we fly from Newcastle two weeks time great flights leave GC afternoon home early evening

We fly home at about 1pm with thomson to gatwick. But we have had early morning flights in the past but what you can do is speak to the hotel reception when you get there and ask for a later check out time on the day of departure it will normally be about 20-30 euro but well worth it as you can stay in your room to about 6 or 7 pm then go for a meal then shoot of to the airport.

The last few years we have always booked a late check out room (Babalu apartments let us stay in the room untill bus picked us up at 12.30am!)
Rooms are usually a bit costly but definately worth it if you've got young children. You could even share the cost with other people leaving the same time as you!!
This year we've got great flights with THOMAS COOK leaving GC at about 1.30pm, so no need for late checkout room this time

Hi ,
Try:-

http://www.thomascookfly.co.uk

We've booked with these for june and our departure time back to birmingham is 23.55 and land back here at 4am
You can choose your inbound and outbound date yourself

Hope this helps

Hi! They have always been ridiculous times from Leeds/brad too. That's why we booked to go to tenerife instead, just hoping flight times are different next year (Although they have been more or less same flight times for last three years), so I don't hold out much hope! BBB.

that was our problem too .. the flight times this year are really bad .. on the dates we wanted to go it was going out ok .. but was departing at midnight and returrning to Glasgow at 4am .. meanign we wouldnt get home til about 5.30 !!

ended up booking to leave at 2.30 and returning at 7pm .. so not too bad??

we had great itmes from Doncaster in March ( well they would have been if the plane was on time coming back!) and we have got great times again in November. We leave at 9.20am and will be in Las palmas at approx 1.40pm and depart las palmas at 2.45pm to get back to Donny at 7.20pm. This is with Thomsons.

On Mondays, the flight leaves Donny at 7.00am ish which i think is great. I did see some pretty awful times from Manchester tho ( which my friend is on, i think that is a 4.00am one)

Val and Rob - did you come back on the 27th by any chance? I was on the stansted flight but had friends going back on the Donny one, and remember their problems. Was all to do with the ATC strikes in France.

Stansted do fairly decent flight times so it seems like it's a case of choosing the right airport if geography allows...

yep comedy dave, we did travel on 27th and yes..it was something to do with strikes in France..and on the way to Gran Can, the flight had to divert to faro to refuel. The actual travel time once we took off was not too bad.. we did it in under 4 hours as we got a really good wind behing the plane. I hope when we come back in November we get our flights running on time...and Donny will always be our first choice airport now as it is so close to home. Humberside is not too much further away but before that we always went from East Mids..i guess we are spoilt now with Donny being right on our doorstep..

Wherever we go we always offer for someone who has a crazy flight time to have the use of our room while we are out for dinner etc. This lets them get a shower, and perhaps let kids get some sleep, and our room would only be sitting empty anyway. Similarly, we have always been lucky and been offered the use of a room by someone else to get showered etc. This has always worked out really well for us and has saved paying to keep a room on which is only generally until 6pm anyway.

Polly

hi
hope this helps
whenever we have late flights back
we tend if you are sorting the holiday yourself on the internet
to book the accomodation for 15 days
the price generally does not get silly that way
and you dont have to pack and then move to another room or hospitality room
this advice usually works at peak times and so you are ensured of a room
often it gets to the last day and reception will say sorry new arrivals and you cant use the room

just had a look to see if we can squeeze an extra visit in before November when we come with all the family and the flight times are absolutely shocking.....departing from Donny at 18.45...and return journey departing Las Palmas at 04.45...needless to say..we will give it a miss and wait until November when we have got great times from Donny.

Just looked for flight times from leeds/brad, for oct 2007, the flight times are just as bad next year (As in previous years), flying bk at 1 and arriving back at 5 in morning, manchester's flight times are just as bad too! Think I'll go to lanzarote instead! BBB,

we would also love to do Lanza but they don't do flights there at present from Donny and thomsons have said they have no plans to introduce them. Rob will not fly from anywhere else now so we are restricted...

Why waste your precious holiday daytime while you're in the air and hanging around in airports. I would always choose a night flight when there's one available.

If you book accommodation direct with the owner, then you will probably find that they are used to dealing with night-time arrivals and departures. I have two apartments there. About 60% of my arrivals and departures are nights, so we just arrange a 6pm clean, so you make use of the whole day, get showered then go out for the evening, leaving your packed luggage in the apartment. Just come back and collect your luggage when it's time to go.

It's only the tour operators who make rules like checkout time = 10 am... but they know the practicalities too, so there's every chance that you will be given a temporary room for changing/showering/storage until you leave.

if i was flying to an apaprtment i owned, then i guess i wouldn't care less what the flight times are as i would not be restricted on the length of time i could stay there. For us, we are usually on a package holiday, and it still counts as the first day of your holiday even if you depart at night..so you spend half the first day of your holiday at the airport waiting to board, then quite possibly some of the early hours of the second at the other end, transferring and getting checked in at your hotel..so then you are completely knackered and have very little time to relax and enjoy your holiday before you have to be out and transferring back to the airport for yet another stupid flight time. I am of course basing this on a 7 day holiday ( which is what we took in March). I would prefer to fly early in the morning and then you have the rest of the day to look forward to..that is only my opinion, and doing that suits us most as a family and for our circumstances.

Hi! Totally agree. If it was just me and other half don't think it would be much of a prob, but we have our young son with us, and our first hol was to gran canaria (Horrendous flight times), and a 3 hour delay to put . Poor lad was totally knackered, infact he was ill (due to been overtired)- so never again!. Plus we had to be out of our apartment at 10 in morning, and was not been picked up until 1 in early hours of morning (Total of 15 hours, without nowhere to rest ), I did my damndest to try and pay extra to stay in our apartment (Even said I was pregnant!)- to no avail!

Val n rob - First choice fly from leeds/brad, to lanzarote, having looked at most tour operaters prices for next oct, they are coming out cheaper than most others, (Well for oct anyway), we usually find direct hols, or thomsons cheaper (But not this time!). Regards, BBB.

Sorry val n rob- I don't know why I got it into my head it was leeds/brad airport your hubby would only fly from (Instead of doncaster!). Think it was because my other half is the same, and will only fly from leeds/brad! Sorry, just ignore my second (Waffling) paragraph! BBB.

Its ok BBB.. i had been trying to persuade him for leeds/Bradford or Humberside ( humberside is not that far away) but i guess he has got used to the fact that we are only 15 miles away from Donny airport ( 12 if you go the back road!) so until the airport expands and different operaters other than thomsons go from there on a bigger scale.. we are pretty restricted.