# Spain without the pain??



## aldershot1 (May 21, 2006)

Hi All, following our retirement later this year we intend to make our first trip to Spain and although have travelled around the SW coast of France have never embarked on a journey so long in distance or time away.

As this is our first time we intend to take 4/6 weeks to do the trip starting in January 2011 and taking advantage of a couple of the CCC rallies that are operated at this time of year. 

Although the trips some time in the future we would like to make some initial planning decisions. To help us we would very much welcome fellow members comments regarding the following questions:

1. Travelling via The Tunnel which is the best route to take and would you travel on toll roads or not?

2. Also how long would you allow for the journey and do you have any recommended sites/aires for the overnight stops?

3. We guess many of you have experienced the CCC Spanish rallies and would welcome any recommendations/comments you might have. Particularly interested in whether it is better to take 2/3 rallies for a couple of weeks each or target just the one for the duration of then visit.

4. Finally, any tips you might have for a visit of this nature eg things to take, to be aware of etc.

We hope there is someone out there that can help us begin planning our journey

JJL


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## MikeCo (Jan 26, 2008)

A lot of questions but heres my offering.

If you intend to head for one of the rallies at Benidorm or La Manga then it's around 1200 mile from Calais, we took 4 days going down in early February and 5 days coming back in April.
We took the Western route through France staying near Le Man then Bordeaux and into Northern Spain. If you look at the Camping Clubs Winter Holiday Book you will see which sites are open.
As it will be your first time I would book 2 or 3 rallies for a couple of weeks each and with all the travelling I would try to stay at least 6 weeks altogether and more if you can.
Note that France is very cold in Winter and you may wish to consider the longer ferry to Santander.
Going down we used quite a few Toll Roads but it can be expensive.

Hope this helps a bit

Mike


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## anitainjune (Apr 21, 2009)

*spain without the pain?*

Hi, We did this this year and billed it as our adventure. It turned out to be one too, but thats a long story. We thoroughly enjoyed Spain and made our way to a CC rally at Cabopina near Marbella. If you want to explore you need more time probably. We used the Alan Rodgers Spain for sites enroute and found it very accurate with no problems but use Acsi card as it saves such a lot. We travelled via Madrid on the way down but came back via Route 66 and highly recommend this. Never been to Spain before and we fell in love, its the most spectacular country.I hope you enjoy it as much.
Cheers Anita
PS we're off again this year, such a lot we missed.


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## gofer (Feb 8, 2010)

*spain without the pain*

Hi when we go down to spain that time of year we use a mixture of toll roads and a roads.It takes us about 4 days to go through France,WE have used various routes but this is the one we prefer in January Calais-Rouen A28 -Evereux-CHartres-N154to Orleans Vierzon-A20 E9 to Toulouse A61E80 Narbone A9E15 over border into spain WE have never stopped on any CCC rallys but i have been told many times they are very good.Hope this helps.


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## aldershot1 (May 21, 2006)

Hey Guys I am so impressed with the speed of your responses. Thanks very much for the advice offered we will most certainly use it to start our 'dossier' of useful information.

Again many thanks
A1


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Just take your time and enjoy, France and Spain are excellent, make a little effort in the languages and the people will be very nice, don't try and the reception may be mixed. We avoid big towns, cities and very touristy areas but use toll roads when we want to cover a lot of distance in one day, which is rare for us. 

This time we came from France to Spain via the Somport Tunnel and ambled our way down to Murcia, last year we went to the Cadiz and Huelva and on into Portugal, it was all great. 

I am not going to recommend places to stay because that will depend on your preferences, but they are plentiful. Enjoy, Alan.


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## H1-GBV (Feb 28, 2006)

We were going to do the same in Jan 2009 - we had similar concerns too.

In the end I got a job in Marbella so we took the car and lived in apartments, but looked in at Cabopina - *we* would have hated it.
Very close to main road; steepish (but short) walk from beach to site - surrounded by 2m high "wind break" meshing, seemed units were close together (but everywhere on the Costa del Sol was like that). Convenient for cheap bus to Marbella (then coach to Gibralter) or Fuengirola (then cheap train to Malaga), so lots of opportunities for sight-seeing without using the van. I don't think we would have appreciated being there for 2 weeks IF we'd booked and paid for it in advance, which had been part of our original plan. That strip of coast is very highly developed, with lots of English pubs, shops,etc (including a very nice Indian resteraunt right by the camp). It is also narrow, with mountains, easily crossed into a more Spanish "campo".

However, there were lots of wild camping spots, with a few vans on them, very close to beaches all along the coast. There were also a few other sites which seemed to have vacancies - we now would go "on spec" and risk finding what we liked, as we wanted it. Some sites (eg Camping Fuengirola) were unbelievably awful, in our opinion.

We explored towards Portugal in early/mid February and found several nice sites, including one on the edge of Donana National Park at El Rocio (a village well worth visiting) - we talked to a couple there and they highly recommended it. The west of Andalucia was much less developed and therefore more to our liking. The Algarve had lots of lovely places too, and lots of motorhomers enjoying warm sunshine.

IF you are the independent sort, I'd risk finding what comes; IF you are unsure, book rallies for a few days with gaps in between - it'll work out more expensive but I think you'll get more out of it; IF you like things sorted (and "English") book rallies and enjoy the weather (hopefully).

Gordon


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

Gordon is spot on, I have rarely heard it better put:

"IF you are the independent sort, I'd risk finding what comes; IF you are unsure, book rallies for a few days with gaps in between - it'll work out more expensive but I think you'll get more out of it; IF you like things sorted (and "English") book rallies and enjoy the weather (hopefully)".

Tell us which category you are in and we can be more specific, Alan.


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