# Spain for the winter



## christine1310

Hi All,
We have just bought our first motor home, and are planning a trip to Southern Spain for 6 weeks, lasting from late February to Easter 2009. We would welcome any advice on good campsites in that region. We have more or less decided to get the boat from Portsmouth to Bilbao (as opposed to driving through France?) and then to drive south through Spain to the coastal area south of Granada. Any advice most welcome especially on good campsites.
Happy New year,
Chris


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## locovan

Welcome the experts will be along but I think they are all at the sales today :lol: 
They have helped me so much to plan my first trip to spain :lol: 
I hope you have a great holiday you will love Motorhoming thats for sure.
Mavis :lol:


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## petepub

We intend to do a similar trip around the same time. We also have just bought our first motor home. we pick it up in January. 
We cannot decided wether to go through France or the boat to Bilboa? It can be a pretty rough crossing at that time of year my wife thinks she would rarther go through France. 
Hope you have a good jurney good luck.


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## 101405

I would recomend you buy the Alan Rodgers guide for Spain and have a look for sites from say Motril - to- Tarifa , thats east and west of Malaga.
lots will still have winter sun seekers , bring warm coats as it does tend to get a bit chilly when the sun goes down, we are well into spring in Febero and its normally a good month, some do wild camp,we dont! prices wont be cheap unless you stay for more than a few weeks at one site.some good sites along the Tarifa coast and good walks ,(park natural)and fab beaches, we often have a week down that way. you can check out the weather for malaga area by logging onto www.malagaweather.com. our local estacion de tiempo.


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## Zebedee

Don't know much about Spain, but we were disappointed with the Alan Rogers book for France. The descriptions of some sites were not very accurate, and on several occasions it listed only a couple of sites when there were several more in the vicinity.

We were led to believe this is because site owners have to pay to be in the book, and many of them don't want to.

For these reasons we would be more inclined to recommend the Caravan Club books (two thick volumes) which we have found to be more comprehensive and very accurate.

No charge for sites to be included, and most of the reports sent in by people who had stayed on the site, so no bias in the descriptions. Most reports very recent as well.

Just a further suggestion - it's all according to taste!


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## bobandjane

Hi, make sure you get this:

http://www.campingcard.co.uk/gb/en/privacy-policy/uc33-l2-n635/

Its expensive in Spain without one. :lol: unless you stay on the same site for a month or more. 8O Bob.


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## sideways

You will have to balance the cost against the need or desire to move on, most sites will give you at 50% reduction from day 1 if you stay 30 days, you will get a smaller reduction for fourteen days, with the exchange rate the way it is it can be the difference between paying £23 a day or £13 a day. Over a forty two day period that will be quite a bit of money.Also most sites will allow you 4 units of electric a day included if you are a long stayer, this is enough to run your fridge ,battery charger and a bit of telly but not enough for a heater and its considerably cheaper to use gas for heating, it will still be chilly after sundown. Either try and take extra gas or alternatively depending on your regulator setup buy an empty gas bottle at most markets and exchange anywhere.


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## LPDrifter

We did that last year although we did not leave until 2 March and stayed until mid June.

We drove from Cherbourg (starting from Ireland we don't have an option of sailing directly to Spain)

Main points that I can remember are

1) Driving through France during Feb / March - you will find very few campsites open. So you need the a book telling you where the Aire's are.

2) Also during that time be wary of the weather. We experienced high winds which necessitated us stopping for two nights close to Perpignan. Later we met others who went the Zaragoza route, who experienced quite bad snow. I think the message here is to try and keep eye on the weather forecast in the region you are travelling and make sensible decisions if you come on bad weather.

3) We had a great time and camp sites in Spain are quite good

We stayed in the following:

Villanova Park - south of Barcelona - very good
Navijas - north of Valencia - very good
La Manga - very good, suitable for longer stay
Bolneuvo Playa - Puerto De Mazarron - very good quiet
Sierra Nevada - virtually in centre of Granada
Cabopino - Marbella
Camping Tarifa - South of Tarifa (great location but poor pitches surrounded with awkward kerb stones)
Camping La Casita - SAn Roque (not a great site but convenient for a visit to Gibralter withhout taking your Mothorhome into Gibralter)
Camping El Sur - Ronda - very good
Camping Villsom - outside Seville - good for visit to Seville
Camping Giralda - Isla Christina - very good
Turiscampo - Portugal very good

We used Camping Cheques for some sites and The ASCI Camping Card for other sites. Any time we used one of these, we saved money. They are especially useful if you are doing short stays. If you book a longer stay you may get the discount without Camping Cheque or ASCI Camping card.

4) That whole area is popular at that time of year with Northern Europeans overwintering down south, so it might be advisable to book.

5) If you stay in campsites for extended periods you can get very good deals. They will usually quote you for 7 nights or more, 14 nights or more 28 nights or more.... you can price down to less than €10 per night.

6) If you are confident enough or if you were travelling in tandem with one or two other couples, there are lots of places for wild camping. We used camp sites exclusively while in Spain. We used Aires sometimes in France

You need a couple of campsite guides and the list of Aires.


7) It is winter so although the weather is better than Irl or Uk it does rain and it can be cold.

8 ) Shopping is not a problem there. Only thing to make sure you have are specific things like prescription medication. 

Other than that the usual advice. Be as prepared as you can.

There are various checklists on this site that you should download and
print out.

Lastly - have fun


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## cater_racer

I'm with Zebedee on the Alan Rogers book, I bought it last year for our trip to Spain, and found it useless. I was in Grenada and looking for a campsite, the book recommend one on the beach!!!!

Luckily I sold the book on Amazon, so wasn't too far out of pocket.

We did Portsmouth Bilboa, on the way out, and drove back through France, which was good compromise.


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## chalky9

silversurfa said:


> I would recomend you buy the Alan Rogers guide for Spain and have a look for sites from say Motril - to- Tarifa , thats east and west of Malaga.


Alan Rogers Spain guide doesn't have that many campsites for the money it costs. I would suggest that you visit their website - www.alanrogers.com - which has many, if not all, of the recommended sites on it.

I agree with Zebedee about the Caravan Club guide - more sites, independent recommendations and easy identification of those open all year round.


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## Ryedalelady

The only guidebook you'll need to campsites in Spain is the fully comprehensive official "Guia Camping" published by the Spanish equivalent of their Caravan Club. Don't worry about it being in Spanish, there are very easy to follow symbols for each entry. We have found some real gems by using it.

But the best advice I can give, after extensive touring of Spain in most winters since '96, is to talk to everyone you possibly can and swap notes making sure that any recommendations you do decide to follow up are up to date as things can and do change from year to year. 

I hope you enjoy yourself as much as we have.


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## peedee

I have tried the long trip across the bay and also driven from Calais and although I do not mind rough seas I would drive from Calais every time. If you have the time, the trip down through France is cheaper and far more enjoyable. I find the long sea trip boring and in addition to the fare don't forget you have to pay for meals and bar consumption. This can add another £100 to the bill.

peedee


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## christine1310

Thank you everyone for your responses. We have now decided to boat from Portsmouth to Bilbao and drive back through France. I have ordered an ASCI camping book too, but I do agree about the Alan Roger's guides. We one for France years ago which pointed you in the direction of the all singing all dancing campsites. We preferred the smaller municiple sites in France. Thanks again.


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