Heading France and Spain advice please (1 Viewer)

[xYachties]

Hello, we're newbies and just had our MH a couple weeks and a couple of weekends away.

But thinking possibly heading south through France and south west Spain. But being new and also with winter weather in January going through France wonder if practical or wait until spring. The Spanish ferries seem to be booked up, so will cross to northern France.

1 Won't leave if a really cold snowy snap, but wonder what the roads are like?
2 Also out of season, are there many safe overnight stopping places?
3 How busy are the sites in Spain, and are there enough available? We have a dog.

Or for any other advice will most grateful.

Many thank

 

[DBK]

The simple answer is yes it can be done but you will probably want to take a low level route, so down the west coast of France then cross over at Hendaye/Irun. The middle of Spain around Madrid has some high mountains which get snow although they are good at clearing them. You could go Pamplona, Zaragoza instead.

There will be loads of aires open in France but the water may be turned off. This may mean having to buy water in bottles at supermarkets if you run short. By aires I mean aires de camping-cars, not the motorway aires. The latter are safe if you have a good alarm but can be noisy. The MH aires can be found using apps like CamperContact or Park4Night.

Sites at the popular coastal spots can be busy and booking may be advisable but you should find places free away from the coast.

Do a search on here and you should find lots of advice. Plenty do what you are planning.

 

[Toady]

We have just travelled through France staying in Aires ( all free with electricity, water etc). Beautiful but quiet. Travelled via Limoges to Perpignan and now working our way down to Gibraltar. We have a dog as do most people on MH. Normally I am an FLT but as it is so cold at night it has worked out better to stay on sites in Spain (Camper contact) and used our oil radiators. We used Copilot app for sat nav and avoided tolls. Enjoy your trip

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[Lot lover]

Agree with others that France will be v cold. Very few sites will be open and Aires may have no water.

We hope to head for Portugal in a few weeks to search for sun. Cross into Spain near Irun then free motorways all the way

 

[xYachties]

Many thanks for the help and replys above.

 

[Augusta08]

Never had a problem using the freeby Aires, we have 90 ltr onboard tank and a 20ltr top up, always fill up when water is available. Yes quite a few will have the water shut-off, but you can usually top up somewhere.

Have fun

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[Allanm]

We’ve just driven round France from Brittany down almost to Bordeaux then across to Jura, Burgundy, Alsace and Lorraine then back. We only found one aire with water turned off in 3 weeks and a different aire every night.
We were surprised about the amount of motorhomes there were at aires. More people seem to be travelling about lately and where water would be turned off as a matter of course around October, most aires have it turned on unless the temperatures drop to or below zero. We’ve even seen notices on bournes stating that.
We travel with 120 litres of water in the tank and 25 litres in a container. We can make a full tank last almost a week if we really have to.
We’ve been to aires next to Marie’s and if it wasn’t freezing, we have asked if they could turn the water on for us. They always have.

 

[Lenny HB]

French weather can be very varied, last Feb we traveled down to Spain and it was 22° it was colder in Spain.
As said water can be a problem on trip in Feb and March stopped on 9 Aires on the way there & back only 2 had the water turned on. We always travel with a full tank (160 Lt) so we can last 4 or 5 day longer if we miss the odd morning shower.

Just check the weather forecast before you go and plan your route accordingly.

 

[Potty]

We went to France in early January 2010, the year of the big freeze. Travelling on the motorways was easy as all the lorries were parked up in the outside lane and were not allowed off the motorways. As has been said, lots of water was turned off but we did manage to get some St Malo and La Rochelle. Make sure you have enough gas and if you have refillable cylinders keep them topped up. We didn’t and ran out on a Saturday night. Luckily we found a garage on a dual carriageway that was open on Sunday.

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[TerryL]

We're heading out end of the month, initially to Portugal/Spain. We always use the Chunnel and drive through France. How quickly we go will depend on the weather - if it's very cold we'll drive further every day but generally we prefer to just potter, using non-toll roads and aires. Water can be a problem in the northern half of France as most aires have usually turned it off, just need to be sparing and top up whenever you get the chance. Sometimes the aires de repos, the small service areas on main roads, have water turned on. The roads are generally better than the UK, as well as being much quieter, just avoid the high bits if snow is forecast. The French and Spanish are very good at clearing main roads, although you may encounter a requirement for winter tyres or even chains in the mountainous areas.

 

[PhilandMena]

Here is your route. No problems in winter.

From Calais to southwest France & Spain without tolls - Updates

www.motorhomefun.co.uk