Advice: Holidaying in Spain

cazziebo

This board has been so helpful with my last few foreign holidays so I'm back looking for more advice.

We're planning our summer holiday. Past few years we have gone to France- budget flights, car rental, hotel stopovers, gite. It's all been wonderful. We usually take the gite for a week, but take a couple of days either side for the journey and book a hotel. So when we've been in the Pyrenees, we flew into Barcelona and spent some time there. Done the same in Paris, and then also in northern France.

We thought we'd try Spain this year, and found a nice villa in the Valencia area. It's secluded, not too far from the coast, but only an hour from the airport so we wondered if any of you who know Spain well would advise another airport that would give us a nice drive?

Really appreciate any advice.

withabix

Where is the villa?

Alicante and Reus are the closest airports south and north respectively on the coast.

Why would you want to drive further? You are better of having a drive around after you settle in.

cazziebo

withabix wrote: »

Where is the villa?

Alicante and Reus are the closest airports south and north respectively on the coast.

Why would you want to drive further? You are better of having a drive around after you settle in.

The driving is part of the holiday to us! It's also a way to extend the holiday past one week, without being away for two whole weeks. (I'm self-employed so it suits me to take say, a Friday before then a Monday off which gives us three extra days on a Sat to Sat let and I don't lose out on work)

The villa we like is in Alcossebre, Costa del Azahar

withabix

Fly into Madrid and take two different routes to and from Alcossebre?

About 5 hours each way.

That will give you a view of Madrid and some scenic driving.


Alternatively, fly into Gerona airport (north east of Barcelona) or Barcelona airport itself and see the sights of Barcelona as well?

Your options depend upon which airport you are flying from in the UK of course.

lijaloo

Depending on where you are in the UK, why not take the ferry to Santander or Bilbao and then drive down to Alcossebre.

hartcjhart

lijaloo wrote: »

Depending on where you are in the UK, why not take the ferry to Santander or Bilbao and then drive down to Alcossebre.

good trip but sadly the pont aven is lacking facilities,

you could fly to Bilbao/Zarragoza then drive apx 4 hrs(some stunning scenery on the way) to Aranjuez outside Madrid and have a stopover,lovelly architecture and some wonderfull gardens etc.then apx 3 to 4 hrs drive to the villa.
Aranjuez is where Rodrigeuz wrote his guitar concerto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYSNBf1CCjU

cazziebo

We would be flying out of Edinburgh or Glasgow.

some good suggestions - thanks. I like the idea of Bilbao. I've been there before for work and loved it, especially spending time in San Sebastian which is an easy day trip. OH hasn't been.

Going to investigate flights to Madrid as well.

You folks are great :T

Bengt

What a thread! Just shows how different opinions people can have. This is the first thread where I read about someone whose main problem is the holiday being to close to the airport, only one hour away... Usually it is the other way around, the transfer is too long, almost 30 minutes
For inspiration, buy the DVD box On the Road Again. There they(Mario something, American chef, Mark Bittman wine and food connoiseur, Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia something (famous Spanish actress)) drive around Spain (including Bilbao, Valencia, Barcelona and many others). Beautiful scenery and fantastic food. It is available quite cheap from amazon.com (not co.uk) and it is region free so no problem with it coming from the US.