To Spain with caravan
Hi this may have been covered before but please help this newby,
We are booking a week in Spain,(Benidorm) for end of July, the plan is to travel down to Dover Tuesday evening,early Wednesday morning ferry then travel from Calais, now ''this is where your help is needed.
The plan is to take 3 days plus 1/2 day Saturday to travel through France and Spain both ways with a caravan.
What I am wanting is advice on routes,places to stop over night as caravans are not as welcome is service areas as motor homes. Prices the full ins and outs / do's and dont's
Worked out several routes on viaMichalin maps app and prices can be £200 plus cheaper avoiding most toll roads
Willing to drive up to 8hours a day,don't mind some toll roads but not wanting a lot of small side roads having to stop and start but roads like the a1 would be ok.
Hope this posts as I am new to putting discussions up
Thanks Chris
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Just one possibly contentious comment (and it's meant sympathetically and not a criticism) - it's an awfully long way to go and an awful lot of driving and expense for just one week in Benidorm. The three and a half day timing is probably just possible, but you'll need to do long days, and it won't be pleasurable. Other people seem to reckon it's best done over five or more days! We haven't done it. We have driven down to Tarragona with the caravan several times, and probably taken three and a half days to get there. If it were me I think I'd fly down and have a full fortnight there. I would save my caravanning for a trip to France which was for the pleasure of holidaying there and not just to 'pass through' on the way up and down. However, here's the way we've done it in the past.
We use a mostly non-toll route via Calais/Boulogne/Abbeville/Rouen/Evreux/Dreux/Chartres (choice of continuing on the N road or taking the autoroute)/Orleans (skirting around Orleans) then heading west to Gien. Then head south via Nevers, Moulins, Gannat, Clermond Ferrand, and then down the free A75. You can then choose to join the toll A9 near Beziers or continue on the N road. (When I say via - I don't mean actually go into those towns, but stay on the by-passes)! There are some slower stretches as you by-pass Rouen (I have a PDF file of a suggested route for this, via Pont de l'Arche - if you'd like it email me on valdaathome@gmail.com) In Spain you've the choice of the Autoroute, or the alternative which is a fast road, certainly as far as Tarragonna.
An alternative, never shown on Michelin or google searches, is to do the above, but at Orleans continue south on the N road, and at Vierzon take the free A20 down to Brive, then do cross-country via Villefranche de Rouergue, south of Rodez, and join the A75 at Millau.
There are plenty of sites to choose from, depending on your timings. Unfortunately I'm no good at predicting just where eight hours of driving per day will get you, nor what time you arrive in Calais - all of which would affect suggestions of overnight stops, but on my route there are lots of choices of sites. However, one word of advice is that when travelling, particularly if you're holidaying in the middle of July onwards, you'll probably need to arrive on site by about 4.00 pm in order to make sure you get a pitch. Early July will be a different story - much quieter. French peak holidays is from the weekend following Bastille day, for approximately a month.
Caravans can stay on autoroute 'Aires' (service stations) overnight but many people don't recommend it. We have stayed at many Aires in the past, when we used to arrive late-night in France, but I'd only do it on those aires we've visited in daylight, and know the layouts, and these days we always prefer a campsite. However, you may be confusing 'Aires de Service Camping Car' which are for motorhomes only - but these are in towns and villages, and not on the autoroutes.
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I would strongly advise you to budget for using autoroutes/autopistas including toll roads. We have just driven home from the Alps in our car using the 'peage' routes. Yesterday we traveled 300 miles ( Langres to St Omer) in 6hrs 30 minutes including coffee and a snack lunch stop. The previous day we did a similar mileage from La Plagne to Langres. We would not in any circumstances contemplate using d roads unless we wanted to 'dawdle along' admiring the scenery, roundabouts, traffic lights, 20mph speed limits or getting stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle.
You will be able to cruise at 90 kph on the autoroutes along with the hgv's, you will also be able to park in the aires de service with your caravan, and will be able to fill up with your van in tow. There are some French autoroutes which are toll free because there's no alternative d road.
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I was going to revisit my post, and add the suggestion which ChasNCath have just made, which is that realistically with your timings you'll probably have to use the autoroutes. The timings given by route planners are usually very very optimistic and I don't think we've ever reached our destination in the time predicted by a route planning website. Invariably you have stops, and from experience each stop (even if only a quick visit to the loos) seems to add on half an hour by the time you've manoeuvred, found somewhere to park, walked across the service area...................etc! Meals take an hour even if you've pre-packed a picnic and it's all ready in the caravan. It's one of those strange things about expanding and contracting time!
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Having just re-read your post, rocky, I'd really like to suggest that you reconsider your plan for Benidorm. As Valda has pointed out, the French camping season centres around July and the first two weeks of August and campsites can be very busy. It also means that the autoroutes are also very busy at weekends with tailbacks at the toll booths. Additionally, the temperatures en route and at your destination are going to be in the high nineties. Do you have air conditioning in your car and your van?
Why not plan a holiday with less travel and more time on site e.g Brittany or Normandy?
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I've done the Calais/Benidorm ( Alicante actually, an hour further on) run solo and that was two and a half days of pedal to the metal. It is quite gruelling. Either go for longer or pick somewhere closer.
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Thanks for the info,
first the wife works for the education department so MUST have school holidays.
She also likes to have a final destination that she as been too before so my idea was to travel through France with over night stop offs on camp sites so she could see what it is like with the hope next year we could do France.
Just talked to the "gaffer" and we may be stopping in santa Susana which would mean about 340 miles less to do.
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The problem is that you won't see the best (or worst) of French campsites by rushing down through France. You'll have to stay on those near the main routes - rarely the best options. You'll have to set up in a hurry and move on in even more of a hurry, you'll have to take all your food with you, as you won't have time to shop, and it will be just 'rush, rush, rush' from one site to another. You'll miss all the beautiful areas on offer, driving past them in a whirl on a route with too much traffic and too much heat!
Why not do Santa Susana by plane, and possibly have a week or so at Spring Bank Holiday when you can choose any site, anywhere within reason, and find an empty pitch, and really get to get the feel of a French site. That way your wife gets the destination she wants this time, but you can explore new options without having to have an end 'destination'! That's one of the big advantages of a caravan in France - you don't need to make up your mind where you're going until you get there. We have been known to make what was intended as an overnight site into a three week stay, and have also driven into a planned 'destination' site and decided we didn't like it and moved on ten miles down the road.
At Spring Bank Holiday you can get a site for as little as 11 euros, for pitch, two adults, car and caravan, awning, and electricity - and many more for 13, 15, 17 or 19 euros with the ACSI Card (www.campingcard.co.uk).
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... who here's able to remember Parkinson's Laws of just about everything? Our variant is that events expand to fill more than the time available!
And on the one occasion we drove down the A-routes South at Paris Holiday time, even just with car and nothing being towed, it was hellishly stressful. The usual rules of space just didn't apply, it was simply a high speed traffic jam with no quarter given. I'd join the "take time to enjoy a shorter distance" brigade - as a teacher, the last thing I wanted after the end of Summer Term was days like that!
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I don't want to be a killjoy but I have to agree with those who suggest it is an inordinate amount of driving, given the time you will have in Spain. We went a few years ago, using the Portmouth- Bilbao ferry. Although it cost more than driving, I calculated that the cost of Dover-Calais ferry, fuel, toll charges and site fees for overnight stops would amount to two thirds of the cost of the overnight ferry to Bilbao which justified taking the stress free option.
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I can only agree with everyone else - Let the plane take the strain!
It would also be much easier to stroll out of your hotel and see Benidorm than be on a campsite a few miles away.
I won't give you my views of Santa Susanna just in case someone actually likes the place!
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