Spain to England - best options

You don't say where in Spain you are living, which would make a difference in airline connections. However, I have flown a couple of times between northern Spain and London on budget airlines, and they were prompt and comfortable flights. I flew to and from Stansted airport in London, but other "London" airports, like Gatwick and Luton are also served by budgets, depending on where you are leaving from. I flew Stansted to Santander on Ryanair, and from Oviedo to Stansted on EasyJet. The Ryanair flight was around $30 US and the EasyJet flight was slightly more (maybe $40-ish). If you start watching, they often have fare sales. (I think my Ryanair flight was a 1GBP fare, plus fees.) In both cases, they were less than 90 minute flights.

We're in Plasencia for the year, which is the northern part of Extremadura. It's about a 3.5 hr drive to either Madrid or Seville. We're looking at doing this over the Semana Santa/Easter holiday which means the fares will likely be higher. That's why we're trying to make some decisions now, while the prices might still be more reasonable.

I can only imagine that any overland travel (train, ferry) from Estremadura to England would take a really long time and the cost for a family would be tremendous. Have you looked at skyscanner.com for flight possibilities? You can plug in different airports near you and your destination to find the best option. I do imagine fares will be higher around Semana Santa.

Yes...I'm actually now looking on skyscanner and seeing some reasonable fares with easyjet. Overall I think that it will be a better way to go. Thanks.

The ferry would be a fun thing to do if you lived in Santander or Bilbao and were headed to southern England. Some of those ferries are like nice cruise ships. The ferries I took in the Mediterranean were decidedly no-frills.

You're really going to have to fly unless you have time coming out your ears. It's twenty-four hours of mean road time frm Badajoz to Dunkerque, plus a couple hours for the crossing. A train probably takes almost as long due to the connection problems at the western end of the Pyrenees. The Bilbao/Santander to Plymouth/Portsmouth ferries take about twenty-four hours, plus the eight hours it takes to get to the north coast.

You might also check British Airways. We got very reasonably priced RT tickets between Heathrow and Madrid last May during festival season in Spain (Sevilla Feria, patio festival in Cordoba). RT price was 58 pounds and there were no "add-ons" like you are plagued with on the budget fliers. Since you will be going opposite the main flow of holiday traffic, prices may not be as high as you expect.

Ryanair also fly from Spain to the UK. If you're interested in going by train, try the website themaninseat61.com
I invested in the book and he tells exactly how to do it. I think you can find most of the info on that website.