Travelling to Spain via car

My husband and i are lucky enough to be moving to Quesada full time at the end of January. We will need to drive down as we have our lovely golden retriever to bring plus some of our belongings. We are not sure whoich way to come as some people say take the ferry to France and drive down, some say get the 24 hour ferry to Spain then drive the rest and others say get the euro tunnel and then drive the rest. If anyone has done the drive we would love to hear from you about the route and recommendations for hotel stops etc. We live in Bedfordshire so will be travelling from there and have about 3 days to do it in.

Hello Alisunshines,

Good luck with your trip and hopefully you can get an idea of the best route for you from some of our members on here.

If you haven't seen it, we have a topic that may be of interest to you especially as you are bringing your dog with you too. See this link: http://www.talkquesada.com/quesada-general-discussion-f9/dogs-travelling-to-spain-t781.html



Jan.

We travelled by car as we had our Dogue De Bordeaux with us, we always do the tunnel and drive over the Pyranees, it takes abiut 24 hours with four stops of twenty minutes or so, but there are dog friendly hotels on the way over if you prefer to take an easy drive. If you want to know the route we did let me know, we went back England last year the same way and returned. No problemo lol

We travelled from Portsmouth to Bilbao using Brittany Ferries. They offer dog friendly cabins and a return ticket for 2 adults, car and 2 dogs is £800.00. The cabins were comfortable and the facilities on ferry excellent. We were glad we didn't use the dog kennels since one crossing was turbulent. We drove for 3 hours after the ferry and stayed at Palacios Hotel, Alfaro in La Rioja region. Both times we have stayed we have absolutely loved it, dog friendly room with a balcony and wonderful food and wine. We left there at 10.00am and arrived Quesada at 5pm with lots of stops for the dogs. The roads were great but would recommend a satnav which we couldn't have done without and made the journey stress free!!

We have driven to Spain three times in the last year all the way from Scotland which is a long drive and as Scottishbob says, a sat nav makes the journey very easy and gives the best route.

We tend not to book hotels ahead and just see when we want to stop and never have a problem getting a hotel. The only time we didn't get the dogs in was at a hotel in Sitges, but they told us the hotel next to them took dogs. Normally it is 7 or 8 euros per dog but we have been charged up to 30 euros per dog but that was in Monaco.

Don`t forget your AlcoTest kits, in case you get stopped by the friendly Gendarmarie.

Personally I would avoid France! and get the boat to Bilbo, what you save in boat crossing you will pay in tolls in France! plus fuel!! arriving in Spain refreshed, ready for a more relaxing drive. Strangely I found the same hotel as Scottishbob, and paid less than i did for a very untidy motel in France. I will only be going to France for work from now on.

Hi
You have basically 2 0ptions, driving through France, or taking the Spanish ferry.

Crossing the channel, driving down through France, paying for the petrol/diesel, paying for the toll fees (expensive & often) there are basically 2 routes either go via Bordeaux Eastern route) & go through Europe's longest road works, then over the mountains through Spain to Quesada. This can be done using motorways all the way, but steer well away from Paris!

The other route through France (central route) is to go South via Riems, & Lyon & hang a right at the Mediterranean coast & follow the coast past Barcelona & Valencia thus avoiding the mountains.

The route I would suggest you take for the first time, is take the Santander ferry as suggested in posts above but check that the ferries are operating as they have been known to shut down during the winter in the past. This will leave you a 500K (300 miles) journey from Santander to Quesada. This route is motorway all the way & can be done on 1 go, but I would suggest you stop over night near Madrid. There are very few toll booths on the motorways & the roads are generally low of traffic.

The price of the ferry is comparable or cheaper than the cost of driving down through France & the ferry will save either 1 or 2 days driving. You pays your money, & takes your choice.

Hope that this is of some help to you.
to Spain
dingbat

Think you have made a mistake, from Santander to Quesada is not 300 miles, wish it was!!!!! could do that nice and easy,it is almost that many miles to Madrid, it is more like 575 miles. For routes I have found via Michellen, brill

yer, sorry about that, (senior moment! I am allowed several a day at my age!!) I did mean 800 K (500 miles) hence the recommendation to stop off overnight somewhere around Madrid.

Thanks for the correction,
Dingbat