Driving to Costa Del sol

[Beachdragon]

Hi All we have finalised our new home if Spain Hooraaayyy! atlast
few trips back and fourth lately as house fell through anyway sorted.
My husband is going to drive our people carrier over with dog plus loads of our belongings, and i will fly out 4 days later.

????
Has anyone driven to costa?
How long does it take allowing to sleep at night and drive all days but resting when needed?
Fuel how much yes I know depends on car we have a peugeot 806?
Tolls how much france and Spain
We have read 1 day through france then 1 day through spain?
These questions are going channel tunnel route.

or Brittany ferries how rough would it be as we go December 10th?
How long drive from sant to malaga area
Tolls how much?

Any advice would be great, Thankyou

Thanks everyone we are nearly there

[rafiki]

We did it on the motorbike a few years ago and it took 3 days. Our stops were Tours and Burgos. For fuel calculate about ~1600 miles divided by your cars's fuel consumption. From memory the tolls amounted to about £72.

[mickhick]

We took the midnight shuttle and drove down. We stopped at the side of the road in the countryside to the south of Paris for a few hours and then drove down to northern Spain where we spent the first night in the car. Then drove down to the Costa early the next morning. We arrived at mid-day on day two. Mind you that was in a V8 Discovery auto with cruise-control and two of us sharing the driving - don't ask about petrol consumption!

[costakid]

Tolls are about £100 if you do the long drive. about 12 hours in france and the same in spain. I have done calais to malaga in a day before but it took me a week to get over the trip. i would reccomend france 1 day and Spain the next. If you have belongings in the car be very carefull where you park.

[costakid]

Santander to Malaga is about 10 hours, tolls not much on that route. You could have a nightmare in the bay of biscay tho

[hillybilly]

Have done Brittany Ferries mid Nov and no prob with weather. Ferry virtually empty. more like Marie Celeste.
Have driven Malaga to Cherbourg (and vice versa) in 22-24 hours in a fully loaded Renault Master van with an overnight stop, usually around the Hossegar area just into France, 2 sharing the driving, via Madrid. This usually includes getting lost once, either Bordeaux or Madrid!
I always stay off the toll roads.

[ashtondav]

Calais to nerja was about 1400 miles.

Stayed in the loire in france on day 1 (about 6 hours and 350 miles from calais so including my house to Folkestone and the tunnel about 9 hours)

Loire to Burgos and a hotel by the side of the dual carriageway, about 500 miles, about 8 hours with a stop or two and a sandwich.

Burgos to nerja, about 500 miles and 9 hours. Traffic round Madrid could be bad i guess - i was lucky.

So, for me, from Calais it took 23 hours driving. Toll costs about £100. Doable in 2 days but it would be pretty stressing.

If you go to the viamichelin site they give excellent directions and also give all the toll costs and where they are payable. I drove down alone and had no problems navigating using their directions.

[Solysombra]

Hi Beachdragon, I personally use the Calais-Dover route, then to Paris where I put my car on the night train at Gare d'Austerltz then I pick it up in Madrid the following morning, I travel on the Paris -Madrid express, which is not fast at all (14 hours) it's far from being the cheapest option but in my opinion by far the least stressful, it's not a budget trip but very, very relaxing and easy, beware of the french traffic cops they are real b'stards.

[Beachdragon]

Hi all BM husband here

Thanks for all the tips, I still dont know which to doFlip a coin me finks!

I will have 1 dog and 3 of our 6 children travelling with me.

long road trip or hours on a ferry that may have bad seas plus having to let the dog out every 3 hours or so so posting said!

Thanks everyone, any more tips for us

[Fletch]

Dont`t kill yourselves, there`s no mega hurry to get home is there? If not, I would recommend at least 3 days with that carfull!!!
I`ve done it a couple of times now, first time was in a transit van. Calais to Clermont Ferrand in France day 1, down to Barcelona the next day and Malaga on day 3. It was 3 longish days driving but with a few stops making it more comfortable.
Second time we stopped at Paris, Toulouse, Barcelona, and Benidorm. Plenty of sights (Andorra was nice) and a lot more relaxed
Good luck

[peteroldracer]

One bit of damp blanket - having read all the postings on here of the potential for having the car broken into on the way down, I would be very wary of carrying more luggage than I could take into the hotels at every night stop - and what about thefts while you are stopped for breakfast/lunch/dinner?
As your car will become illegal to drive here after six months and you risk having it impounded unless you reregister it onto Spanish plates and pay import duty etc, why waste all that money? Fly out, only bringing your vital paperwork like passports which you can keep close to your chest, have your goods and chattels brought by removers (or Big Col!!) and buy a Spanish car when you get here. You can rent cheaply for the first weeks before you buy your own.

[Shukran]

Sound advice. That's certainly what I would do in your situation - can't be bothered with all that hassle when you've got enough on your plate to think about.

[Babby]

I would agree with above - but if you really must drive make sure you have chains for your tyres - the weather reports are that snow has arrived at last albeit suddenly in all the ski resorts. The north of Spain is somewhat different in climate to the south.

[Beachdragon]

OOOOoooooh Snow chains hadnt thought of that!

We have decided to go Feery route to Santanda then drive down to Malaga
and lets hope the bay of biscay is nice to us?

[palio1950]

Hi,

We have done this trip 5 times in the last two years with different variations every time.
For me LD Lines out of Portsmouth is the best option for anyone living in the north or on the west of u.k. ( no m25) if you can travel sat/sun then Dover not too bad. The Portsmouth route sails 11.00 p.m. docks 7.00a.m. so you have a full days driving in France you are a couple of hours south of Calais and you do not have to go through Rouen which can be a nightmare during the week. With Kids and a dog I would not expect that you would be sleeping in the car, the chain hotels are on all the main routes thro' France avoid Formule 1, B&B are good, as are Premiere Classe pay 34 euros a night for a room.
The A roads in France at the weekend can be almost as quick and much cheaper than the Autoroutes, the stretch from Angouleme through to the Spanish border is motorway standard and free apart from the three toll sections avoiding Biarritz and Hendaye approx. 6 euros and worth every centimo.
Once in Spain head for Burgos via Vittoria Gastaez from San Sebastian, again ignore the toll road until a section which by-passes Miranda del Ebro (8 euros) and takes you to Burgos and the free motorway all the way to Granada or Malaga. From San Sebastian to Malaga we work on 11 hours driving time if you hit Madrid during the middle of the day rush hour can put another 1-2 hours on top, avoid travelling late at night or early hours of the morning through Madrid, there are organised gangs targetting foreign nationals posing as police officers who pull you over then steal passports and bags.
We drove there and back in February this year with horrendous weather reports both ways, France covered in snow for 600 miles, 4inches of snow around Madrid, -4 in Granada, the only problem we had in 3000 miles was on the M2 from London to Dover.
With regards to fuel we use a diesel picasso, three tankfuls from le Havre to Frigiliana.
Hope this helps,
Palio.

[Babby]

How is hubby doing Beachdragon, any news?

[Beachdragon]

Hi all

I'm Here! Bay of biscay was as flat as my wifes victoria sponges!
Roscoff bit was a bit geen around the gills though.

Drive from Santander was good directins from Mitchillin were very good took us 10/ 11 hours to nerja stopped loads with dog and children.

All unpacked, kids been in the sea! mad buggers

Cheers guys for all your help and advice

pete