Best route from Calais to Eastern Spain
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Milkwood perhaps?
Sorry, couldn’t resist! I am sure there will be some sensible suggestions shortly which I shall take an interest in as OH seems keen. Might see you there.
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"We have two small dogs so dog friendly beaches would be great. Any suggestions for campsites - and should we book?"
It's not as easy as it once was to tour in winter without booking, but it can be done. As has been said, there's some advantage in booking a favourite site if you can, but some sites won't take bookings and you have to wait until someone decides to leave! By March, the overwinter campers start to leave and so it gets easier.
On the doggy question, you'll find that they're banned from most beaches from April onwards, but before then it seems to be ok ( we don't have a dog ourselves, just what we've seen).
One of our favourite sites is Kiko Park, at Oliva, south of Valencia. When were there last in 2016, the whole site was being updated. It has a great location just behind sand dunes and miles of beach. It's in the ACSI discount scheme, but with limited pitch allocation. You can book it through the club or directly with the site.
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Doesn’t seem to have any grass. Is that typical of Spanish sites?
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Yes, I guess its more about the sunshine and the towns rather than the countryside. I recall that on a long weekend to Granada we drove into the Sierra Nevada. Great from a distance but as you get nearer it is just scrubland and arid. Not our kind of scenery but we loved the city.
We do use hard standings and "motorhome only" areas on the sites we stay on but these are all surrounded by hedges and trees to create a green environment. As we don't like beaches and barren surroundings I think Spain will be off the agenda for now but I can understand its popularity for the winter months.
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Kiko Park is alright for a short stay and for beach lovers but would not dream of anything other than a few days there. I f you want green pitches stay away from the open all year sites and go early in the season before the pitches get too much wear. North western Spain and the Costa Brava are the best places.
peedee
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Would agree with both peedee and AD.
Kiko park is not a place we will bother going back to, we had 3 days there and to be honest that was enough. Nothing wrong with the site and if you are a beach lover that great, other than that there is nothing to do, we tried going out on the bikes but nothing of interest, if you have a car maybe but m/h no.
Spain not green, sorry but you've not been to the right places, we couldn't get over how green it was away from the Costas. The drive down from Biarritz through the mountains was stunning. As AD said a world away from the Costas, can't wait to get back there. Portugal is pretty green too.
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All my cheap and cheerful winter holidays have involved truly blue seas, coconut palms, casuarina trees and coral reefs - and so far the photographs of the sort of Caravan sites where people sit out the winter in Spain haven't tempted me there. Come on guys, sell it to me !
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Sorry to see all these downers on Kiko Park. At least we made a reccommendation which might have been of interest to the OP. We used to walk for hours on the beach, and cycle into Oliva for the market, or just for a coffee or a rummage in the Chinese bazaars. Can't do that anymore.
No one goes to Spain in winter for 'culture' - it's all about sunshine and making new friends. I wish eurortraveler would stop banging on about his superior walter mitty exotic non-caravanning off-topic holidays.
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ET, I dont have to sell it to you....you dont want to go..
as posters above, theres a huge difference between holidaying in the places like your photo, and (despite what you might think) many vanners also take holidays regularly to places like these...and
what many are doing in Spain...having made the investment in time and effort to get there, they are 'living' (for weeks or months) away from home, possibly to avoid the 'weather' at home, or to explore new area in a go-anywhere style....
im fortunate enough to be able to whichever of these i choose (or even both)..
be it beaches or mountains, spanish towns and fiestas, walking or cycling, all the local food and culture you could wish for, Spain (with its lovely, friendly people) is a great place to leave the winter blues behind..
and for anyone looking to try it for the first time, id recommend Benicassim to get into the mood...massive local calendar of spanish events, a real spanish town not 'Britted' in any way despite the number of campers who visit every year......it has a wonderful historic prom, miles and miles of cycling in both directions, and even inland to the mountains behind.....
re: the 'camping bit'...terrific site with bar, restaurant, two pools, supermarket on the doorstep, 500 m to a wonderful beach, same distance to the lovely town, a great combination of things on the doorstep, yet busses, trains, or car/van to Valencia one way and Sitges/Barcelona in the other.....its really popular, so ot might be advisable to contact them if interested....
Is it green?.....perhaps not in this part, but further north, definitely..
..its just that the winter sun that attracts so many in the winter, is the same sun (but far hotter) that stiffles grass growth in the summer...
good luck to the OP.
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Well it just goes to show how folk differ. As I said earlier we are not a Kiko park fan, neither are we a Bonterra park fan, 6 days there and we felt it was time to go.
Its a good job that we are different as sites are busy enough as it is. We haven't yet tried the January to March trip, although we have been Sept to November as this fits in with our other types of holidays. In 1 weeks time we will be on holiday in Spain in Andalucia, not in the m/h but flying, nice 3 bed villa with pool all to ourselves, car hire for the duration so we can get out and about (will miss the bikes though)
First 3 weeks in March we will be at our timeshare in Lanzarote. If someone had told me that I would be spending 3 weeks in the same place year after year when I was working, I would have laughed at them. However times and folk change, we now look forward to our visit each year.
Places we like in Spain that we have so far visited are Sant Pere Pescador, Cambrils, Salamanca, Caceres and Murcia. We have a lot more to see and do in the coming years so are always happy to 'try' suggestions, if we don't agree with what someone else likes, its not a problem, is it?
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TG, no its certainly not..
...like you we like suggestions too, we will then try some of them and (perhaps) may like some of them...
again, not all for sure but it adds a bit of variety.
enjoy your spanish break
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