Caravanning in Spain.

baz.snn

Hi folks.

My wife and I have often been thinking about taking our caravan out to Spain sometime. I was thinking the best way would be getting the ferry from Plymouth to Santander and then on the way home we could make our way back up through Spain and France and get the the boat home to Ireland.

The boat to Spain seems to be expensive enough, roughly £1300stg. We also use the Tesco vouchers as these would make a great saving on the trip to the UK and back from France. I also have the frequent user discount too. All these will help keep the cost down. Fuel is the only thing tat could get fairly costly. My car drops to around 25mpg when towing the caravan. It's tuned up around 160bhp and has loads more torque.

Has anyone any experience of doing this and know what pitfalls may lay ahead? I would have total confidence in the cars abililty to tow such a distance. It's a 06 VW Caravelle 2.5 and has no problem towing.

Any tips or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

niloc1951

Are you talking about 2 or 3 weeks summer holidays or a few months over the winter.

baz.snn

Summer holidays. The 3 kids would be in school any other time really. Although a few weeks in late autumn would probably be nice in Spain. Maybe even better than our summer this year

btb

Its a good 2 days drive from Spain up to Roscoff or Cherbourg, plus an overnight on the boat to the uk or the other way around. Also the boat from UK to |France is expensive on the western channel, especially when overnight as you factor in the price of a cabin. So when weighed up, the long boat to santander is not that expensive. If going to Spain you really need to be going for 3 weeks or more, for 2 weeks you would feel that your only there when you have to turn around and come home.

niloc1951

It's a long way in a car/caravan (I've done it). Minimum one night en-route and long drives even using motorways which will cost a lot in tolls and test the endurance of the three children, not to mention the other half. Taking it more leisurely will leave only a shortish time in Spain which begs the question is it worth the haul.
Doing it the Irl/Uk/Spain route will save a good deal of driving through France but will take a day of your hols each way driving through the UK, a day each way at sea and two each way if you plan to cross Spain to the Med.

IMHO doing Spain requires at least a three week holiday with 3/4 nights each way (more if not using the toll motorway system) otherwise you will be back home as b@llixed as ever, having spent a lot on tolls, fuel and camp-sites, which can be in the region of €40p/n.

You haven't mentioned if you have done France, if not I would recommend you start with a holiday there and get the flavour of Continental travel, the distances can be very long compared to what we are used to here.

baz.snn

Ya I know what you mean about time flying by quickly.I don't mind the driving and the family are well used to it. We go over and back to the UK fairly regularly and have been in France a couple of times too. I much rather driving than flying.
It was actually my wife that sugessted we drive our way back up through France. She had recently been chatting to a northern couple who had been gone for the last couple of months in their motorhome and that is what they were doing.
There's quiet a lot to be considered really and I'm sure will have to be well planned

niloc1951

baz.snn wrote: »

Ya I know what you mean about time flying by quickly.I don't mind the driving and the family are well used to it. We go over and back to the UK fairly regularly and have been in France a couple of times too. I much rather driving than flying.
It was actually my wife that sugessted we drive our way back up through France. She had recently been chatting to a northern couple who had been gone for the last couple of months in their motorhome and that is what they were doing.
There's quiet a lot to be considered really and I'm sure will have to be well planned

Speaking from experience, travelling by motorhome is much less hassle than a car/caravan, no unhitching and setting up each evening and hitching up etc next morning. Also you don't need to find a camp-site to overnight.
We now have a motorhome and go to Spain regularly but take a week each way.

Which ever way you look at it at least six if not eight nights of your holiday will be used travelling.

Don't forget Celtic Link when costing your ferry options and http://www.viamichelin.com/ have a very useful planning tool for the road sections where you can get your fuel and toll costs.

baz.snn

niloc1951 wrote: »

Speaking from experience, travelling by motorhome is much less hassle than a car/caravan, no unhitching and setting up each evening and hitching up etc next morning. Also you don't need to find a camp-site to overnight.
We now have a motorhome and go to Spain regularly but take a week each way.

Which ever way you look at it at least six if not eight nights of your holiday will be used travelling.

Don't forget Celtic Link when costing your ferry options and http://www.viamichelin.com/ have a very useful planning tool for the road sections where you can get your fuel and toll costs.

We actually thought of getting a motorhome before so we rented one for a long weekend to try it out. To be honest we both preferred the caravan. For me, I prefer to be able to just drop the caravan and use the car for whatever you want. Even for just going down to the shops everything has to be put away and secured. It's also much easier to bring a car into a town or city centre. Don't get me wrong though, I love them and think they re amazing yokes altogether. Maybe when we are older and the kids grown up we might get one

niloc1951

baz.snn wrote: »

We actually thought of getting a motorhome before so we rented one for a long weekend to try it out. To be honest we both preferred the caravan. For me, I prefer to be able to just drop the caravan and use the car for whatever you want. Even for just going down to the shops everything has to be put away and secured. It's also much easier to bring a car into a town or city centre. Don't get me wrong though, I love them and think they re amazing yokes altogether. Maybe when we are older and the kids grown up we might get one

Know what you mean, we tugged for over 20 years when the children were young (would come with us ). Now the we are 'older' we have a motorhome. Horses for courses

baz.snn

Sure I'll wait and see what happens. I will have to put it in the "to-do" file and mull it over for a while. It could end up being 2 weeks in Wales :)