastic, worst case scenario I can hire a car and drive down to pick them up but it would be a long drive

Bilbao ferry?

Hitch hike – supposed to be easiest to hitch hike with a woman, so she should be in with a chance – and it'd be a cool adventure to hitch hike from Spain to the UK.

We're in the USA, and someone at our work is seriously trying to get us booked as passengers on container ships!

Joe

MMM friend of mine stuck in Malta, she has just got a flight to Barcelona and is currently on the train through France to get ferry across to UK, loving it as an adventure! so not sure about strikes

there must be a million hotels on the spanish coast for no more than £30 a night

My brother ended up driving from Phoenix to New York after 9/11.

Suggest your sister gets a tent and a sleeping bag, starts heading north by whatever means she can and keeps an eye on when airports are re-opening.

We've got a friend in Malaysia currently – she's being told 2nd of May at the earliest for repatriation..

Im checking out the Bilbao ferries now thanks for that.

Ive been trying to find out about the passengers on a freight ship. If anybody has any links or people to contact for that id be grateful to hear.

Its not really the £150 per night, more that fact that she was due back last week and their employer, whilst im sure will be understanding, wont be happy and I think that along with everybody else feels somewhat vulnerable and just wants to get home.

Ill tell her to check out the trains again

The hitchhiking could be an option, either that or a canoe,that bloke made it to Panama after all so how hard can it be!!!

BArcelona , Northern spain right, try getting to Andora ski resorts and getting a coach from there . Its practically the last week of the season but you always used to get real cheapo coach holidays from th UK to Pas de la casa.
Other alternatives, speak to a haulage company to see if they run daily runs to spain ans back. Trouble is you could end up with a 20 hour journey from hell in an arctic with a headcase, depends how desperate she is to come back.

Did this myself as my flight on Thursday night from Barcelona to Birmingham was cancelled

Friday 2pm, drive to Girona airport, drop hire car off
Taxi across border to Perpignan (to avoid 800 Euro fee from Hertz to drop Spanish hire car in France)
Hire car at Perpignan airport
Drive towards Dunkerque. Change mind about which ferry to take when north of Lyon – opted to take Roscoff ferry instead of Dunkerque ferry as the Dunkerque tickets we had were for cyclists only, and we had no bikes. We had also booked the Roscoff to Plymouth ferry as foot passengers as a plan B.
Overnight (3 hour sleep) in 30euro motorway hotel.
Drive to Roscoff, get 4pm ferry.
Collected by colleague from Plymouth, drive back to Birmingham airport to collect my car, but went via Heathrow so other colleague could collect his car.
Arrive at Birmingham airport Sunday morning at 1:40am.
😀

well done daves mum!

thanks for the help, passed on your route thanks daves mum

Were you at the same conference as me Davesmum?

Did pretty much the same thing as you to get back:

Car share to Perpignan,
Another car share from Perpignan to Cherbourg
Cheap hotel for five hours in Cherbourg
FastCat to Portsmouth
Car share to Stanstead.

In total, 1300 or so Km of driving in a day.

SS tourer and a bivi bag.

To be truthful this is very easy. Just drive yourself from the UK take the car on the tunnel or ferry and then drive back with her share the driving. Obviously you will have to do a lot of work but if she desperately needs to get back, certainly the easiest option.

as of this morning ( monday ) the navy are on the way… there are no details about logistics on the news story tho.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8628878.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8621779.stm

"What happens if I am stranded and trying to get home?

If a flight is delayed, there are strict European rules in place, which mean that the airline is obliged to provide assistance at the airport. This includes supplying meals and refreshments, along with accommodation if an overnight stay is required. "

http://www.which.co.uk/advice/flight-delays-and-cancellations-your-rights/know-your-flight-rights/index.jsp

thanks all, the daves mum acme patented route is now in place. If there is anybody else in the area looking for a lift to perpignan let me know, there are a couple of spare seats

train\bus would seem like the obvious choice

apparently one-way car hires are a lot cheaper if you leave it in-country (so train to south france, car from there maybe), I'd imagine hertz are probably getting a bit pissed off that their entire fleet is in calais though

Sounds like my family had it easy compared to a lot of folk – were down in the French Alps and instead of flying from Geneva, drove the hire car to Cherbourg – BIG thanks for Singetrackmind of this parish for booking our tickets on the seacat!
Bit of a longer trip than we expected, but got home late last night.
Fun bit was the scramble for luggage on the ferryport at Portsmouth. They just dumped them all in a heap and 1000+ passengers dived in!