Talk Quesada forum

Hi All,

I want to drive my car to Quesada soon. Which is the best way? Never done anything like this before. Which ferry etc?

Please help.

Thanks in advance

Ferry to Santander or Big so, then plug in your Tom Tom with your post code and street here in Spain, away you go virtually toll free motorway all the way here. If no Tom Tom get on worth weight in gold. Approx 10 hr drive at motorway speeds with a break or two

Ferry to Santander or Bilbao , then plug in your Tom Tom with your post code and street here in Spain, away you go virtually toll free motorway all the way here. If no Tom Tom get on worth weight in gold. Approx 10 hr drive at motorway speeds with a break or two

There is only one company from Portsmouth to top of Spain,Brittany Ferries,they provide good service boat almost every day and boat takes about 24 hours .Food and drink good and reasonable,with some entertainment on bigger ships.Once on Spain use a sat nav is easiest only toll should be R3 going round Madrid and very cheap 1-2 euro's.Journey is approx 500 miles and about 10 hours

We did this when moving here with our dog 18 months ago. It was very easy, we chose to stop over in a hotel near Madrid which is a four hour drive from Bilbao. The ferry arrived in Bilbao around 1.00 pm so a steady 4 hour drive got us to the Hotel for around 5.00 pm avoiding rush hour and oh what a beautiful drive it was. Next morning leaving the Hotel around 08.00 am allowing for a couple of stops for the dog, we were in our house by 1.00 pm, relaxed and ready to enjoy our new lives here. Whether you do it like us at a leisurely pace, or do it in one hit, you will find the roads are clear and very easy to drive on. Good luck

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.

I went Newhaven-Dieppe last year, and then took a leisurely drive down, via Zaragoza. We were in no particular hurry and decided to make a pleasure trip out of it, stopping as and when we felt like it. The drive over the Pyrenees is spectacular.

We did not book any accomodation in advance, rather we just used booking.com on my phone to find hotels en-route. Arcachon is a nice place for an overnight stop.

Try Portsmouth to Caen overnight, then head south via Rennes, Nantes, Bordeaux. If you want a scenic route from here head for Oloron Sainte Marie, Jaca, Zaragoza, Valencia, La Font de La Figuera, Alicante to Quesada
Jaca is a lovely place to stay and is about 10 hrs from ferry. The next day takes about 7 hrs. Tolls on Caen to Jace about 40 euro. No tolls after that. I have driven this route about 6 times starting from Northumberland as a solo driver, and it is by far my preferred route. The journey over the Pyrenees is beautiful and breaks up the boredom of constant motorway driving.

Trouble with Portsmouth Caen is that its the shortest overnight crossing, and as such, they get you out of bed at a ridiculous early hour, to make sure you have time to pay for breakfast before you get off. I prefer the slightly longer crossing to St Malo, witch gets you up at a far more reasonable time in the morning to have breakfast. Hotels in France can be expensive. I usually use a firm called Yelloh Village, were you can rent a mobile home on a site with loads of entertainment for approx 38E per night. they have over 100 sites throughout France and northern Spain. If you wont further info, just ask! I like to make the journey part of the holiday.

We drive down to our place just outside of Villamartin a few times a year. If you are staying for more than a couple of weeks it's cheaper (no car hire, no kennels).
We just want to "get there" and so we don't try to avoid tolls at all. Toll roads in both France and Spain are, in our view, faster and much safer because they are less crowded. We have toll tags for both France and Spain, which can save a lot of time.
We have the car SatNav set to our final destination but also use a TomTom which we set for a number of rough waypoints on the way down. Essentially, we set a destination and then when about 10/15 miles away set it to the next destination. By doing this you avoid going through city centres as the TomTom will take you around the town/city on their ring roads.
We stay at Anglet o'night to break the journey (20 mins to Spanish Border). IBIS hotel, clean, cheap and they take dogs in the hotel and the restaurant (as most restaurants do in France!).
Make no mistake it's a long schleck both days - about 10 hours day one and about 7/8 day two. We enjoy the scenery and listen to podcasts and audiobooks, stop when we need a coffee, the loo and to give our dog a breather - probably 4/5 times We are usually at our place by mid-afternoon on the second day.
In case anyone finds it useful I'm attaching our current waypoint list.