Route to Granada - Recommendations for Aires or alternative route?

jaycey001

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Hi everyone - Just to say this is a great forum and I am now a full member and look forward to meeting a few people on our travels!

Ok, so I would appreciate some help on my route plan down to Galera, Huescar (Spain) from Calais.
We will be driving in July and have allowed 8 days for the trip down, a few weeks in Galera and then 8ish days back.

The main reason for the slow journey down being we have a 5 year old and a 1 year old along with the dog and me and the better half, so i want to make it leisurely and relaxed (so i might be allowed to take them again next year)

The rough route so far is as follows, I have tried to avoid main Toll routes but am open to sugestions (forgive sight grammatical errors! :)

Day 1 - Calais - La Mailleraye- sur -Seine (241kms) Mainly for us to visit the vets and know where we are going on the way back for his pet passport etc
Day 2 - Montlouis - sur - loire (304Kms) I might like to break this down into two 150km journeys but not sure yet.
Day 3 - Rue De Courbiac, Saintes (248kms)
Day 4 - Bayonne (305km)
day 5 - Villalazara Burgos (218kms)
Day 6 - Guadalajara (336kms) Family live here so we may visit them en route.
Day 7 - Albacete (264) recommendations for Aire or site appreciated.
Day 8 - Galera (261kms)

I am more than happy to consider completely alternative routes as long as I am not doing more than 300kms in a day. I would also appreciate recommendations for Aires and camping spots around the areas we plan to stop.

I am waiting for a micro SD so I can download the POIs which i am sure will open up some more stop over opportunities en route.

I look forward to your suggestions :)

Many Thanks
James
 
Eating at Huelva

Hi James,

Just read an article from Saturday's travel section in The Guardian ...... Huelva - west of Saville is a definitely recommended to eat a tapas etc.
Worth a visit 👍

Best wishes,

Susie
 
Aires

Hi again,

There is an aire (albeit next to the railway station) in St. Jean de Luz near the bridge - easy accesss on foot into the town itself - definitely an aire I will use next time I am down that way.

Happy road tripping,

Susie
 
There is an excellent riverside aire at Saint-Savinien, slightly north of Saintes. Should be in the WildCamping POIs and the CCI database.

Tom
 
Susiebelle said:
Hi again,

There is an aire (albeit next to the railway station) in St. Jean de Luz near the bridge - easy accesss on foot into the town itself - definitely an aire I will use next time I am down that way.

Happy road tripping,

Susie
Click to expand...

I would suggest caution having stayed there a few nights ago
road noise train noise plus worst of all bells on the quarter hour all night
i slept but wife not a wink
town is lovely though
 
Your day 7, Albecete.

There is a free aire in Albecete but we didn't stay as it is in the town itself and would probably be noisy. (38.9769, -1.8522). Much better about 3 miles south east of Albecete on the A-31 at Chinchilla de Monte Aragon is a fairly new aire with all services free. (38.92089, -1.72269). We spent a really nice quiet night there a couple of weeks ago. A local chap who was a language teacher and spoke brilliant English welcomed us. It is also worth a walk round. There is a castle and lots of cave houses.
 
Edward B said:
Much better about 3 miles south east of Albecete on the A-31 at Chinchilla de Monte Aragon is a fairly new aire with all services free. (38.92089, -1.72269). We spent a really nice quiet night there a couple of weeks ago. A local chap who was a language teacher and spoke brilliant English welcomed us. It is also worth a walk round. There is a castle and lots of cave houses.
Click to expand...

This is in the Iberia POIs :D
 
I would get an ACSI camping card, to save money at camp sites. I would also download the poi files from archiescampings.eu for your satnav.
We stayed at the acsi campsites at Haro (below mirando de ebro) and at Albarracin, both ok.
We wild camped at Sorio (next to the town bridge) for 2 days, Molina de Aragon (again next to the town bridge), Cuenca (car park below the town next to a small stream) 1 day.
We then went of to the coast below Valencia for a week or so.
South of your route we stopped at Mazarron acsi (next to the beach and small village) for 3 days and wild camped at Aguilas (main town car park in front of harbour) 2 days.
We stayed at the acsi campsite east of Granada. Upside restraunt, views of the montains, bus to Granada outside of campsite,. Downside rubbish toilets/showers, tiny village down a steep hill and nothing for kids. I would not stay there again.
At the time two weeks ago there was a 4 day waiting for tickets to the Alhambro Palace.
The acsi campsite near Motril on the coast was ok for the beach but not much else. The resort part of the the town that's a few K's west of the campsite was worth popping along to.

Have a great time but it's an awful lot of driving. For a first trip I'd plan around the kids and possibly just dip into Spain somewhere below the Pyrenees
 
Thank you to everyone for the advice, I have added them all to my route and have a few back ups now, should they be needed!

I have extended the journey so we arrive in Granada on day 8 - this was mainly for the kids and dog, just encase its too hot (we dont have aircon!). We now wont be driving more that 150 miles a day which should be a good amount for a relaxing journey down.

I think on the way back we will be more relaxed regarding the route and see where we end up - i want to go back to Girona as there was a lovely site there last time i visited.

Thanks again and I hope everyone is making the most of the lovely weather!

James
 
If you get near it, Lake Negratin, Baza, is amazing. We stayed in an empty carpark right by the river but stupidly I did not make a note of exactly where it was :( If I find it in my log I will post it for POI (sorry!) There was also a beach with a restaurant (reasonable) quite near Freila off the main A315 route.
 
I know the lake well, we are planning on staying there for a night or two - I have only approached it from Freila but will have a look around for a good spot for the van. I suspect if you eat in the restaurant they would be happy for people to stay in the car park, which is nice as its quite shaded.

We have a small cave house about 45 mins from the lake so I will be uploading plenty of POIs of the area while we are exploring :)
 
Not for every body I know, but we never make plans as to routes, because you never know what you may find on the way so can not keep to time table. For the last 5/6 years all we have used is the book Camperstop.


The only book you now need for travelling in Europe is Camperstop, this with the downloads into your sat nave takes all the effort out of things and allows your passenger to enjoy the trip far more than having to sit with a map on there laps. Put a destination into the sat nave , or as we do when traveling down to Spain a town on the way ( and in our case no toll roads ) then just go when you feel like stopping, press the button and there in front of you all the Aires and Sites, with a page number and distance, look it up and there you have all details is it free ( that's the ones we use ) if water ,w/c dump shops ect, if you like the look of it press go and it takes you there. Over the years we have used lots of books, but for the last 5/6 years only Camperstop, so the only thing we do before going away is book the tunnel or ferry. Our last trip 5 weeks in France and all we spent was a few euros on service machines at some Aires, many of the Aires had free electricity as well. Vicarious Books, the book now contains 27 country's , at about £18.99 not the cheapest but we only change it ever 2 years, so £8.50 a year is good value when you think how much it saves you on site rents by using good Aires.



:drive: :drive:
 
So you don't use our very large selection of POIs in France, Spain and Portugal then?

If not I recommend you take a look :D
 
POI Admin said:
So you don't use our very large selection of POIs in France, Spain and Portugal then?

If not I recommend you take a look :D
Click to expand...


In the UK yes all the time, but lived in Spain for 7 years and found our own over the years but Camperstop has far more and more information about the Aires.




:drive: :drive:
 
redhand said:
I would suggest caution having stayed there a few nights ago
road noise train noise plus worst of all bells on the quarter hour all night
i slept but wife not a wink
town is lovely though
Click to expand...

Stayed there a few times , not bothered by noise but incredibly busy Aire .
Yes nice town shame about the aire
 
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