Soldato
Yeah it's a long trip but you get to see places you may never see otherwise.
^ ThisDon't do it as a continuous stretch, you'll hate it before you get half way there. Do some stop overs and enjoy some local scenery along your way.
We went to the South of France in convoy and it was a pleasure to drive, but we took fairly regular breaks.
Sounds like a great idea.I did an overnight some years ago, portsmouth to Caen. Paid a few extra quid for a posh seat in a restricted area on the boat, was like a first class plane seat but far more spread out. Crossing something like 7 hours.
This means we started the following day (early morning like 6am off the ferry)
Also your going down the left side of France and can go via Le Mans easily if you fancy a quick poke around.
Its not significantly shorter, but the overnight with a decent seat is quite a nice way of doing it. Was recommended by my uncle who used to do the trip a lot as my cousin lived in France.
Thanks for the info m8,I’ll look into it.I drove to Barcelona a few years ago, i think the tolls each way cost about £70. I did all the driving myself and stopped overnight in Rouen. I actually really enjoyed it, the freedom of choosing your route, where to stop, etc! You can put your route on the viamichelin website and it will work out your approximate tolls,
https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/
I believe you can get the ferry from Barcelona to Majorca too. You can put details in on the website but the dates don't go that far yet. It take about 6 hours from Barcelona to Mallorca.
https://www.balearia.com/en
Hope this helps.
I’m going for 7 days in Spain but I’ve got 3 days each side of he holiday to do anything and that’s why I wanted to drive as I’ve got the time to drive there.How long are you planning to go for?
Would echo a toll tag being ideal if going through France. It is tempting to head off the motorway but every junction, roundabout and village/town you pass through with speed limits eats into your average speed compared to wafting along on the toll roads.
Yeah it's a long trip but you get to see places you may never see otherwise.
Yeah there is that, if you have the time to stretch it out to a full on road trip punctuated by several stops on the way it's a good idea.We spent 6h driving in the dark from Newcastle to Folkestone, then the Eurotunnel so there wasn't much to see there. Calais to Oisterwijk again didn't really have anything in the way of sights. I'd agree with the above posts though, if you have stops along the way and stretch it out then it won't be so bad. I just can't afford to spend the extra days leave on travelling time, I'd rather wake up early, hop in a 20 minute taxi to the airport and be there.
Happy to answer any other questions,,
- Fuel is f'ing expensive in France. Brim the tank in the UK and Spain
- The days of sitting at a ton on French toll roads is long gone.
That’s superb,thanks for your time in posting.I drive Manchester to Valencia on average 3 times a year. The routes I tend to take are...
Some other thoughts...
- 24hr ferry from Portsmouth to either Bilbao or Santander followed by a 7 hour drive. To be honest I’ve been stopping a night in a Parador on the way to Valencia to break up the journey.
- Channel Tunnel followed by toll roads. I can single stop this with Dijon being half way from Manchester (about 650 miles) but I tend to 2 stop it.
- Overnight ferry from Hull to Zeebrugger and the two stops down to Spain.
Happy to answer any other questions,,
- You can get a ferry to the Majorca and Ibiza from Barcelona and Valencia.
- From Jan 1st the AP7 in Spain is toll free from Tarragona to Alicante.
- It is worth renting a tag for the French toll roads.
- Fuel is f'ing expensive in France. Brim the tank in the UK and Spain
- The days of sitting at a ton on French toll roads is long gone.
btfy, appropriately .- My wife went on holiday to the West Indies.
- Jamaica?
- No, she went in her own Accord.