Driving to spain - Page 3

I'll private message you later on, Terry.

Back to the original question. 

I did fairly involved calculation earlier this year comparing the cost of of driving from the Midlands to Portsmouth, ferry to Santander and driving to Palomares with the alternative route of taking the tunnel and driving through France. 

My calculations included fuel, overnight stops, tolls and various sundries and believe it or not there was only £40 in it. 

Hi Robin.may seem a bit cheeky but did you do a route map from the midlands to santander and then the drive down through spain.i am hoping to get to Tabernas asap once this madness is over.best regards.bob

I usually rely on my satnav but when calculating the costs, I used the viamichelin website. They give route options, fuel costs, tolls etc. 

Hello.  Well getting to Portsmouth is easy. 
once I came off the ferry (Santander or Bilbao).  I just set my iPhone on to WAZE and put in NO toll roads that is is. OR you can use Tom Tom just the same. I stopped once

about Madrid. Used 1Tank and half of petrol

on my Ranger Rover   I am now back in England and have sold car and bought 308cc Diesel     Mr Lowe

With all of the costs etc that you have/will be paying out for, I'm surprised that you are asking what the costs are to drive to Spain via ferry/Spain/Tunnel etc..? The costs will be different for every single person making that trip because there are soooo many factors that are variable's to calculate. Suggest that you make the decision in your own mind - Ferry to Santander/Bilbao (they are usually booked up pretty much 1 year in advance for out of season travelling) then drive down through Spain. Or Ferry/Tunnel (Channel Tunnel can be 4 times more expensive than Dover-Calais for example) and then a 30 hour plus drive through France & Spain; I've done that drive 4 times in the past 18 months and it's an adventure. Just do what you feel is right for you.................

If you do as much of the legwork as you can then it will be cheaper... I have had RHD cars here no problem. If you manage to get it done within one month of getting residencia it will count as a personal import, which will save you some of the taxes. But check on the V5 that has a European type approval number as otherwise it could prove impossible to do, as I found out to my cost re my beloved Toyota, which was a grey import. When driving I normally use one of the French ports and set the sat nav to "no tolls", which takes you on some French motorways but also through some lovely French towns and villages, helps prevent the boredom, saves hundreds on tolls and takes up to 4 hours longer. Quite a lot of the motorways you use in Spain are toll free so it is mostly motorway in Spain, I nearly always use the Sompfort tunnel under the pyranees to cross the border into Spain, although we went over the top of the mountains one summer- the scenery was spectacular, even better in an open top.

Hi, we went through the tunnel last year and drove through France. The tolls are more expensive than in Spain , but we worked out we spent £80 in total on tolls, which was better than what we thought. You will have to stop a couple of times but can get cheap B&B, with fuel, tolls Tunnel and couple of hotels I think it cost us £400. We are going to Santander this time which wD £265 then we will have fuel on top! Hope this gives you an idea! 

Thanks to all for some very useful comments.regards.

Hi, we move to Arboleas on 27th September and are looking to bring our english car with us... we are looking to know how we insure our car with a spanish car insurance company.  We speak some spanish but not enough to set this up, on that note, an english speaking company if possible would be great.

Thank you