No special treatment: A fellow passenger took this photograph of the couple in the departure lounge ahead of the Ryanair flight from Stansted airport to Malaga, in southern Spain, on Wednesday afternoon.
With budget flights and a 'mid-market' hotel, Samantha Cameron's 40th birthday treat was possibly not the most lavish celebration she could have envisaged. Mindful of how a luxury holiday would appear amid massive public spending cuts, she and husband David who has a $55 million fortune, were decidedly restrained in how they marked her landmark age. The trip even included a pit stop for a drink in a bar which, while surely welcome in the heat of the south of Spain, was certainly not upmarket Claridge's, complete as it was with green plastic chairs and peeling paint.A fellow passenger took a photograph of the couple in the departure lounge ahead of the Ryanair flight from Stansted airport to Malaga, in southern Spain, on Wednesday afternoon. The suggestion it was all a stunt orchestrated by No10 was denied by Downing Street who insisted they had not organised any photo opportunities throughout the trip.
As the school holidays have not yet started, they left their three children in Britain. After the two-hour flight they were driven to Granada, where yesterday morning they visited the Alhambra, a magnificent palace and fortress built by the region’s Moorish leaders in the 14th century. The couple were then photographed strolling through El Realejo, a pretty neighbourhood of the Andalucian city - the Prime Minister dressed casually in trainers.
Mrs Cameron does not turn 40 until April 18, but the couple took the opportunity of the start of the Easter parliamentary recess to get away.
It is their first foreign holiday since he became Prime Minister last May, and Cabinet colleagues have been urging him to take a break. The couple aborted plans for a luxury family holiday in Thailand at Christmas amid fears it would appear excessive at a time when thousands were losing their jobs.
It is not known how much they paid for the Ryanair flights, but an equivalent return trip next week would cost £152 each. They are staying in a three-star family-run hotel, where a double room costs 120 euros (£105) a night. Downing Street insiders stressed that the hotel was ‘mid-market’.
