Europe in February - are we mad?
We are wanting to do a longish journey into Europe - maybe as far down as Portugal. Because of work commitments we would need to travel the end of January for maybe 6 weeks. We have never done anything like this so a little apprehensive. Living in Devon we are not sure if we should consider the rather expensive ferry from Plymouth to Santander or drive to Dover and meander our way down through France. We will be taking our 2 little doggies.
At this time of the year will we be staying alone on sites? Do others do this?
Would really be good to hear of others experiences!
Thanks in advance.
Martin
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Martin
Lots of people travel down to Spain at that time of year. However if you intend to "meander through France" you could come up against the issue of sites being open. There are sites that cater for winter travellers but there are not many of them.
David
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I certainly think the Tunnel would be better for your dogs. I wouldn't subject a dog of mine to that lengthy ferry crossing.
It could be better for you, too, as the crossing from Plymouth to Santander involves the Bay of Biscay and that's no mean feat at this end of the year.
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The cost for me of the ferries to northern Spain is twice the cost of the fuel when driving down from Calais. I prefer to drive anyway, its much more of an experience if you have the time and if you have to use sites, in the winter they are as cheap as chips. Buy yourself an ACSI card and use their App to find sites open at the time you are travelling. You can use the filters to define a start date and end date and it will bring up all the sites open in that period and you can use these to help you plan your route and days journey.
peedee
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Martin Nik, Two points for you. The ferry from Plymouth to Spain doesn't normally run in winter although the ones from Portsmouth do. You won't be alone when you get down to southern Spain and Portugal - some popular campsites are regularly full in mid winter and turn people without bookings away.
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Considering to do the same at some point also with 2 dog's, but as anotherdave has said it's a long haul up to Dover. Living just outside of Plymouth it would be Roscoff every time for us.
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Even Roscoff is a long haul for a dog on a ferry.
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And Plymouth to France via the tunnel is a long haul too - about 1000 miles extra on the round trip - never mind the driver and passengers it's just for the sake of a dog.
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Yep, all for the dog.👍🏻
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Although we too live near Plymouth, there are no weekly crossings even to Roscoff in January. Just one a month to reposition ground crew. So this January we crossed from Portsmouth, overnight on the Pont Aven, to St Malo. This gives you a quick journey onto the autoroutes to Bordeaux and Spain. The 3 hour drive to Portsmouth late afternoon is off set by being further east on the French coast.
Its a 2 day drive to the Spanish border at 60mph, on empty autoroutes and with plenty of Aires for stretching canine legs and yours!
Excuse arty photo, I cannot rotate it, Bah humbug!
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Plenty of good advice. Another thing to consider is the weather. We have been chased down the autoroutes of both France and Central Spain by snow. In addition we've just managed to avoid the Mistral in eastern France, so have a Plan B.
In February and even coming back in March you won't have too many sites open en route so get an ACSI card and buy the Clubs campsite guide for both France and Spain. Whilst you may not have many other campers on sites whilst travelling you will usually find one or two in the same boat as yourselves, almost certainly some Dutch or Germans heading south.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
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Or dig has so far survived 8 years travelling three times a year between Portsmouth and St Malo/Caen. Never a problem.
This January we did go to Bilbao and she shared or pet friendly cabin. I must admit i think Tess herself would prefer that option!
I personally would go for the option of traveling south directly to Spain and returning through France. We set ourselves a maximum daily limit of just over 200 miles and managed to find campsites in France just off the autoroutes on our return journey .
Admittedly they weren't up to Club standards, but i wouldn't hesitate to go any of them again.
Incidentally, the Bay of Biscay on 16/17 January was like a mill pond!
... And luckily the weather in France mid February was as good as we'd experienced in Valencia!
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I can add that coming back on Pont Aven from Santander last week we spent a pleasant hour on deck watching the dogs being exercised in the dedicated area on deck. They all seemed very happy and content.
Our crossing was flat calm (as was the outgoing in November) .... but just 4 days earlier it would have been a different story!
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We've just come back from France - having spent the last week of February until this morning there (three weeks). We've had a mix of temperatures. mostly nicely warm during the day, and on Wednesday this week our roof terrace thermometer was showing temperatures of thirty-six degrees (too hot to sit out in the sun) - so we have a sun tan which our neighbours have just admired!
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