Traveling to South of Spain

[Grenville_374566248]

I am traveling to the south of Spain in my caravan in November and staying for 3 months. Some advice please. Which is the cheapest route,Plymouth to Santander, then down to Spain or Calias and avoid the motorways and use the N roads. "The last time I went to Spain was 40 years ago". If someone could give me some tips and advice I would be very gratefull.

Grenville & Janice White

 

[Jaydug]

I've been driving to Spain in November for several years, sometimes by Portsmouth/Bilbao but mostly from Calais or Dunkirk. So P&O, NorfolkLine or Eurotunnel whoever has the best deal. If you shop at Tesco then collect Tesco vouchers and try Eurotunnel.

If you travel via Boulogne, Rouen, Chartres, Tours, Bordeaux, Burgos and Madrid, you can get away with using very little toll road, because it is mostly fairly fast dual carriageway.

 

[Clive-Cardiff]

Hi Grenville.I think you will find that Brittany Ferries will not be running from late November until spring, so you will have to check your travel times for availability.

We've done this trip a number of times, both using the short sea crossings and the Bilbao crossing.

One major problem with France at that time of year is the dearth of sites open for overnight stops.

The route from Blbao/Santander to the south is quite easy, Burgos, Madrid, Granada.

I drive a 3lt 4X4 but even with this it's difficult to justify the Santander crossing on cost alone. I can say though that the Santander route is a much quicker and more relaxed way to reach the fine weather.

One tip on finance, if you haven't already done so open a Nationwide Flex account and take out a Nationwide credit card.

Using the flex account to get your money from an atm there are no commission charges, similarly the credit card is commission free within the EU.

 

[Grenville_374566248]

Hi Grenville.I think you will find that Brittany Ferries will not be running from late November until spring, so you will have to check your travel times for availability.

We've done this trip a number of times, both using the short sea crossings and the Bilbao crossing.

One major problem with France at that time of year is the dearth of sites open for overnight stops.

The route from Blbao/Santander to the south is quite easy, Burgos, Madrid, Granada.

I drive a 3lt 4X4 but even with this it's difficult to justify the Santander crossing on cost alone. I can say though that the Santander route is a much quicker and more relaxed way to reach the fine weather.

One tip on finance, if you haven't already done so open a Nationwide Flex account and take out a Nationwide credit card.

Using the flex account to get your money from an atm there are no commission charges, similarly the credit card is commission free within the EU.

John and Clive thank you both for your reply.

I had Santander in my mind,the Caravan club has suggested that the ferry crossing could be

 

[RayS]

The economics may be influenced by where you are starting from. If Dover is nearer or even breakeven distance for you than Portsmouth, then the short crossing may well be cheaper, even allowing an extra night or two in France.

Also it depends on where in spain you are going. If to the south coast or as far up the east cost as, say, Mojacar, then the route down the west coast of France and across to Valencia via Zaragoza is a pretty good straightline and avoid the potential trouble spots of Madrid and Barcelona.

I would check out your dis;tance to Portsmouth or Calais and then check your overall distance to say Bordeaux or St Jean de Luz and see how the costs work out. While there are not all tham many French sites open all year there are enough if you plan carefully, similarly across the middle of Spain. If you get a CC Volume 1 Europe site guide you will be able to find such sites at Poitiers, Pons, Bordeaux, St Jean de Luz in France and at Catalayud, Manzanera, Navajas, Moncofa, Murcia in Spain.

A reasonable way of doing the check is to use www.viamichelin.com and put in the appropriate data - this shoudl give you overall costs.

For fuel assume France is about UK prices, spain about 10% cheaper. The french autoroute tolls can be very expensive, particularly south from Calais, whereas you can get south of Nates on the west coast route toll-free.

Have a good browse round on a wet Bank Holiday !