Drive from UK to Northern Spain (Salou)

DTDfanBoy

They drive on the wrong side of the road over there, but the safest option is to join them

I always repeat in my head ' Keep Right, Keep Right, Keep Right ' each and every time I start a car on the continent

knightstyle

make sure you have all the car documents in the car to produce when asked by Gendarmes, you only need one reflective jacket within reach of the driver and make sure it has a CE mark.
Check this site for details of expected traffic jams. http://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/index,langen.html
Also, that is a long drive, have you thought of taking the ferry to Northern Spain?
Here is a map showing peage and free autoroutes. http://about-france.com/geo/motorways.htm
Look here for cheapest fuel as autoroute service stations are expensive. http://www.zagaz.com/index.php

katrina72

Ditto the others re safety equipment.

We drive to Spain every year, last year was Salou, this year a bit further down to Benidorm.

Plan your route before you go, there are a few different ways to go, we prefer to avoid Paris, so go via Rouen, Evreux, Chartres then over to Millau.

Check Booking.com for stopovers, if you want a stop over, Calais to Gerzat, then Gerzat to Salou breaks it up nicely.

Fuel much cheaper at a supermarket, look for ones just off the route to get ones near by. Easily get £1 a litre for diesel.

We have a diesel car, two tanks will get us there with a bit left over, this is from North Staffs. Toll roads about 70 euros each way. We plan the route to use a few trunk roads so save a bit on the tolls.

Also agree with the post above, make it part of your holiday for example on the way to Benidorm we are stopping at Berck-sur-mer, La Rochelle to visit the aquarium - have dinner, then Zaragoza, then on to Benidorm. French roads are way better than our roads.

If you need any more help, dont hesitate to ask.

pd001

Thanks for the websites regarding cheap fuel and traffic delays.

I use the mobile network 3 so live (ish) traffic will be sent to me if I use google navigation, and the data wont cost me anything because both France and Spain are in their 'feel at home' thing.

Taking the ferry to Spain...?
Unless I am doing something wrong, then in August, that is very expensive indeed. The best part of £900.00 return

Katrina72,
Firstly, did you enjoy your stay in Salou?

My Kia is a diesel so we maybe should use a similar amount of fuel as you.
We are in North Manchester so our journey should take, very roughly, an extra hour on top of whatever your journey time was.

I will bear in mind that fuel is cheaper at supermarkets.
Do they use a similar 'pay at pump' system that we have over here?
In addition to google navigation I will also use via michelin to plan my route, and bear in mind your stopover point at Gerzat.

Your route of Rouen, Evreux, Chartres then over to Millau, therefore avoiding Paris, sounds good to me. I will have to make sure that my sat nav system doesn't take me into the centre of Rouen or Evreux if I put them in as a via point. That wouldn't be good at all.

La Rochelle stopover...
Is that en route or is that a bit off route on your way to Benidorm? I do appreciate that you said that the journey itself should be treated as part of the holiday.

Thank you for your help and thanks to everyone for their help too. I do appreciate it

katrina72

Is that the ferry from UK to Northern Spain, if yes it has always been expensive when we wanted to go, hence why we use Dover - Calais and slog through France. Sometimes there is the odd discount code for Brittany Ferries kicking about.

Yes we loved Salou, we stayed at the Gold River, it is a lovely hotel and we had access to Portaventura.

We are in Stoke, so not too far from you. We sometimes stop in Kent before boarding the ferry, as we visit family. Last year we stopped in Rouen, had a night in Millau - lovely town, then the next day it was a shortish drive to Salou.

Yes most of the supermarkets have pay at pump or a little man in a booth. Look for E.Leclerc or carrefour. Beware of using little fuel pumps located in little villages, there are unmanned and our UK debit card did not work in them.

Yep LaRochelle is on the route to Benidorm, as we are heading down to the Valencia region, we cross the border on the west side and then cut straight through the middle of Spain then on the AP7 down to Benidorm.

pd001

katrina72 wrote: »

Is that the ferry from UK to Northern Spain, if yes it has always been expensive when we wanted to go, hence why we use Dover - Calais and slog through France. Sometimes there is the odd discount code for Brittany Ferries kicking about.

Yes we loved Salou, we stayed at the Gold River, it is a lovely hotel and we had access to Portaventura.

We are in Stoke, so not too far from you. We sometimes stop in Kent before boarding the ferry, as we visit family. Last year we stopped in Rouen, had a night in Millau - lovely town, then the next day it was a shortish drive to Salou.

Yes most of the supermarkets have pay at pump or a little man in a booth. Look for E.Leclerc or carrefour. Beware of using little fuel pumps located in little villages, there are unmanned and our UK debit card did not work in them.

Yep LaRochelle is on the route to Benidorm, as we are heading down to the Valencia region, we cross the border on the west side and then cut straight through the middle of Spain then on the AP7 down to Benidorm.

Thanks for your comments, they are appreciated.

Yes, the ferry price of £900.00 was from UK to Santander. Not cheap at all. Bloody extortion in fact!!
We will probably do the Dover to Calais route, or maybe even Dover to Dunkirk?

One of the reasons we have chosen to drive to Salou is because we have read somewhere on the internet, that it has been given a facelift over that last few years, and is very popular with spanish tourists themselves.

We have seen what looks like a pretty decent camping/holiday park there called La Siesta (i think). My two grandsons, ages 4 and 7, would love the facilities that they have on there.
The other reason we have picked Salou for our first driving trip is because we think that although its not an easy drive, it is doable with just one driver, (me) over two days.
Mrs pd001 probably wont want to drive on the 'wrong side'.

If i wasn't taking grandchildren the it would be a hotel stay for us too .

Just like you, I plan to drive to Kent, stopping en route to stretch our legs, and have a break on the ferry itself.
Next leg would be to drive to Rouen because i believe that route avoids Paris altogether. Hope that is correct.
Next leg would be to drive down as far as I feel able, before stopping for an overnight break wherever.
I am no stranger to booking.com over here, so I will use that in France too.
The following day will be the final hike to Salou itself.

We will look out for supermarkets en route and buy our fuel from there.
Are the roads really that much better to drive on over there than over here?

katrina72

Yes Salou is very popular with the Spanish, well all nationalities, it is a great town. When we were there last year in August there was a fiesta and the town was jam packed and it was such a good atmosphere.

Yep head down to Rouen, the main bridge is open now, it was closed for a couple of years due to fire. Then onto Dreux, Evreux, Chartres, some of the route was single carriageway but was fast moving.

The roads are usually quiet so you can cover really good distance in one day. It can sometimes be a bit busier as you get towards the South of France. Only been delayed once in 10 years of driving to Spain and that was when the French truckers had blocked the border, but we still got through.

Check for when the French bank holidays are as well, I think there is one in August which makes the roads a lot busier.

Hope you enjoy your drive. I don't drive, so my husband does all the driving, but he doesn't complain

zagfles

We did a similar drive, though a bit shorter (Manchester to NE Spain, med coast near Girona), and there's no way on Earth I'd contemplate doing it over 2 days with one driver, especially with young kids in the car. Don't believe the driving times on Google, there will be traffic jams, roadworks etc and once you add comfort stops, meal breaks etc you're looking at very long days driving.

We did it over 3 days with 2 drivers. The route via Rouen is good, we stopped overnight in Rouen and then just off the A75 near Saint Flour (found a brilliant little place in the middle of nowhere with a pool, after a day in the car jumping into a pool is sooo good).

It's not always that easy to find accomodation on spec in France, especially at peak times. In other trips I've driven around for ages at the end of a long day's driving trying to find somewhere - I've done it loads of times in the US and it's easy there but it's harder in Europe.

Enjoy the Millau viaduct - highest structure in France (higher than the Eiffel tower!).

SailorSam

We went and they wouldn't let us in.
It must have been about 35yrs or more now. We went camping in France and hadn't made any plans so just kept driving and the further south we got we decided to drive a bit further and have a week or so in Spain.
But they wouldn't let us in.
We were doing things as cheap as we could without breakdown cover or anything, and in those days you needed Green Card insurance, it wasn't necessary in France so we hadn't bothered, but in Spain it was a must. So we got as far as the border and they made us turn around.

katrina72

zagfles wrote: »

It's not always that easy to find accomodation on spec in France, especially at peak times. In other trips I've driven around for ages at the end of a long day's driving trying to find somewhere - I've done it loads of times in the US and it's easy there but it's harder in Europe.

Agree with this, plan and book your stopovers before you go, as most places will be booked.

Also some of the hotels only sleep upto 3 per room, so booking in advance gets you a family room.