To Portugal in January: Ferry or drive thru france

[jonghong]

Folks
We'll be departing the winter freeze for sunnier (hopefully) climes in mid Jan for 5 months. Theres myself her and what will be 10 month old baby. She is not looking forward to the france part as she rekons it will be cold, so we were looking at the option of taking the ferry to santander. It would shave off a few days of colder weather presumably, and not cost much more when you take the diesel and tolls into account.
What would you do!?

 

[vwalan]

hi .i take the ferry to santander . very soon . its cheaper than the drive through france for me . at 17 to the gallon. i use plymouth .is there ferries in jan. but i supose you use portsmouth . .france can be very cold in jan. the cold blows down from the mountains .bordeaux to barritz can be a sheet of ice. even the north of spain can be a bit not friendly . allow plenty of time dont be in a hurry .except to leave uk. i would leave before xmas if it was me. anyway have lots of fun .keep warm and drive safe .may see you somewhere . cheers alan.

 

[stevegreen]

We left on Christmas Eve last year and went all the way down through France into Northern Spain and then into Portugal. Yes, it was cold in France and when our water packed up we were in a bit of a fix, then the van wouldn't start........but, it was fun and there are some lovely places to see in France too.

We are doing the same this year too and wouldn't even consider sailing to Santander as we take our dog and don't like leaving him alone on a noisy ferry for so long (though I think you can check them every 4 hours or so) If your heating works in your van then i'd say go for it, the French handle snow much better than us in the UK so even the smaller side roads were clear for us when roads like the main motorway to Dover was chaos!

Have a read of my blog and see how we got on.

LINK

 

[Kontiki]

We've driven down for the last 3 years between Dec & Feb, it can be cold in France but you can drive from Calais to Hendaye in 2 days. We have always found the weather to be reasonable Around Capbreton & have stopped there for a few days before heading off through Spain. Found the N roads fast enough for us & never felt the need for using the toll roads. We would probably take the ferry to try it if it worked out the same or cheaper but up to now it has always been more expensive. We get 27 mpg & use Tesco vouchers for the tunnel (works out about £30 of vouchers for a return crossing). As we live in North Wales it is the same distance which ever port we go from.

 

[reggaj]

[Have a read of my blog and see how we got on.

LINK[/QUOTE]

Fantastic blog and great pictures..