best driving route from Roscoff to Benidorm

Depending how you want to go.

Do you want to avoid tolls etc.

Roscoff-Vannes-Nantes-Niort-Bordeaux …. Then a choice to make.

Do you want to travel via the costal med route or via mainland Spain?

If costal route then route towards Toulouse-Carcassonne-Narbonne-Perpignan-Girona-Barcelona and AP7/or non toll south.

if via mainland Spain then from Bordeaux-Bayonne-Irun-Pamplona-Zaragoza-Teruel-Valencia and south on the AP7/or non toll south.

I’ve done both routes often and now usually take the route through Spain via Irun/Pamplona. If you want a scenic route then via Pau & the Somport tunnel or over the top is an option.

Cannot comment on places to stay as we do it in a Motorhome so the need does not arise in our case, but I’m sure you wouldn’t have much trouble finding overnight stops with a bit of planning.

Enjoy your trip.

When my partner and I drive back to the UK for family visits, we go up through France to the Channel because I'm a poor sailor and having tried it once, I can't face another overnight crossing from Santander through the Bay of Biscay! We visit the Midlands and South Wales, so we find the best crossing for us is Caen to Portsmouth. 5 hours on a ferry, my limit!

You can take the 'Routes National' (what we would call 'A' roads) in France to save tolls, but it's a big country and I find the hassle and slower journey times are just not worth it. Stick to the motorways, which are superb, and grit your teeth when having to pay about 80 euros in tolls North to South.

You'll need to go east from Roscoff on the N12 past Rennes and Laval to Le Mans to pick up the main motorway south, the A28 which merges with the A10. Or you could go south from Rennes on the E3 and A83 past Nantes to pick up the A10 further south.

Either way, you head south for Bordeaux on the A10. Try and avoid this city at rush hour, the ring road motorway gets incredibly busy then. Go east or west around it, it doesn't matter, and go south on the A63 all the way to the Spanish border.

I have devised a route in Spain which is completely toll free and on decent roads. As soon as I cross the border at Irun, I leave the motorway and head into the hills, direction Pamplona, on the N121A. This winds through the mountains and is very scenic. At Pamplona you join the motorway to go around the city toll free, but then leave it again on the N121, a decent 'A' road which runs parallel with the motorway for 70 kilometres (saving about 10 euros) until you join the A68 just before Tudela, going east for Zaragoza. This is another 'A' road which runs parallel to the toll motorway. 

At Zaragoza, again you join the ring motorway toll free, south past the airport, then branch off on the A23 motorway south for Valencia. This is also toll free. This motorway joins the AP7 at Segunto just before Valencia, and then it's a straight run south to Benidorm.

I don't know where you'll need to stay because you've not said what time of day you arrive in Roscoff, but some good places we've used en route are as follows:

The Campanile Hotel, Tours South. Just off J23 of the A10, with a very good Belgian mussels themed restaurant called Leon five minutes' walk away.

Hotel Les Bruyeres, Castets, off J12 of the A63, about 100km south of Bordeaux. A couple of hundred metres from the hotel is a Les Routiers restaurant which is fabulous. If you've never been to one, you must. Built for truckers but serving the public too, you get a superb four course dinner with wine here for 14/15 euros a head in a modern, clean, well run and welcoming establishment.

Hotel Ibis, Irun. Cost us 60 euros total for bed and breakfast a few months ago, fantastic buffet breakfast, secure parking, good room. Good cheap local eatery five minutes' drive away for dinner, Marino Restaurante, lots of Gallego specialties including octopus! If you're taking the N121A into the hills, there are a number of fuel stations at the motorway junction here, being as it's just over the border from France. I find the cheapest and best is Gasolinera Bidasol, the last one before you head off into the countryside proper.