A trip to Spain Forums

Don Madge

This is a summary of our trip down to Conil de la Frontera, Spain in Jan 2007. Anybody considering a trip south for the winter might find this info useful..

We used the Dover/Calais crossing, as we have a 275 mile journey to Dover we have found in the past a Saturday is a quieter day to do the journey. Also you get a truck free day on Sunday, your first day in France.

Sat. 13th Jan.
We had a very uneventful trip to Dover where on arrival we found the ferry was delayed for two hours. As we planned to spend the night on Calais docks it was not really a problem except we arrived at midnight instead of 22.00hrs. We stayed the night on the “unbooked crossing” car park. There were about 6 other vans there. It was fairly quiet night as not too many trucks are on the move Sat night Sun morning.

FRANCE
Sun. 14th Jan.
A very good refuelling place at Calais is the Elf filling station just off Junc 3 as you are leaving the port complex. Take the last exit of the roundabout and the Elf station is on the right. We paid €1.02 for a litre of diesel.

We travelled 363 miles and stayed on the aire at St Maure which is about 20 miles south of Tours on the N10. We used the Peage (motorway) from Calais to Tours. A16, A28 to Rouen, Le Mans and Tours. Totals tolls were €49.90. We have been using the aire at St Maure for many years and it is usually very quiet at night, if you don’t want an early call park well away from the “bottle bank”.

Mon 15th Jan.
Today we had a 320 mile trip to St Jean de Luz were we stayed at Camping Larrouleta (€15.50 per night) for two nights, we like to have a day off after three days of driving. The site has wifi connection €5 for 30 min.

A very good refuelling point is the Champion hypermarket which is 14 miles south of St Maure on the N10, we paid €0.97 for a litre of diesel.

The N10 is now nearly all dual carriageway to Bordeaux. We did use the Peage from Chatellerault north to Poitiers south at a cost of €5.70 we think it’s well worthwhile it to avoid the hassle of going through the towns.

When you reach the Bordeaux ring road follow the signs for Bassin D’Arcachon and Bayonne A 63. I would suggest you stay on the A63 to the Spanish boarder as the N10 gets very congested going through Bayonne, Biarritz and St Jean de Luz.

At the Leclerc hypermarket at St Jean de Luz diesel was Euro 0.99 per litre. In France diesel prices varied from €1.16 on the “Peage” to €0.97 at the super/hypermarkets. Extreme caution should be exercised when refuelling at Super/Hypermarkets as some of them have a very restricted manoeuvring area.

In France the Autoroutes (Motorways) are signed in Blue the N routes are signed in green. The Autoroute is mainly a toll road and the toll sections are clearly signed “PEAGE”. Tolls can be paid by cash (€) or the “Plastic”. The tolls can work out very expensive over long distances.

Many people use the word “PEAGE” when referring to toll roads throughout Europe.

SPAIN

Wed 17th Jan.
We travelled 270 miles to La Cabrera, which is 60 km north of Madrid. We travelled via the A63 peage (€2.20) into Spain, AP8 San Sebastian (€1.45) then A1,Vitoria, AP1 Burgos (€9.15) and A1 La Cabrera. We stayed at Camping Pico de la Miel (€18.50 per night) the site is not suitable for ARV’s and the touring pitches are restricted in height by metal overhead frames.

Thurs 18th Jan.
Today we had a 300 mile trip to Camping Cubillas (€14.50 per night) a lake side site 9 km north of Granada.

Fri 19th Jan.
Today we had a 205 mile trip to Camping La Rosaleda at Conil de la Frontera which is about 30 miles east of Cadiz in a non “touristy” area. The site has excellent facilities, well designated pitches of a good size. There are only a few pitches suitable for ARV’s. Suitable for long stays with very good discounts (€255 for 30 nights) there’s also a very good on site restaurant. Free wifi connection is also available.

MADRID RING ROAD.
With the completion of the Madrid ring road transiting the city is now very easy. It’s a very well engineered “Spaghetti” junction, I set the cruise control at 60 mph and maintained that speed for most of the trip round the ring road. For rapid entry/exit to the city there are the R (rapid) routes they are clearly marked "Peaje/Toll" We used R4 to exit the city and it cost us €7.05 for the 56 km journey well worth the expense to avoid the very heavy traffic leaving the city.

If you are transiting the city from the north (E5/A1) to the south (E5/A4) just follow this route.

From E5/A1
Take M50, Head towards E90 A2 Zaragoza M45 A3 A4

Head towards R3 Valencia E901 A3 Valencia A4 R4 A42 R5

E5 A4 Cordoba Exit 46. Or for rapid route follow signs R4.

These instructions might seem complicated but they are easy to follow. If by any chance you do get lost just follow any A4/R4 Cordoba sign.
In Spain the motorways are called Autovia and Autopista, normally the Autovia is free and the Autopista is a toll road. The Autovia is signed A, while the Autopista is signed AP. There could be some exceptions.

In Spain we found the diesel varied from €0.87 to €0.91 per litre.

Safe travelling.

Don

gillnpaul

Hi Don and Madge,
I read that you stayed at a campsite at St Jean de Luz, is that the same Jean de Luz near Santander/Bilbao area, cus we are hoping to stay around there this year. Im at work and haven't got my route with me, but that name rings a bell (ding-dong). If its not near Santander is it near Biaritze in south west France. Any help would be very received
Thanks

P & G

twooks

hi Don, today we had hail storms and power cuts in the next village.
missing us?????? Razz

Don Madge

Don Madge