Getting to spain
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oppy
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Thanks Graham, the ferry is due in at 2.15pm so we should have a couple of easy hours to amble southwards, then we will try to visit friends in Ledesma just below Salamanca. After that we are aiming for the Isla, who's praises you espoused, and maybe spend a few days there, then its over the border to a campsite at Villamoura, then kinda doing your trip in reverse up through Portugal and spending a little time on the Duro, so that's it, a couple of months or until the money runs out
GWAYGWAY
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What I have trouble with is trying to work out which bit of French motorway is free and which is an arm and leg job, the First trip went on the old road and it took ages, never went on autoroute, second time there was a long stretch of autoroute that was virtually free except the last tiny bit. TOMTOM does not seem to know it is either toll or no toll on the last bit into Bordeaux from Spain we went on the autoroute and it was mostly free but the TT kept trying to get us off, on to country lanes or similar. How do you tell if Autoroute is free or toll????????? Can TT be programmed to accept small toll bits as against all or nothing?
runnach
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As a loose rule ,the pay for it motorway (peage) tends to be on approaches to the bigger cities..and ports .... To avoid there is normally route nationaloften run adjacent but takes you through small villages and town centres which is where the time is lost
TJBi
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I always thought that the Saint-Malo overnight outbound with a cabin was a no-brainer when travelling by car, but when travelling in my own accommodation I opt for a day crossing (usually Poole-Cherbourg out, Saint-Malo-Portsmouth return because those timings suit me), saving the cost of a night cabin.We did Portsmouth to Santander or Bilbao in 2018 and 2019 but the anxiety of not knowing if the ferry would actually sail due to bad weather was not worth it. First time we did not get away until nearly one in the morning due to storm delay of the incoming ferry and once the ferry after ours was cancelled - January is always a bit iffy weather wise in the Bay of Biscay. If your ferry is cancelled you do not just get offered the next day as they are generally full and you may end up driving up to Brittany anyway. So it is St Malo for us next week. It was going to be Caen but you get a longer night's sleep on the St Malo trip
antiquesam
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When using Brittany Ferries be accurate with your vehicle length. They do measure vehicles and charge for additional length. They had me in a commercial vehicle once because the company gave the manufacturers measurements and forgot the towbar.
oppy
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I've just amended our booking, I'd forgotten the bike rack extra £40
Robina
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I guess it depends on where you are travelling from to get to the port. Also, the day-time one I looked at got in very late at night which I did not fancy.
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Biggarmac
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I check on viamichelin.com. before I set off. You can put in various routes and settings to check time/costs. Sometimes a short trip on the autoroute saves a lot of time for not much money. Leaving the Sat Nav at "no tolls" can be very time consuming.
Canalsman
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I posted a tip about this earlier in this thread:
Getting to spain
Hi all, I fancy trying Spain this year. Don’t have time to drive all the way,any cheap ways of g3tting a ferry,discount etc, Portsmouth to Santander return seems to be about £1000, makes an expensive hol.
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