the one you have forgotten is ferris holidays; there are others.
read all the threads on siesta and ferris on here, they will help you.
the coach companies all stop every 4 hours on the way down to spain.there are normally some single people travelling but they may be a bit older than you, i have done this trip many times travelling on my own
lloret is probably the best resort for you as being single there is not a great disadvantage
the next best would probably be calella.
prices are now similar to the uk in "brit" bars but there are cheaper drinks in spanish bars.
look seriously at the AI options.

Siesta have individual entertainment systems which helps break up the boredom a bit. By coach is the cheapest option for getting there and id echo everything Jim said above. You will find a lot of the resorts are geared towards Dutch / German tourists now.
You might also want to look at Costa Dorada, Salou, Benidorm etc. Still do-able by coach and more "english"

I had the same thought quite a few years ago. I'd split from a relationship a few months before and was determined to have a holiday that year. I'd recently moved back to my home town after living in Manchester for 5 years or so and my old friends were all in relationships or had moved elsewhere....

I booked a coach trip on the hope by the time I arrived in resort I would be a familiar face with other people on the coach.

However, the price I was quoted by a local travel agent as a single person was incorrect and found it was almost double the price to travel alone so I got a work colleague to come with me instead. We ended up on a coach being chartered by a pub trip from a pub a few miles away.

That's how I met what turned out to be my husband..... Beware of coach holidays!

Ferris also have much less legroom than Siesta. The new Ferris Platinum coaches are exactly the same vehicle as siestas but dont have seat back ent systems and they cram 83 seats in compared to siestas 64

NoAir wrote:

I am in my early 30's and need to get away in the summer. My mates are all married or going else where so it looks like I need to travel by myself. I hate flying so I want some advice:-

I'll give you some advices:

Do you like driving? If so, just cross over France, then northern Spain until Barcelona or wherever you want.
Roads are fine, it's not an excessively long journey.

Funny I am thinking of doing exactly the same thing in July ! I was planning on booking 2 seats on a coach for extra room. I wonder if that's possible?

if you are going to do that i would make sure that whoever you book with is aware of your plan, as if you book 2 return seats and just do a "no show" you could lose the spare seat on the return

Will do. Good point

My first ever holiday abroad was to Lloret but that was 30 years ago. We are going again in October with Shearings. I wonder how much the place has changed over the years.

the old town will still be recognisable, although most of the bars and hotels may have changed name
have a look here for some lloret nostalgia

I ended up going in May. Here is how I did it if anybody is interested as I went by train.

Tuesday: Arrived into London about Midnight from Manchester (the last train). I hung round St Pancras till the early hours to get the first Eurostar.

Wednesday: - Arrived into Paris, spent the day in Paris. Arrived to station to find train was canceled due to a strike, I was going to get the night train. Instead they made us sleep on train (I had a bed) and I got the TGV in the morning to Barcelona.

Thursday: Spent the night in Barcelona

Friday - Arrived in Salou.

Wednesday - Left Salou and did the same journey back but in reverse, got the night train from Barcelona to Paris, then arrived into Paris at around 7:30am on the Thursday, spent the rest of the day in Paris before getting the train back home.

Would you do it again would be the best question, I suppose?

I forgot about this thread so was good to read your report. However, I would say if you were considering coach travel again in the future, it may be worthwhile asking if there are any local pub or club trips going from somewhere nearby to where you live. That way, you could book on and have an opportunity to meet up with some people before you travel...

That's what we did when we realised the pub trip that we were joining was only 8 miles from where we lived so we went and introduced ourselves to the landlady who was doing the organising of it. It was a bit of an ice-breaker and she was aware we were travelling as "singles" too.

I sort of don't mind that though, but I suppose a coach is a bit more social than a train so it will be harder to keep myself to myself.

I have thought about doing it again in September, but I have been to Salou already, Lloret seems a bit busy for me, and perhaps before resorts like Cacella a bit dead that is for another thread anyway.

To do it the way I did you have to be very confident with public transport, I speak no French or Spanish so it did make life a bit hard. I did get to see so many places but I suppose you would on a coach as well. I just wonder if the social aspect would get a bit difficult. Imagine being sat on a coach with somebody you don't get on with 24 hours or more!! At least on a train the longest one I was 13 hours (Barc to Paris night train) and even then I had to change trains for a connection in the borders.

I am actually thinking in September I might just go to the UK or maybe Northern France etc :p.

We went on a girls holiday to the south of France (Juan les Pins) for 2 weeks by train when I was 22 years old. We travelled from Manchester to London and then changed to the boat train to Dover for the ferry crossing.

The crossing was as rough as hell going and people were being sick all over the boat - it was running down the windows from the upper decks....

Then we changed to the TGV in the early evening, arriving at Juan les Pins station after breakfast the next morning.

The year before, we all went to Ibiza and we paid around £320 for 2 weeks half board just across the bay from San Antonio.

The train travel alone from Manchester to Juan les Pins return cost us almost the same amount as we paid for the previous holiday. Then we had accommodation costs (B+B) plus food and spending money to find. It's possibly the most expensive holiday in comparison to today's costs that I've ever been on!

The coach was much more fun - but I can't sleep on coaches so I always arrive in the resort and back home completely knackered.

Best coach holiday: Manchester airport to Austria via Gatwick airport in the first week of May in about 2001. We were on one of the First Choice Lakes and Mountains holidays and had a week half board in one of the ski chalets. We were the first of the summer arrivals and travelled out on the last coach of the season that was used for the kids ski holidays and resort tours so it wasn't intended to return on it.
We flew back from Austria to Manchester on a plane with only 23 passengers on it and full crew in readiness for it to return with the start of the new season's holidaymakers.

Brochure price was around £185 per person and we paid £60 per person as I was able to use my company discount on it.

Austria is on my list of places to go again....

When I went to Salou in late May, the train didn't really cost me any more than the coach, but I booked it three months in advance and it did mean a night at St Pancras station in the bitter cold.

What I liked about going by train is I I was in charge of my own schedule to a point. What I didn't like was all the hassle changing at stations etc.

hi,
you have said that the train did not cost you much more than the coach and i am just curious as to how much you did pay for your trip.
if the costs are reasonable it is an option i would consider as i never seem to be able to sleep on the coach and as i travel to the area very frequently i am always looking for cheap options.

Part of it depends how easy is it to get to London and how cheap it is. I live in Manchester and this what it me.

Going:
Train to London (last one, took two hours) got to London at midnight. Cost me £12 for the ticket.
Then the worst bit is having to stick around St Pancras till the Eurostar started letting people check in at 4:30am.
I got to Paris at around 8:30 which meant I had plenty of time for the rest of the day in Paris. The Eurostar cost me £34.00
Got the train to Barcelona at 10:00pm something, it was the night train but managed to get a seat to myself. You can get beds, but I but if you're sharing with strangers that just seems a nightmare. Had to change at Por Bou and got to Barcelona around 10:00. The this ticket cost me £80.

I realise this is slower than the coach, but I did have a full day in Paris which was a big part of my holiday. I could have gone to from Manc to Paris all in the same day, but the tickets were a bit more expensive and I was on a big budget.

The return journey was quicker as I didn't hang around in Paris for long, only about four hours just to give a safety margin if the night train was late. The night train coming back was £20 cheaper too.

The best way of getting down to Barcelona is the TGV, it only takes 6 hours the problem is there is only two departures from Paris. One at 7:30am in the morning which requires an overnight stay in Paris which is just too expensive or one at 2:06pm but for me I would be pushed to get to Paris in time for that from Manchester because the trains that go to London cost a fortune before 9:30 and the problem with that is you get to Barcelona at 20:48 which is a bit late to get a train to the resort, and it no point on staying the night in Barcelona as by the time you get to hotel it will just be too late but I suppose if you can find a cheap enough travel lodge hotel it might not matter, if it is just some where to kip rather than on a train.

the other issue with the train is at resorts I find the hotels can be expensive, all the booking sites for example charge as much for the hotels as the coach companies want which also includes the travel. I was very lucky with Salou that as late May is still out of season, I got a massive discount on the hotel.

Sorry to ramble on! To quickly sum up the prices from Manc (will be similar for the south coast).
Going
Manchester to London (2 hours) - £12.00
London to Paris (just under 3 hours) - £34.00
Paris to Barcelona (14 hours including a longish connection time) £80.00
Train to Salou £8.00 (1 hour)

Going back
Train to Barc £8.00
Train to Paris £60.00
Train to London £34.00
Train to Manchester £19.00 (wanted to get home early, so got a cheaper earlier train but still had time to walk to the Thames!)

Total £255.00 I guess it is a lot more expensive than the coach but I did get to spend an entire day in Paris which is worth a lot in itself.

Another option would be national express, they do a service which goes all the way to Benidorm and beyond it was around £100 return from Lille and takes about 15 hours but they only run about 3 times a week and I couldn't make the timings work. I also fear it will be less comfortable. I did a coach journey to Paris once with college, on a bog standard coach, that wasn't a nice trip, took about 12 hours but it was a subsidised education trip, so it costs us £60 each for two nights at Euro Disney, of course we did none of the education stuff and just got drunk all night. The lecturers even told us not to bother with it, and just enjoy our selves :D.

The big advantage to the train and was the selling point for me, is the fact you can go the exact day you want and come back when you want, you are not limited to the tour operators schedules.

Jimd-f, if you are interested in train travel you can do no worse than surfing around on

http://www.seat61.com/

Using his tips and booking suggestions a friend and I travelled St Pancreas - Berlin for €98 return each last summer!

SM

SMa,
thanks for that.
i have looked there before and was curious about how cheap NoAir had been able to do the train journey.
i travel to the area very, very often and have tried just about every different way to get there cheaply using ryanair/easyjet/ferris/ba but have never been able to get a train price that is economical.
i have tried just about every airport in the south, including bournemouth, but i am a bit restricted because i refuse nowadays to spend hours sitting in airports to get flights at silly o'clock or to get a train back home.
the spat between ryanair and gerona airport which means that they have stopped flying there has been a major pain in the bum to me as i used to use that every month as the flights were at sensible times both ways.