Hi Helen
There may be some truly beautiful country around Derby, but you have to admit it is a bit of a b…… when flying abroad. Mind you, I’m only 90-minutes from Gatwick (or 3 days during the M25 rush) and that journey home is a sod after a night flight.
OK, so solutions: Firstly, as I read your message, you’re thinking of breaking the outbound journey somewhere. Is that right?
Manchester is obviously your nearest international airport – around 100 miles and half the driving time less than Gatwick, by my calculation. So, why not look at flights from Manchester? You have a couple of possibilities.
BWIA announced the start of twice weekly flights from Manchester to Tobago via Barbados and Trinidad. I don’t know whether these have started, but it’s worth checking. The flight time from Barbados to Trinidad is well under an hour, so I don’t know whether it’s worth stopping-over there, frankly.
BWIA offer direct flights from Washington, USA, to Tobago on Thursdays – I believe this is still the only direct flight to Tobago from North America. (if not, somebody please, please let me know). BWIA also offer flights from Miami via Trinidad. If you are set on breaking the journey, you could therefore fly from Manchester to Washington or Florida, stop for a day or two, and then continue to Tobago.
The Manchester flights would obviously partly overcome that horrible early-morning journey home from Gatwick. Mind you, all the above options are going to cost a lot more and you could find it cheaper to simply stay at Gatwick on the day of return, then drive home the following day. One final thought: the new Virgin flight is currently the shortest, most direct flight to Tobago from the UK and the departure/return times are much more convenient that the BA/Monarch flights. See our
Airline section for more details of flight options.