This time next week. (1 Viewer)

neilmac

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Excitement is building...... we have the ferry booked for 15th Feb - Dover to Calais £34.20 (just missed the 'special offer' £20 crossings :Doh:) via SeaFrance.

As is usual for us, we'll be using Aires for our trip down to Spain and the ones we expect to stop at are:


  • Le Portel
  • Honfleur
  • Neuille Pont Pierre
  • Nersac
  • Mimizan Plage
  • St Jean de Luz

Then, a bit of a trek down to Daimuz, south of Valencia, to a beach side wild camping spot. Its a long drive but, the recently opened free motorway Autovia Mudejar will take care of a lot of miles.

The Aires have been chosen because they mostly have EHU and the possibility of water (if not turned off because of frost).

We're not in any particular hurry but it would be nice to leave the cold weather behind as soon as possible! so if we get some good days en route we may stay around a bit to make the most of it.

The beauty of motorhoming eh?..... No definate plans - just a direction! And with Aires there are no booking commitments either.

Along the way we'll be looking for McDonalds and the like for free wi-fi (not the burgers!) so we can update our blog and generally keep in touch.

We'll be out of the UK until August so hope to see or meet some of you on the way..... :thumb:
 

Kon tiki

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We are off on the 19th Feb (Eurotunnel £32.50 Tesco clubcard vouchers return ::bigsmile:) Should really plan a route with places to stop but we will probably do as always & just make it up as we go along :RollEyes: . Plan at the moment get off tunnel 8:00am (or maybe earlier), check diesel (see if were running on fumes) if low head to nearest garage for a few litres. Get on motorway & head to Auchan Boulogne, have a, get some croissants for breakfast then have a rest for a couple of hours. Get some baguettes have lunch then fill up with diesel. Set Tomtom to somewhere such as Capbreton or Hendaye & start driving. When tired have a look at the aires we have on Autoroute & Tomtom, decide which one to head for then park up for the night. Next day pretty much the same until we get far enough South then set Tomtom for somewhere (yet to be decided) in Portugal. :thumb:

Spoils the fun too much planning, most times we haven't a clue where we are going until we get there :Eeek:, the above plan is probably the most comprehensive one we've made to date.
 
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Peter JohnsCross MH

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Good luck to both of you, may the sun never set you lucky so and so's.

Peter

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Brisey

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Safe travels to the both of you, hope you have great trips.:thumb:
To say I am envious would be an understatement.::bigsmile:
 

TDH

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Bon voyage you two!

We're gutting The Rosabella at the moment so we're not going anywhere for a couple of weeks - maybe we'll catch up with you in April.:thumb:
 

kenspain

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May 22, 2009
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Lot of road works round Valencia so take care :Smile: By the way we have got the rain here so put you wellingtons on board :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

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neilmac

neilmac

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Lot of road works round Valencia so take care :Smile: By the way we have got the rain here so put you wellingtons on board :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Thanks for the tips :thumb:. Hopefully the situations will have improved by the time we get there :winky:

Bon voyage you two!

We're gutting The Rosabella at the moment so we're not going anywhere for a couple of weeks - maybe we'll catch up with you in April.:thumb:

Hope you get going again soon :Smile:

Safe travels to the both of you, hope you have great trips.:thumb:
To say I am envious would be an understatement.::bigsmile:

Thanks Brisey :thumb:

Good luck to both of you, may the sun never set you lucky so and so's.

Peter

Cheers Peter, certainly hope the sun does make an appearance sometime SOON :Cool:

We are off on the 19th Feb (Eurotunnel £32.50 Tesco clubcard vouchers return ::bigsmile:) Should really plan a route with places to stop but we will probably do as always & just make it up as we go along :RollEyes: . Plan at the moment get off tunnel 8:00am (or maybe earlier), check diesel (see if were running on fumes) if low head to nearest garage for a few litres. Get on motorway & head to Auchan Boulogne, have a, get some croissants for breakfast then have a rest for a couple of hours. Get some baguettes have lunch then fill up with diesel. Set Tomtom to somewhere such as Capbreton or Hendaye & start driving. When tired have a look at the aires we have on Autoroute & Tomtom, decide which one to head for then park up for the night. Next day pretty much the same until we get far enough South then set Tomtom for somewhere (yet to be decided) in Portugal. :thumb:

Spoils the fun too much planning, most times we haven't a clue where we are going until we get there :Eeek:, the above plan is probably the most comprehensive one we've made to date.

Hope you have a good trip too :thumb:. Reckon you'll be overtaking us before long.

We too rely on TomTom and just set each day's destination co-ordinates avoiding tolls - then all we have to do is sit back and enjoy the scenery - well almost! ::bigsmile:
 

dellwood33

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Apr 25, 2009
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The last part of the trip seems like a fair hike - you doing that in one go ? :Smile:
 
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neilmac

neilmac

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Nov 24, 2008
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Nice selection of Aires :thumb:

have a great trip... :Smile:

Thanks Jim :thumb: Apart from Neuille Pont Pierre and St Jean de Luz we've used those aires before so we know what's what when we get to them. Think Mimizan is still favourite of that bunch :Smile:

The last part of the trip seems like a fair hike - you doing that in one go ? :Smile:

It is a long leg of the trip, trouble is, there are no aires that we know of in between. If we detour and call at Morella it changes the route and takes us off the good motorway.

If anyone knows of any good stopping points between SW France and south of Valencia we'd be keen to try them out :Smile:

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Kon tiki

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Oct 11, 2007
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Plenty of places listed here just zoom into the area you want Link Removed you can even download them for your GPS. Stayed on the harbour at Vinaros a few times, plenty of room & always managed to pick up free wifi:thumb:
 

Rainy

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Oct 20, 2009
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France/Spain Aires

Excitement is building...... we have the ferry booked for 15th Feb - Dover to Calais £34.20 (just missed the 'special offer' £20 crossings :Doh:) via SeaFrance.

As is usual for us, we'll be using Aires for our trip down to Spain and the ones we expect to stop at are:


  • Le Portel
  • Honfleur
  • Neuille Pont Pierre
  • Nersac
  • Mimizan Plage
  • St Jean de Luz

Then, a bit of a trek down to Daimuz, south of Valencia, to a beach side wild camping spot. Its a long drive but, the recently opened free motorway Autovia Mudejar will take care of a lot of miles.

The Aires have been chosen because they mostly have EHU and the possibility of water (if not turned off because of frost).

We're not in any particular hurry but it would be nice to leave the cold weather behind as soon as possible! so if we get some good days en route we may stay around a bit to make the most of it.

The beauty of motorhoming eh?..... No definate plans - just a direction! And with Aires there are no booking commitments either.

Along the way we'll be looking for McDonalds and the like for free wi-fi (not the burgers!) so we can update our blog and generally keep in touch.

We'll be out of the UK until August so hope to see or meet some of you on the way..... :thumb:

Hi Neil
We found your post very helpful to us We have only had our 1yr old Lunar Roadstar 580 MH a few months and havent used it much yet!..just the odd weekend.. we are quite new to this:Eeek:! We have booked our tunnel crossing for our trip down to South of France on 31st march...it only cost us £60 worth of tesco vouchers which are worth 4 times the amount.. ie each £10 worth of vouchers is worth £40 Just incase other post readers are interested. Otherwise we would have booked the ferry as euro tunnel are quite expensive (£240 return!:whatthe:)but as you probably know they are very quick compared to the ferry.
We plan to use the Aires also but are unsure of which ones to stay at so will definitely make a note of the ones you have mentioned We are also planning to go down to Spain in July for a 3/4 weeks and will take note of your route also so thanks for that:thumb:
Hopefully there will be Aires in South Of France.. if we get stuck! or if anyone knows of any lovely sites/places to stay at we would be most grateful to hear from you We love... Mountains, Forests. trees, lakes, the coast As you said Neil 'the beauty of motorhoming'.. we've so much to look forward to... Only another 3years until we retire Yey!:shout: then we can go off for months at a time like you
Have a great trip and enjoy the warmer weather
Rainy&Pete
 
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neilmac

neilmac

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Plenty of places listed here just zoom into the area you want Link Removed you can even download them for your GPS. Stayed on the harbour at Vinaros a few times, plenty of room & always managed to pick up free wifi:thumb:

Thanks Kon tiki, I'll try and get my head round that site tomorrow :Smile: :thumb:

Hi Neil
We found your post very helpful to us We have only had our 1yr old Lunar Roadstar 580 MH a few months and havent used it much yet!..just the odd weekend.. we are quite new to this:Eeek:! We have booked our tunnel crossing for our trip down to South of France on 31st march...it only cost us £60 worth of tesco vouchers which are worth 4 times the amount.. ie each £10 worth of vouchers is worth £40 Just incase other post readers are interested. Otherwise we would have booked the ferry as euro tunnel are quite expensive (£240 return!:whatthe:)but as you probably know they are very quick compared to the ferry.
We plan to use the Aires also but are unsure of which ones to stay at so will definitely make a note of the ones you have mentioned We are also planning to go down to Spain in July for a 3/4 weeks and will take note of your route also so thanks for that:thumb:
Hopefully there will be Aires in South Of France.. if we get stuck! or if anyone knows of any lovely sites/places to stay at we would be most grateful to hear from you We love... Mountains, Forests. trees, lakes, the coast As you said Neil 'the beauty of motorhoming'.. we've so much to look forward to... Only another 3years until we retire Yey!:shout: then we can go off for months at a time like you
Have a great trip and enjoy the warmer weather
Rainy&Pete

Hi Rainy & Pete,

Glad to be of some help. We have stayed at some great Aires during our first year of motorhoming (2009), nearly all of our 100 nights in that year were at Aires. You will love it I'm sure :Smile:

All of France has so many to choose from but the ones in the south that spring to mind are Leucate Plage on the Med and Mimizan Plage and Capbreton on the Atlantic. We're currently running a second blog http://thistimelastyearwithneilmac.blogspot.com/ which is a record of our first years travels (one year on) and the Aires that we stayed at.

Oh, and 3 years will fly by - but your adventures have already started.... that was when you bought your motorhome :thumb:

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Kon tiki

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We will have to watch out for you on the way (not that many Swift Bel-Airs around :RollEyes: ), I've made a note of the aires & theres a good chance we might use some of them. A lot depends on the weather, last year we went over earlier & after having a couple of days at Cleres with really nice weather it got very cold. The inlet pipe to the boiler froze with the heating on :Eeek:. As long as we can see a bit of sunshine we aren't bothered too much where we are :thumb:. Thats what we enjoy about motorhoming is you can change your plans whenever you want.::bigsmile:
 
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neilmac

neilmac

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We will have to watch out for you on the way (not that many Swift Bel-Airs around :RollEyes: ), I've made a note of the aires & theres a good chance we might use some of them. A lot depends on the weather, last year we went over earlier & after having a couple of days at Cleres with really nice weather it got very cold. The inlet pipe to the boiler froze with the heating on :Eeek:. As long as we can see a bit of sunshine we aren't bothered too much where we are :thumb:. Thats what we enjoy about motorhoming is you can change your plans whenever you want.::bigsmile:

We'll keep an open for your Adria Ed :winky:, if you do see us first please come and say hi - always happy to share a vin rouge or vino tinto depending on where we are ::bigsmile:
 

gwyntaxi

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this time next week

how did u manage 2 get a return 4 amotorhome?? for £32.50 when i booked back in sept 2009 to travel out on Jan 2nd 2010 eurot
unnel charged me £134.00 retuurn & they assured me that £67.00
each way is the cheapest that they do 4 a motorhome (7m) because i q ueried this with them as i get peed off with some
people telling me that they only paid half of what i paid:Sad::whatthe::Angry:

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Kon tiki

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The £32.50 was in Eurotunnel vouchers worth 4 x 32.50 = £132, it was £69 going out on Feb 19th & £61 coming back on April 28th. I think the cost of the outward journey was £67 but you don't get any change from the Tesco vouchers & you have to use them in multiples of £2.50. I could have used £30's worth of vouchers (x 4 = £120) & paid the £8 but we had plenty of vouchers.

You can check the prices online, I booked mine on the 24th December just after they had all the problems. Our van is also 7 meters but I don't think they have any different rates for length unlike the ferries.
 

peter marshall

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:thumb:Hi Neil
We are just a week behind you, 3 months in Spain at La Manga then Benicassim, lets hope we have good weather. Pete :thumb::thumb:

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neilmac

neilmac

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:thumb:Hi Neil
We are just a week behind you, 3 months in Spain at La Manga then Benicassim, lets hope we have good weather. Pete :thumb::thumb:

Hi Pete,

Fingers crossed for the weather for you :Smile:. What route are you taking through France?

3 months in Spain sounds great :thumb:
 

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