calais to south of spain

[renagade]

I can get by with my little French which I enjoy talking to the French with but don't know any Spanish (don't like the bloody country ).

[demag]

Drive on the right! And when approaching a traffic island give way to the left! Important.

Sent from my Wileyfox Swift using Tapatalk

[white exec]

Hi I am going to Orihuela. That's where the brother-in-law has spent the last twelve years.

Well, well. We passed just a few km from Orihuela just last week, along A7/E15, while driving from Malaga to Carcassonne. Small world!

Driving tips in Spain:
- Spanish tend to take roundabouts in straight lines, so be careful;
- pedestrians exercise their absolute right of way on crossings, and never wait for you to pass, even if there is oodles of empty road behind you; they also don't bother to check for traffic before stepping out;
- Spanish drivers are required to carry: two warning triangles, set of spare bulbs, spare spectacles (if you wear them for driving), and one hi-vis jacket per car seat (wearing these is compulsory, and very sensible, if you break down on motorways or major carriageways). Not clear whether all this applies to tourists, so err on side of caution;
- carry your documents; make sure you have an EU accident report form with you; photograph any incident, and the drivers involved;
- careful with speed: there are cameras everywhere - 120km/hr (75mph) max on motorways - although foreign plated cars are often ignored, allegedly, but it won't stop traffic police (Guardia Civil Trafico) stopping you;
- If running a diesel, avoid supermarket fuel - it's cheap but not good. Repsol basic diesel is excellent stuff, and about €1.10 to €1.15 a litre at the moment. Unlike elsewhere, it's not much more expensive on motorways.
- Above all, drive defensively: leave lots of space and assume everyone else will do something daft, without notice. Driving in Spain is different, but not kamikaze like Italy. Treat black BMW and small Seat's with caution, especially if the driver is young. Bright yellow Seat's are especially unpredicatable.

Sorry for all that. We've been here for 12 years now, too. It's actually a great place, once you've learned how it ticks.

[Gibbo2286]

Hi I am going to Orihuela. That's where the brother-in-law has spent the last twelve years.

Well, well. We passed just a few km from Orihuela just last week, along A7/E15, while driving from Malaga to Carcassonne. Small world!

That's where my wife and I found out about the necessity of knowing a bit of French.

We were offered out of the blue a chance to take a nine day coach trip to the Costa Brava, my wife was ill and needed the break so we just popped on the coach without any pre preparation.

[Richard_C]

You might like to get yourself a telepeage box - you pay a small fee, the tolls get charged to your credit card that you register, and you can use the express lanes as long as you are under 2m high with whatever you have on the roof. You can still use it of over 2m but not down the fast lane. You just drive in fairly slowly, box beeps, barrier opens, off you go. It has 2 advantages - you don't have to wake passenger and it saves time particularly when its busy. If you go down some routes you get miles between tolls, but round the cities you can get toll booths in batches as you go from paid to free sections and back again. Some remote exits are unmanned at night so the telepeage box saves faffing about with a credit card in the dark.

You used to have to order from France, but now they have a UK operation, https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/

Sanef run a set of Autoroutes from Calais down the East side but the boxes are universal, they work on all toll roads. I think its well worth it when you are trying to cover the miles, and the online statements are very detailed.

Diesel is normally less expensive than UK, Petrol a little more: I guess its all changed with the weak pound. Much more expensive on the Motorway. Some unmanned stations at night still don't like UK credit cards so best to fill up in a manned station - supermarkets are best. Despite earlier comments, the coffee is fine especially in Total service areas where the bean to cup vending machines give you a long expresso at a sensible price. The instant can be nasty though.

I find it relaxing, unless you are travelling at a busy time like start of holidays you can set yourself up at 130kph and the mile fly by - a couple of years ago I travelled over 60 miles without having to pause the cruise, and then only momentarily past some slow trucks. Take care with speed, I reckon 130-140 is OK, you rarely see people flying by and they are usually Brits or Belgians - I have a theory that the Gendarmes set themselves up about 50 Km from Calais just to catch us.

I know its the other way, but the first time I drove down for a ski holiday a bit over 10 years ago I looked at the distance and booked hotels in Dijon both ways. So what do you do in Dijon with young children at 3 o clock on a winter afternoon? Now I happily leave Calais at 9.00 in the morning and be up an alp by supper time.

Of the various maps, I like the via michelin ones: https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/. Pop in the route, make a few choices and it gives you a solid, printable route with pictures of the road signs by the main junctions. It also knows about planned closures/works for particular dates. These days satnavs do it all, but I do like something on paper as well.

If you are using phone, look at the Here We Go app (used to be here maps on windows phones, renamed for iOS and Android. Free. You can download whole countries and regions, if you turn data off you don't get traffic but you do get decent guidance. We went to Canada to see my daughter who was a student there, loaded bits of Canada on the phone beforehand, put in some addresses as favourites, turned data off, picked up hire car and it took all of 30 seconds to find itself and give me a route to her address. Very impressive.

[Jaf]

My bit of Spain doesn't have speed cameras. Yet. We do have 1 traffic light. And lots of roundabouts, where if someone has the inside lane they have right of way! Odd. The locals like to drive right up your bumper.

I do like the manned petrol stations. Got diesel this morning at a cheap local place at €1.02. The Spanish for fill it up is "Lleno", which sounds like "yeah no". The attendant will even bring you your change.

[Richard_C]

but not kamikaze like Italy.

My memory of Italy (aeons ago) was this:

You have a car, it is a matter of honour to pass the car in front
On a busy 2 lane road it would be stupid to overtake if you can see oncoming traffic
The only place you can't see oncoming traffic is on a bend
Therefore the only safe place to overtake is on a blind bend

[van ordinaire]

First time I went to Italy, it was in a Rover 3500S; we only exported 2000/2200's to Italy (although I did see a 3500S with "Roma" plates - in Rome!) so my speed of approach was always vastly under-estimated - as though driving there wasn't exciting enough anyway!

[white exec]

My last Rover was a 1975 3500S - lunar grey and black leather. It went to Italy as well, and even as far as Yugoslavia.
A good car to end a long affair with Rover. The move to Citroen was almost a natural bit of evolution. Rather a lot of P6 was DS-inspired, almost copied one could say...

[pete the bus]

You might like to get yourself a telepeage box - you pay a small fee, the tolls get charged to your credit card that you register, and you can use the express lanes as long as you are under 2m high with whatever you have on the roof. You can still use it of over 2m but not down the fast lane. You just drive in fairly slowly, box beeps, barrier opens, off you go. It has 2 advantages - you don't have to wake passenger and it saves time particularly when its busy. If you go down some routes you get miles between tolls, but round the cities you can get toll booths in batches as you go from paid to free sections and back again. Some remote exits are unmanned at night so the telepeage box saves faffing about with a credit card in the dark.

You used to have to order from France, but now they have a UK operation, https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/

Sanef run a set of Autoroutes from Calais down the East side but the boxes are universal, they work on all toll roads. I think its well worth it when you are trying to cover the miles, and the online statements are very detailed.

If they work the same way as for trucks they also work in Spain too.

[white exec]

Occurs to me that it would also solve the problem of driving (on the right) a RHD car solo!

[Timmo]

Would it be an option to look at plymouth - santander crossing or a Portsmouth - santander? Is a full day on the boat but could take the sting out of driving? I know its a few more hours down through uk but a thought,

[Richard_C]

Occurs to me that it would also solve the problem of driving (on the right) a RHD car solo!

Certainly does, and passenger asleep = solo 'cos they get can cross if you wake them up.

Plus there is a sense of satisfaction when you go south from Calais with boy racers racing by, 20 miles down the road at the first toll barrier you drift gently on, if its busy and toll queues are long you can be well on the way to Reims before they boy-race by again. Then its the Reims toll barriers, 3 in pretty quick succession, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Amuses me anyway.

On a quiet day it saves about 2 minutes per barrier, on a busy day it can be 10 or 15 minutes per barrier. The worst is when its very very busy and you have to queue to get to the part where it goes from 2 lanes to 5, at which point you are set free.

[white exec]

Timmo,

We've done (2015) Britanny Ferries Portsmouth-Santander, car plus+two, aboard the Economy ship "Etretat". It's 26 hours, and we made the mistake of not booking a cabin, but slept in the lounge (aircraft-type seats). Not a comfortable experience (I stole crash-mats from the kids' play area) to go with our sleeping sleeping bags. Cabin not available once you've boarded - all pre-booked.

Food aboard very good, but take your own entertainment/book/film etc. Free WiFi available, but v.poor and v.slow to the point of almost unusable.

You'll need to weigh up the cost of the ferry against road-fuel, hotels, tolls, fatigue. There's not a lot in it, cash-wise, especially now the cost of diesel has fallen a tad.

Drive between Santander and the south of Spain is spectacularly good, and very scenic. If you stop overnight in Palencia on the way up, the motorway drive from there to Santander is rather splendid, and with very little traffic.

[Timmo]

We get either Armorique or Pont aven from plymouth, although we only do plymouth - Rosscoff, last trip in october we upgraded to the outside Plus cabin over the std outside, about a Meter wider inside allowing both lower beds oit And space for a Chair inbetween, enough to read the complimentary paper! complimentary breakfast delivered to the cabin, fruit bowl, macaroons and complimentary soft drinks mini bar, tv/dvd and a bigger window, Well worth the extra, were aiming over again in june, with the 2 girls (10 and 6) the cabin is a godsend!