Drivivng to Costa Del Sol with dog!

Hi All

I am trying to plan a route from Ireland to Spain and I would really appreciate any suggestions or help. Roughly how long will it take and which route would be best bearing in mind the dog!. I have everthing in place for the dog to travel but I also need to factor in stops and ferries. Is it better to drive through France? I'd love to hear from anyone who has driven the route. Thanks

Siobhan

Hi,

When we moved from North Devon to the Costa Del Sol, we caught a ferry from Plymouth to Santander.

I know the ferries go from Cork to Roscoff, but then it's still a very long drive from there down through France and then across Spain.

Might be worth thinking about a ferry from Cork to Swansea, as they have pet kennels aboard the Julia, and then drive down to Plymouth (less than 4 hours) and catch a ferry to Santander.

The crossing from Santander was a 24hr crossing when we came out in November 2008, and our dog Tyler (who has since passed away) came with us. He had his own kennel and we were allowed to visit him and exercise him on the small exercise deck at regular intervals, and if you go on the Pont-Aven then you have a pass card that lets you visit and exercise your dog whenever you want during the crossing.

We then drove from Santander to Manilva, we had an overnight stop at a pet friendly hotel on the outskirts of Madrid in a place called Alcorcon. If memory serves me right, I believe it was called ti Hotel Ibis Alcorcon.

It took 6 hours to get to the hotel, as we took our time and stopped many times for Tyler to stretch his legs, and about the same from the hotel to Manilva, again stopping many times for Tyler to stretch his legs. This equated to total of less than 10 hours actual driving.

Hope this helps.

If you are concerned about you dog then I'm afraid you have look at short ferry crossing and long drives.

I know some have complained (there are some old threads on this topoc) about the kennels on the long ferry boats.

 When I came down with our dog in October, I used the Brittany Ferries ship "Cap Finistere" from Portsmouth to Santander.  This ship had 4 dog friendly cabins, but now after a winter re-fit, it has 14 dog friendly cabins.  These cabins are normal outside 4 berth cabins with wood laminate flooring instead of carpets and they do get booked very quickly.

The sailing schedule for the "Cap Finistere" is:

Portsmouth to Santander.       Leaves  Weds 12.00   Arrives Thurs 13.00

Portsmouth to Bilbao               Leaves  Fri  17.00        Arrives Sat 18.00

Portsmouth to Bilbao               Leaves Sun  22.00       Arrives  Tues 07.30 (2 nights on board)

On previous trips, I have gone via Burgos, Madrid, Granada, Malaga and on to Sabinillas, but this time, I went via Palencia, Valladolid, Salamanca, Seville and Jerez.  It is a superb new motorway for much of the journey and appears to be a quicker way of getting to the western end of the CDS.    The scenery is also better than the vast plain in the centre of Spain.

As my dog was unsettled by being on a ferry for 24 hours, we had gentle run through Spain with an overnight stop in the Ibis hotel in Salamanca, which is dog friendly and opposite a nice park.  During the journey, she would not touch her dog food, but developed a taste for service station sandwiches and empenadas.  She has settled well down here and is enjoying sharing our tapas!!

Jon

Thank you to everyone who replied to this thread, it has made me feel easier about taking the dog with me. I will try to get everything booked in the next few weeks and I will post about journey. Thanks again.

Siobhan