Travellers between UK & Alicante : A Central Topic to share Travel Experiences under COVID conditions - Page 2

If nyone can fly from London Gatwick, Manchester or Edinburgh then Norwegian Air is always worth a look as they fly a shuttle service direct to alicante.

We are flying Gatwick-Alicante on Thursday (2 July) with Ryanair and will share our experience of travel. Wish us luck!

Hi Graham, in the past we have mostly travelled by car through France but not into Spain. We've normally ended up in Provence or Dordogne.

For us this is the first time over the border to Spain but my Mum and step Dad have driven the route to Xativa to a friends place there. It's further than Valencia but not quite into northern Costa Blanca. They said the Spanish leg was pretty easy with good motorways.

Anything in particular you are worried about?

regards

Most people have their own favourite when it comes to routes. Mine is A26 A1 Paris, A11 A10 A71 A75 straight through the centre of France. It's very scenic and even includes a trip across the stunning Millau Viaduct. You traverse mountains and gorges as well as flatlands but the roads aren't very busy and easy driving.

I drive round the inner Paris ring road - the Peripherique through Paris, most people fear it but I enjoy it, and if you choose out of rush hour times there are rarely long hold ups. You can use the same route and skirt round Paris avoiding the Peripherique.

This route brings you down to Beziers where you pick up the A9 and sail into Spain past Perpignan. 

I use Booking.com to reserve hotels. Sometimes I book in advance if I know I have plenty time, or book at my afternoon coffee when I know how many more miles I want to do that day.

I also use AA Routefinder - helpful for getting the distance I want to cover on any given day. It will give you distance and route options. Most motorways have clusters of hotels close to junctions. If you use Booking.com for example, open Google maps and look for a junction marked on the map. Look at the nearest town to the junction then enter that town as your overnight destination. When Booking.com has identified options in that location, select "map view", zoom in and you will see available options at or near that motorway junction.

If it's your first time driving in France, here's a tip. Write on a post it note "Drive on the right!" and put it on your dashboard when leaving the car for a break so when you come back the note will keep you alert. Talking of being alert, I read somewhere a while back that 80% of all accidents Brits have in France are within 100km of Calais.

For me, driving in France is a joy. Go at your own pace, and use your indicators when changing lanes. 

Best regards, Steve

It's mainly toll Graham. You always get some free stretches too. I cant remember the cost though, perhaps someone will work it out and let us know. But lots of people choose a mixture of toll and N routes. It's fairly easy to go off the toll roads and pick up an N route, then slip back onto toll when you've had enough. Without Satnav it's easy to pick up a wrong turn on the N routes, but sometimes that can be fun if you're not on a deadline..! You also see more of France on the N roads.

I'm single so I write down the route in large letters and numbers and keep it on the passenger seat. I hate Satnav talking to me all the time when I'm enjoying some music!

Any help or advice just ask.

Steve

Hi,

Download ViaMichelin.... works out the route and cost, I’m sure can avoid tolls if you wish

Regards

Terry

Hi Graham, 

We are planning our route from London to Alicante. You can go on the aa.com route planner and filter that you want toll free roads. It provided us with a route for 23 hours, a little bit longer, with using toll roads it is still 20 hours and it will save us money, even if we took an extra stop over and paid for a cheap hotel then it would still be cheaper than paying the toll. 

Hope it helps. We are travelling at the end of July so I'll post how it goes and what route we took. 

Hi , we travelled by car this week to Torrevieja wed/Thurs not all hotels open in chartres where we stopped and the toll road between Calais and Rouen which was €8.40 when we went back in march is now €15.70 

We came the Bordeaux route , no checks at the border either which surprised us

Hi Graham have you looked at about-france.com they have lots of tips and routes / prices/ things to see /where to stop etc