Flight options & a seaside-before-mountains extension¶
Three concrete flight combinations, all London Stansted (STN) ↔ Spain, for a tentative 27 Aug – 6 Sep 2026 window (10 days) — longer, and on a different pair of candidate airports, than the 29 Aug – 6 Sep / "Zaragoza, tentative" assumption the three mountain route options above currently use (see Overview → What's assumed). This page doesn't replace those options; it's the missing "which airport, which exact dates" piece underneath them, plus a new idea — a seaside stop first — that only makes sense with two of the three flight options.
The three options¶
| Option | Outbound | Return | Shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — Reus loop | STN→REU, Thu 27 Aug, dep 12:05 → arr 15:20 | REU→STN, Sun 6 Sep, dep 17:15 → arr 18:30 | Loop — same airport both ends |
| 2 — Zaragoza loop | STN→ZAZ, Thu 27 Aug, dep 16:55 → arr 20:10 | ZAZ→STN, Sun 6 Sep, dep 10:10 → arr 11:15 | Loop — same airport both ends |
| 3 — Open-jaw (favourite) | STN→REU, Thu 27 Aug (= Option 1's outbound) | ZAZ→STN, Sun 6 Sep (= Option 2's return) | Open-jaw — in via Reus, out via Zaragoza, no loop |
Both routes are real, currently-operating Ryanair services — confirmed live on Ryanair's own site (checked 19 Aug 2026): flights to Reus (example fare shown: London STN–Reus REU one-way from £16.99, example date Wed 23 Sep 2026) and flights to Zaragoza (example fare shown: STN–ZAZ one-way from £16.99, example date Thu 10 Sep 2026).
On price for these specific dates: unconfirmed. Google Flights and Skyscanner render fares client-side in JavaScript, which the tools available in this session can't execute, so no exact price for the 27 Aug/6 Sep flights above could be pulled live. The £16.99 figures above are Ryanair's own marketing-floor examples for different sample dates, not a quote for these flights — treat them as a rough floor, not the real fare, and check Ryanair.com or Google Flights directly for the live price on the actual dates before booking.
The car-rental angle on Option 3¶
Option 3 picks up a rental car at one airport and drops it at another (Reus ↔ Zaragoza, ~240– 252 km apart — see below). That normally means an extra one-way / different-location drop fee on top of the ordinary rental cost, separate from the flight price. General guides on one-way rentals in Spain put nearby-city drop fees around €30–50, rising with distance and varying a lot by agency, with a quoted range as wide as free–€300 depending on the specific route (movetospain.org guide, checked 19 Aug 2026). Reus↔Zaragoza is meaningfully farther than the "nearby city" examples that guide uses, so treat the low end of that range skeptically — get real quotes from at least two rental agencies for this specific Reus→Zaragoza (or reverse) one-way route before treating Option 3 as decided; this is the concrete cost trade-off behind "might get more expensive with the car."
Why Option 3 enables the seaside idea¶
Reus airport sits right on the Costa Daurada coast. Flying into Reus (Options 1 or 3) turns "a few nights at the beach first, with a wingfoil taster" into a ~20–30 minute detour from the airport, not a big one — see Seaside: wingfoil near Reus for the two candidate schools — one on the open coast near Reus, one further south in the Ebro Delta with a real water-clarity trade-off — details on that page. Flying directly into Zaragoza (Option 2) drops this idea entirely, since the coast is then a multi-hour round trip out of the way rather than a stop on the way through.
If continuing to the mountains afterward, the coast → Zaragoza drive is real-routed (via OSRM, checked 19 Aug 2026) at ~239 km / ~2h44 from the Altafulla/Torredembarra area, or ~252 km / ~2h52 from Cambrils — budget a proper travel day for that leg, not a quick hop.
Where this actually stands (20 Aug 2026)¶
Option 3 (open-jaw) is the one both sides ended up going with — both of Alessio's flights are now booked, alongside Elisabeth's outbound:
- Elisabeth's outbound and return are both booked: BA486, LHR→BCN, Fri 28 Aug, dep 19:40 → arr 22:50, direct (2h10m) — £139 all-in (BA Euro Traveller); and Ryanair FR2566, ZAZ→STN, Sun 6 Sep, dep 10:10 → arr 11:15 (price not shared) — the BA↔train comparison below is now moot, she went with neither.
- Alessio's outbound is booked: easyJet, LGW→BCN, Wed 26 Aug, dep 16:45 → arr 19:55, £87.98 incl. cabin bag — 2 days ahead of Elisabeth, basing near Castelldefels for a wingfoil taster (Shaka Surf / Escola Garbí — see Seaside), then meeting Elisabeth at BCN airport and renting a car together from there — see Alessio's solo start & meeting Elisabeth for the full breakdown.
- Alessio's return is booked: Ryanair FR2566, ZAZ→STN, Tue 8 Sep, dep 15:45 → arr 16:55, €59.49 incl. cabin bag — the near-compliant Tuesday slot in ZAZ→STN's Tue/Thu/Sun weekly pattern, accepted as "decently-timed" rather than extending the trip for Thursday's fully-compliant evening departure — see Flights for the detail.
- Shared scope constraint (Elisabeth's own framing): "if we do a loop, I wouldn't try do further than Panticosa / Loarre with the Ordesa" — i.e. the Vielha/La Seu cluster (Option A's east side) is only realistically reachable in the open-jaw shape, not if the trip ends up a Reus-only or Zaragoza-only loop. This sharpens the existing "east vs. west" tension already flagged in Overview → What's assumed rather than resolving it.
- Shared planning philosophy, worth keeping in mind when sequencing days: rather do less and better than tick off a list — lock in a handful of "sure things," improvise the rest. Also: real driving times will likely run longer than any routing engine's estimate, since neither of them knows these roads and would rather stop, picnic, or take it slowly than rush a schedule.
- Car rental — avoid Goldcar specifically: flagged from a friend's direct bad experience (an attempted scam that required blocking a bank card), on top of the general one-way-fee research already noted below.
A rough, unordered route sketch from Elisabeth — not a decision¶
Elisabeth sent a Google Maps route link she was explicit about being a rough first pass, not a proposal to lock in: "it's a not fixed combination (I did from the top of my head)" and "you can improve it also because Maps has a limit." In the order the link listed them: Castelldefels → La Seu d'Urgell → (a point near Oliana, Alt Urgell) → El Pont de Suert → Vielha → Boí → Benabarre → Graus → Panticosa → Loarre.
Worth being explicit about what this sketch actually shows, rather than just repeating it:
- Castelldefels (coastal, near Elisabeth's home and BCN airport) as a seaside/wingfoil stop — the Reus-side schools on Seaside are a similar idea further south; Castelldefels itself isn't researched yet on this site.
- It mixes both sides of the east/west split the route options above are built around — La Seu/Vielha/Boí (Option A's east cluster) and Panticosa/Loarre (Option B's west cluster) and the new Benabarre/Graus (Ribagorça) stops — in one loose list, without resolving which side actually fits in the time available. That's consistent with it being a first-pass brainstorm, not a routed plan: nothing here has been checked against real driving distances or the scope constraint above.
- Not a fixed order — Elisabeth's own message says so directly. Treat the list of places as "things she'd consider including," not a day-by-day sequence.
What this changes for Options A/B/C above¶
Not yet reconciled — flagging explicitly rather than quietly picking one:
- Trip window: 27 Aug – 6 Sep (10 days) is 2 days longer than the 29 Aug – 6 Sep (9 days) window Options A/B/C are paced against. Two extra days at the front is roughly enough for the seaside stop without compressing any of the existing mountain pacing.
- Airport: Options A, B, and C all currently start and end at Zaragoza. Option 3 here starts at Reus instead of Zaragoza. Picking Option 3 + the seaside stop means each option's outbound leg would need re-routing from "start at Zaragoza" to "start from the coast" — not yet drawn on any option's route map. The return leg is unaffected: Options A and C already end back at Zaragoza, which matches Option 3's ZAZ departure as-is; only Option B's finish (also Zaragoza) is likewise already compatible.
- If Option 1 or 2 (a loop) is picked instead, no re-routing is needed — Options A/B/C's existing Zaragoza-anchored shape already fits a Reus-loop or Zaragoza-loop trip as long as the 2-day window difference above is accounted for (either compress to 9 days, or use the extra 2 days for more time within the existing route rather than a coastal detour).
See also: Overview — route options & what's assumed · Alessio's solo start & meeting Elisabeth — how the solo-lead-time, airport choice, and return question above actually play out · Seaside: wingfoil near Reus or Barcelona · Flights · Proposed plan.