Driving from the uk

From the perspective of a single male,  it’s a lovely drive.  I chose to use the motorways and autovia. Thankfully the hotels are all open now, and most are family friendly and close to the main roads, and unlike the uk, the motorway service stations are very hospitable and pleasant to eat at and have a break without a 2hr limit!  Again full of families so a single female will not look out of place!  Safe journey! 

Thank you for your help! 🙂

Hello.  My opinion is to travel safe. Travel on the Brittany Ferries to Santander just drive down on motorway and spilt the travel over 2 days.  Stay overnight.  It is about

600miles.   Mr Lowe

Thank you Mr Lowe 

Good advice so far.  We have done many journeys to the south of Spain from the ports in the north of France and also from Santander and Bilbao.  As already mentioned above it's a super drive, much easier using the autoroutes, but nowadays much busier in France than in Spain. Investigate renting a tag to save stopping or queueing at tolls.  Whether it is worth the cost probably depends on your own circumstances and how you feel about it.  The website is www.emovis-tag.co.uk.  Certainly not worth it just for Spain!  Some years ago we were hijacked having stopped for fuel which is when the naughty people look out for you.  From press reports last year and before the pandemic, they are still about so if you have to stop en route try to keep the car in view.  Without being too alarmist if you do have to leave the car, say for a toilet break, on returning to it just walk around it to check the tyres.  As you are already security conscious, much of it is common sense, and you don't need to be reminded of the obvious things.  Markyb is right, the hotels are good and very hospitable.  Last year, all those we stayed in were really helpful, if necessary printing the documents for us for the ferry and customs.  We have similar Brittany Ferries reservations for this year to Santander and Bilbao, driving to Mojacar like Lowie1960 with one overnight stop.  Good luck.

That's really informative, thank you so much 🙂

Serena, I don’t know of your experience of driving in France or Spain but if it helps I add the following comment from my four journeys in each of the last 26 years. You are intending to travel in July.  If possible try to schedule your journey to avoid going round Madrid on a Friday afternoon/evening. Spanish holidays.  The weekend traffic is horrendous.  They introduce contraflow on the autovia to cope with the volumes, three lanes one way and one lane the other way.  Crawling traffic for miles both ways!  It can add anything up to two to three hours to what would be a normal journey time.

Thank you.  I have experience of driving through France but have never done Spain before. I would be travelling during the weekdays not weekend, however yes around Madrid is where my concerns were mainly. Thanks again

I think you will find driving in Spain easier. Except for Madrid, and perhaps San Sebastian, the autovia is not as busy as the autoroute in France.