Swiss Tony
Jul 29, 04, 12:02 pm
Hardly a rtw in F, but may be of use to someone!
There's a handful of airports within 2hrs drive of me, about half of which offer flights to GCI. However, due to a combination of fares and timings, we decided to take the flight from Southampton (SOU). Unfortuantely this involved driving down the A34 on a Friday night and being new to this part of the world, I hadn't realised quite how stupid this idea was.
Figuring i'd be through with work by 4pm, I thought this would be perfect to make the 7.50pm flight (7.05pm cut off for check-in). Multimap said it would take 1.5hrs, so that allowed plenty of time. Anyway, cutting a long story short, we pulled into the airport at 6.55pm & given this was the last flight of the night, dumped the car in the very convenient short stay car park.
It was just a few steps into the terminal, where we were greeted by a snaking queue for Fly be's check-in. Sod that! A quick word at the ticket desk & on the grounds that we only had very small carry-ons, two boarding passes were produced, for row 12 of the Dash 8-300.
Having never used SOU before, I didn't know what to expect, other than it would be quite small. And it was. 10 metres from the BE ticket desk and we were at security. No queue here, but given the airport is owned by BAA, it was little surprise to then find ourselves standing in a duty free shop (does anyone else think that's a bit reminiscent of Mr Ben?)
Still feeling rather fraught from the drive (and prospect of missing flights/having hotels charge for no-shows), it was a case of find the bar and get some drinks in. Much to my disgust, they didn't sell draft beers - only bottled beers at prices that wouldn't be out of place in Central London, but I was thirsty.
Anyway, about 7.35pm they called the flight which must have been 75% full. By 7.45pm everyone was on board & doors were closed, with us in Row 12 - the second last one. Plenty of space - somewhere in excess of 35", and seats don't recline so no knee bashing here. Seating is 2-2 and row 11 is an emergency exit so has about 40-45" of legroom. Slight delay at the runway, but then off to Guernsey. Flight is 120 miles, so doesn't take long, but they did manage to get around with a duty free cart and a drinks service. Claiming to be a LCC, you have to pay for the drinks and normally I wouldn't bother but in trying to relax and get that drive out of my mind, I managed to find room for a swift Gin & Tonic. £125 return did seem a little steep for such a short flight, but in fairness we did only book 24hrs in advance.
Plane landed a few minutes early before taxiing onto stand. They're in the process of building a new terminal and although the building is finished, I suspect the pier isn't. Fortunately it was a warm, dry evening and the sun was just setting as we began walking the 400m or so across the tarmac. Again, another tiny airport. No immigration formailities and although they have customs, not a soul around.
We'd pre-booked a taxi, having learnt the hard way that demand outstrips supply on Guernsey most of the time, so with that we were off to our hotel.
2 nights at La Fregate - www.lafregatehotel.com - was a very pleasant break. Excellent harbour view room with balcony, telescope, crisp linen sheets and a room service breakfast that was out of this world. (They even provided us with a bowl of strawberries as requested, at no extra charge!)
I wasn't overly impressed with the restaurant - which is supposed to be one of the best on the island - but otherwise would struggle to fault the place. All too soon, it was time to come home :(
Out to the airport (we'd hired a car, so dropped it off at GCI), checked in & this time got seats in row 6. GCI is slightly larger an airport than SOU, but not by much. Facilities are limited, but there's a good bar upstairs with pay internet terminals and a nice view of the runway. You can only go through security about 30 mins before departure, but Mrs Swiss bought a nice bunch of Guernsey flowers just before we did this, then I stocked up on some cheap duty free - Gin £9 a litre etc.
There's nothing else to do in the departure lounge, but again you can see the runway.
The inbound plane landed a few minutes late, but once again a Dash 8 and since no one had big carry on bags, boarding was very swift. Doors closed on time and it was a quick 40 minute flight back across the English Channel. Having left Guernsey bathed in sunshine, we got to the Isle of Wight and there was a thick blanket of cloud lying across the south coast of England.
A big loop to the North of the airfield added on 5 mins or so and we touched down bang on schedule. No other flights were landing, so we were off the plane and into the (deserted) customs hall in a matter of minutes, and back in the car 5 minutes after that. So OK, it did cost £26 for 2 days parking, but we made the flight & had a great weekend away.
Southampton airport has its own station and is connected by fast train to Waterloo - it takes an hour - and if you're struggling to find a cheap flight, it might be worth checking out www.flybe.com - SOU's small size makes a refreshing change from the likes of LHR & LGW...
There's a handful of airports within 2hrs drive of me, about half of which offer flights to GCI. However, due to a combination of fares and timings, we decided to take the flight from Southampton (SOU). Unfortuantely this involved driving down the A34 on a Friday night and being new to this part of the world, I hadn't realised quite how stupid this idea was.
Figuring i'd be through with work by 4pm, I thought this would be perfect to make the 7.50pm flight (7.05pm cut off for check-in). Multimap said it would take 1.5hrs, so that allowed plenty of time. Anyway, cutting a long story short, we pulled into the airport at 6.55pm & given this was the last flight of the night, dumped the car in the very convenient short stay car park.
It was just a few steps into the terminal, where we were greeted by a snaking queue for Fly be's check-in. Sod that! A quick word at the ticket desk & on the grounds that we only had very small carry-ons, two boarding passes were produced, for row 12 of the Dash 8-300.
Having never used SOU before, I didn't know what to expect, other than it would be quite small. And it was. 10 metres from the BE ticket desk and we were at security. No queue here, but given the airport is owned by BAA, it was little surprise to then find ourselves standing in a duty free shop (does anyone else think that's a bit reminiscent of Mr Ben?)
Still feeling rather fraught from the drive (and prospect of missing flights/having hotels charge for no-shows), it was a case of find the bar and get some drinks in. Much to my disgust, they didn't sell draft beers - only bottled beers at prices that wouldn't be out of place in Central London, but I was thirsty.
Anyway, about 7.35pm they called the flight which must have been 75% full. By 7.45pm everyone was on board & doors were closed, with us in Row 12 - the second last one. Plenty of space - somewhere in excess of 35", and seats don't recline so no knee bashing here. Seating is 2-2 and row 11 is an emergency exit so has about 40-45" of legroom. Slight delay at the runway, but then off to Guernsey. Flight is 120 miles, so doesn't take long, but they did manage to get around with a duty free cart and a drinks service. Claiming to be a LCC, you have to pay for the drinks and normally I wouldn't bother but in trying to relax and get that drive out of my mind, I managed to find room for a swift Gin & Tonic. £125 return did seem a little steep for such a short flight, but in fairness we did only book 24hrs in advance.
Plane landed a few minutes early before taxiing onto stand. They're in the process of building a new terminal and although the building is finished, I suspect the pier isn't. Fortunately it was a warm, dry evening and the sun was just setting as we began walking the 400m or so across the tarmac. Again, another tiny airport. No immigration formailities and although they have customs, not a soul around.
We'd pre-booked a taxi, having learnt the hard way that demand outstrips supply on Guernsey most of the time, so with that we were off to our hotel.
2 nights at La Fregate - www.lafregatehotel.com - was a very pleasant break. Excellent harbour view room with balcony, telescope, crisp linen sheets and a room service breakfast that was out of this world. (They even provided us with a bowl of strawberries as requested, at no extra charge!)
I wasn't overly impressed with the restaurant - which is supposed to be one of the best on the island - but otherwise would struggle to fault the place. All too soon, it was time to come home :(
Out to the airport (we'd hired a car, so dropped it off at GCI), checked in & this time got seats in row 6. GCI is slightly larger an airport than SOU, but not by much. Facilities are limited, but there's a good bar upstairs with pay internet terminals and a nice view of the runway. You can only go through security about 30 mins before departure, but Mrs Swiss bought a nice bunch of Guernsey flowers just before we did this, then I stocked up on some cheap duty free - Gin £9 a litre etc.
There's nothing else to do in the departure lounge, but again you can see the runway.
The inbound plane landed a few minutes late, but once again a Dash 8 and since no one had big carry on bags, boarding was very swift. Doors closed on time and it was a quick 40 minute flight back across the English Channel. Having left Guernsey bathed in sunshine, we got to the Isle of Wight and there was a thick blanket of cloud lying across the south coast of England.
A big loop to the North of the airfield added on 5 mins or so and we touched down bang on schedule. No other flights were landing, so we were off the plane and into the (deserted) customs hall in a matter of minutes, and back in the car 5 minutes after that. So OK, it did cost £26 for 2 days parking, but we made the flight & had a great weekend away.
Southampton airport has its own station and is connected by fast train to Waterloo - it takes an hour - and if you're struggling to find a cheap flight, it might be worth checking out www.flybe.com - SOU's small size makes a refreshing change from the likes of LHR & LGW...