How to get to Alicante from Manchester

How to Travel from Manchester to Alicante?

The most efficient and cost effective way to travel from Manchester to Alicante is by plane. Flights leave Manchester each day with direct and indirect routes to the Spanish city. It’s a very popular route with a number of budget and flag carrying airlines.

It’s generally a tourism route with people travelling from Manchester to Alicante for weekend trips and longer holidays. Direct flights take around 2h 50min to complete while indirect flights can take up to 8h depending on the transit time during the stopover. Naturally you will have to add the time to get between the airports and cities by public transport as well as the time required in the airport pre-departure.

What is the Cheapest Way To Get from Manchester to Alicante?

The budget airlines Ryanair and easyJet tend to be the cheapest as long as you book in advance. They also tend to be direct flights. The prices on national carriers such as KLM, British Airways, Iberia and Air France tend to be more expensive.

The national carriers offer mostly indirect flights and transit through their national hubs, such as Amsterdam, London Heathrow, Iberia and Air France.The cost of all airline tickets rise as the departure date gets closer and the flights fill up. Among the national carriers the indirect flights can sometimes be cheaper than the direct ones. Being flexible with your dates can also help when booking flights as good savings can be made if you travel on less busy days.

What is the Fastest Way to Travel from Manchester to Alicante?

Travel time from Manchester to Alicante is around 2h 50min if you fly direct. This is the fastest way to travel between the two cities. You can take an indirect flight but the transit times can be anything from 2h to 23h in the case of Air France and its Paris connection. It’s also worth calculating how much time it will take to travel to the departure airport. Both Manchester Airport (MAN) and Alicante Airport (ALC) offer good local transport connections. Flights depart throughout the day. The earliest is around 06:30 a.m. and the latest flights out of Manchester tend to be around 5:30 p.m.

Alicante Street. Source: Shutterstock

Find the best tickets from Manchester to Alicante and book with Omio

The Omio booking platform allows you to compare travel routes, the modes of travel, the journey time and the price for your journey between Manchester and Alicante, so that you can get a very clear picture of the benefits of one route over another. You can see all the transport providers on one page and easily compare flights with trains and buses, where available. The company also publishes Omio magazine, a travel destination publication with lots of ideas and tips to help you choose and enjoy your trip. Check their advice before traveling to your next destination.

Flights from Manchester to Alicante

Manchester Airport is the third busiest airport in the UK and is very well resourced with passenger amenities. Local transport connections to the airport are excellent and you can reach it from any part of the UK. The route from Manchester Airport to Alicante Airport (ALC) is dominated by budget airlines. Ryanair and easyJet both travel this route with direct flights every day to Alicante. Ryanair tends to be more frequent. In addition a number of national airlines offer indirect routes to Alicante via other British or European cities. British Airways transits through London Heathrow (LHR), KLM transits through Amsterdam (AMS) while Iberia also uses the Heathrow connection.

Alicante View. Source: Shutterstock

Flying from Manchester to Alicante with Ryanair, easyJet, British Airways and KLM

Ryanair's flights are often the cheapest and most frequent on this route. The company is very popular but has strict rules around cabin baggage and checked in baggage. If you are travelling with a lot of baggage you will find the price of your flight can increase quite quickly. On their cheapest fare you can bring one small piece of personal baggage on board. You will have to pay extra for cabin baggage. easyJet’s flights are one of the cheaper operators, with a small number of flights per day. This is a popular provider but, as with many budget carriers, there are strict rules around cabin baggage and checked in baggage

On easyJet’s cheapest fare you can bring one small piece of personal baggage on board. You will have to pay extra for cabin baggage. However, you can save around 50% if you book your baggage online at time of booking rather than paying for it at the airport. British Airways flights from Manchester to Alicante are in the medium price range. They offer a small number of flights per day and they tend to transit through London Heathrow. This adds another few hours to your journey. In terms of baggage, on their cheapest fare you can bring a small personal item and checked bag as well as the option of seat selection.

Iberia flies via Heathrow also and in addition to this baggage allocation you can also bring a cabin bag when travelling with that airline. KLM flies from Manchester to Alicante daily. The prices tend to be in the medium range and usually transit through Amsterdam (AMS). This can sometimes be a lengthy stopover with a wait of between 4h and 13h. The cheapest KLM fares come with a baggage limit of one personal item and one piece of cabin baggage.

To Alicante by flight — travel tips

Alicante is the main town on Spain’s Costa Blanca and is one of the most important tourism destinations in the region. The town itself is very attractive with a substantial old town that offers wonderful architecture with small narrow streets and attractive squares and markets. Food and drink is a huge attraction here, with many restaurants and cafes offering excellent quality Spanish food in both traditional and modern guises.

Families particularly enjoy the region with its large beaches, good family nightlife and lots of activities on the water and inland in the more mountainous areas. Tourism is very well developed and you will find it easy to get around and explore. Couples enjoy the area for its romantic coastal breaks and boutique hotels, as well as great restaurants and bars. Rice takes centre stage in this Mediterranean city with hundreds of different ways of cooking it while seafood is a very close second in terms of popularity.

Regional desserts and sweets are hugely popular here also, with sweet fig bread and Turrón being some of the more typical local recipes. If you enjoy museums, a recent addition to the must see list is the refurbished Provincial Archaeological Museum. Set in the grounds of the old San Juan de Dios Hospital, it unlocks the interconnected stories of the region’s Greek, Roman and Iberian history.

Alicante’s climate ensures a year-round destination with good sunshine throughout the year. The calendar is also built around lots of festivals and events that mark national holidays and important events making it a busy place in any month. There are a number of important nature reserves and national parks near the city and at least a dozen golf courses with magnificent views of the Mediterranean and the mountains.