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Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby Babu » Wed May 23, 2018 8:39 pm

Have done the Calais, LeMans, Bordeaux, Pamplona, Zaragossa, Valencia route before. Both a one night stopover and a two night stopover variation. If doing the one night stopover you would really need to keep to the Toll roads to do it in a reasonable time each day, they are virtually traffic free and using cruise control makes it stress free. For a one nighter a stopover around Bordeaux makes it fairly equal stages, for a two nighter, stops around Poitiers and Pamplona fit well.

If using Toll Roads and if you have a Diesel car you would be looking at around £700-£800 for the return trip (3 full tanks each way, tolls, tunnel/ferry fare, fairly cheap accommodation & food). I would advise at least vetting possible accommodation beforehand, we stopped at a Formula1 motel at the last minute which was a cross between a basic Hostel and a public toilet!! As you are in a RHD car and if you don't have a Tag, don't forget the passenger will have to sort the numerous toll booths.
As its your first trip, the novelty and sense of adventure will get you through the long distances without stress and tiredness, it may wear off on subsequent trips :D
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Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby myersj » Sun May 27, 2018 8:08 am

If you get the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbo it gets in early in the morning and you have all day to drive down here. This avoids driving in the dark and needing a hotel. Drive takes 10 hours on motorways nearly all the way.
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Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby Nikon » Sun May 27, 2018 12:06 pm

is this a costly exercise and just for the record how much is the ferry on a return basis or could you include a link please thanks



myersj wrote:If you get the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbo it gets in early in the morning and you have all day to drive down here. This avoids driving in the dark and needing a hotel. Drive takes 10 hours on motorways nearly all the way.
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Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby annamay » Fri Jun 15, 2018 10:14 am

Help please. We have just purchased a new car to drive to Spain in July.
When looking for what we need to do my Husband read that a new law came out May 9th saying you cannot bring a car across unless you have owned it for six months.
As we are bringing some of our items we really need to drive . Has anyone else come across this and can
you advise us please.
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Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby Marjim » Fri Jun 15, 2018 4:14 pm

We drove our car from Scotland to Santander,got the Economie ferry with a cabin which was en suite meals on board was very good quality,a nice bar.When we docked at Santander we put in the Hotel in the satnav we were stopping over for the night outside Madrid to break the drive it was just off the motorway.Next morning after breakfast keyed in for Quesada and drove leisurely down.Whats point trying to rush.
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Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby Shelles » Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:33 pm

We drove down last weekend. It was a nightmare! We drove from St. Malo to the Puranees on Friday night and got stuck in a massive traffice jam outside of Bordeaux. I would think its like the M25 on a Friday night. It took us 11 hours, not using the tolls.

The drive over the Pyranees and through Spain was much nicer, nearly all dual carriageway and much faster, 8 hours in total.

Wouldn’t do it that way again. Having said that, at least we have a car here now and a car full of stuff for our new house.
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Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby richardlionheart » Fri Jun 15, 2018 10:23 pm

We have just done exactly this, best way is Portsmouth to Bibao on Brittany Ferries. Its a hell of a drive Bilbao to Quesada, best done in two days. Points we learned:

We spent £50 in 27 hours on the Ferry, its all expensive. Take a Tassimo coffee machine, sandwiches, couple of Pot Noodles, a microwavable meal or two, and a a couple of litres of soft drinks. We took a 12v electric cool box and a mains adapter. Oh and travel adapter and a 4 way power extension, you will only have one or two continental power sockets in your cabin. Oh and its a French run boat, expect the rudest bar and restaurant staff youve ever met

Watch the drive. it is indeed all motorway and dual carriage way, But its also littered with Toll Booths, it cost us another £50 in motorway tolls. Set your satnav to avoid toll roads, but its slower. Apparently, following taxis is a good idea, they know where the toll booths are and know how to detour round them.

We also went over the Pyranees, the eastern end is bloody hair raising!! 8 foot wide roads with a hunded foot drop on one side and traffic the other way at breakneck speeds, little corners round projecting rocks making the road a narrow, blind corner. Take a spare pair of underpants.

Ferry was about £200 for two adults, a car and a cabin. Used about £200 worth of fuel, plus two hotels at £40 each. Plus the previously mentioned £50 motorway tolls
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Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby marcliff » Sat Jun 16, 2018 1:15 am

annamay wrote:Help please. We have just purchased a new car to drive to Spain in July.
When looking for what we need to do my Husband read that a new law came out May 9th saying you cannot bring a car across unless you have owned it for six months.
As we are bringing some of our items we really need to drive . Has anyone else come across this and can
you advise us please.



I don't know where you got the "new law came out in May" but it's always been that you must have owned the car for more than 6 months to avoid the taxes when importing it into the country. Exactly the same as if you were taking one into UK.
If it's under 6 months old (and it's always been this) you will have to pay a registration tax which is equivalent to the VAT rate (21%) as it will not be classed as "household goods".
Wait until the car is 6 months old and has covered more than 6,000km to avoid this but, if you are coming to live in Spain, you must start the registration process within 30 days of arrival or you will be taxed at the same rate.
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Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby richardlionheart » Mon Jun 25, 2018 9:33 pm

Shelles wrote:I know someone who got the ferry to France and drove down, is that dooable? Where would you get the ferry or would you go on the Eurotunnel?

I’m only concerned because the Ferry to Santander only goes twice a week at this time of year and it leaves Portsmouth at 5.15pm and arrives in Santander at 7.15pm the next night and then you have an 8-10 hour drive through most of the night.


It depends how much you want to drive every day. Ive heard people boasting they can do Bilbao to Alicante in 8 hours, which is fine as long as you dont mind paying toll fees of 50 euros and hurtling down the motorways at breakneck pace.

Best bet is Brittany Ferrie. The one that goes to Bilbao, its cattle class, the one that goes to Santander is Rich Bitch class. Santander is another hours drive on the total though.

But then, hostels and hotels are pretty cheap, use booking.com, we were paying £40-£50 a night off the ferry, onto the hotel, ready to go nest day.

We did it in two days on the way there, stopping at a hostel near Zaragoza called Hotel Miralcampo. 5 hours driving on each leg is enough for me

On the way back we did a zig zag route over 3 days, avoiding the pay motorways. 5 hours, 4 hours and 3 hours driving each lag. And you get to see a lot more of Spain.

The nightmare bit is Bibao to Pamplona. its the same distance as driving east-west across London, and every bit as bad. And Bilbao itself, within 10 miles of the ferry terminal is as bad a Central London. Definitely use the pay motoways fotr this leg. I also found the crammed together tall buiuldings were causing the satnav to lag, sending us wrong on several occasions.

and about Brittany Ferries. The stuff on board is extremely expensive - i saw a packet of shortbread biscuits in the shop ("La Boutique") selling for 4 euros 50, same ones are in Lidl at 55p. and try and get a cabin on deck 8, its the coolest with the best air con. The English breakfast is cooked to death, leathery bacon, incinerated eggs, burnt sausages. Theres a couple of miccrowave ovens on deck 7 you can use. Take some pot noodles or microwavable meals, and a Tassimo machine.
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Re: Driving my UK car from Portsmouth to Quesada

Postby Marjim » Wed Jun 27, 2018 5:25 pm

We traveled over here last August to settle into our new life initially driving from Scotland and staying overnight in Portsmouth,we got the early morning ferry to Santander plugged in our Satnav for the Hotel we were staying over outside Madrid took us straight to the front door of hotel.After breakfast we enjoyed the drive to Quesada this i must say was all done on non toll roads.PS we booked the Brittany ferry economie and must say was very reasonable for food,drinks and our cabin was excellent.
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