Talk Quesada forum

Thank you Jan. If our plans work out and we spend more time in Quesada we will need to do the journey quite frequently. Unless I can find someone to trust my 2 Dachshunds with then I can fly!
Your website will be very useful to us I think.

Jon Stead wrote:As some of you will recall, our hire car was broken into last time over, and the sat nav taken from the glovebox. I wondered at the time if the car was more vulnerable with it's hire car sticker on. One of the posts above mentions this and recommends removing the sticker. I shall certainly do this next time over in a few weeks time.

Yes definitely do that - We have hired cars for years and in the early years they always had a sticker on and the 'informal' advice even then was to take off the sticker.

This problem has been around for years where hire cars can be targeted, particularly from the airport, where these thieves think we are easy pickings when we are tired from travelling and may be carrying valuables, I always used to unpeel the sticker(s) and stick them somewhere hidden from view in the boot. (After all they are only extra advertising for the rental company!).

My husband used to tell me not to, but I just did it anyway. The cars we hire from Opencar don't have stickers which is good.

We travelled to America in the 80's a lot and it was the same problem there too and even in those days the advice was to remove the hire sticker to avoid being targeted.

Jan.

I know this post is from 2 years ago but has anybody had any recent problems when driving from the UK to Quesada, We will be doing the drive in January for the first time, I assume France and Spain both have the same problems with these scumbags? Any advice welcome.

we drove from uk to Quesada no problem just kept to toll roads all the way,bit pricey but no hassle never saw one police car though,just be vigilant

We drive all the time usually using Dover to calais about 4 return journeys a year. We do not use toll roads as the cost is too high and have our journey down to a fine art now. We have never seen anything worrying or felt compromised. We always have a a full car load and up to now have never had a problem. I do however feel the motorways are an area where problems could occur and foreign drivers could become a target. When we are on motorways we have seen plenty of police in France and have been stopped on occasions by police and border patrols.

Thanks for the replies.
djw I am gonna try to avoid as many tolls as possible, can you recommend a route from Calais?

We did the drive for 1st time in November . . .and still out here . . . We chose to take easiest option using toll roads as advised by michelin . . . It was totally stress free, overtaking the odd truck/car every 20 mins or so . . Did it in 2 days with single driver and no tiredness etc . . No threatening experiences . . . €110 tolls whilst pricey, made life so easy was worth it as a first time novice . . My 1 advice would be to avoid formel1 for the overnight stop unless you like a cross between a youth hostel and a public toilet . . .

We travel down to Quesada from Brittany regularly and never had any problems. Agree that toll motorways are most convenient and quickest way of getting down here. I find that Google maps is the best way of choosing your route and booking.com best for overnight accommodation en route.

There are two of us driving and we stay in Lormont or Cestas near Bordeaux for the first night then drive the rest of the way the second day. If you look at routes without tolls on Michelin or Google it should come up. We do however pay some tolls around large cities or towns as it is cheap and easier than driving through. We change our route depending on the threat of snow and either go the somport tunnel or round the pyrenees to Irun. Hope this helps.

Always drive via Le Mans, Bordeaux, San Seb, Zaragoza.
I know its personal preference but I wouldnt consider the non toll route. We do it in 27 hrs straight with 2 drivers
with toilet and food stops only.
The car sits at a 140km/hr and slightly less in Spain, that for me is worth paying the tolls for as we get there in less time
and see about 2 cars an hour