Hi stefanie1892 welcome to the forums

I've asked a member with lots of coaching holiday experience to pop in here to assist you. Hopefully they'll do so shortly

Hello , i have travelled to the costa brava 9 times with Ferris coach holidays , never used eurolines so i cant comment on them . we used to be picked up locally and then travel down to Dover to catch the ferry , sometimes we would stop enroute to pick up other travellers , once in france we would travel throught he day and night stopping for meal breaks and refuelling , so you could get off and stretch your legs , in total from being picked up on for instance a friday morning at roughly 8am we would normally be outside our holiday accomodation by 9am on the saturday morning , it is a long journey so be prepared and have lots of things to keep you occupied , make the journey part of the holiday , as i said earler not used any other operator for this so not sure if they pick up enroute once in france or spain , which could make the journey longer . Just be prepared for a very long journey

Eurolines own website shows it as a 36 hour run with two changes of coach. Once in Paris (90 minute stop) and once near Burgos in Spain (45 minutes). It claims the middle leg of the journey has a 12½ hour non-stop overnight run which I find hard to believe so there may be refreshment stops not shown. There are public stops on the Spanish leg but how long you'd have to get refreshments isn't shown. Clearly this is a journey that needs some good research before setting off!

Bear in mind that Eurolines is not an actual company - it's an alliance of operators. In Britain they are represented by National Express but the other two coaches will be from other companies. the Spanish one might be Alsa (who just happen to be owned by National Express!) but Alsa claim not to serve Malaga under their own name.

I've done a bit more research of my own.

Eurolines Spanish site denies any knowledge of a service from Paris (or anywhere in the UK) to Malaga!

Their French site confirms the times of the British site for the Paris- Malaga journey but quotes a different change point. And it says that eating on the coach is forbidden.

Was there a reason for putting yourself through this ???!

hi stephanie...welcome aboard.....I did manchester to Salou and Callela de parafrugel for about 9yrs...but booked as part of a holiday with Siesta who have their own coaches...I loved my coach ride as gave me time to unwind before starting my hols....there was a hostess service on coach so no worry about refreshments...films on as well....they really looked after you and was part of the hols....

Dont know what other coach companies are like....but 36 hrs from london seems a long run....we used to leave manchester airport at 8.10am ....pick up in about 5 places onroute...change coach at watford gap so you landed up on right coach for the resort you were going to...then over on ferry at dover....and we would be in Salou by 12noon next day ...aprox 28hrs and that was from manchester.....my son once joined us at dover at about 2.30pm as he lives in london ...which made his journey aprox 21hrs.

Thank you everyone for all of the feedback! Am still considering whether to go by coach or attempt a flight - or go to Devon! Lots of good advice though and really helpful - thanks x

So you're not considering the middle option of going by train then.....?

Depending on what reason your considering coach travel i would certainly think about an overnight stop , along the way . The train journey does appeal to me .

I did think about going by train but it seemed like alot more changes and more expensive than coach (but quicker!). I looked at the website seat61 which was very helpful. x

Seat61 is very good but it can't possibly cover everything. And you could mix and match - say National Express to Paris then on by train. When were you thinking of going? And is any London start time OK or do you have to travel??

Travelled to Spain, France, and Italy by coach, but always by organised coach holiday companies. I don't really mind the journey, but with an organised company you'll get plenty of decent breaks, a good hostess, etc. Travelling independently would be totally different i would imagine

I've been on a coach holiday to Italy which I would never do again (can't remember the name of the company now) but I've also crossed Australia independently by Greyhound Bus which was an absolute joy/