PDA

View Full Version : Driving through Spain to Tenerife, info needed please.



Cairo
22-01-2012, 13:55
This part is purely for the Spain part, not the ferries as I will cover that in another thread.

Anyone that had done this trip, please could I have an idea of distance, petrol costs, the route taken and time involved, accom used and anything else that would be useful?

Many thanks

beerfan
22-01-2012, 17:02
The shortest route from the border with France is about 670 miles if you go past Bilbao, Valladolid and Salamanca and onto Cadiz.

SianC
22-01-2012, 17:13
I did this last summer, we hugged the coast: Helva - Cadiz - Malaga - Valenica - Barcelona. Although this was a choice based on places that we wanted to visit as opposed to the most economic/quickest route. We camped all the way and this was purely based on budget but found same great places on route. We spent about £300 in petrol but this is based from the UK to Spain in a 1.4 engine

Greg
22-01-2012, 21:22
I did this drive last summer too, UK ferry to Normandy, drove to Biaritz and stopped for a couple of nights partying and sight seeing. We set out early in the morning and drove the 1000Km to Seville in one go (stopping for an hour for lunch) We stayed three days there and had a great time. I've been all over Spain and never stayed in Seville which is now my favourite city in Spain. Then it's just a 70Km drive to Huelva for the ferry on a Saturday morning.
I've done the trip a couple of times before but this is the route I enjoyed most. The motorway to Seville was empty (maybe one car every hour!) and because it is so rural there are no speed cams except where the road passes cities and they are very clearly marked.
I will probably do it again this summer and change the route to stay in places I've never been before but for sure I'll have a stopover in Seville.
I hope you enjoy the trip as much as we did!

murph
23-01-2012, 03:09
I did this drive last summer too, UK ferry to Normandy, drove to Biaritz and stopped for a couple of nights partying and sight seeing. We set out early in the morning and drove the 1000Km to Seville in one go (stopping for an hour for lunch) We stayed three days there and had a great time. I've been all over Spain and never stayed in Seville which is now my favourite city in Spain. Then it's just a 70Km drive to Huelva for the ferry on a Saturday morning.
I've done the trip a couple of times before but this is the route I enjoyed most. The motorway to Seville was empty (maybe one car every hour!) and because it is so rural there are no speed cams except where the road passes cities and they are very clearly marked.
I will probably do it again this summer and change the route to stay in places I've never been before but for sure I'll have a stopover in Seville.
I hope you enjoy the trip as much as we did!

Wow, you have really got me thinking, so may I ask a few questions...when you say you are thinking of doing the trip this year, do I take it you drove back to the UK as well? How long did you stay on the Island / How long was your whole trip? I am thinking it has to be a really good break to make all the driving worthwhile.

How much (approx) did the whole trip there and back cost?

Just going to check the oil in the car...:spin:

Greg
23-01-2012, 13:57
Hi Murph, nope it was a one way trip. I was in the UK for a long weekend and impulse bought a convertible Golf. As work was a little slow at the time me and the o/h just set for a drive... to here! No preplanning or forthought, we bought ferry tickets when we got to Dover then just headed South, we used the booking.com app on my Iphone to book accom as we arrived it Biaritz. Which also was unplanned but we saw the sign from the motorway and remembered it as a once popular resort so we pulled in. It was quieter than I imagined but worth a couple of days stop, there is quite a good party/club scene there. When we headed South again we were just following our noses really to see where we ended up, then it seemed we had the choice of Madrid or Seville and as we'd never been to Seville it won. This is a must stay place, the whole of the old city center is off limits to cars and we shopped and drunk our way round, the people are friendly, the beer is cheap and it has a great ambiance. As it was 50º why we were there we used the booking.com app to find a hotel with aircon which was the highest priority! We even got interviewed by a tv crew and reporter as to why "two crazy English people" would drive around with the top down on the car in 50º? (Answer- "coz the aircon is on full giving a nice cool breeze:lol:)
As for the cost I'm not sure as we treated it as a holiday rather than a means to an end so we weren't really counting the pennies. We did discuss this while we were driving though and we decided if we wanted to do the trip just to get the car from A to B we would take a small tent as there are are free campsites every 50 Kms or so and a cool box full of supermarket food.
Sorry this is a long rambling post! Whichever way you choose murph have a great trip and let us all know how you got on.:convertible:

dixie4
24-01-2012, 13:26
A couple of years ago I purchased a Spanish registered Fiesta diesel in UK with the intention of driving it so southern Spain and leave it with my son who was living there at the time.

Some of the trip will not apply if you final destination is Tenerife owing to me heading for the coast due south of Granada.

I chose the Portsmouth Santander route in November. This choice was based on the cost of fuel in France and more importantly the amount of driving is greatly reduced.

I booked all ferries and hotels on the internet direct with each place and found the best offers and choices via Trip Advisor.

We had three hours driving in UK and I had booked into the Premier Inn adjacent to Sainsburys which was handy for a fuel top up next morning. The Premier was great with a proper pub serving real ale and a Beefeater restaurant attached.

We boarded the boat the Pont Aven, run by Brittany Ferries, the following afternoon. I had booked a double cabin with ensuite which would have slept four. It was perfectly adequet. The trip over was fine, the sea was like a mill pond. It is an overnight passage so a cabin is good. You can do it on the cheap by hiring just a reclining seat. There are shower rooms and washing facilities if you choose this option. There is everything on board including entertainment, bars, shops etc. Overall very good. The ferry and cabin cost about £450 for two. The prices on board I found very reasoable.

The next morning we arrived at Santander unloading was no problem the local police helping with the exit from the docks into the town traffic. I was using a Tom Tom but it was not really needed the route south was clearly signed.
A useful point to mention here is that once leaving the town it was quite a distance to a petrol station. It is dual carriageway all the way from there on.

Stopped a couple of times at the services that are spaced out convieniently along this road. I found a smattering of Spanish did help at these stops.

We arrived at our 4*hotel which I had chosen out by the airport in Madrid about four hours later. Without the Tom Tom I would never have found it. It was in a residential area! The choice dictated by being close to the motorway system. Madrid was incredibly cold at 2 degrees. The hotel cost about 100 Euros for two B&B and a fillet steak dinner, fabulous hotel just can not recall the name.

As said before if heading to Huelva this is where you would leave the route I took as I headed due south to Granada. 5 hours later, after a couple of stops, I arrived in Salobrena, 25 degrees and an ice cold San Miguel.

The road system in Spain in November I found was very good with average traffic, endless straights disappearing into the distance and a good surface all the way.

The most stressful part of the journey was, would you believe, in UK!

The Fiesta amazingly returned 75 MPG!

Three weeks later came home by Ryanair but that is another story!

Harlequin
25-01-2012, 11:38
Been there and dun it. My recommendation: take your own food on the ferry...!