cost of driving from uk to spain

[SteveBarbosa]

Originally Posted by Tallulah

GALICIA!!! It's gorgeous.

I don't know what would happen if you turned left at Irun (the border) but if you turned right, it's phenomenal scenery - along the whole of that coast and you pass some great places to stop at, including the very well known San Sebastian beach. One thing I would say, having done the trip SSOOOOO many times over the years, and ultimately preferring San Sebastian - Burgos - Palencia - Benavente - Galicia, in other words, opting for good fast roads as opposed to wonderful scenary, coastal roads, is that after around 700 miles already covered going through France, 4-500 more lovely scenary or not are suddenly not as appealing (especially with kids in the back of the car!!) Of course, this alters significantly if you do the touristy thing and you can take time to stop and smell the coffee! Perhaps a stop at Le Mans or say, Orleans, if you're not going on the motorway. Then, Bordeaux, and then lastly, Biarritz, before heading to the border. Sounds crazy, but all part of the opportunity if you have the time and you like that sort of thing - and you will arrive at Irun nice and relaxed, as opposed to arriving (you and the car) steaming and stressed!!

Tallulah.x

Well, we were hoping to take it easy (no more than 3-4 hrs a day driving) but it all depends on how our 1 year old copes with the heat. Its by no means as hot over here in UK at the moment (30c) but she is already feeling aggravated at home.

Originally Posted by cuevadame

Use ViaMichelin maps for the directions/costings and ADAC for your European Breakdown cover and you won't go far wrong. In France look for the 'Logis' sign for your (cheap) accommodation.

It's a great trip whichever route you take (avoid Paris though!) and you'll enjoy your adventure!

What is ADAC if you can excuse my ignorance?!! How much does it cost approx for you?


Looks like the northern coast could be the winner then eh??!!

[chrisnation]

I bought a diesel Jeep Cherokee specifically to go touring down thru' France & Spain. These tough, mechanically basic [cart springs at the rear!], manly vehicles can be picked up for about £2k for a really good one in UK. And once down in the £2k region, they hold their value if not beaten about.

I sold Tonto l [1996/P], a Cherokee LTD with electric everything and never a moment's trouble, for £2250 after 7 years' ownership and 2 trips to France/Spain . Replaced it with Tonto ll [2000/W] Cherokee Anniversary [immac, electric almost everything, f.s.h.] for £2200. Those are the figures you’re looking for.

The 2.5 diesel will give you +/- 35 mpg on the m/way. The cams are shaft drive, so no worries about whether the last owner has done a belt change - at least as far as valves and pistons coming together in a disorderly rabble.

Make sure the a/c works before you leave. You're gonna need it. If the Jeep runs OK, but is due for a regular service, get it done in Spain. I saved so much on the ridiculous service costs of Jeep main agents in UK by getting Tonto 1 serviced [+ other important work] in Tarragona that the saving covered 1] The return ferry 2] All the diesel 3] 120 litres of Euro1.05/bott Valencia wine. I later found out that the Jeep main agent in Valencia was actually cheaper £/hr than Tarragona! And so helpful and efficient.

I made the mistake of avoiding the Autopista down the coast after the Barcelona freebie. What a nightmare! Dreadful road, all smashed up, all the trucks that should have been on the m/way, all the local traffic, passing through every town. Had made the same mistake earlier, up in France, by avoiding paying from southwest Brittany to near Cahors. As an ex-boatyard owner, I did not see the funny side of being stuck for many miles behind a wagon transporting a sizable boat.

Came back north on the pay-way and it was bliss. Just factor in the cost of these toll roads as part of your mental/physical health policy.

I don’t recommend swinging all that way east to Lyon Why not straighten out the bends by going A16 >A28 to Rouen.>le Mans>A10 Tours>Poitiers>N147 Limoges>A20 @Limoges >Toulouse A61>A9 Perpignan >Le Boulou.

Come off at Le Boulou, turn west >D115 Le Ceret and take the D115 all the way over the mountains into Spain, drop down and pick up the autopista at Girona. The trip over the mountains on this route is really spectacular. Right at the top is the old customs post, now a falling-down shed. On the rock wall opposite the shed is painted a vertical white line. On the French side of the line is painted an arrow pointing back the way you’ve come with ‘Francia 75 kms’ On the Spanish side is an arrow pointing south and ‘Espagna 360 kms’ That’s yer Catalans for ye. On the m/way to Barcelona is a huge rock with ‘Free Catalonia’ painted on it. Underneath, someone has replied in English ‘Why?’

Happy trails!

[ivorra]

Originally Posted by chrisnation

I bought a diesel Jeep Cherokee specifically to go touring down thru' France & Spain. These tough, mechanically basic [cart springs at the rear!], manly vehicles can be picked up for about £2k for a really good one in UK. And once down in the £2k region, they hold their value if not beaten about.

I sold Tonto l [1996/P], a Cherokee LTD with electric everything and never a moment's trouble, for £2250 after 7 years' ownership and 2 trips to France/Spain . Replaced it with Tonto ll [2000/W] Cherokee Anniversary [immac, electric almost everything, f.s.h.] for £2200. Those are the figures you’re looking for.

The 2.5 diesel will give you +/- 35 mpg on the m/way. The cams are shaft drive, so no worries about whether the last owner has done a belt change - at least as far as valves and pistons coming together in a disorderly rabble.

Make sure the a/c works before you leave. You're gonna need it. If the Jeep runs OK, but is due for a regular service, get it done in Spain. I saved so much on the ridiculous service costs of Jeep main agents in UK by getting Tonto 1 serviced [+ other important work] in Tarragona that the saving covered 1] The return ferry 2] All the diesel 3] 120 litres of Euro1.05/bott Valencia wine. I later found out that the Jeep main agent in Valencia was actually cheaper £/hr than Tarragona! And so helpful and efficient.

I made the mistake of avoiding the Autopista down the coast after the Barcelona freebie. What a nightmare! Dreadful road, all smashed up, all the trucks that should have been on the m/way, all the local traffic, passing through every town. Had made the same mistake earlier, up in France, by avoiding paying from southwest Brittany to near Cahors. As an ex-boatyard owner, I did not see the funny side of being stuck for many miles behind a wagon transporting a sizable boat.

Came back north on the pay-way and it was bliss. Just factor in the cost of these toll roads as part of your mental/physical health policy.

I don’t recommend swinging all that way east to Lyon Why not straighten out the bends by going A16 >A28 to Rouen.>le Mans>A10 Tours>Poitiers>N147 Limoges>A20 @Limoges >Toulouse A61>A9 Perpignan >Le Boulou.

Come off at Le Boulou, turn west >D115 Le Ceret and take the D115 all the way over the mountains into Spain, drop down and pick up the autopista at Girona. The trip over the mountains on this route is really spectacular. Right at the top is the old customs post, now a falling-down shed. On the rock wall opposite the shed is painted a vertical white line. On the French side of the line is painted an arrow pointing back the way you’ve come with ‘Francia 75 kms’ On the Spanish side is an arrow pointing south and ‘Espagna 360 kms’ That’s yer Catalans for ye. On the m/way to Barcelona is a huge rock with ‘Free Catalonia’ painted on it. Underneath, someone has replied in English ‘Why?’

Happy trails!

Sounds like an excellent route BUT what does driving a Jeep Cherokee have to do with being "manly". Unless manhood depends on being seen behind the wheel of a gas quzzler of antiquated design made by a bankrupt US car company (now taken over by Fiat, making it therefore the "Fiat/Jeep Cherokee"). These insane SUVs jam and pollute the narrow but excellently paved streets of our part of Barcelona, presumably because the owners need them to boost their manhood. There is certainly nowhere to drive off-road except when parking on the pavement which they frequently do. Having made the return trip from Spain to UK four times in the last year in an ordinary family estate car I can assure you that off-road capability is not needed for this trip.

[cuevadame]

What is ADAC if you can excuse my ignorance?!! How much does it cost approx for you?

Looks like the northern coast could be the winner then eh??!!

...........ADAC (German organisation) membership is around £70 for European cover for one year - the website is in English too which is a great help! If you need to phone them to get your membership sorted, they are very helpful but you should be able to complete it online......web link below:

The membership in ADAC

Good luck and have FUN!

[phil481]

The easiest way to find the cost of a route including tolls is to use one of the web sites such as the viaMichelin site where you can enter your preferences to avoid tolls or otherwise and tweak the route to your hearts content. Don't forget to add the appropriate ferry costs afterwards.

Buen viaje

[chrisnation]

Originally Posted by ivorra

Sounds like an excellent route BUT what does driving a Jeep Cherokee have to do with being "manly". Unless manhood depends on being seen behind the wheel of a gas quzzler of antiquated design made by a bankrupt US car company (now taken over by Fiat, making it therefore the "Fiat/Jeep Cherokee"). These insane SUVs jam and pollute the narrow but excellently paved streets of our part of Barcelona, presumably because the owners need them to boost their manhood. There is certainly nowhere to drive off-road except when parking on the pavement which they frequently do. Having made the return trip from Spain to UK four times in the last year in an ordinary family estate car I can assure you that off-road capability is not needed for this trip.

Driving a Jeep Cherokee has nothing to do with being manly. Whether I am or not when driving mine is neither here nor there. I care not a whit. Up close and personal with some toothsome female is where my manhood is on the line. I think there was an irony-free moment there, from our correspondent, whilst reading that bit.

A vehicle that does 35mpg on the m/way cruising at 75mph cannot be described as a gas-guzzler. I believ you must be thinking about the various petrol versions of these Jeeps, the Cherokee 4 litre and the V8 Grand Cherokee. And the big BMW/Merc/Volvo equivs. Gas guzzlers every one, to be sure. Wouldn't touch one with a barge pole.

Whether any vehicle of any type drives or parks on a pavement is nothing to do with the vehicle and everything to do wth the nut behind the wheel. I never do it in my Jeep but 5 million Parisians do it every day in every car known to man. In fact, in my experience, from Calais to Peshawar, Pakistan, the smaller the car, the more likely it is to park on the pavement.

And the Cherokee is not amongst the undoubtedly bloated beasts that so excercise the anti-SUV brigade. Get out your measuring stick or check it out on line but you'll find that a Cherokee is smaller both in length and width than a Mondeo estate. I went to the trouble of checking this out when a friend of mine started foaming at me for buying my Jeep, not realising that some vehicles that look similar in shape to other vehicles of which she deeply disapproves are not necessarily the same size.

An of course, the fact that Chrysler went bust has no bearing on its merit, good or bad, as a vehicle either. R-Royces are VWs and Bentleys BMWs. Lotus is part of some Indian car manufacturer. So what?

Ironically again, the Cherokee is not a 4x4! It has occasional 4x4 capability in some forms but unless modified by the mud-plugging mob, it is not recommended to engage 4x4 except on suitably loose or slippery surfaces.

In sum then, the Cherokee is a Mondeo-sized estate car [as my insurance co describes it] giving reasonable mpg, a high level of equipment on most models, tough, easliy serviced, comfortable and very cheap to buy 2nd hand. It will sell for about the same as you bought it, even after years and 10's of 1000s of miles of ownership, as long as you don't beat it to bits. Just right for our man heading south. Now, who'se going to spring me the dosh for a Fiat Maranello - I mean Ferrari Maranello.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by ivorra

Sounds like an excellent route BUT what does driving a Jeep Cherokee have to do with being "manly". Unless manhood depends on being seen behind the wheel of a gas quzzler of antiquated design made by a bankrupt US car company (now taken over by Fiat, making it therefore the "Fiat/Jeep Cherokee"). These insane SUVs jam and pollute the narrow but excellently paved streets of our part of Barcelona, presumably because the owners need them to boost their manhood. There is certainly nowhere to drive off-road except when parking on the pavement which they frequently do. Having made the return trip from Spain to UK four times in the last year in an ordinary family estate car I can assure you that off-road capability is not needed for this trip.

If any country needs 4x4s or jeeps or SUVs its Spain!!! I made the big mistake of buying a citroen picasso when we first moved here, I cant wait til it eventually falls apart so that I can get a great big rugged 4x4 that will cope with the diabolical roads and tracks that I have to drive on daily... even the towns and main routes have those ridiculous metal speed bumps that have taken the bottom off my car twice so far, and no I dont drive fast, apparenty my bottom drags!!!!! LOL

Jo xxx

[Suenneil]

Originally Posted by jojo

If any country needs 4x4s or jeeps or SUVs its Spain!!! I made the big mistake of buying a citroen picasso when we first moved here, I cant wait til it eventually falls apart so that I can get a great big rugged 4x4 that will cope with the diabolical roads and tracks that I have to drive on daily... even the towns and main routes have those ridiculous metal speed bumps that have taken the bottom off my car twice so far, and no I dont drive fast, apparenty my bottom drags!!!!! LOL

Jo xxx

ha ha ha !! mine too Jo I think !

sue x

[SteveBarbosa]

Originally Posted by chrisnation

Driving a Jeep Cherokee has nothing to do with being manly. Whether I am or not when driving mine is neither here nor there. I care not a whit. Up close and personal with some toothsome female is where my manhood is on the line. I think there was an irony-free moment there, from our correspondent, whilst reading that bit.

A vehicle that does 35mpg on the m/way cruising at 75mph cannot be described as a gas-guzzler. I believ you must be thinking about the various petrol versions of these Jeeps, the Cherokee 4 litre and the V8 Grand Cherokee. And the big BMW/Merc/Volvo equivs. Gas guzzlers every one, to be sure. Wouldn't touch one with a barge pole.

Whether any vehicle of any type drives or parks on a pavement is nothing to do with the vehicle and everything to do wth the nut behind the wheel. I never do it in my Jeep but 5 million Parisians do it every day in every car known to man. In fact, in my experience, from Calais to Peshawar, Pakistan, the smaller the car, the more likely it is to park on the pavement.

And the Cherokee is not amongst the undoubtedly bloated beasts that so excercise the anti-SUV brigade. Get out your measuring stick or check it out on line but you'll find that a Cherokee is smaller both in length and width than a Mondeo estate. I went to the trouble of checking this out when a friend of mine started foaming at me for buying my Jeep, not realising that some vehicles that look similar in shape to other vehicles of which she deeply disapproves are not necessarily the same size.

An of course, the fact that Chrysler went bust has no bearing on its merit, good or bad, as a vehicle either. R-Royces are VWs and Bentleys BMWs. Lotus is part of some Indian car manufacturer. So what?

Ironically again, the Cherokee is not a 4x4! It has occasional 4x4 capability in some forms but unless modified by the mud-plugging mob, it is not recommended to engage 4x4 except on suitably loose or slippery surfaces.

In sum then, the Cherokee is a Mondeo-sized estate car [as my insurance co describes it] giving reasonable mpg, a high level of equipment on most models, tough, easliy serviced, comfortable and very cheap to buy 2nd hand. It will sell for about the same as you bought it, even after years and 10's of 1000s of miles of ownership, as long as you don't beat it to bits. Just right for our man heading south. Now, who'se going to spring me the dosh for a Fiat Maranello - I mean Ferrari Maranello.

However manly I am or am not you've happened to garner my interest in this Jeep. I need to goggle an image of it and start looking and researching it up PDQ as I am off in a months time. Yes, that gas guzzling 330 sport doing at best 34mpg, at worst 25mpg. Hell, its even an impractical car for what we're using it for (in tow with a baby, bikes, camping gear). Its just cos I havent got much choice havign spent nearly 3k on it recently to get it fixed (double ouch!!!).

Whats the storage space like on these Jeeps then?

[chrisnation]

One of the criticisms of the Cherokee is that the 'boot' [with back seat in up mode] is rather small for the size of the car and the rear seat does not split. Added to which, the spare officially lives in that space - and Jeep wheels are big [but the tyres are not expensive, about £60 ea]. I was on my own and devoid of babies and bikes - but I did have camping gear and several boxes of books. For load-carrying, a European-designed estate car will be much more capacious and more suitable for a family with camping gear and bikes. Volvo estates come big and cheap, too.

I thought I might sleep in the back of the Jeep so I removed the seat of the rear seat - easy: one clip on one side, slides out of a channel the other ~ 15 secs. I had the full length of the load bay right to the backs of the front seats [if you follow me] and kept the load bay as clear of bits as poss for a] security b] not having to move loads of stuff if I wanted to kip down. My remedy for keeping gear out of sight was a roof box with a pair of s/s strops [6mm rigging wire, eyes at both ends] running through a U-bolt on the centre of the lid of the box and padlocked down to the adjustment holes in the roof bar rails. Your local friendly yacht rigger will make the strops up for you. Measurements are critical, for this. Position everything and use string templates for the s/s strops.

If I was in your situation and had decided a Jeep was it, I'd get a second set of roof bars [I got a second set from a 4x4 specialist scrappie in Glastonbury, £75 inc p & p [Jeep wanted £300!], mount the roof box well forward so there is room to put the spare on the bars behind the box. I measured all this up and works. The tailgate might bump up against the tyre but it will be above horizontal when it does.

Irrespective of what estate car you use [if you do], security is a major issue for these vehicles. Pull-over fabric covers or fold-over boards that estate cars come with to screen the load bay are soon rendered useless by heaps of holiday/baby gear. Sad to say that in my experience the coast of Spain is infested with North Africans stealing stuff from cars. I had a bag [fortunately with nothing of value in it] nicked from the passenger seat next to me while I was sitting in the driver’s seat! A skilful couple of likely lads from Morocco.

The Jeep is a great 2-up long distance tourer or 5-seater regular local wheels. There are plenty of roads in Spain where the agricultural-spec suspension, huge ground clearance, let alone the occasional 4x4 ability, will come in handy. No low-slung bum on Tonto, Jo-Jo! So, bearing in mind what Bette Davis said in “All About Eve” – “fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” you girls might find you need to change into a sports bra every time you want to go for a ride …