Ryanair: any experiences/ advice?

No frills. Squeezed in. The good part is that any usual flight is no longer than 2 hours. Flew from London to Nimes in the South of France for 27 British pounds(at the time 45US). Those were the days. Its fine for what it is, extremely cheap air travel.

Yeah Ryan Air sucks. But it is still an affordable way to get around.

1) Buy tickets early. You only get the cheap flights if you buy early.

2) Make sure your luggage meets the size and weight requirements. If it doesn't, they will charge you 50 british pounds - nearly $100.

3) Make sure you follow all instructions before coming to the airport, like printing out your boarding pass, for example. If you don't, they will charge you 50 british pounds.

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how early did you arrive at each airport?

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This is the other thing nobody tells you. Ryan Air always flies out of secondary airports. This means there will be hidden costs for taking shuttles to the middle of nowhere.

For example, the Barcelona airport you speak of.....is not really all that close to Barcelona at all. London? Yeah not in London. Expect to pay up to $20-30 on each leg.

So plan accordingly. Airport arrival times are similar to the U.S.

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Ryanair flies to Barcelona El Prat

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Ah well things have changed then. That's good! I still think Ryan Air is a great way to get around Europe, as I said.

But expect an overall bumpy experience. And seriously, they are out to get you so follow the rules.

That said, safe travels and have a great experience!

My daughter and her friend were in Ireland and had a flight back to Spain that got canceled for no apparent reason. It was imperative that my daughter get back to Spain in time to board her flight back to USA. She called me all upset at 2 a.m. our time! This was several years ago. I remember that it was cheaper to book her on another airline back to Spain than to have her miss her flight home and have to re-book that one. Ryan Air did eventually refund the airfare for the canceled flight.

I flew from Paris to Barcelona and then Barcelona to Rome.

Do NOT bring more than one bag. I had to pay 150 euros when we had an extra bag from buying pottery in Barcelona.

Always print your ticket out before you travel.

We used internet cafe's to print ours out.

I traveled europe for two months and used ryanair twice.

It's worth every penny! Just follow their instructions.

The flight into el prat is the main airport which is about 20 minutes from the gothic center of barcelona.

I took that exact same shuttle to the beauvais airport at 4:00am.

We had to take a cab because the metro isn't open at that time. Make sure you get set up before you go.

Have a good trip!

Flew Ryanair many times during my time in Europe. Not one complaint my friend. Unless things have changed dramatically with the airline since 2005 you should be good.

They're fine, if you don't have a lot of pre-conceptions or expectations for premium service for a simple service price.

You'll be shipped from A to B relatively efficiently, without fuss; if you want anything additional, you'll pay additional fees-- from in flight drinks to luggage beyond restrictions, extra bags, etc.

You'll go primarily to secondary airports, but that's not a deal breaker-- heck, it was cheaper to fly to London on a weekend, from Dublin, and get a train in from Stanstead to the heart of London for cheaper than I could get a rail ticket from Dublin to Belfast-- and it'd be 3 hours faster.