budget traveling through Europe to spain (Non toll roads?)

[jaycey001]

Hi Everyone

I am planning our trip down to Spain in April (heading to Huescar in Granada as we have a house down there) I only have a month to get there and back and in our old van it usually takes about 8 days (lots of stops with kids, dogs etc and 300mile max per day)

We had expected to have some pennys for the trip as we have just our house but as usual there are some delays and we now need to do the trip as economically as possible - we always use Aires where possible but last year it was the tolls that hit the credit card most.

What are the non toll roads like between Dieppe and Spain and will we regret not being on the empty motorways - I am mainly concerned about us being in a slow van (50mph max) and people not being able to over take or being on narrow roads in a coach built - are these things worth considering or just me worrying for nothing?

Are there any tolls on that route that you would suggest are worth the cost?
The route shown on Google is: Dieppe - Poitiers - Bordeaux - Huesca - Valencia - and finally Galera

Any feedback appreciated

James

 

[QFour]

We drove all the way down to Gibraltar from Calais and missed all but a couple of tolls. The route was very good and lots of dual carriageways. Lot of trucks but you could travel on a Saturday / Sunday and miss them. We don't do drive fast and it took us about a week.

 

[kensowerby]

Hi, enjoy your trip, we normaly use the N roads where possible and dont bother with the toll roads unless we are in a hurry to get from a to b, slow and easy and enjoy the drive.
You mention that you have a slow van, under the new speed limits in France other than toll roads and duelcarriageways you are restricted to 50mp.
The route through Spain is mostly toll free.
Regards Ken

 

[Asterix]

My old van is happy on 50 as well,I stay off motorways using N and D roads,on the rare occasion I get traffic behind I either pull over or wait for a straight and slow down while indicating left,locals seem to appreciate it. Most of the time you'll have the roads to yourself and there's plenty of places to stop for the night or for dog to get some exercise,laybys,picnic areas and forest carparks etc.

 

[witzend]

If you use toll rds perhaps the porstsmouth billbao ferry might be worth considering I didnt think it was much more expensive than the fuel + tolls

 

[dave and mary]

We have been driving down to Spain for many many years now, our sat nave has no tolls in it all the time, the roads are very good over there and if it takes you a bit longer there is far more to see than on the toll roads, and a big saving on your money.




:drive: :drive:

 

[GWAYGWAY]

We went down over the new year and paid tolls on some of the roads until I found the non toll are just as good in a load of places. Coming back we did non tolls but to avoid some of the pinch points around cities we did go onto the Autoroutes. The biggest problem is finding that the NAG-NAG box has taken you a hundred miles out of the way to a avoid 5 euro toll . The program is all or nothing with sat navs, tolls or no tolls, not to avoid some places, some tolls. If you go from Dover to Essex and have no tolls set on the machine, it would take you around the M25 or through London to avoid the Dartdford toll of £1.67. I understand that they can only do it that way, but not knowing the French System of how they have the same autoroute toll free for miles, and then getting caught on a bit that is toll, is a bit difficult to understand.

 

[r4dent]

If you've not already booked the crossing... think about ..

Day 1 drive to Portsmouth
Day 2 on ship to Bilbao or Santander
Day 3 drive 250 non toll miles to Madrid - ish
Day 4 drive 300 non toll miles tp Galera (A30 / A30 / C3314)

We don't find a problem with non toll travel in Spain (never used a toll road).
Just pull over or go round a roundabout if you have a traffic queue.


A lot of this route is motorway / dual carriage way but free.

 

[jann]

Set the sat nav for toll free,but look at the route to see if there are some places where it might be worth a short trip on toll road. I set ours for toll road in UK to make sure we use the Dartford crossing then change back to toll free in France.Do similar on continent when needed.

 

[Deleted user 48797]

We often go from Dieppe and don't usually pay tolls
Dieppe
Rouen
Evreux
Dreux
Chartres
Orleans
Limoges
Perigueux
Bergerac
Marmande
Mont De Marsan
Dax
Then drop on the autoroute to Irun or take the time consuming rn via Bayone
From Irun, go up the N121a to Pampalona
Lagrono
Burgos
and so on!

All good roads

Don't forget the 20% discount on Newhaven to Dieppe if over 60 years of age. Must be telephone booking so get the internet price first

Good route but also consider the Somport tunnel.

 

[TJBi]

Hi, enjoy your trip, we normaly use the N roads where possible and dont bother with the toll roads unless we are in a hurry to get from a to b, slow and easy and enjoy the drive.
You mention that you have a slow van, under the new speed limits in France other than toll roads and duelcarriageways you are restricted to 50mp.
The route through Spain is mostly toll free.
Regards Ken

The general 80 km/h limit does not come into force until 01/07/2018.

 

[Deleted member 967]

50mph is not slow.
The French are going to bring the limit on all secondary roads down from 56mph (90kph) to 80kph (50mph) this summer. Other countries are set to do the same. Some are bringing the limit down to 70kph (45mph). Lots of stretches were already limited to 80kph for vehicles over 3500kg.

If you want to faster then you need to use the Autoroutes.

 

[jagmanx]

As the previous post says 50 mph is not slow

But you will not average 50mph ! maybe 40 or even less
Thus if you are on a "tight time budget" toll roads are better as the maximum is higher and the average speed a higher proportion of the maximum.
Given no hold ups (just the stick ups at the toll booths) if the max is 60 you could easily average 55mph

We are mainly OK with time and thus generally avoid tolls.
50mph maybe (55 if a good road and legal) is fine for us the only time I go up to say 60 or 65 is on a traffic free motorway.
When planning I prefer to use km
Average speed of 60km/hr so 1 km = 1 minute then if over 2hrs add 15min for a tea break.

If a toll road is clearly also a real distance saver then maybe and indeed sometimes you have no choice !
So we pay up and forget !

 

[jaycey001]

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions - after a bit of route planning we have come up with the following route down.

We have the Wild Camping app, Camper contact app and all the aires book, but I was just wondering if anyone has any specific recommendations for aires/municipal camp sites that are roughly along our route (I dont mind a small detour)

Valencia we will probably stay at the Valencia camper park, we went last year and it was great with the kids and the little restaurant on site was a nice addition after a few days on the road - I recommend it if you haven’t been, think it was 15 euro a night or you can stay in the aire part for less.

Here is our rough route, although we may not stick to it exactly.

Day 1: Dieppe to Rouen 64km 50 mins

Day 2: Rouen to Orleans 252km 3.5 hours

Day 3: Orleans to Limoges 268 km 3.35 hours

Day 4: Limoges to Toulouse 301 km 4.30 hours

Day 5: Toulouse to Manresa 272km 3.40 hours

Day 6: Manresa to Valencia 260km 4.50 hours

Day 7: Valencia to Galera 313km 4.15 hours

Many Thanks
James

 

[Private]

Right

My old van is happy on 50 as well,I stay off motorways using N and D roads,on the rare occasion I get traffic behind I either pull over or wait for a straight and slow down while indicating left,locals seem to appreciate it. Most of the time you'll have the roads to yourself and there's plenty of places to stop for the night or for dog to get some exercise,laybys,picnic areas and forest carparks etc.

I assume you mean "right" when driving on the right?