Travel from uk to Spain via France - Page 2

Hi Loulou

Good to hear you made it without and hiccups, our adventure begins tomorrow lunch time pretty much as yours but we are heading down the East coast Bordeaux route.

Safe journey and enjoy the drive. We did. 

Hi 

Was this route on the Michelin web site or did you make you own route.

Which hotel did you stay  in and was it expensive.  What was the total for the journey.

Thanks in advance 

Steve

Hi Steve

If you put the location you are heading to into google maps it will give you the best route, the only one I would avoud would be Paris.

Regards

Andewq

Hi steve

We picked the route from google maps and then input into Satnav. We came via reims,dijon and lyon. Hubby advises that the tolls came to around £100 and petrol was £132. That's for a 2L diesel. We stayed at Campanille Narbonne which was about €60. It was fine for one night and 3 minutes from the motorway. Best bet is to look for chain hotels like Campanille, F1, Ibis. Basic, clean and good locations. Unless you prefer spa hotels of course 🤣

The 2 main routes you want to look at are Bordeaux and Lyon, the Lyon route is slightly longer in time but about 130km longer in distance, Bordeaux route is more scenic and I generally cut the corner and use the somport tunnel it cuts off about 40ks and 15 minutes, you could head to Le-Mans then cut across to Clermont-Ferrand which cuts the corner of Reims and Lyon thats a nice drive.

I have done them all over the years and my personal choice is the Somport Tunnel route no tolls in Spain and €105 in the summer through France, loads of services and hotels on route plus you have aires to pull into.

Hi

Did you need to book hotels in advance , sorry never done this before so it’s all new, any contacts would be appreciated ie hotels, etc, what are the speed limits in France / spain.

Thanks

Hi Steve

You need to work your route out first then book hotels in advance and the train or ferry personally I book the train as its only 35 minutes. Speed limits vary in France with the weather 130km if its sunny 110km if its raining, Spain is 120km there are plenty signs telling you this.

Where are you starting from and I will have a look at a route with hotels for you.

I’m will be coming from Essex to the train, then from Calais then the quickest !!

Thanks

Both routes through France, (East or West of Paris), are about the same distance and time.

I prefer the East route bypassing Lyon, once you get past Barcelona there are no tolls on the AP-7 and at least you get a view of the Med and there are plenty of service stations.

We normally leave early evening by Eurotunnel, travel through the night when its cooler and arrive on the Costa Brava late morning, (about 800 miles but all motorway), we stay overnight in L Escala or Sant Marti d Empuries where we fill up with diesel as its much cheaper in Spain and cheaper still off the motorway.

The next day we do the remaining 300 odd miles to the Jalon Valley in the sunshine with occasional views of the Med which makes me think I am on holiday.

It normally takes about 30mins to get through Barcelona and again is all motorway, in fact the total distance is about 1100 miles and 1080 is on motorways, just be carefull when you come off the motorway to drive on the correct side of the road.