Just wanted to share our experience of the final. Six of us Munster fans from Limerick, booked flights back in October in the hope of Munster being in the final

, got Ryanair flights from Dublin to Santander for €215 each, headed out on Wednesday lunchtime, back on Sunday evening. Nabbed a great 3 bedroom AirBnB apartment in Santander beach area for €630 for four nights, excellent value for a top notch apartment with great views of the beach for only €105 each, booked it back in December. Got the match tickets on Ticketmaster in the general sale in January, up in the bowls of the stadium, four rows from the top, €60 per ticket, no complaints with the seats. Checked out local bus/train options from Santander to Bilbao for match day but times etc weren't working for us so arranged bus transfer with one of the Irish tour companies, cost €40 return each, while this was on the expensive side the convenience outweighed the cost, got the bus from near our apartment at 10.00 am and picked it up from near the stadium at 9.30 pm that night, back at apartment just after 11.00 pm.
Really enjoyed Santander, very easy city to navigate, great reasonably priced restaurants/cafes/bars, very friendly people. Met lots of Leinster supporters especially from Friday onwards, also surprised with the amount of supporters from other clubs, English, Scottish, Welsh, all staying there for the final. Considered going to Bilbao for the Challenge Cup Final on the Friday night, but the 9.00 pm kick-off and subsequent late return put us off. Found a great sports bar in the beach area to watch it instead, packed with Leinster supporters, everyone cheering on Cardiff
We weren't overly impressed with Bilbao as a city in comparison to Santander, less friendly in general, of course the weather on Saturday didn't help the overall impression

Found that a lot of the restaurants/bars didn't seem to be prepared for the influx of rugby supporters, we tried three different restaurants/cafe bars to get lunch to be told they were full even though there were empty tables to be seen, got the impression they didn't want to serve us (3 couples) for whatever reason. Have to say the stadium staff were very well prepared for the crowd, no delay/que getting in about 45 minutes before kick-off, I had a ruck-sack with rain gear etc, they give a quick look into it and no problem bringing it into the stadium. Cans of Heineken for sale inside for €6

also selling what was a pint and a half of draught in a plastic glass for €11! There seemed to be a big local attendance at the game, maybe it was just in our section but a lot of very noisy, very drunk Spanish people who might as well have been watching a game of hop-scotch for all they knew/cared about rugby

While the game itself wasn't the most exciting, it was great to be there to witness an Irish team win.
Overall had a great four night trip away and can say hand on heart every Leinster supporter with met couldn't have been more friendly towards us as Munster supporters, the craic was had and will forever live in the memory.
