I am seriously thinking of having a holiday to Cuba around the Christmas time. Has anyone booked a long haul holiday and departed from Spain? What were your experiences of the airline, what is the best travel agent etc. And if you had children how did they manage on a 10 hour flight with all the entertainment in Spanish. OK it is not the kids I am worried about - they are now flluent - its me, 10 hours doing nothing. Or do I take on the extra cost and go from the UK?

Well we're off to Florida next year and I've already more or less taken the decision that we'll go from the UK.
Having said that I will be going to a local Travel agent to see whats on offer as a lot of the travel advertised over here seems to be severely cheaper than back in blighty

Well I would guess you need to fly out from Madrid? So a flight to Madrid and then to Cuba or flight to England and then Cuba. Madrid airport is international friendly anyway.

I went to Mexico last October flying from Bilbao. The flights I found online were considerably cheaper flying with BA via london than with Iberia via Madrid. May be worth checking out if you're thinking of organising it yourself.

It was also cheaper flying bilbao-heathrow-mexico than heathrow-mexico!!

We went to Mexico and flew to UK first, then onto Mexico.
We had a grandson with us, I think he was about three and as good as gold on the flight, but then all kids are different. ;-)

we did the same christmas before last, alicante to heathrow (overnight) next day heathrow to washington then onto florida (our first time so was exciting) - would NEVER do that again - such a long journey. I would recommend going from madrid, think you can fly direct

Yeh but we were going to stay over in the Ukl for a few days, and also we're going with our daughter who lives there

Couple of years ago we took our, then 3 year old, off to the States via Madrid - we went Alicante to Madrid, then American Airlines (who were great) to Philadelphia then to Orlando - took about 20 hours! It was a long journey, luckily our little boy was an angel all the way! Bless him, 5 days later we went off the New York stayed for 2 nights then Niagara Falls stayed for a night and then back to Madrid via Philadelphia again (all in 10 days) then Madrid to Alicante and home. We were exhausted but it was worth it - about 10 flights in all but only cost £1200 for the 3 of us.
Next year we are off to California and I am still trying to work out whether to go via Madrid again or London - price wise its the same I reckon, probably quicker via Madrid cos you don't have to stop overnight but lots of travelling in one day. As far as coping on the flight in Spanish it really depends on the airline you fly with, we went with American Airlines and all films etc were in English so it wasn't a problem, if you fly Iberia though it might be a problem!
Hope this helps!

Forgot to say we booked through Expedia.com or Expedia.co.uk. You can get some good deals with them.

Thanks for your advice everyone.