Driving from Calais to Northern Spain - any tips
 

I'll be doing this journey next month, and was wondering if anyone knew how to much to expect in tolls etc?

Also any other tips or advice would be great as this is the first time I will be doing a drive like this.

Obviously I don't intend on speeding, but... what is the situation regarding speed cameras etc? Can you be fined in the U.K for speeding in Europe?

Thanks.

Why are you going from Calais? why not go Portsmouth - Le Havre or Bilbao ? Surely the amount you save by going to Calais will be taken up in road tolls and petrol in both directions! Surely sailing direct to Bilbao wil be cheaper in the long run plus you don't have to drive for 10 hours + across France.

Plus the French will fine you on the spot for speeding and it ain't cheep.

It wasn't an option, the missus can't stand ferries and being pregnant she has the last say. :D

So, the tunnel is all booked, and I have to make the best of it.

What Wurzel said,plus you can valve bounce over the Pireneese Mountains:thumb:

Portsmouth Santander would have been more expensive, I take it a couple of times a year and it works out about £1-200 pounds more... prices are shocking now. But as I'm driving further south it's worth it.

No real tips other than go south, and when you arrive back in England you haven't got a puncture, that's our crappy roads.

Cheapest but most boring motoway route from Calais is ( after brimming the fuel tank at Auchan or Leader price) Calais-->Rouen-->Lemans-->Tours-->Poitiers. Refuel at Auchan in Poitiers (cheap; fuel on the toll is pricy)

The above are all tolls but after Poitiers you can then jump on the N10 through Bordeaux where it'll be free all the way to the border (not very sceneic :sleep: ). Traffic round Brodeaux can be a bit of 'mare if you catch it at the wrong time.

Just watch teh speed cameras (forward facing mostly in the central reservation). Get a satnav with speed camera warning. And watch out for those pesky Gendarmes in their Scoobs hiding on entrance ramps with laser guns (check your mirrors after every junction).

Once in Spain you are on the A8 northern coastal road, gets a bit busy round San Sabastian with a few tolls close to each other, but once out of there it gets a bit less hectic.

By the way, the two day ferry from Portsmouth to Bilboa IS cheaper! Thats with driving a Seat diesel averaging 43mpg non-stop to Zarautz including fuel/food stops and tunnel crossing.

Plymouth to santander is the other option but Plymouth is shyte for traffic.

viamichelin gives toll costs.

Looks like being about 80 each way.

ps. I've got the travel costs somewhere, but not at hand. Will have to dig them out when I get back home :)

Obviously you have to pick your crossing day (online) very wisely with the ferry to get the cheapest crossing, which is a big factor in costs.

He has already booked his channel crossing.

Worth bearing in mind for next time. Travel sickness bands; they work a treat

Ferpo my driving colleage laughed his arse off when I wore them....then out at sea it got a bit choppy and he went very quiet and turned a funny colour...yup, sea sick. I bought him some travel bands, and within 15mins he was ok again. And ALOT more humble :smug: :lol1:

Drive on the right :thumb:

dl

I did Doncaster to the Pyrenees , Dover Calais, in a new vito sport....iirc cost about £200 in tolls , as for there speed cameras.....I spanked the van there and back and never got a ticket :)
Tis a long drive....I set off in Doncaster Friday morning and was back home 2pm Sunday........never again good earner of not :lol1:

Tolls, ferry, fuel, food.......grand

Ali, the prices do seem a bit cheaper, I'm about to book again so had another look. Random dates in the months I want are £530 with the lowest cabin, that's down from £700!! that I paid last time.

I break even if the ferry is about £500, but would pay more as it makes it a pleasant journey, I can be at home in the south by 10pm. I'm working on 2.5tdi running costs, a Subaru will suck a load more juice.

Well having done this last year on a bike, I can tell you it will cost you £ 100 pound in tolls to go all the way down to Spain. Now the good bit. Take the motorway which will take you over the Milau bridge, fantastic bridge. The motorway from clermont ferrand to milau is one of the best motorway you will ever drive on. This section of motorway has everything, twists, hills banked curves. You will be entertained.

Now police enforcement. Speed limits on motorway are generally 80mph(130kph) you can cruise at 90 quite safely. Drop your speed down early when approaching toll areas. Its not true about timed section between tolls. Speed cameras vary and are well hidden, some mobile ones are very well hidden indeed. There is no recourse as of yet to send fines to the UK. Sign upto pocketsgps and load you satnav with the latest locations fixed and mobile-well worth it. The motorways are virtually deserted due to French not wanting to pay, so you can cover great distances with less effort compared to the UK. If you find a vehicle traveling faster than you, let them ride shotgun, keep a safe distance back at cruise at a 100+ there are plenty of fuel stops and fuel isn't that much cheaper than UK prices. If you travel non motorway it will take much longer as all the truckers use these roads to avoid tolls.
Do come back through Andorra, the mountain roads are very good fun.

Have great time, good scenery, fantastic roads.

Andy

Go newhaven dieppe , quickest route outta London - miss expensive toll coming down from calais

Rueon , paris ,chartroux,orleans > toulouse

right somewhere before you end up in Barca

cuise set at 80 /130 , unless its pissing down

Got my figures out:

Through the route I said above from the midlands to southern spain:

December 2009 (exchange rate 1.121):

Eurotunnel: €110
Fuel €147
Hotel in Bordeaux (for three) €181.10
Tolls: €68
Total £451.88

UK to Spain (01/05/2010 exchange rate 1.13 euros to the £ )
Tolls: €71
Eurotunnel: £75
Fuel: €163.63
Hotel in Zarautz (for three): €113.20
Total: £382.81

Ferry from Santander to Plymouth in november 2010: (exchange rate €1.05 to the £ )

Ferry with deluxe room: £408.50 (last minute booking due to blockades/protests in France with deluxe cabin with free minibar sofa and TV plus a dog kennel)
Fuel €90
Total: £495.21


Ferry from Portsmouth to Bilboa to Portsmouth in March 2011:

Ferry: £355.50 (dog freindly cabin; which is just a basic room with a lino covered floor :lol1:)
Fuel: €95
Total: £441.86

So really both me and Jack are right. It just depends on the time of year, exchange rate and fuel prices. I've excluded food costs as it depends on how posh you want your food or if you bring packed lunches. ;)

The biggest difference for us is to get to southern spain we need to stop overnight somewhere, be it a ferry or a hotel. SO I suppose for Nothern spain the road maybe cheaper as that jaunt can be done in one day without a overnight stop (although it is really pushing it: we drove from Birmingham to Zarautz in one jaunt on a sunday, and I would say that is the ultimate safe limit with three drivers.

Fly and rent a car simple :D

Even if it's £250 more I'm taking the Santander/Bilbao Ferry, not driving through France is worth it. In fact I paid £700 for the ferry once and loved every minute. So much better now that The Pride of Bilbao has been replaced/sunk, that Chav Cruise was terrible.

I have a French Liber-t toll tag, they just debit at the end of the trip, even better now that many tolls have 30kph pass thru lanes :thumb:

I got mine from APRR but you do need to understand French, if you're not so inclined you can now get them in the UK from Sanef, www.noq4gb.co.uk

Dont speed, dont take a radar detector, comply with the usual vehicle requirements etc

That seems quite cheap for tolls ??

Tried to avoid them as much as possible but still sticking to dual carriageways and keeping away from any toll motorways that lead to Paris.

Via Michelin says its €72.70 which is about right: http://www.viamichelin.com/web/Itine...routeConso=5.6 Although that route is a slightly different to the one I take.



Basically everything south of Poitiers is free (N10) until you hit Irun/San-sebastian.

Thanks for all the info guys.

Really looking forward to this trip now. :)

I took part in a 3day event calis to marbella in spain. The roads are amazing but yes have a sat nav with speed camara awarewness - although on the way down I sat at between 90 & 120mph the whole way and nothing happened.

On the way back I was stopped in spain doing 160kph in a 110 and had to pay 50 euro fine and I was back on my way. I was flashed in france but heard nothing 6months on. I was told they will stop me when I go back but since then my car & name have changed so we will see.

Being so flat we were getting over 500miles to a tank (1.8 mitsubishi carisma) but the tolls are expensive - worth it though.

We set the satnav to avoid tolls and found it took a lot longer as everyone else was avoiding the tolls.

Like someone said above - follow someone else who is speeding. I did this and was stunned seeing it slam its brakes on and fish tale ... - I didn't slow down and got busted.

One thing I wish I had done and that is plan for more days. We did the trip in 4 days and wish we had planned to stay 'on holiday' for longer.

Ensure you have brake down cover and let you insurance know your going.. youll be covered for free but they need to know.

The scenes are amazing and I can't wait for our next trip...

Good luck

Tip; DO NOT use your sat nav to solely work out the route. Yes, it'll get you there but at a cost either in time or money....

The reason is most sat navs will only do one of two things; take the most expensive (shortest/fastest) route. Or avoid every singe toll. Ideally you want to do a bit of both.

As in reality its actually better to mix it with free roads where there are fast free routes and use tolls in areas where there is congestion or the other routes are single carriageway.

Basically get a good road map which clearly shows which roads are dual carriageway and which are tolls. Work out the route, then manually program the sat nav the day before the trip. Also print out a route itinerary with cities and road numbers incase the satnav gives up, and put post-it note tabs on the relevent pages of the road map. Thats how I did it. It did come in handy too, as teh satnav got its knickers in a twist at Rouen and Burgos.

Some road maps are terrible for route/road keys; not being very clear on which road is toll and which road is dual carriageway. I think the one I have is Collins European Road Atlas, which seems to be ok...Seemed better than the Michelin and AA maps when I was flicking through them in Waterstones.

Having covered nearly 6000 miles driving around France, it has some beautiful sites to see and also great roads. My last trip was a little surprising in that we did a fair bit of cross country riding and was astounded by the lack of life in towns and villages, (not just between 12-2pm). They were deserted, France must be experiencing a body snatcher operation. Or their economy is really fooked.

On the plus side its does make make for a relaxing ride, when you don't have to fight with other traffic.

Beware if you decide to travel cross country on Sunday the petrol stations close at midday. The supermarket (un-attanded pumps generally dont take UK credit debit cards) Stick to the motorways where they stay open all day.

Never had a problem with UK cards (Visa/mastercard). I found UK cards work at Auchan and Leader price at least and there's plenty of them around - plus they are usually the cheapest for fuel too (albeit not brilliant if you are after some super duper 99RON fuel ;) ).

But yes, EVERYTHING is closed on sunday barring restuarants, same with Spain (unless its a UK tourist spot, like Benidorm).

There are certain things you have to have which are legal requirements abroad so make sure you have the following,
1. make sure you always have your driving licence on you (both parts)
2. full set of spare bulbs
3. warning triangle
4. first aid kit
5. hi visibility vests for every person in the car
6. correct insurance cover (car,travel/medical,breakdown/recovery.)
as far as i know all apart from the travel/medical and breakdown/recovery insurance are legal requirements although i would strongly advise you to get the insurance cover just in case, hope you have safe journey and a great time mate.:)

Clearly your using an inferior card / supermarket ;)

my mastercard worked well enough last sunday at super u , limoux

7. Headlamp beam adapters.

A pet hate of mine is people dazzling other road users because they can't be arsed to sort their headlamps for driving overseas....and people look at me gone out when they see me attaching the beam adapaters to my car whilst waiting to board the ferry/train....whilst their lights are not adapted to suit the country they are going to be driving in :rolleyes:

Good call, i forgot that one.:thumb: