Drive Santander to Almeria stop - Page 2

A lot depends on when the ferry lands and leaves  Some ferries now arrive at Santander about 08:00 which basically means you’re stopping at lunchtime which is a bit of a drag. I do agree that 3 three hour legs works quite well coming in. If you’re Sunday 14:00 sailing out of Santander then it’s a different matter. I usually stop at the Montermoso about 3 hours short of the port and it’s dog driendly

Hi, we use the booking.com app on our mobile devices and set search criteria to include only accommodation that accepts dogs. We have been making similar journeys as you are planning and we have never been disappointed. We have also used the Airbnb app with equal success. We regularly drive through France and Spain and find these apps essential. Good luck.

 Brilliant hotel very friendly just about perfect between Santander and Mojacar an about 2 mins from motorway 

I agree entirely, also got good food and you apparently get a discount at the adjacent petrol station.

Hotel Misasierra. Santo Tome del Puerto....40590. Santander side of Madrid. They also give you voucher for petrol reduction. It is  parallel right with the main road which is convenient. Phone them rather than booking.com as they will do a better deal.... 921557294. It does book up fast as lots use it for overnight stops. We and our friends have used it many many times...

We stayed there in January on our way from Santander to Mojacar.  Great hotel and just the perfect distance between the ferry and our destination.

I always need to stop en route to Cabo de Gata as my dog is a poor traveller, and I find driving solo for 9-10 hours in one day a bit much.  I have also used Mirasierra as recommended here, but it is not my first choice now.  I always like to eat a good meal with some of the food which is not so easy to get on the coast - cochinillo, cordero lechal etc.  The food I have had at Mirasierra has been acceptable in the past but rarely great.  And the last meal was a disaster - cochinillo which had clearly been shoved in the oven for far too long to reheat and was dry and inedible. So under normal circumstances I stay at the Hotel Tudanca, just off the motorway south of Aranda de Duero, or alternatively Hotel Milagros a bit further south.  Neither of these hotels has fabulous rooms for those with dogs, but they are clean, comfortable and cheap.  What’s more to the point is that the Cordero lechal is great in both of them - the restaurant in Tudanca is distinctly more upmarket than either Milagros or Mirasierra.

However I have recently discovered that an increasing number of paradores are taking dogs and am using those fora combination of beautiful rooms and good food!  If you join the Amigos de Paradores online for free you get a small discount on your room, a free drink in the bar,  and a free breakfast on your first stay, as well as various other offers. I recently stayed at the one in Manzanares for a total of115€ for dinner, bed and breakfast, including the dog, with an excellent three course meal. So you pays your money and takes your choice - perhaps depending on how obsessed you are with food!

We attempted to book a parador in the Picos and the booking process required a form to be filled in, proof of dog’s vaccinations etc and the dog was required to stay in the room and even locked in the bathroom if we went to the restaurant. It felt like they didn’t really want dogs so we didn’t book. We travel with oudog to be with our dog, not lock it in bathrooms alone. Unfortunately until Paradors relax their policies they won’t be getting our business.