Driving to Spain
 

Hi,

Taking the Scoob for a little run to Spain in a few weeks (for the first time) and need to plan carefully.

Going to the Costa Blanca with a car full of bits and pieces to take down there.

What is the best and quickest route?

Are there planty of services and petrol stations?

Is there a plentiful supply of SUL?

Where is the best place to stay overnight as want to get there quickly but not kill myself?

Have driven in France and Spain before but found the road signage a bit confusing - any explanations?

How strictly are the speed restrictions enforced? (want to get there quickly, but obviously not to lose my licence doing so)

Do they have speed cameras or is it all cops on bikes and in cars?

I'll be checking on my insurance and breakdown cover so that side of things will be ok.

Any other tips and advice?

All asked with a big please and a huge thanks in advance.

Asif

Heaps of services on the motorways, usually have signs telling you how far to the next one too. Never seen a speed camera, they are usually in cars and even then a rarity.

Best places to stay are ETAP hotels.

Best route planner online is http://www.getmethere.co.uk/cgi-bin/...er_SecondLevel

This is useful too http://www.controleradar.org/en.html/

You can either take the 24 hour ferry from Plymouth to Santander or Bilbao, or drive through France, obviously, guess it depends which one will be cheaper and quicker....... Have a look at the RAC route planner which will let you print the enitre route out! In general you're going to want to stick to the tolls in France!

You won't struggle for rest stops or petrol, most of Europe offers 99 RON as standard.

The speed issue - DO NOT TAKE A SPEED CAMERA DETECTOR / ROADANGEL etc. Even though the French don't use fixed cameras as a rule, they will confiscate your road angel. The police on the continent can fine you on the spot, so I always carry plenty of cash ;) as they can force you to abandon the car and take you to an ATM if you don't have cash, a few hundred euros should be plenty. Generally fines are similar to here....... As for losing your licence, not an issue, as it's a British licence, so no points! :D Yet!

Never had a problem with the road signs, any specifics that you're stuck on?

Always carry your insurance documents with you in the car and check what spare bulbs and triangles etc you'll need in case of breakdown.

I drove down to the Catalunya Rally a few years ago - doing the 24 hour ferry crossing to Santander. That was probably the worst bit - hit a force 9 gale in the Bay of Biscay. It was a little rough :). The actual motorways in Spain were very good - little traffic (next to nothing, compared to the UK). From memory, it took about 6 hours to drive down to Lloret de Mar.

Plenty of stops with petrol supplies (I was part of about a dozen Scoobs - some were Jap imports and very fussy about fuel) - we found SUL at every petrol station we stopped at - even the smallest stations up in the mountains when we were out on stage.

Chris

Thanks for replies.

Ferry is not the preferred option as I would want to get to destination in way less than 24 hours, plus Wife gets sea sick. There would still be a fair bit of driving to do after getting off the ferry.

Some of the road signs were confusing as they didn't seem to tally with the maps. Also not clear enough for me when indicating that although you want, say the E1, you need to take this road, say the E4, for a couple of miles or so, in order to get the E1.

On my map it would say E1 for the whole thing.

That sort of thing can confuse when you are on the wrong side of the road in the first place, with just a few sconds to make a quick and safe decision.

Any useful tips for that sort of thing?

Asif

Some of the confusion with maps comes from the fact that there are country names and European names for many roads. It's even worse in the Basque region of Spain, as they consider themselves a separate state and therefore, they have their own designation too! So you end up with three possible road names :). My advice would be to invest in a TomTom Go or something similar.

Drove to Barcelona last year and had no problems at all until we hit roadworks and road diversion in Lyon!

Good advice from Chris L regarding the Tom Tom. I recently got the GO700 that covers all of Europe and it takes me a completely different route to the one I went last year, apparently knocking about 50-60 miles off the journey.

Oh and be prepared to attract a lot of attention in the services!

Why?

Regarding fuel - when I went on my bike to Catalunya MotoGP I went to fill up and found the service station would not serve me, the attendant kept motioning to me to go over - turns out he wanted my passport (presumably in case he thought I was going to run without paying). Just something to bear in mind if it happens to you.

Ah! Passport would be one to add to the list! Wouldn't normally think of that when getting in the car.

Ta.

If you don't want to pay for a GPS, print out a route plan which tells you how many miles to turn where. Also, a map bought locally and a compass may help.......

This is good advice. They will confiscate it and probably trash it right in front of you.

Not true. Since 2005 the French have been introducing more and more fixed radars and are getting much more aggressive with mobile cameras. There are now more than 1000 fixed radars in France so when you see signs indicating that there are radars in the area, slow down. Plans are underway with neighbouring countries (i.e. the UK) to follow up on speeders so don't think that you can get away with it -- you might but then again you might not! If you see other drivers flashing their lights at you this is an indication of gendarme activity up ahead so let your right foot rest up a little bit.

What road signs in France are you having trouble with?

Be very careful if you park your car in a motorway services. Last year we drove down to Gibraltar and used motorway along Spanish coast. We stopped at motorway services just north of Benidorm for petrol and snacks. Whilst we were in the restaurant part our car was broken into and all contents stolen. The people in the shop and the police told us it was very common with lots of cars getting done every day. Leave someone in the car if you go into services would be my advise.

Another tip is do NOT use Tesco Travel insurance as they are grossly incompetent and worse than useless.

Apart from that, have a lot of fun in Spain. Roads are generally good and beer is cheap. :)

Sounds like the passenger would get stolen, too.

I don't think (almost certain) there is any danger of points on your UK licence from speeding abord.

I have heard there is a parasite company that will chase you at home for the fine, though.

I came over a hill near Calais to see a gendarme with a radar gun, wasn't worth slowing down as I was already on top of him, he almost dropped the gun as he ran for his Citroen. Over the next hill fairly quickly and didn't see him again. Not my advice though! ;)

Sorry to be corny but do take EXTRA care when rejoining road after fill-up. So easy to get onto wrong side of road even if only for a few seconds. Get in the habit of putting something on steering wheel to remind you. dl

Probably as they are written in French and Spanish? And distances are in km, not miles.

HTH :)

:notworthy

hmmn so you ferry over to france then drive on i presume, how long does it take to reach spain from france?

Depends on how you drive and where. I did Calais to Lyon in around 6 and a half hours, and it's around 500 miles. To get from Calais to the Spanish border is in the region of 700 miles, so you'd be looking at a days drive, 10 hours plus.

I'm back!
 

Well, we did it.

Overall, excellent I have to say, hard work, but between the Wife and I all went very well.

Thank you very much all for tips and advice, certainly helped.

Spent several hours downloading and printing maps, then thought, "Sod it!" and went out to get a Tom Tom 700. Got to be one of the best purchases I have ever made.

We could not get lost if we tried, which we would of done otherwise on the first turn out of the Euro Tunnel.

The only problem with the Tom Tom is having no idea of where I was. I am so used to using maps etc I normally have a good idea of where I am - not this time.

Using the Toll Roads was pricey but very effortless.

We left on the Saturday morning, with delays on the Euro Tunnel, farting about with my headlamp converters in Northern France etc, we had barely reached Paris after about 6 hours or so.

Another 12 hours then to get to the Spanish border, including stops and the horrendous weather over the Massif Central (I think) which really slowed us down (running out of washer fluid didn't help either!)

Then about 6 hours to get from the Spanish border to Torrievieja.

Main topic of conversation on the way down was whether we would look to overnight anywhere or not. In the event, a couple of cans of Red Bull and 'keep going', swapping over where necessary.

Weather down there was great, did a few days of hard work down there, Tom Tom was a Godsend for that also, then straight back. 22 hours this time, as we planned it a bit better, plus the weather was kind.

Driving highlights have got to include the Spanish Highways - absolutely anything goes, or seems to, driving back over the Mountains in moonlight - fantastic and I think that bridge they had on Top Gear a couple of months ago, the one where they drove the Supercars to.

All very good and I would definately do it again, real feeling of freedom compared to flying.

Cheers.

Asif

Glad you enjoyed yourself it's well worth the effort and as you say it's possible to really enjoy yourself on some of the Spanish highways. They don't seem to know the maening of the phrase 'speed kills' yet seem to manage much lower road deaths than their counterparts in France who are obsessed with enforcement.

I know exactly what you mean. Whilst having a Tom Tom has been a godsend when driving abroad I still like to have the maps out so that I know exactly where we are. In fact I do it in the UK too, I just like to know where I am and what's around :D

We took the wrong sliproad off the motorway a couple of years ago (driver error) and ended up in Lille. I think we'd still be there if we hadn't have had a Tom Tom :D

Glad you had a good holiday anyway :thumb: I have great memories of maxing out the Scoob on a fantastic piece of deserted Spanish motorway. It was the fastest I've ever driven. I've not even managed to match it on the autobahn as the road surface and conditions just haven't been as good.

I remember it well Sal - indicated 145 mph comes to mind :D :D