It’s travel time again friends! I have had a great visit in Split but the time has come to explore a new destination. I’m on route today, and the first leg is flying SPU to MRS on Volotea. Marseilles here I come.
Leaving Split
I decided to take the bus to the airport. I looked at the Uber prices and they were running around €33 from my flat to SPU. I packed up my bags, headed down 7 flights of stairs and walked for 10 minutes to get to the bus station. Believe me, I was sweating when I arrived at 5:30am. But for only €3 I hopped aboard a nice clean empty bus and headed to the terminal.
SPU Airport
Wow, this is an absolute stunner of a terminal. Huge high ceilings, loads of beautiful wooden beams and so bright and airy. This is the departures area before security. The cleanliness is next level.
After security, the airport retains the same beautiful features and there is a large café upstairs where I purchased a cheese sandwich for €5 (awful) and a cappuccino for €3.50 (good).
Volotea
I had never even heard of this airline when I was doing flight research. It came in at the cheapest fare as part of my trip, so book it I did. I was pleasantly surprised by the clean aircraft, friendly crew and on time departure.
I flew from sunny Split to overcast and rainy Marseilles in France.
Flying into MRS was not scenic except for these large pools of pink water just before the airport and the Airforce Base.
Otherwise there were many layers of cloud cover and the flight did not take me anywhere over the city.
MRS Airport
Oh dear. This is not a pretty place, especially Hall B, the arrivals terminal. I had a four-hour layover here so decided to get my one decent meal of the day.
For €17.50 I purchased a full meal with beverage and dessert from Comptoirs & Cie. I chose this option as the thought of another flavourless and expensive sandwich was too much.
I enjoyed a plate of honey ham, ratatouille (my first ever) and rice with sparkling water and flan (my first ever). The flan was similar to custard in a thin tart shell, not a fan of the texture. I adore custard with cake, but the jello-y-ness of the custard in the flan was not entirely pleasant on my palate.
Ok the airport itself. Very dirty, dark, dingy and not easy to get around. I landed in Hall B and was departing from Hall A. In order to get there, I had to walk outside through a car park, and proceed in the rain to the next building. There was not a lot of signage so I did have to backtrack, pause, and scratch my head a few times.
The airport is not terrible by any means, but it is old and doesn’t seem to be taken care of or cleaned. Coming from the Split airport though I’m not sure many other airports would be able to hold a candle.
I’m through security and looking forward to my next leg which is MRS to SAW in Istanbul.
