Help with driving to spain

Hi,

We are thinking about taking the car to Almeria in August, simply because there are 7 of us and to hire a 7 seater for 2 weeks is very expensive, also so are flights for that many.

So...... there are a couple of options I believe,

Take eurotunnel to France and drive all the way

Take eurotunnel to France then go on the motorail (which I think may have even stopped running) to southern France, then drive all the way

OR

Take the ferry straight from home to northern Spain then drive down, I think this may be the best option but just wondered if anyone had experience with any of these journey's and could help me out with 3 main factors........time scale, cost and ease.

Any help or ideas would be greatfully received!

Or by chance if anyone could come up with a very cheap car rental company then maybe we could fly?????

Hi,

We drove to Murcia last year, and are thinking of doing it again this summer. I was out for 5 weeks so car hire was out of the question also we had just got our apt and were taking things over.

If you don't have to go in the school hols, prob best to go to Bilbao or Santander, in hols it was £600 on way!

It did take longer than we thought and as we shared the driving we didn't stay in a hotel on the way there but broke the trip up on the way home - much better. Via Michelin will plan a route and hotels for you, just put in destination and it will do the rest.

We went from N Wales - Dover - Calais (Sea France £55 return last year), outskirts of Paris, down to south of france and along the Spanish coast: AP7. This included quite a lot of tolls (app 100e) and so we'll go along the west coast of France and by Toulouse this year, no tolls and only about a couple of hours longer apparently. This other route has been recommended since then.

Hope you sort it out :-)

Jan

 Hi Princess Tinker

We have done both ways. We drove down last August and it took us 2 days with an overnight stop going from West Sussex to Torrevieja. We went via  Channel Tunnel to Boredeau , 40 Euros for a hotel and onto Torrevieja next day. We only paid 90 cents tolls all the way and drove over the mountains into Spain. Around 20 hours driving plus stops. However we did drive at high speeds nearly all the way, around 90 mph. New speed limits in Spain now! 110 kmh is maximum not sure how strict they will be with it. Use Tesco vouchers to cut down the cost of the tunnel.

We returned Friday using the Santander Portsmouth route. Took me 10 hours to drive from Torrevieja to Santander via Madrid, got lost in Madrid and wasted around 1hr. We stuck to the speed limits all the way. Ship went on time and takes a day. We arrived in Portsmouth at 5 pm. Cost was reasonable but food on board was expensive. Cabin on board for 2 was £65. However, the crossing price varies a lot depending on time of year.

We felt the costs were similar, however the price on the boat in the summer may be just too much. Depends on type of car and your confidence about driving abroad. 

We enjoyed both trips and would do either one again. Good luck Kevin

Hi Kev,

I am planning on getting ferry to Bilbao and driving down to Murcia, have read your post re getting lost in Madrid which I would dearly like to avoid. Any tips or thoughts, have looked at Michelin guide which suggests M50 takes you round Madrid, is this what you did?

Henry

 If you're worried about Madrid (and it can be a nightmare if you take just one wrong turn) then stick Zaragoza in Via Michelin as a staging post.  (From Bilboa via Zaragoza to Murcia).  Not that much difference in time and it is virtually all motorway but it will take you away from Madrid.

seeing the post about getting lost in Madrid, i am flying into madrid in April and August has anyone picked a hire car up and drove to torrevieja, just wondered how hard it is to get out of Madrid and get back!! any ideas of how long it takes and cost of tolls

Hi,

I too have taken various routes down to Murcia in the last 7 years and last summer did the route that Bobaol suggests by heading for Zaragoza - as we were driving down with rather a large trailer we didn't want to risk getting lost in any large towns.

It was actually a very nice drive down and we had no problems whatsoever.  Would definately take this route again.

Good luck.

There is a new route opened up by LD ferries you can take the ferry from UK to Le Harve then drive to Sa Nazaire then get the ferrys overnight to Gijon the cost is much cheaper than driving all the way or the ferry to santander or Bilbao http://www.ldlines.co.uk/