Eventually found you!

We drove over in October from a frosty Scotland down to our house in Spain with our 2 border collie dogs. The driving was great in Europe, it was the British roads that were the worst! I must admit, I was very impressed with the channel tunnel for taking dogs over to Spain. They have an enclosed dog run area with agility runs which kept the dogs happy. On the way over, they had numbeplate recognition and offered us the train prior to ours because we were early which was great. Coming home we got up much earlier than planned on the last leg and arrived 3 hours early at the French side and they put us on a train 3 hours before our scheduled time, again for no extra charge and with numberplate recognition. I realise this may not be the case in high season, but still good to know they give you the first available train.

France was great with the dogs where they even got inside restaurants, in Spain, it was still warm enough to sit outside with them for a meal. Hotels were no problem from travel lodge style hotels to a 4 star in Roses. Price was normally 5 to 8 euros per dog per night.

We too are intending spending more time in Spain next year so it was a bit of a dry run with the dogs to see how they got on. Hope your dogs enjoy Spain too Alison.

Laura

Hi Laura

Really great to hear of your experience on the Channel ferry. To be honest the reason we are going to Bilbao is because I get a bit bored driving long distances, when hubby retires and time is not so valueable I do want to do that journet and make a holiday of it, but I was a bit worried about the availabilty of finding hotels that would take dogs, so it was very interesting to read of your experience.

Alison

Hi Alison,

The 'chain travel lodges' eg Ibis, Campanile and F1 all take dogs although I hear the F1 hotels are extremely basic. In the UK, Holiday Express and Premier Inns also take dogs. We were lucky enough to have our UK phone, txt and internet plan for £3 per day (thank you vodafone and goodbye to O2 who used to charge me £3.06 for 1 mb) and either phoned ahead on the day or just walked into hotels. We only found 2 hotels that didn't take dogs and they told us which hotel would. We made a holiday of the travel although when it was rainy and 18 degrees in Bordeaux and clear blue skies and 30 degrees in Spain we drove down quicker than we planned. We took the Bilbau ferry 4 years ago and my husband was seasick over the bay of biscay, so if you are prone to sea-sickness better with the tunnel.

Dot, it was nice to meet you too

Laura

ok, thanks.