Southern Spain

[Sonya]

Friends of ours have a villa in Torrevieja, on the coast south of Alicante. We are intersted in doing a roadtrip sometime in May. They are going to buy something fun to drive just for the occasion to compliment our Elise and hopefully give us plenty of boot space (he's in car sales).

 

Anyone driven down that way? I've been told by bikers to do Plymouth - Santander on the overnight and then drive down through Spain, doing the Pyrenees and France on the way back up. Any thoughts anyone? Snapper?!

[Snapper]

Friends of ours have a villa in Torrevieja, on the coast south of Alicante. We are intersted in doing a roadtrip sometime in May. They are going to buy something fun to drive just for the occasion to compliment our Elise and hopefully give us plenty of boot space (he's in car sales).

 

Anyone driven down that way? I've been told by bikers to do Plymouth - Santander on the overnight and then drive down through Spain, doing the Pyrenees and France on the way back up. Any thoughts anyone? Snapper?!

 

Hi Sonya

 

I have done the Plymouth - Santander and the Portsmouth to Bilbao crossings. Presonally I would opt for the Plymouth - Santander crossing because it is shorter. All is fine unless the Bay of Biscay has a little wind and things start to change. Get a strong wind and you will have a bad crossing.

 

Not toured the South of Spain apart from being based in Gibraltar for a while.

 

But I have been touring a couple of times in Spain. I can recommed the Pyrenees highly and give you some advice.

 

Trip 1; (In a Caterham 7) The Pyrenees - From Bilbao- San Sebastion - Pamplona - Leyre (Monasterio de Leyre- The monks prayer are like Gorgorian Chants) - Javier (Castle of Francis Xavier) - Panticosa (A small village in the mountains - Best Air that I have ever breathed) - Over the mountains and on to Andorra. Stunning drive. But it was very hot when I did it in a Caterham, It went over 40'.

 

Trip 2: (In an Elise S2 111s) toured the from the North East (Santander) to La Coruna on the North West coast taking in the Rioja Wine region, The Picos de Europa mountains. and the Santiago de Compostela.

 

So any advice I can offer I would be more than happy to help. I will see if I can find my route book I had for the

[bermudabob]

Friends of ours have a villa in Torrevieja, on the coast south of Alicante. We are intersted in doing a roadtrip sometime in May. They are going to buy something fun to drive just for the occasion to compliment our Elise and hopefully give us plenty of boot space (he's in car sales).

 

Anyone driven down that way? I've been told by bikers to do Plymouth - Santander on the overnight and then drive down through Spain, doing the Pyrenees and France on the way back up. Any thoughts anyone? Snapper?!

Well thats weird - I've got a place there too... there are a couple of roads round there that I was wishing I was in the S1 instead of the rental car when I went in April.

 

 

If you don't mind the area being a bit tooled up for English holidaymakers (you can avoid it though) then its not too bad. One thing I would say, is that there is still a lot of construction going on in the area, and a lot of the local infrastructure is still being set up to cater for the new building developments. Bear that in mind, and its fine!

 

Rob

[Howard]

Evening All

 

I've done UK to Bilbao around 16 times in the last 3 years.

I have a friend in central Portugal who seems to be rebuilding a small village and I pop over to wire the various houses (cos I'm a sparky) and cos hes a mate. Beside which I'm after a little place too.

 

I've found the Brittanny ferries from Plymouth to be best, newer boats and faster too, P&O from Portsmouth seems to be full of drunken yobs out for a boozy trip. I've taken either a Jeep, a Transit or an Elise depending what equipment I was taking and what time of year but each time have had no problems apart from an Elise starter motor in a field in Portugal and a failed battery to the Jeep in rush hour in Barcelona. Language has never been a problem, generally decent people - to me it can be a great way to unwind.

The best trip I had was the Elise - Bibao and back via Italy then France, gone for 6 weeks, miss Paris if you can, unless you like stress and speak french, ignorant some Frenchies (me included at 50% french). I normally book the first hotel from the UK, take a laptop and link to a mobile, surf the net and find the next nights hotel that way, some really decent places (try the state run places whose name escapes me at the mo in Spain) and stayed in some cxxp. Best fun was walking into a 5* convent converted to a hotel near Lisbon unshaven and paint stained - ripped jeans told there was no spare places until I mentioned that I didnt really want a room, would prefer a suite and dropped a Gold American Express on the counter. ( Mistake ) but a least they did my laundry and valeted the car. Worst fun was sleeping in the car for the next two nights cos I'd blown the budget.

Remember to take the appropriate car stuff, documents, spares and jackets etc, dont speed to much, France and Spain do on the spot cash fines and can impound/crush the car. Grovelling works best and a few words of the appropriate language smooths the way, let them laugh at your accent. Do take AA or equivalent repair and recovery. Motorways are tolled, take loose change, secondary roads are slower but much more fun.

 

Grief I could go on all night, sorry for the essay, any specific questions give us a shout.

 

Final point - driving in Europe is really enjoyable just remember its thier country with different customs.

 

Howard

[malbon]

Thats a massive trek Sonya. My parents live down there and i thought about it..going down the west coast of france etc..through the pyrenees.

 

But giving it some thought...4 hours down to Dover...think how long it takes to get to Le Mans !

 

By then your done in. I think it would take a good 3 or 4 night stopovers to make it just a little bit comfortable.

 

And once you get there you need to get back ! Fuck that !!!

[Sonya]

The distance doesn't bother me, as most of the fun of this trip will be in the getting there. We know a few folk who've done something similar and say that the overnight ferry plus several short driving days with a stopover each night somewhere nice is definately the way to do it.

 

5 hours to Plymouth

Overnight ferry (a few jars and a proper night's sleep)

510 miles to Alicante by fastest route, so to do it the fun way on twisties would be 2-3 nights

Then chill out in a villa for a few nights and then back home

 

It's the coming back through France which would be tiring I think as that is significantly more miles, I know a guy who drove it up from Alicante (becasue his wife's handbag pooch didn't like flying) and he said that was a long slog. Not sure I fancy that, but wouldn't want to miss out on the Pyrinees. Tough call.

[sarahb]

Friends of ours have a villa in Torrevieja, on the coast south of Alicante. We are intersted in doing a roadtrip sometime in May. They are going to buy something fun to drive just for the occasion to compliment our Elise and hopefully give us plenty of boot space (he's in car sales).

 

Anyone driven down that way? I've been told by bikers to do Plymouth - Santander on the overnight and then drive down through Spain, doing the Pyrenees and France on the way back up. Any thoughts anyone? Snapper?!

 

Hi Sonya

We go to the area quite often (not in the elise). Some great roads & villages in the mountains.

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2960708488527404691

 

They close one of the mountain roads between Guadalest & Parcent for a hillclimb every October.

This vid looks to be the same road and only 90mins from Torre.

Sarah & Mick

[Sonya]

Right! Trip outlined now;

 

Derby > Portsmouth > Cherbourg, o/night in Valogne, then through Le Mans (well, whilst we're in the area...) to Poitier/Limoges. Then Poitiers/Limoge to Andorra (via Viaduct Millau hopefully, even if it is a little out of our way), then spend a day pootling (not) round the Pyranees, stay on coast north of Barcalona. The belt down the coast road to Torre'. Stay at the villa for 3 days, then return via Pamplona, Bordeaux (for some wine tours), Valogne and then home.

 

Only one long day (8hrs according to autoroute) and being an M6/M1 veteran I can do that for breakfast.....

 

Does anyone know of any gorgeous places to stay on these routes? In particular I'm looking for somewhere stunning in Andorra.

[Snapper]

Right! Trip outlined now;

 

Derby > Portsmouth > Cherbourg, o/night in Valogne, then through Le Mans (well, whilst we're in the area...) to Poitier/Limoges. Then Poitiers/Limoge to Andorra (via Viaduct Millau hopefully, even if it is a little out of our way), then spend a day pootling (not) round the Pyranees, stay on coast north of Barcalona. The belt down the coast road to Torre'. Stay at the villa for 3 days, then return via Pamplona, Bordeaux (for some wine tours), Valogne and then home.

 

Only one long day (8hrs according to autoroute) and being an M6/M1 veteran I can do that for breakfast.....

 

Does anyone know of any gorgeous places to stay on these routes? In particular I'm looking for somewhere stunning in Andorra.

 

Hi Sonya

 

About 15-20miles East of Pamplona you have two nice places of interest; 1) Monasterio de Leyre & 2) Castle Javier/Xavier.

 

As you head east along the N240 there is a petrol station about 15-20 miles out in the middle of nowhere. Opposite the petrol station there is a turning to the left where a couple of hundred meters up the road is a very nice hotel which could be a good place to stop for the night.

 

If you carry on up the hill you will come to the Monasterio de Leyre. The Monasterio de Leyre. Dates back to Roman times and is well worth a look around. At about 12 noon if you are in the church the monks come in and sing their prays, which is like Gregorian chants.

 

But before heading to the Monasterio de Leyre you could head back down to the petrol station, take a left and head East for about 5 miles and then turn right heading south down to Javier to have a look around the Castle Javier/Xavier (As in Francis of Xavier)

 

 

1) Castle Javier/Xavier (As in Francis of Xavier)

http://www.navarra.es/home_en/Temas/Turism...icas/javier.htm

http://www.pnte.cfnavarra.es/elmundodejavi...enido_uk.htm#01

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier%2C_Spain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier

 

2) Monasterio de Leyre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_Leyre

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monasterio_de_Leyre

http://www.monasteriodeleyre.com/

 

Hope that helps if you want to see something near to Pamplona