How far each day?

[Yorkie]

i am familiar with blasting down European motorways and staying in one spot on arrival but would like advice for my 3 week summer trip now I have a Cali.

Option 1: go as far from northern England into France in a couple of days as feasible (didn't use the blasting phrase this time). Then travel small distances (say 130 miles) each following day so taking time every day to explore.

Option 2: same long initial journey but followed by longer journeys and couple of night stays in chosen locations.

We have the middle week booked in Porto, Portugal with family.

 

[Salty]

i am familiar with blasting down European motorways and staying in one spot on arrival but would like advice for my 3 week summer trip now I have a Cali.

Option 1: go as far from northern England into France in a couple of days as feasible (didn't use the blasting phrase this time). Then travel small distances (say 130 miles) each following day so taking time every day to explore.

Option 2: same long initial journey but followed by longer journeys and couple of night stays in chosen locations.

We have the middle week booked in Porto, Portugal with family.

Morning Yorkie, isn't it a nice distraction on a Monday morning to be thinking of trips in the van. I know some people like to cover stacks of miles and cover a wide geographical area, but our approach has been to go to an area and really get under the skin of the place. For example staying around the Dordogne and Bordeaux we got to know the wines, the local markets, the people a bit (when we were sober) all that kind of thing. Sound brilliant whatever you do though...anyway back to my emails! Have a good day.

 

[Yorkie]

Morning Yorkie, isn't it a nice distraction on a Monday morning to be thinking of trips in the van. I know some people like to cover stacks of miles and cover a wide geographical area, but our approach has been to go to an area and really get under the skin of the place. For example staying around the Dordogne and Bordeaux we got to know the wines, the local markets, the people a bit (when we were sober) all that kind of thing. Sound brilliant whatever you do though...anyway back to my emails! Have a good day.

Relaxing before work. Hope the boss doesn't find out. My wife is the MD

 

[B J G]

You don't mention how you are crossing the channel but I'll put an option based on having some wind down time initially and with the middle week being booked you've restricted travelling to and from there time.

Suggestion> Travel to Spain by Brittany Ferries, Bilbao or Santander. Go into France and then come back across Pyrenees for the trip across Spain. Leave you to choose actual routes.

3rd week travel back to France & head north to catch a Ferry home from either St Malo or Caen.. Tried Brest once and nothing very scenic there.
I'd travel back on a 'play it by ear' basis. I never book, just follow the weather and stop when the area feels good.
You could obviously do the it the opposite way round.

The long ferry crossing to Spain will be saving fuel & tolls to compensate for extra cost.

Have a good trip whichever way you go.

 

[cpjb@btinternet.com]

Personal preference but I think it's much better to drive down the west coast of France (maybe stopping at Ile de re/Bordeaux) and then across the top of Spain and then to catch the long ferry back from Spain. We met people who did it the opposite way round, and they said they got the feeling that they were driving home for most of the holiday. Also DFDS (although possibly not operating under that name) run a ferry from Gijon. We came back on that ferry - it was much cheaper than P&O - no frills but perfectly adequate and more low key. Maybe worth checking out.

Whichever way around you do it I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

[Yorkie]

You don't mention how you are crossing the channel but I'll put an option based on having some wind down time initially and with the middle week being booked you've restricted travelling to and from there time.

Suggestion> Travel to Spain by Brittany Ferries, Bilbao or Santander. Go into France and then come back across Pyrenees for the trip across Spain. Leave you to choose actual routes.

3rd week travel back to France & head north to catch a Ferry home from either St Malo or Caen.. Tried Brest once and nothing very scenic there.
I'd travel back on a 'play it by ear' basis. I never book, just follow the weather and stop when the area feels good.
You could obviously do the it the opposite way round.

The long ferry crossing to Spain will be saving fuel & tolls to compensate for extra cost.

Have a good trip whichever way you go.

Hi, thanks for excellent reply.
Cannot get on Santander ferry as we have a dog and i cannot find a cabin to take him, sadly. Never thought of Bilbao, will check at lunch time.
I spent a fortnight around Brest; it was rubbish.

 

[B J G]

Hi, thanks for excellent reply.
Cannot get on Santander ferry as we have a dog and i cannot find a cabin to take him, sadly. Never thought of Bilbao, will check at lunch time.
I spent a fortnight around Brest; it was rubbish.

As far as I know, might be wrong, the only pet in your cabin option with BF is the Le Havre crossing, others you have to leave them in your vehicle.
Just looked on their site and it says you can take your pet to Spain for £69 with its own kennel. France from £16.50

 

[hirsty]

I don't know if you've done much travelling in a California before, but I was amazed how much distance you can put in during a day if you need to - we drove from Yorkshire to Italy (via Channel Tunnel) and back in October and were able to average 422 miles on driving days & three of those days included sections in the Alps.

I'm not recommending it for a relaxed touring holiday (!), but if you have to get a long leg in it's very do-able.

 

[Yorkie]

I don't know if you've done much travelling in a California before, but I was amazed how much distance you can put in during a day if you need to - we drove from Yorkshire to Italy (via Channel Tunnel) and back in October and were able to average 422 miles on driving days & three of those days included sections in the Alps.

I'm not recommending it for a relaxed touring holiday (!), but if you have to get a long leg in it's very do-able.

My thiking is that last year i drove 4500 miles in 3 weeks and the motorways felt endless but around italy was fine even for the same distances as there were things to see; mountains and vistas. German motorways took their toll as you had to be so alert for high speed overtaking whilst i was "tootling".

 

[hirsty]

... but in turn the main motorway from Milan to Florence is super straight, flat & dull too

I find it all a pleasure though, so nice to be lolloping along an almost empty autoroute in the sunshine to *anywhere* - roll on springtime ...

 

[Skylark2.0]

We like ro stay 2 or 3 nights in a place then do a hop further on of 2 to 3 hrs.

 

[Zebedee]

We did the trip down the coast of France but a bit inland from the coast and then back from Bilbao with the dog. We stayed a couple if days in each place unless it was bad weather (August) I suppose we would do about 150 miles in one go ish. Wake up, leisurely breakfast, pack up, head off....travel during lunchtime as quieter.

Anyone who did not like around Brest is going to the wrong places.....some of the best beaches ever, something for everyone. Ask me if you want suggestions.

 

[Yorkie]

We did the trip down the coast of France but a bit inland from the coast and then back from Bilbao with the dog. We stayed a couple if days in each place unless it was bad weather (August) I suppose we would do about 150 miles in one go ish. Wake up, leisurely breakfast, pack up, head off....travel during lunchtime as quieter.

Anyone who did not like around Brest is going to the wrong places.....some of the best beaches ever, something for everyone. Ask me if you want suggestions.

Maybe we did the wrong beaches. We ended up round roscoff and just about all the beaches were farming sea weed and the flies were horrible

 

[Alibee]

We tend to do a couple of 400-800km days to break the back of the travel, then pootle from then on. Same on the return, usually with something to look forward to at the halfway point (fun park / overnight in a city / etc).

 

[Yorkie]

We tend to do a couple of 400-800km days to break the back of the travel, then pootle from then on. Same on the return, usually with something to look forward to at the halfway point (fun park / overnight in a city / etc).

Your suggestion is our planned itinerary and i think this will work.

 

[Lulu]

Kennels are only available on the Portsmouth-St Malo route to France. I believe the Pont Aven boat runs on the Spain ferry - this is the one with the best kennels as you can visit your dog as often as you like.

 

[Wayno]

We went from Newcastle to Devon in a day Plymouth to Santander then did 2000 miles around France and back from roscoff .
We have 2 kids 8/11 we found 2 or 3 nights somewhere enough then lazy morning big breakfast then travel 100/200 miles through the heat of midday to the next place.

 

[Hotel California]

This all depends on who-where-when you driving...

I got no problem doing more than 1000km in one trip only stopped twice for diesel/toilet.
Works for me getting from A to B fast.

Other days we do 100 to 500km depending on wheather , things to see , ....

 

[Yorkie]

Reading hotel California's reply reminds me that my speedo is in MPH. Can I get a big KPH reading or do I put up with the tiny one in the computer readout?

 

[WelshGas]

Reading hotel California's reply reminds me that my speedo is in MPH. Can I get a big KPH reading or do I put up with the tiny one in the computer readout?

You'll soon get use to it.

KPH x 5 = MPH
8

So 50 KPH = 31 MPH
80 KPH = 50 MPH
110 KPH = 68 MPH
130 KPH = 81 MPH

As the Speed tends to under-read by about 10 % I tend to use 30, 70 and 80 MPH. Works for me for the past 40+ years.

 

[Yorkie]

On the travel theme. I can't find how to turn voice on for the sat nav! Is there an easy way?

 

[WelshGas]

On the travel theme. I can't find how to turn voice on for the sat nav! Is there an easy way?

Might help if we knew which SatNav you have.

If it is the RNS510 -Setup - Audio - Volume - should be obvious then. I think, as I'm in Cafe Nero at present.

 

[Bellesca]

We tend to do 5 hrs actual drive time per stretch between stop overs. Usually means you can have a walk to stretch the legs and see a little of the stopover place rather than just arriving,sleeping and leaving.