Driving from UK to Almeria

Hi "Colvic"

my wife and I usually overwinter in Mojacar or Vera Playa and we have primarily used two routes from the UK.

I must advise you that we consider the driving routes to be part of our holiday so we take our time....

We use Brittany Ferries and head for St Malo.  We tend to find the first nights stop around Bayonne or Bordeaux prior to crossing over the border into Spain. The route is very good and (compared to the UK) the motorways are exceptional. We also have opted for a second nights stay at/or around Zaragoza or another alternative would be Albacete.  The reason for the Albacete choice was that you avoid the Valencia traffic and are able to head straight down to Murcia and the A7 to Mojacar. There are dog friendly hotels around these areas.

Our second route was via the ferry to Bilbao. This is also a good drive (once you've escaped the Bilbao traffic) and very straight forward. This route can be done in one days driving but again we tend to stay around Albacete for one night. It is a straight route to Madrid and the by-pass around Madrid is very good and puts you onto the AP36 to Albacete. The second days travel is then relatively short via Murcia and on to Mojacar.

This year we are returning home via Bilbao and are going to see how the drive is directly to Bilbao with no stop over !

Regards Mike

Hello,

I've recently completed on the purchase of a three bed villa which is not too far removed from your requirements. I can strongly

recommend that you speak to Jo Desmond from Olive properties. They have offices in Lubrin and Bedar.

http://www.olivehouse-es.com/

Depending on when you plan to travel and how long you want to stay, I may also be interested in renting our villa to you. It's

roughly 25 minutes from Mojacar Playa.

Good luck,

Alan

We have done this journey a few times with our dog before we moved permanently to Spain. I assume your dog has a pet passport or else you won't be able to take it back to the UK if required, but this also helps getting him registered with a local vet and showing his vaccination history. Also make sure you understand the changes on pet passports possible with Brexit.

We always used Eurotunnel as very easy (the dogs stay with you and only 35 minute crossing) + there are exercise areas at each end whilst waiting for your service.

We looked at the ferry options to Bilbao / Santander but per friendly cabins are at a premium and 24 hours on the boat is not ideal with a dog. We made the drive through France and Spain part of the experience but it can be done with 2 nights stop over especially if you both drive,

Look at the 2 web links below:

https://about-france.com/tourism/no-tolls-routes.htm

https://about-spain.net/travel/no-tolls.htm

They give good routes and minimise the French tolls. The French motorways have many "Aires" that are essentially large rest areas usually with basic toilets and picnic areas but good for giving the dog (and yourselves) a break

Make sure you have the necessary kit in your car (spare bulbs, hi-viz for all occupants, warning triangles, etc)

We used Booking.com to find hotels en route as you can select pet friendly as an option. The telephone and email addresses for all hotels are given so you can contact the hotels direct to check. 

We also tried to use supermarkets in France for fuel and food as the motorway stations are expensive. Fuel in Spain is cheaper and tends to be similarly priced on the Autovias although you can save by looking for off Autovia stations.

All of the tolls on the motorways take cards but the machines are all on the passenger side so ideally have one of your passengers on that side otherwise you will need to get out to operate them.

Above assumes that current COVID restrictions are lifted as both France and Spain currently would stop such a journey.

Have a good journey.

We have done the Santander ferry and Eurotunnel.

Santander ferry - we drove to Toledo and stayed in a lovely and dog-friendly hotel called El Cigarral Del Bosque or similar.  Lovely place, great food, easy trip to see Toledo in the evening, great rooms and surprisingly cheap.

French hotels are overpriced and rubbish.  I’m sure this cannot apply to all of them and we have just been repeatedly unlucky ;-)

Toledo to Mojacar is a bit of a stretch but the last few miles go quickly with the prospect of a G&T in your own place at the end of it.

I’d talk re Eurotunnel routes but think we got that wrong when we have done it.  It involved a lot of driving.

Probably going to be difficult now for some time but ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao is cost effective especially if you don't want to do too many hours behind the wheel each day. It saves a couple of nights hotels, french tolls and a fair bit of fuel. Add back the ferry and its a reasonable deal. I've driven Bilbao to Mojacar in the day but I'm a professional driver so unless you are prepared for a 10 hour drive ( two drivers? ) an overnight stop is required. 

There are pet kennels on the ferry so you dont necessarily need a 'pet cabin' ( not that I have a pet ) but from what I understand they can be a bit chilly in winter. 

Horses for courses

We have done it several times. We use the tunnel because it is kinder for our dog althoughit adds a lot of miles. If you can get a dog-friendly cabin with Brittany Ferries from Potsmouth to bilbao it is much easier (but they are like gold dust.

In France hotels that accept dogs are plentiful, In Spain they are more limited but are available

Our chosen route:-

Day 1 Calais to Caen We use Premiere Classe or Campanile. The latter is better but slightly more expensive

Day 2 Caen to Bordeaux  Again Premiere Classe or Campanile. If that day is too long you can break it at Niort at Hotel Kyriad which is brilliant

Day 3 Bordeaux to South of Madrid at Motel San Isidr io. Very good and only450km on last day

Hope this helps

Thanks Mike, Brittany Ferry's just released their new time table this week and all the 'pet friendly cabins' are booked for all of the dates with one or two exceptions.  The on-board kennels look grim ! We will take the tunnel and drive to Mojacar I think.