Driving from Calais

Nursep, It really does depend on the route you take.  For example I do no Toll roads or motorways when I can avoid them.  I generally have two stops on the way over and where I stop depends on what time I hit Dunkirk... as I generally stop at a nice town and have a pint or two... So it will depend on your ferry I would say.

I never ever plan a stop or book a hotel as I drive until it is late afternoon.  I now travel in a VW campervan so dont need hotels but used to.

Which route?  What time ferry dock... Tolls??  These will start to shape your stopping point..

I will probably get shot down writing this but here goes.

If you use booking dot com I would highly recommend ringing the hotel to confirm your booking as I have had two bad experiences with them 

Hi,,

We now live in javea, but spent 11years in south west France , in the correze. It's a long drive from the French ports down to. south of Alicante with one overnight stop. However if you want to do it in one stop, we know a very nice hotel just south of Brive on the A20, the main route down to Toulouse and on to spain. Look on the map and if you think it is ideal we will forward you the address, plenty of easy parking, easy to find and run by a lovely young couple at a good price!

We look forward to hearing from you.

Malcolm and Lyndsay

We have used the Campanile motel chain for travelling for at least the past 20 years. Theyhavecomprehensive coverage, an easy website, always have parking, onsite restaurant, outskirts of towns, sometimes trading estates. Reliable, clean, not pretending to be 5 star hotels,but perfectly reasonable and not expensive.

Thanks for y

Premiere classe at Bayonne. Cheap and cheerful overnight stop. We use it every time we drive over. The rooms are compact but we squeeze 5 dogs in with us. Places to eat within walking distance and a secure car park

Have you thought about getting the ferry to Santander? It's then an eight hour drive instead of seventeen hours. Cost wise it's probably about the same when you factor in French tolls fuel and hotels. 

We´ve only done it twice, once booking in advance, the other as we went. The first time having things booked beforehand put extra pressure on us, arriving at the first stop very late (reception closed) and exhausted, then getting to the second stop too early. The second time was so much easier, stopping for breaks wherever and whenever we felt like it and had choices for hotels everywhere. Our booked trip was in Spring and the other in high season. In Spring, we avoided most tolls then followed the E15 route the whole way the second time, which we preferred even with the extra toll costs.
Whatever you do, we hope it goes well for you.

Will look into that we live on the Isle of Wight so would probably be easier thank