9 night road trip Roscoff to Bilbao suggestions please

Zebedee · Jul 4, 2015

I am taking the Cali in August it's a long way in a short time with a teenager and a dog . Any suggestions where to stay / places not to miss down.the west coast of France and over into Spain.

Am thinking a lot of campsites may like you to stay for a week minimum at that time of year. Have already booked the ferry so I have to make it work. Is it going to be very hot down the bottom so any must haves or suggestions gratefully received

Larkrise · Jul 4, 2015

We are also travelling that route in early September... so watching for the wisdom of the forum in this thread!

AlanC · Jul 5, 2015

We are doing it the other way round in mid September.

Out via Cherbourg down through Western France into Spain and back via Bilbao in October.
At that time of the year I think all sites that are open will have places available, so booking in advance won't be necessary.

A weeks stay may be an issue, but unlikely I think. The sites are probably happy to get anyone at that time of year.

I would get a ACSI Card though, as this will give you some discount.

Alan

wasted · Jul 5, 2015

A word of warning, I would leave the dog at home as August will be far too hot for it in the South of France, it ruined our holiday last year.

Zebedee · Jul 5, 2015

I have looked up average temps which on the coast appear to be around 20.

I did this trip when I was 13 with my parents and our Bailey caravan but I can't remember it being too hot but can remember being bitten by mossies!

Leaving the dog is not an option as we will already have been in France for 2 weeks at our cottage when we do the trip. How about 12v air con / fans anyone any experience?

We have a topper but will only be staying a single night or possibly 2 any other ways to keep cool?

Martin · Jul 5, 2015

When we head South we normally take a 240v home fan (obviously only any use if on hook up) I do agree that it is no fun for dogs when the temp gets passed 25 degrees.

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cpjb@btinternet.com · Jul 5, 2015

Drove down from Calais to Northern Spain last year. Best stopover I can suggest is the Il de Re. See other current thread on this place. Simply superb - a little piece of Provence in Western France.

We stayed at the campsite at the far end of the isle (near the lighthouse), but there are several campsites. You won't be disappointed.

inthemidnighthour · Jul 5, 2015

Hi
We did this trip last year and stayed at several sites down the West Coast
the place not to miss is Bordeaux - absolutely fab
the campsite not to miss is the Royal Pavillion Biaritz
Dave and Lisa

Jonney · Jul 6, 2015

Yes, the ile de rea is stunning, don't forget your bike, there are lots of nice campsites, we stayed on one right next to the beach. I think it will be very busy in high season though......its drivable for Parisians

Victor · Jul 6, 2015

We go the the ile de rea a lot and I would say avoid it in August as it is so busy, as quoted above it is full of Parisians on their grande vacance.

The best time there is May and June, it is a totally different place.

barry · Jul 6, 2015

If you're finishing up in Bilbao don't miss the Guggenheim Museum: the outside structure is amazing (the most amazing building I've seen) as well as the contents (iirc it's closed on Mondays).
There's an aire above the city that looks down on it and three's a regular bus service between the aire and the main city street (only 10 mins but a b****r of a climb back if you're on foot). The aire was a municipal site once but shut down as such a few years ago. There's a good bar with food about 200 meters from it. I just can't remember the aire's name.
We arrived the night before, spent a day in Bilbao, got the ferry back to UK next day.
For us it was the end of 4 weeks in (mainly) Portugal but if you're only there 9 nights you might not want to 'waste' two of them on Bilbao ... but we would.
Have a good trip.

briwy · Jul 6, 2015

San Sebastian is a beautiful city and well worth a visit.
Picos de Europa, stunning, the cable car from Fuente de is magic. Good campiste there as well, likely to be busy but great if you can get on on it. Not possible to book, just turn up and try. Carru opn up the raod past the cable car and it's down a track.

cpjb@btinternet.com · Jul 6, 2015

If you go to the Picos then the terraced campsite at Potes is brill, and you can walk into Potes in 20 minutes.

If you do try the cable car at Fuente my advice is to get there early - we faced a 3 hour wait which we declined.

Ill de re was pretty busy when we visited in August, but easily bearable.

Avoid Laredo at all costs - Europes's biggest tenement sprawl.

snowy55 · Jul 6, 2015

cpjb@btinternet.com said:
Avoid Laredo at all costs - Europes's biggest tenement sprawl.

Well worth visiting Laredo to see the massive sand dune at the end of the beach and a good campsite on the river estuary.

Laredo sand dune.

Laredo sunset over the river estuary.

View from the campsite. The three black dots in the sea are horses being trained in the water.

cpjb@btinternet.com · Jul 7, 2015

Wow! I must have gone to the wrong Laredo! You could have possibly cropped photo 1 though a little.

In truth the beach was great, but we were on a pretty awful massive site (nice ones were full) and finding anywhere to park in Laredo proved impossible (for us anyway).

snowy55 · Jul 7, 2015

No cropping on photo 1, nice big empty car park at that end of the beach which you can stop in overnight. Yes there was a lot of medium/highish rise Edifico's but the Spanish like to live close together just look at how they pack themselves in on campsites, no 6 metre rule in Spain lol. It's a place we intend to go back and revisit.

cpjb@btinternet.com · Jul 19, 2015

Hi Snowy55 - I was looking for something to watch whilst eating my tea this evening (relegated to the back room) - and came across Rick Stein's "Spain" on iPlayer - the opening part is from guess where? Yep Laredo!

Not a bad programme at all.

jimandcaz · Jul 20, 2015

We stayed at http://www.pavillon-royal.com/

It is in Bidart, not far from Biarritz. The campsite is only small, but it is right on the beach, and we requested a sea view - I'll try and find the pic of the amazing pitch we got.

It was a really good spot for surfing or body boarding.

We just stayed for two nights (in peak summer holiday season) and booked direct with them, but Ive got a feeling they have now been added to the Eurocamp Independent sites. Eurocamp Independent don't usually specify a whole week.