Driving England to Anderlucia

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computeral
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Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby computeral » Mon Dec 31, 2018 1:05 pm

Hello all,
First of all, sorry for the long list of questions.
We are planning to come to the Anderlucia area soon to find a property to buy.
We are bringing out little dog (King Charles) but have not been able to find flights that will take him and us on the same plane - any suggestions anyone?

What seems to be the best option is to drive; we have seen £150 outbound ferry deals from Portsmouth to Santander advertised but when we look on the website they don't seem to exist.
Has anyone got a link they couild send that allows us to see a 'calender' of prices so wer can pick the cheapeast?
We have some for air-lines that will give prices three months ahead. Is there such a site for ferries?

Driving through France doesn't appear to be any cheaper than the Santander crossing (£250 -£300 one way) taking into account tolls and fuel costs - any comments any one?

Has anyone written a guide book on driving to Spain and stop-overs?
Any suggestions where we can look for a cheap base to rent for a few months in Anderlucia - estate agents ?
Thanks, Alan

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby Enrique » Mon Dec 31, 2018 1:30 pm

Hi computeral,
Welcome to The Forum............

Plenty of recent Threads UK to Southern Spain using the Ferry...............

Use the Forum Search......it's a bit slow............... Example ....... Santander Ferry

The cheapest Brittany-Ferries.............

https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/economie

Like for like the economie is circa £100 cheaper than the "Cruise" Ferries

We came over late November for £288..............I'm a Brittany_Ferries Club member so picked up a deal.
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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby olive » Mon Dec 31, 2018 1:49 pm

Welcome to the forum.

Has your dog got a pet passport.?

We are shortly heading off for the UK. Our pet passport is upto date. You need for example to administer by a vet, tapeworm tablets within five days of re entering the uk but at least one day before from memory. And it needs to be recorded in the passport by the vet.

We allow 23 hours driving from Midlands to Anderlucia. If you are not in a hurry do it in 3 or 4 days and take in some sights on route. If you use a route planner software app like michelin via . Most routes take you through the coastal strip near San Sebastian in Northern Spain. You can set sat nav to avoid toll roads. A lot of the roads in France and Spain are quite good and free. Take the opportunity to see sights on the way!

I am sure somene else will be along shortly to strongly advise renting before buying. I too would advise that. It is a buyers market with lots of houses available. You would get a feel for an area plus find out if it was too noisy too far from shops etc .you dont necessarily notice things if you see a place at 3 p.m. on a sunny afternoon.

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby costakid » Mon Dec 31, 2018 2:19 pm

The easiest route on the body is the long 21 hour ferry. I have done all the routes over the years and the costs are all about the same taking into consideration tolls, fuel, food, hotel.
Plymouth Santander allows dogs on board. Some allow dogs in cabins.

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby 1bassleft » Mon Dec 31, 2018 3:15 pm

Hello Alan, I'm afraid I don't know anything of much use on the pet side but I've done driving vs flying a few times. You're right in that the Portsmouth/Plymouth to Northern Spain ferries are like those Premier Inn £29/night adverts; existing in theory but rarely found in practice. Certainly, the cabins seem to be booked well in advance and I would advise against the cheap, reclining chairs on the overnighter if they still exist. I did that for St Malo-Plymouth many years ago, had the rottenest night's non-sleep ever and had to pull into services to kip in the car for several hours before continuing.

I've done the Chunnel many times (for my own reasons) and, whereas driving toll-free in Spain adds relatively little to your travel time, France is quite poor although the Atlantic route is mildly less ridiculous than the Mediterranean one. Using tollroads, for every €45 of (shockingly expensive - fill up in UK and Spain) French diesel, I was paying about the same in tolls. Avoiding tolls, there are some stretches of 2 or even 3 lane 110+kmh driving but interspersed with several barrier avoiding diversions with 80kmh single lanes and 50kmh villages to negotiate. With satnav (a must) it's no real drag if you treat it as an interesting meander, as we do, but stumping up for the tolls is the way to make progress through France, and Bordeaux is a hateful, unavoidable logjam every time. French drivers have excellent lane discipline, only using the outside for overtaking and pulling back in smartly, which does help. Crossing the border on non-tolls is twisty but not particularly scary (I did it in the dark last Nov) and some of the bridges if using tolls are straight and spectacular with my head for heights, but perfectly safe and wide. Once into Spain (now you can fill up), you can tell satnav to avoid toll roads as you gain very little time and only go from not much accompanying traffic to practically none for your money.

Driving, with satnav, a smartphone (check your provider's coverage - I found rural France and parts of Spain rubbish when roaming on my network) and perhaps a small laptop for the hotel rooms is really a doddle. For a small extra, I made my hotel bookings flexible just in case a breakdown skewed my plans (which has never happened). That said, I have a lhd car which is a big help as my passengers are not much use for advice when stuck behind some truck on a single carriageway. I would investigate flying-with-pet further, in your case. Car hire for several weeks in the dead season is cheap; €300 for a month achievable and, in my experience, a lot of the hassle and cons to squeeze extra money out of you are aimed more at the 1-2 week tourists. Cargest, booked via Zest, was my favourite option if Alamo/Enterprise were too pricey; a lot of cheap-on-the-face-of-it firms have brassed me off in recent years. You'll have a recent lhd car to scout around in without insurance complications (but definitely take out an annual XS cover - about £40 - before setting off) and straightforward replacement if it starts making funny noises.

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby Gasman » Mon Dec 31, 2018 5:23 pm

Computeral wrote - Any suggestions where we can look for a cheap base to rent for a few months in Anderlucia - estate agents ?

For an initial stay one might suggest an AirBnB and if you can plan your trip to avoid school holidays and indeed June-September, you will find much better prices, and perhaps more realistic conditions, if you are considering moving full time to Andalucia. You need to have an idea of WHERE you want to start. Driving down would at least give your your own car to tootle around in, but a hire car would be worth considering as written above by 1bass. The region is huge, with differences in climate and life style, from mountains to beaches, and from lively resorts to tranquil villages. Look around during your first three weeks or so, and get into longer term rental once you are more settled as to where you want to be.

Estate agents, though you can do some homework via the Web, are best found on the ground local to the town/area you decide on - especially for long term renting, once you have decided on your favorite area, as the best places are rarely to be found on the internet pages. Before you come out checkout the likes of -Zooplar and Primelocation to give an idea of rental prices to you have an idea as to what you are expected to pay. Note too that not all accommodation is pet-friendly and may refuse your little dog.

Check out the DEFRA official UK government website ASAP, where you can find all the details about rabies jab, petpassport, airlines that will take dogs, etc etc.

Let us know how you get on, and having done a few searches on Andalucia.com/forums come back to us with anything else we can help you with.
Cheers

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby peteroldracer » Mon Dec 31, 2018 5:44 pm

Not trying to be picky, but unless you take more care with spelling you will end up in the wrong place.....
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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby swerve » Mon Dec 31, 2018 5:53 pm

Was wondering where anderlucia was. Andalusia is the correct spelling.
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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby peteroldracer » Mon Dec 31, 2018 7:18 pm

The clue is in the Headline of this website.....Andalucia?
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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby peteroldracer » Mon Dec 31, 2018 7:20 pm

swerve wrote:Was wondering where anderlucia was. Andalusia is the correct spelling.
or more correctly "Andalucia"....see the name of this website.
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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby 1bassleft » Mon Dec 31, 2018 7:23 pm

Just another thing that Gasman has reminded me of. Getting in touch with estate agents in Andalucia can result in them passing on your details (mobile phone number) to foreign exchange "experts". You might, or might not, be able to expressly forbid each estate agent from passing on your mobile number (the estate agent gets paid commission). I would advise you to do so, if you can. The ForEx types are right pests who 'phoned me incessantly as soon as I even viewed a property for months after. As I'm walking down the street, driving my car, having a lie-in, pushing me into making sure I used them to transfer my money. Even after I told them the property I wanted had sold and I was taking at least a year out, they still pestered me until I plopped the mobile down the toilet and flushed it so that United Utilities could deal with their calls.

By all means, a ForEx company can be worth talking to once you're keen on a particular place to buy but the ones that Estate Agents (Inmobiliaria) pass your number to are like a dog on your leg, about as difficult to shake off, and not necessarily the best rate in any event. OK, I have a low tolerance, but (in case blocking doesn't defeat them) I'm considering a dumb Nokia and a random Tesco simcard before I give an agent a mobile number again.

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby swerve » Mon Dec 31, 2018 7:53 pm

Sorry getting my s and C's mixed up

It's that time of year
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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby anyroads » Tue Jan 01, 2019 11:13 am

peteroldracer wrote:Not trying to be picky, but unless you take more care with spelling you will end up in the wrong place.....
Reminds me of the story, of the American tourist couple flagging down a taxi in London years ago with the request to take them to "Tooting Common".

On arriving , the taxi driver stopped and asked them exactly where in Tooting Common they wished to be dropped, to be told "the Egypt exhibition"

Seems they were looking for "Tutankhamun"

anyroads

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby m&md&d » Tue Jan 01, 2019 11:24 am

We did both routes recently.

With 4 dogs, we drove down through France whereas when I went back to get the second car I did the Plymouth to Santander route. In case it helps:

-- We used the "B&B Hotel" chain in France as they are very dog friendly; many are close to motorways; they are comfortable, clean and simple
-- Diesel is noticeably more expensive in France than in Spain, but still cheaper than the UK. Other comments about the price differential being pretty neutral when you add in tolls / accomodation etc are very balanced
-- I noticed lots of people with dogs on the Plymouth to Santander ferry so it is popular with pooches
-- From Santander, I did the "westerly route" which goes down to Seville and then cut through Ronda to get to Marbella -- roads were empty to Seville, the road from Seville to Ronda and Marbella is not for the faint hearted as it is a lovely bendy road. You could always use the motorway from Seville to Malaga

Good luck !

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby Alcala Barry » Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:23 pm

Computeral.

It is an easy and very pleasant trip to make. Porstsmouth to Santander or Bilbao.

Basically, you can travel down the western side of Madrid, or the eastern side of Madrid, depending where you are aiming for in Andalucia.

Finding accomodation is actually quite simple. We often use Booking.com or Hotels.com and sometimes don't make the reservation until the afternoon of the day we want to stop over. This means you can stay flexible about where and when you want to stay. Some days you might want to drive non-stop for hours and other days you can do less miles and enjoy rhe various places en route. We rarely pay more than €30 a night per room. Most Spanish places, whilst basic, are often of a very good quality with hygiene standards that would embarrass the UK.

You can of course use Google maps or similar, or just road maps, which I find easier. Buy a good quality road map of Spain, it will be a good investment.

Ref accomodation for a month or two, I would suggest coastal areas because there are so many places available and the prices are therefore quite competitive. Airbnb, we have always found to be expensive.

As others have said on here, don't rush it, enjoy the different places, enjoy their food and drink and the wonderful countryside that awaits you.

Good luck and enjoy the ride.

Happy New Year to you.

Barry

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby Manchesteral » Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:36 pm

On that Occasion I was dogless and now prefer flying, but the best journey I had, and I know we're all different. was: I drove from Manchester to Calais then Calais to Chantilly (stopped overnight at a small hotel, can't remember the name) Chantilly to Paris where I put my car on a train to Madrid and myself on an overnight sleeper to Madrid.
The following morning I picked up my car and drove down to Malaga and then onto Calahonda. This was not a cheap journey I did not book any part of it everything was completely extemporaire but it was a very easy journey and if I was doing that journey by car again I would use this route/Method :-)

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby costakid » Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:50 pm

[quote="peteroldracer"]Not trying to be picky, but unless you take more care with spelling you will end up in the wrong place.....[/quote

Poster is new to the forum. Give them a break.

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby peteroldracer » Tue Jan 01, 2019 2:13 pm

"Poster is new to the forum. Give them a break"
As I said, I wasn't being picky. It is a fact that typing an incorrect name of a town into Google Maps or a satnav will not get you to where you want to go - at best a non-response and at worst a place miles from where you want to be.
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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby markwilding » Tue Jan 01, 2019 4:33 pm

Andalucia and Andalusia are both correct. I asked SIri for directions to Andalucia and it came up Andalusia. The reason is simple because one is in English and the other Spanish. In theory the English spelling is correct in this section on the forum but obviously, people who live in a place tend to pronounce and spell it in the local way no matter what language is being used.

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Re: Driving England to Anderlucia

Postby Free at Last » Tue Jan 01, 2019 5:08 pm

I think they are both correct - but not because one is in English and the other in Spanish. The Junta de Andalucia's own website spells it "Andalucia" and they ought to know! Therefore that spelling must be acceptable as the local way.


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