Bed & breakfast suggestions - Calais to Orihuela (Alicante) route

Driving from Merseyside in April and want to stop only once.

Aiming to leave Merseyside early hours and catch ferry to arrive in Calais about 10am. want to drive no more than 8 hours and stop for b&b, nice meal and pleasant surroundings.

Any recommendations?

It all depends on your route. There are a good number of motel type places in France just off both the Motorways and Main routes. They vary in price according to quality, starting from around 35€ per night for a basic room. They all have clean comfortable beds and breakfasts are adequate in the form of continental style buffet - eat as much as you like

You can not drive for only 8 hours and do it in 1 stop unless you have jetcar I have travelled this route all ways and from Durham the best time I have done was 32 hours to Almoradi that was with a trailer on the back of a Peugoet 806 and I slept fpr 10 hours after Ihave travelled the various route for the last 27 years until 2007 now I live here.

 I agree there is no way you are going to do it driving 8 hours a day with only one stop. We went at the end of August and avoided all motorway tolls: My journey details were as follows:

29 August 2010 Arrived in France via Eurotunnel left train at 08.10 arrived south of Bordeaux at 19.00 hours having driven 582 miles.

30 August 2010 left Bordeaux at 06.45 and arrived Playa Flamenca at 19.15 having driven 676 miles. On the second day we went over the Pyrenees.

Both days we stopped for 3 x 30 minute breaks. Our avarage speed for the time we spent driving was around 61 mph. However, there were considerable amounts of time spent going at 90 to 100 mph. Between Calais and Playa Flamenca we were only passed twice. I think if you go on the pay motorways you might be able to improve your average speed although it is further and will cost you a lot in tolls, from what I could discover.

We stayed at the Premiere Classe Hotel. Room only cost was 45 Euros, we did not have breakfast there.

You may be better off catching a boat to Santander or Bilbao and driving from there. We are trying that in March.

Thanks for the replys, sorry may have been misunderstood aim to drive around 8 hours after we leave Calais, will be 2 of us taking turns at driving. Will be going Calais - Lyon- Valencia - Alicante - Orihuela on toll roads. looked at ferry cost was prohibitive

Did it this year with on my own so just me driving, left Merseyside midnight travelled to Dover - Calais on ferry. Left Calais 10.30am drove down in direction described above and got to Orihuela at 6pm next day after sleeping in car over night at truck stop. 42 hrs altogether. (on toll roads)

This time will be two of us driving, looking for a good place to stop (recommended) which is around 8-10 hours drive from Calais. Will then drive through to Orihuela next day.

Have you really looked at the Plymouth to Santander option with Britanny Ferries It will work out cheaper than drive through France the tolls will very expensive

The ferry cost in April with car and 2 passengers is around £250  one way or 448 return with seats both ways

I have used this service a few times and it is much better than driving through France and cheaper

looked at Plymouth - Santander there are four of us (two driving) cost is £612 if there were only the two of us it would still be £496 and still have to drive from Satander to Orihuela. (more tolls)

Reckon ferry fare, tolls and deisel this year cost me around £450 return so stick with that.

Hi I totally agree that it is cheaper via calais. We left London and 22 hours later we were in Jacarilla CB. There were 2 of us driving and with £50 return ferry crossing plus diesel and tolls it was under £400 return for 5 of us and we didn't have to hire a car. Sorry I can't help about where to stop as we are looking for the same recommendations. We are thinking of going via Reims or the opposite side of Paris via Rouen.  Has anyone tried either of those routes? If yes, do you know any good places to stay. Last time we did the ring road around paris, it was ok going but coming back it took just over 4hours and then we had to make an extra stop, so we missed 2 ferries. I was a bit nervous about doing the journey but now I can't wait till next summer. I hate having to fly for my shorter trips over.

Also to anyone reading this that is thinking of driving over to Spain, I have been given a trip website   www.bing.com/maps it is much easier to use than viamichelin that was recommended to me last year. You can manually manipulate the map to change your route  

Thanks for that, am I looking for overnight accomodation either in Montpellier or Perpignan. about 8/10 hours drive from Calais should be achievable with two driving.

Looking for nice guest housr or B&B, looked at ETAP hotels but want something different.