Driving down to El Faro Mijas first time.

Hello everyone, we are hoping to do some reading about making our first trip down to Spain..All help would be greatful. It looks like being in 2012 now still off work with a prolasped disc L5S1 8 months now. So this years trip is off. All help accepted regarding our first venture down to El Faro in Mijas Costa. Cheapest and best way to travell, where to stay, toll roads? would it be better to go down the tolls? i think you get the drift of what we are trying to find out..I think my wife posted this in the wrong section.

Hello

El faro is about 5 minutes drive from us if you visit www.ournextholiday.co.uk this will help as it provides information on the surrounding area also visit www.riviersdelsol.co.uk and www.malagaweb.com

Hope this helps

Regards Rod

Hello Rod,Jayne here....Tthank you for the reply. We do know the area a little bit and to be honest we go for the chill out..And now we will have to take things even more steady after my husbands injury..We are looking for information to drive down.The best route...Cheapeast route..Avoid Tolls if we have too..If its the only way and we have to take the Tolls...Then so be it..It was my husbands dream to try the drive...some people say its fine..Some say its a nightmare?

We have looked at taking the ferry to Santander....Thats out of the question...farfar too expensive....so it looks like we will take the long drive through France and then into Spain...We would love to hear from other people who have made the trip...

Jayne...

Hi Jayne,

We have done the trip 8 times to Calahonda in Mijas. Both using toll roads and not using them. It takes a lot longer in France if you don't use toll roads. They can make a difference of 3+ hours a day. I use a sat nav and they are brilliant. Its about 2127km from Eurotunnel in Fretun to where we stay. We do it in 4 hops. The 1st one from home to the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkstone and then from Fretun to our 1st hotel (about 350km from Fretun) and 3 of 600km. 

We stay overnight in hotels that cost about 55 to 70 euros a night. (We book via Booking.com).

The eurotunnel costs between £53 and £77 depending on time of departure.

Tolls vary on time of year but on average are about 80 euros each way.

I have a diesel focus and average about 5.5Lt per 100km (according to the onboard computer).Cost about 150 euros.

With food and other bits and pieces the total cost is about £900 return.

Hope it all works out for you.

Jack

 Hi,,,,,,

I did not think it would run into that expence.Well thank you for that

If youve got time on your hands and want to pay 3 to 4 times as much then drive ,personally 6 hours door to door with monarch airways and 200 pounds is my choice ,unless you go for 3 months then a hire car would equal my method in costs we pay 97 euros a week for a new ford focus

Every 4kms a pound in cost why would anyone drive I really dont know.

Regards Rod

ps I will do it one day wen I retire and stay from october to late march and it will perhaps work out financially better as I wont have to heat my UK home at the very high costs we pay and take my own car.

 If you go to the VIa Michelin site, you can enter your departure and arrival points and it will give you a breakdown of the costs including tolls and estimated petrol.  I found it quite accurate.  If you open the more option box on the left, you can tick things like "avoid tolls" or " avoid motorways" etc.  It also gives an estimated time of travel but this would be if you drove without a break.  (ignore the pop up adverts for tyres as they disappear after a short while).

Calais to Mijas comes up as 180.61 pounds which is 49.12 pounds for tolls and 131.49 for petrol with a trip time of 20 hours.

Also enter the date of travel under the advanced options as the toll charges vary by season.

We did the Bilbao to Costa Blanca and the prices and driving times quoted were very accurate (except we forgot to change the date of travel and the toll costs were 18.05 euros instead of the 12.60 euros quoted - different season).

 We do santander to mijas takes 2 days. get on motorway pointing to madrid just outside santander them motorway all the way to el faro, no toll roads and half the distance.just superb free empty well sign posted  motorway all the way coffee shops petrol statons every 10 km or so. spend one night in the golf hotel toledo 5 star 30 eu .

we find much less petrol than via france and no tolls and 2days quicker than france,

oh and suggst google maps for route

buena suerte

@Rod....Thanks for your input Rod..But the driving part will become part of the holliday too...This is the whole idea of driving down...

Regards Jayne...

If you're down at El Faro in Mijas Costa you may want to visit the thread about the new boardwalk which takes you from La Cala de Mijas almost to Marbella. La Cala is just a short drive from the El Faro urbanisation.

Also don't forget to visit Mijas Pueblo during your stay on the Costa del Sol, as it is one of the nicest little white Andalusian village nearby.

They're probably back home by now.