Taking a Car to France

I need to get to North Eastern Spain (Pyrenees) with my car next month.

Any tips on the most economical way of doing it?

to Calais via Tunnel/Ferry or Ferry to Bilbao? Not in a rush, so that’s one thing I guess 🙂

I go from (North-East England) to Calais via tunnel. Stay overnight in Abbeville, then drive next day to Bilbao. Costs 400 euro return including tolls, crossing, petrol, accomodation and food.

Use Via Michelin to work out fuel and tolls. Cheapest is usually the shortest ferry. You can save a few quid on the Tunnel with Tesco vouchers. Long distance driving is easy in France with generally empty roads, good lane discipline and plenty of places to stop for a snooze. I’d still consider the Bilbao ferry, though as it’s quite a drive, especially solo.

400 euros?

to spain?

From NE England?

how?

(i’m assuming that’s one way)

Might be worth checking out Motorail (train transportation for cars).

Motorail (train transportation for cars).

+1 have used it myself, it’s ace.

400 euros?

to spain?

From NE England?

how?

How not? Sunderland to Bilbao is 1,793km according to Google maps, so 1118 miles, a couple of tanks of fuel, assuming a run of the mill diesel that’s likely less than 2 tanks, so £110 or so each way, leaves quite a lot for everything else! No other costs until you get to France, then a few tolls…?

Edit: I’m mixing my currencies. That does seem cheap.

I drive regularly to the Alps but drove to the Pyrenees last year from just south of London. Those costs sound about right.

Share the driving as it can get boring. Once you get on the south western toll-roads I found them really empty. I drove over 60km with only one other car that I saw on the road.

Sounds great but without the ‘excitement’ of other cars around it’s really easy to lose concentration especially when the only other person in the car (my 24 year old son) was snoring away on the seat next to me.

Other ways of doing it cheaply? Don’t really know. you can drive on the non-toll roads but that will take forever and you will probably burn in fuel what you save on tolls and you will need to stay somewhere half way (extra cost) as it will double the journey time.

Hire a car and fly? probably work out similar price.

I think Motorail from Calais is no more…….

The ferry trip on the Brittany Ferries Pont Aven is a 24hr mini cruise. It’s fantastic, but not cheap. All in I reckon its a bout 30% more expensive than driving (with all the associated costs) but it’s a lovely, relaxing way of getting to Santander from the UK

It’s v roughly £800 return in the summer. The alternative calais/santander drive of 800 miles return would be about £140 for the dover/calais crossing, £200 of fuel, probably c.£100 of tolls, and another £100 of accomodation en route.

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/fleet/cruise-ferries/pont-aven

Drove the family to the very North East of Spain last summer, will be doing it again in August. Agree with Tunnel – we did take a ferry from Portsmouth to Caan? a previous year but the benefit of not driving for a few hours was wasted by the really silly timings of the ferries.
Santander is nice, but thats £800 to get you to the wrong end of the Pyrenees. Would be tempted if I was going anywhere to the west of the country.

We went east of Paris and generally stopped at Novotels as they do family rooms and have a pool. Stopped two nights each way last year, but will be just stopping one night this year (is the plan) as it did not really work out as the road trip type adventure we had hoped. The only good night was the last night on the way home where we just drove along some A-roads until we saw a sign for a chambre d’hote and stopped there. lovely place, local restaurant, rural and secure where many of the book on the internet type places are in really grim semi-industrial trading estate type places.

Got a Sanef tag – just looked at the invoices and it comes out as £200 but there would be a few more in Spain that would not be covered by the sanef.

Ferry to Spain?

Do you save money with a SANEF tag?
Or does it just save time at the toll booths?

Saves time. There’s a small extra cost in paying for the tag. It’s well worth it though to avoid the faff of getting change ready or a card for the tolls as can be several in short distances. You’re billed a few weeks later.

I much prefer using the Sanef tag. Travelling down to Catalonia I reckon it saves us about an hour but not having to scrabble for change or use a card is worth it. The money comes out by direct debit the following month.

We usually travel via the tunnel using our Tesco points to reduce the cost. Again not having to wait around for departure times compared to the regular schedules of the trains saves time.

If you’ve not done the trip before take a cool box and pack a picnic into it. Stop at a nice rest area and enjoy the trip.

Hmm possibly Ferry to spain …. I always found the French services expensive and any speeding fines you may incur bump up the price of the traveling…

although I don’t think I’ve ever awoke as refreshed as the adverts would make you belive. Bay of Biscays great in the night 🙁

Don’t speed and you’ll get no fines.

done the ferry to Bilbao/Santander twice now.
Every time it has been flat as a pancake – honest.

It is quite pricey but has worked really well for us.
Last year we stopped in the Basque area & I can not recommend that enough, great surfing & food & good road & MTBing from the beach.

Previous year we went about 100km west of Santander, again great coast & great riding. we then went inland to the Picos de Europa, beautiful cycling & walking

ragley in the Picos

How so cheap? It’s a diesel car. 39 euros a night in F1 Abbeville (which is near to a very nice bar/restaurant).

Getting a cheap crossing is the key. I always book for about 2am on the day I want (non-flexibile), then I’m “late” , never waited more than 30 minutes and fare is usually about 70 euros each way.

On way to England stay in F1 Coquelles, the nearby hyper-market has a bar called “Bleriot” which does cheap steak and Leffe Blonde. Our lass loves the moules there.

I’ve taken the ferry to St Malo with my Dad and then driven to the Pyrenees a few times. It’s a very long drive though (~600 miles/16hours). Takes the toll roads, the ease of driving is worth the 60/70 Euros.

It’ll only cost you fuel +tolls from St Malo. Cheap, but if you don’t share driving it’s a killer. Dad has driven the VW T4 a couple of times and the Vivaro once and it’s knackered him because I haven’t been old enough to share the insurance and driving. Cheaper than going to Santander though.

Seems like the tunnel is going to be the best option for us. We will enjoy meandering down through France and stop when we feel like it.

I’ve used the tunnel before and it’s very easy – just wasn’t sure how it fared against the ferries economically.

Not much to see though . . .

Ferry to Spain?

That always seem to cost a fortune compared to driving whenever I looked into that.

spekkie – Member
Not much to see though

‘Tis only 30 mins though and at least you don’t have to mix with all the undesirables on the ferry ‘cos it’s cheap’…

We go over every few weeks and drive down to Brittany. We’ve used the ferry from Portsmouth -> Caen/Le Havre/Cherbourg/St Malo/Roscoff etc over the years and now elect to use the tunnel and spend time in the car. The ferries are very expensive and very shite.

jon1973 – Member
Ferry to Spain?
That always seem to cost a fortune compared to driving whenever I looked into that.

the up-front cost is quite high, £700 (or less) will buy you a return ticket (and a cabin), from Portsmouth.

however, once you start adding up ferry +fuel +tolls +overnight stay, the gap isn’t so large.

imho, it’s worth considering. And you begin your holiday with a massive sleep, rather than an exhausting drive.

The ferry to Spain is a convenience thing and when the kids were really young it was easier to manage them on a 24 hour ferry than short ferry and long drive. It became part of the holiday and worth the c. £200 extra, as it was then, to arrive in Spain fresh, particularly as my wife refuses to drive “on the wrong side of the road”.

These days they can cope better with driving, I’ve got a better car and so we need fewer motorway stops and just drive through France.

It’s v roughly £800 return in the summer.

It was £1300 when I checked a couple of weeks back. Too tasty for me – I’d take the overnight ferry to St. Malo, and stop on the way down. Ibis budget rooms are cheap.

Ferry to Spain? Bay of Biscay on a Ferry, hope you have a strong stomach 😉

I do it twice a year, will be three times this year though. always go tunnel and use tesco points. I’ve just booked a return crossing in August and paid £5 in actual money!

We usually drive from Leeds on a Thursday evening straight from work and get to just south of Paris then bed down for the night in a premiere classe. then carry on the next day, Get to my sisters in the pyrenees about 5 o’clock Friday just in time for tea!!

Accidentally traveled on black Saturday last year, I think the whole of northern europe was going to spain! It took about 3 times as long at it usually does.

I’ve done that ferry crossing on the pont aven, I always remember walking through the bar where the ‘swimming pool’ is and the water was sloshing over the side and everyone was doing that funny walk like smooth criminal trying not to fall over. You can save money by not getting a cabin but you won’t get any sleep.