UK to Roda by Car

Hi:

Has anyone done the road trip from the UK to Roda? If so, can you let me know what it was like and associated costs (tolls etc) and best route. I want to come over with the car and a load of stuff for the apartment in April.

Thanks

I took the Plymouth - Santander ferry ( overnighter) and then 9 hours drive from Santander to Roda.

If I was to do it again then I would think about an overnight stop in Madrid which breaks the route up nicely especially if you have passengers

There were no tolls , great scenery , and dual carriage or motorway all the way 

Whatman

We did the journey via Eurotunnel 2 years ago and plan to do it again this April.

from SE UK it is approx 1200 miles, shortest route, which is probably around Paris to Clermont Ferrand  and down towards Perpignan crossing the fabulous Millau Bridge over the Tarn then down the A7 all away down the coast and costs will depend on

Diesel or petrol car

How many stopovers do you want, possible to do one but not recommended

Do you want to avoid tolls and use slower more picturesque routes

A good starting point is www.viamichelin.com or Bing maps you can choose your own journey

Make sure you have good printed maps as well as Europe cover Tom Tom, European breakdown cover and study EU driving rules and regs, avoid valuables on show and stay alert, scammers love targetting UK reg cars

Personally we will take a week or so, turn right at Calais towards Rouen past Le Mans and down to Bordeaux crossing the Pyrenees somewhere and heading perhaps via Pamplona and Rioja country skirting Madrid but stopping in Cuenca before hitting Murcia then down to the coast . We will try and visit some more interesting places and stay with friends in France but it is very much a personal choice.

Let me know if you need more details such as good stopover towns depending on your likes.

Do you want to do it quickly, or do you want to make a fun trip

We're intending driving down in June so this is really useful information for us too.  I seem to remember Hugh_man had already driven down and he had a bit of a scare with scammers, so it's probably a useful reminder to be aware of this.

We're getting the tunnel and driving down from Calais, John wants to drive across the Millau Bridge but unfortunately I will probably have my eyes closed!   Other than that I'm really looking forward to the journey through France and Spain and we intend to make it part of our holiday with at least 2 stopovers.

Thanks for the info and website tip.

We've done it both ways - Long drive through France when we came to live here. Plus Short drive down Spain when we returned to the UK for a long holiday 2 years ago and were heading to Cornwall for our first stop.

Channel Crossing - French Route
Coming from Kent, so long as you get an early morning ferry the drive through France/Spain is doable in 2 long days drive, but very tiring. 3 days would be much better but still requires 3 * 8 hour days including lunch and driver stops. We stopped 3 times and even with 2 drivers it was still quite tiring - but we were coming from the nether regions of the North!

Tolls - we avoided most of the French motorways but just hit the AP7 once we got into Spain for our last day. Cost around €100.
Ferry Cost - you can pick these up really cheap, chunnel is always expensive.
Fuel costs in Spain - from our local cheap garage, Diesel is €1.26 a litre and Petrol at least 10 cents more.
You can do without SatNav - we did it with just good Michelin Maps.
If you want to make this a holiday though, as hugh_man has said it can be a beautiful journey. Milau Bridge is amazing and well worth a visit, you'll cross it anyway if you use the motorway route through Clermont Ferand. Stop at the services just before the bridge and walk (a mere 2 minutes) to the observation point for a stunning view.

Bay Of Biscay Crossing - Spanish Route
Costs of ferry can be very expensive (currently about £700 for April). Crossing is 1 night on board in one direction and 2 nights in the other (if I remember correctly is is 2 nights on the Southern route).
Meals and drinks on board ferry are NOT cheap - well certainly not to retired old foggies like us who are used to Spanish prices.
Biscay - we had 2 loveley crossing so very enjoyable and managed to spot lots of whales and dolphins. Our friends coming to visit us last year had 2 stormy crossing and were ill the whole time on board - no expenditure on food though!

Drive to Roda - We did it in 10 hours taking breaks every 2 hours to swap drivers and walk around. No tolls though.
My advice would be don't stop in Madrid - it is horrendously expensive if you stay in the centre and almost certainly nowhere to park your car at the hotel. If you need to stop, find a nice small town and book into a 3* hotel for about €50. Our friends stopped in Toledo which they said was fantastic, and then only 3 - 4 hours on the last day to Roda.

Conclusion
From Kent - I have to say I would use the French route and spend 3 or 4 days getting here.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this posting. Very helpful.

Best regards