# 3 Weeks tour to Spain/Portugal in April, help needed



## CaGreg (Mar 28, 2007)

Ok,
We have looked at a few options for a three week trip in April and we are settling on the idea of taking the ferry from Rosslare to Cherbourg and driving as efficiently as possible to San Sebastian in Spain and then heading around the coast to Portugal.
We realise that we might change our minds when we actually arrive in France, especially if we are lucky with settled weather, but for now this is The Plan.

We have never travelled like this on the continent, and it is very exciting (or a little bit scary)
Few questions:

What books, CD's DVD's do we need to get for camping, aires, wildcamping information? Have trawled though the posts already on here, but feel more confused than ever. We would like to think that we will use aires and wildcamping most of the time with a stay in a campsite maybe every four or five nights.

We have a Garmin nuvi 265 Sat Nav and I haven't much idea what is already loaded onto it apart from the maps which are classed as 'detailed coverage'. I am completely clueless about putting information into it, but would be willing to get help along the 'Ladybird' version of help. Pretend I'm about eight years old!!

What do we need for leccy use? I read a few posts on adaptors etc and felt more confused than ever. We want it to be basic, as the van is small and space is limited. How many adaptors are really necessary, and is polarity (whatever that is) really an issue? 

We are well used to our van, having spent nearly seventy nights so far in it, virtually all of it wildcamping so that is a good thing.

I feel like such a newbie again, but I am really looking forward to the trip.

I want nice concise information, that is specific to my needs, so I have no doubt that MHF will come up trumps for me. 
More questions will no doubt surface over the next couple of months. 
Thanks in advance

Ca


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## 108370 (Nov 20, 2007)

CaGreg said:


> Ok,
> We have looked at a few options for a three week trip in April and we are settling on the idea of taking the ferry from Rosslare to Cherbourg and driving as efficiently as possible to San Sebastian in Spain and then heading around the coast to Portugal.
> We realise that we might change our minds when we actually arrive in France, especially if we are lucky with settled weather, but for now this is The Plan.
> 
> ...


We did this last year but left from Calls and went on to Almunecar and then back through the centre ish of Spain.

Do not miss Burgos .

wonderful trip but IMO leave out the popular south Portuguese coast unless you like the touristy parts.


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## CaGreg (Mar 28, 2007)

We have no plans to do the south coast of Portugal, as we have been there on several holidays in our 'pre MHing' days.
As we live in Ireland, the choice of ferry port is limited, especially in April, and we have decided agains the trip to UK to get the Dover ferry of the chunnel.

Thanks for reply anyway.
Ca


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## Patsy (May 1, 2005)

I have just bought Vacarious books Guide to Spainish/Portugal Aires and would throughly recommend it Well laid out and well explained


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## Gilroy (Oct 4, 2007)

A random assortment of hints for you.

For camp sites in Spain you could look at Camping Cheques or Acsi - both of these offer campsites that offer low season rates. Wild camping is all very well but you will need to go into campsites now and again to do the washing empty and fill up etc etc. You get the ACSI book from Vicarious Books ( VicariousBooks.co.uk) it costs you a fiver and gives you a membership card for a year which you show to get a pitch for either 10 12 or 14 euro. Camping Cheques are bought in advance and their book is helpful. We have found that with Camping Cheques the campsites are usually of not a bad standard, with ACSI the standard is more hit and miss which is the same with the Caravan Club book. I think the website is is Campingcheque.co.uk. I agree also with Patsy that you need to get the Spain and Portugal Aires book from Vicarious Books - I have just bought it and wish I had it with us when we were doing Spain and Portugal at the end of last year. If you are spending a few days in France you had better get the French aires book too. If you get into Portugal there is also a Portuguese camp sites book that is readily available in the campsites - costs about 8 euro.

If you are planning to wild camp then consider your power options. Last year we did more wild camping than we had ever done before and we realised that running the fridge on gas really ate into our gas supplies and of course you can't get a refill for your cylinder in Spain. if you get as far as Portugal you can find places which will top up UK cylinders. As a result of our experience we have now got a solar panel and Gaslow fitted for future wildcamping.

We don't have the same satnav as you do, I suggest that you see whether it has Spain on it by asking it to plan a route. You could have only UK maps in which case you have to buy a new card to insert into your sat nav. Check on the web to see what is available, we changed our UK only to UK and europe a few years ago and not looked back.

In France the toll roads start costing quite a bit, in Spain they seem cheaper, I think we only get charged car rate and they can be a good way to get from A to B. 

You are lucky in that you are in the euro zone so don't have to worry about overseas transaction charges but one thing that we do and find useful is to get a Visa Electron card and load it up before we leave and we used that to pay for petrol. It was readily accepted everywhere we went ( in France Spain & portugal). I have heard that in French garages they sometimes don't like to take British cards - don't know about Irish ones and so the Electron card took that concern away too.

You will have a great time - enjoy.

Gilroy


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## julie798 (Jun 13, 2007)

*france*

Travelling through France last year, on a Sunday, i needed diesel, the stations machines only took cards, and wouldn't accept my visa debit from nationwide, luckily a french chap, used is card and let me give him the euros, amazing what you can say without words


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## CaGreg (Mar 28, 2007)

Bump!

I need more info so keep it coming, and thanks for the info so far, have some information coming together now, and am beginning to feel a bit better about it.

Ca


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## LPDrifter (Aug 17, 2005)

CaGreg said:


> Ok,
> We have looked at a few options for a three week trip in April and we are settling on the idea of taking the ferry from Rosslare to Cherbourg and driving as efficiently as possible to San Sebastian in Spain and then heading around the coast to Portugal.
> We realise that we might change our minds when we actually arrive in France, especially if we are lucky with settled weather, but for now this is The Plan.
> 
> ...


Hi Ca

Best wishes with the trip.

Books that you will find useful are this one:

http://www.outdoorbits.com/2008-guide-officiel-aires-services-camping-p-780.html

The one listed on in the link is the 2008 version. Obiously it would be better to get the 2009 version. Perhaps 2009 is not out yet. This book lists all the Aires which are free or I believe some might have a nominal charge for services.

Another book that might be helpful is this one:

https://webshop.acsi.eu/product_detail.html?&PHPSESSID=cc09825b8cace252dd357e26b7c14f3a&prod_id=259

When you buy this book you get the ACSI card which can save you money on camp sites where the ACSI card is accepted. The ACSI card is included in the book.

If you read some of the travel guides such as Lonely Planet or Rough Guide etc before you leave you will have some idea on what to look for in the cities or area you plan on visiting. Reading up before you leave will save you time in searching out Local Tourist Offices and reading the guides that you get whilst you are there.

You will have no problem at all getting good Aires in France. I suggest you use the Aires a little way off the motorways because of the bad reports of burglaries etc on motorway Aires. We also wild camped in France - Lidl carparks and other supermarket carparks. But the Aires are great - not just for staying at but for filling up with fresh water and getting rid of waste water or chemical toilet waste.

I can't really help you too much on Spain around the San Sebastian or area around the North West of Spain. Although we were in Spain last year for three months we spent the time on Mediterranean coast, the South of Spain and Portugal and on our way home did not leave enough time to do anything other than drive through the northern part Spain.

While we were in Spain we stayed in campsites.

The area you are going to SW of France NW of Spain - close to the Pyrenees Mountains, just be aware that the weather can be mixed ( I mean rain) ... especially in April.

Trying to make it down as far as Portugal (in 3 weeks) might be a push, unless you love driving. Me? I try to get a good balance between spending quality / relaxing time in a smaller number of places as opposed to driving massive distances.

Having said all that I'd love to be heading down there again. I have always loved the west coast of France and over the years we have had great holidays there including pre-motorhome camping days.

Let me know if you need any other specifics

Enjoy 

Joe


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