Car Hire

Hi I have never hired a car as I drive out to Spain, however another forum that I look at a fair few people recommend Lara Cars on Urbanisation La Marina and also Swan Autos La Marina. Hope this helps.

Hello Yorkshire Lass

Which route do you take to Spain and do you think it works out any cheaper. We go out for a month at a time and have considered it  but the overnight ferries are very expensive. 

Hi we usually stay for 3/4 months and do the Dover Calais crossing. We stay in Boulogne for the first night as we've already done a 6 hour drive to Dover plus we have our dog with us. We usually stay in B&B or PremiereClasse (Saint Martins Les Boulogne) depending at what time of year we travel the room with ensuite is around €33, the rooms are very basic but clean. We then head for Bayonne (which is about 15 minutes from the Spanish border) via Rouen,Bordeaux. We use Michelin Route planner as it gives you the toll prices plus our SatNav, glad we had a paper route as SatNav threw a wobbly and erased all the maps 😂😂. We've found the rooms are a bit more expensive in Bayonne (Nord) at around €44, once again depending on the time of year. The next day we then head towards Pamplona, Zaragoza,Teruel, Valencia,Alicante, we come off the A7 exit to Alcoi. We take our time and use the toll roads and drive on day 2 for around 9/10 hours, day 3 the final leg about 9 hours. We always do france on a Sunday as there are restrictions on HGV's. It can be done quicker, I know some who don't stop and share the driving. We have a Freelander 2 and do the journey on 3 tanks of diesel approx €220 with about 50 miles to spare. The tolls this year in May were roughly €100,ferry €65 rooms €77. We have a camping fridge running off the 12volt so carry most of our food for the journey. We find the cost of bringing our own car more than compensates for trying to hire a car for 3 months. We have no desire to buy a Spanish car and leave it in Spain, as we never know when we are coming over (ITV etc to be dealt with). Hope this makes sense to you as I'm not the best at explaining things 😂 . We've never done the Santander or Bilbao sailings. I'm sure you will get more responses for different routes.

Thanks for that it's very helpful. 

Martin

Only just read this post, but my neighbour in La Marina Urb does the Santander ferry run, drive time is about 10 hours, so doable in one go if two people share driving.