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Driving to South France/Spain



N

nevergoagain

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2005
1,125
nowhere near Burgess Hill
Does anyone have a rough idea of the cost of motorway tolls for driving down to Spain ?.

Am trying to work out cheapest/quickest way of doing things so any tips greatly appreciated.
 








ferring seagull

ferring seagull

Well-known member
Dec 30, 2010
4,607
As an option

It may be worth considering the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander/Bilbao.

Saves huge number of miles and one/two overnight stops.
 


Racek

Racek

Wing man to TFSO top boy.
Jan 3, 2010
1,799
Edinburgh
Would be worth spending a bit of time on Google though. When I lived there, it was about 40 euro to drive from Loire Valley to Calais but a French guy showed me a route using some motorway and some A roads, took the same amount of time and cost 15 euro.
 






GOM

GOM

living vicariously
Aug 8, 2005
3,225
Leeds - but not the dirty bit
wgray_128 said:
As an option

It may be worth considering the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander/Bilbao.

Saves huge number of miles and one/two overnight stops.
Click to expand...

If not this then at least consider P'mouth - Caen or similar.

I did Dover-Boulogne to beyond Pau in SW France last year and it was a long drive even with an overnight stop. Eventually couldn't care less about tolls.
 


Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck

Stop bloody moaning!
Nov 7, 2009
3,824
GOSBTS
Tolls are quite expensive, especially in France. You'll probably need to work on at least 160 Euros. The A roads are pretty good as they tend to run parallel to the motorways for most of the time, but you can get held up in some of the small towns, though.

Then you've got to allow for overnight stops which can add to the total cost. Try the IBIS hotels, good value and loads of them all along the routes.

The ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao doesn't run any more, think it stopped last September, so it would now be Santander. But then that's 2 nights on the boat and not cheap.

We always preferred Newhaven-Dieppe route. Bit more of a drive once you're in France but cheaper overall.

Spanish motorways are pretty good as well, but really busy during peak times. Not as expensive as the French ones, though.

Whereabouts in Spain are you headed?
 




Don't get me started

Don't get me started

One Nation under CCTV
Jul 24, 2007
348
Google it there is a french website which will give you the tolls , route and fuel cost! dead usefull
 


N

nevergoagain

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2005
1,125
nowhere near Burgess Hill
Daffy Duck said:
Tolls are quite expensive, especially in France. You'll probably need to work on at least 160 Euros. The A roads are pretty good as they tend to run parallel to the motorways for most of the time, but you can get held up in some of the small towns, though.

Then you've got to allow for overnight stops which can add to the total cost. Try the IBIS hotels, good value and loads of them all along the routes.

The ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao doesn't run any more, think it stopped last September, so it would now be Santander. But then that's 2 nights on the boat and not cheap.

We always preferred Newhaven-Dieppe route. Bit more of a drive once you're in France but cheaper overall.

Spanish motorways are pretty good as well, but really busy during peak times. Not as expensive as the French ones, though.

Whereabouts in Spain are you headed?
Click to expand...

About half hour south of Alicante, so just weighing up options of where to get ferry/eurostar from/to to try and keep cost down but also not spend an eternity getting there. Going to have my young lad with us aswell so am going to need to break it down into relatively small chunks of driving so was looking to take 3 days or so getting there.
 


fosters headband

fosters headband

Well-known member
Aug 15, 2003
5,158
Brighton
I drove to Alicante and back twice last year and never touched a toll road.
I went from Newhaven and drove via Ruoen down to Limoges,Pau and went through the tunnel at Somport to Jaca.
From there it was motorway all the way to Alicante.
I had two overnight stops.
 




Hillian1

Hillian1

( . ) ( . )
Jul 15, 2010
15,364
Struggling for breath at the top of the stairs
One thing to bear in mind is they know if you've been speeding as the toll booths put a time on the ticket, if you get to the next one quicker than you should have they can issue an on the spot fine.
 








fosters headband

fosters headband

Well-known member
Aug 15, 2003
5,158
Brighton
As Daffy Duck says the A roads are good and that is a lot of money to spend on toll roads.
Just get a sat nav and put in no toll roads it worked fine for me.
 




B

brunswick

New member
Aug 13, 2004
2,920
just fly ...its much easier....and DHL are good at shipping stuff.....saying that, its only stuff and all can be replaced in spain :)
 






Icy Gull

Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
Portsmouth to Caen and then down the middle of France through Le Mans, Tours, Loches, Chateauroux, Limoges, Brive, Cahors, Toulouse has the lowest motorway tolls and is the most scenic route. From Caen to Cahors is about 28 Euros, or was last year in tolls. Gets more expensive from Cahors through to Spain. No idea once you hit Spain.
 
Last edited:


Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck

Stop bloody moaning!
Nov 7, 2009
3,824
GOSBTS
If you've got a little'un with you, and they like to kip in the car, you can do it from Dieppe with 2 overnight stops, or one if you push it.
We were in Moraira, which is about 40 minutes north of Alicante. Two nights will be better, or three ideal (not too much rush).

We used to get as far down through France as we could until were totally knackered, usually about Limoges or Tours area. Then leave really early the following morning when the roads were quiet, and we'd get to Moraira about 7pm.
As you've got to go that much further, I'd definitely recommend 3 nights stopover on the way, especially with junior on board.

The one thing I would say is definitely do not go via Paris!!!
 


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