I'm currently looking at different options for travelling through France, and I'm just wondering if anyone has used the Telepeage system for the tolls in France or the Via-T system in spain, and would like to hear of any comments or situations regarding the system.

Many Thanks

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Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Hi Rosemary thank you for the warm welcome certainly nothing like a free beer!

I do not know much about the the two systems you mention but how about the site
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/

Thank you for your response Jonboy

when we travel to UK or back, have to say we stay off the toll roads, find them quite fast.

I ordered the telepeage box over the internet from SANEF, it arrived within 3 days and was a godsend on the autoroutes in summer. You pay a slighly lower fee per tollbooth and when we had ours, you only paid to rent the box in the months that you used it.
Not queueing at the booths is great and the flashing lights and angry horns from a French driver following you towards the barrier, until it rises for you, is worth a sneer or two as they realise you do know what you are doing.
If I was still travelling on the French auto route system, I would definitely use it again.

Thank you for your response it was something that turned up while looking on the internet. Might be worth getting one

watched loads of cars going past us while we sat in que for the booths and there is a lot to be said about that system next time we drive home that what we will be doing too

It partly depends on which part of Spain you're heading for.
I'll copy a route I posted to someone last year for you if it helps.
Bear in mind now that the dual carriageway (N10/A63) south of Bordeaux is due to have 2 toll booths along its 175 km route from Bordeaux to north of Bayonne, but it shouldn't be much & it's dead straight driving for at least 2 hours.

I am now retired, living in the Basque country with my wife who's from here.
We've done the UK-Basque country trip thro' W France about 20 times over the years, so I'll suggest a few places.

*Use Portsmouth-Le Havre, St Malo or Caen if possible. Anything else means a lot more kms.
*Caen-Laval-Chateau Gontier-Saumur in about 3hrs. Saumur is a nice place for a coffee break. Caen-Saumur is about 190mls. Avoid Tours; horrible bottleneck.
*Saumur-Poitiers-Angouleme, about 200km
*Next, head for St Emilion. I'd use the N10 & then turn off at the D670 towards Libourne, otherwise, from Angouleme to St Emilion will seem like ages on the twisty D roads. St Emilion would be a good place to stay overnight if you think you can make it that far in a day, which is do-able.
*Head back towards Bordeaux & then to get round it, head for the airport, signed Merignac as it takes you on the Western side of Bordeaux.
*Then it's follow the man in front down the N10, now named A63. Come next year it'll be a toll road, but so far since Caen, you have paid no tolls.
*When you start to see the Pyrennees, if you fancy a last stop in France, avoid Biarritz & go to St Jean de Luz (Nord). Only 2-3 kms from motorway & a lovely little town.
*Back onto the A63, head for St Sebastien (Spain) & you'll meet 2 tolls, one costing about €2,the other €1.50 or so.
*Once in Spain San Sebstian (Donostia in Basque) is a lovely resort. Good parking.
*If you want Pamplona, fine. It's called Iruña in Basque!
*If you want Bilbao & the Guggenheim, fine. The motorway will get you there in about an hour & cost around €7.
*Otherwise, take the motorway to Vitoria (Gasteiz in Basque) & Logroño; great for "pintxos" (tapas), as is Donosti by the way.
*Go to Laguardia for a hilltop wine town; arrange a visit to either Marques de Riscal vineyard with its Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim lookalike hotel, which is expensive, but presumably good. From the town take a look at Domecq's bodega, Ysios, which I reckon has a better style of building.
*If you head south via Zaragoza, try to stop at Belchite, about 35km south. It's been left as a monument, totally in ruins from the Civil War.
*You may want to then head south west, via Madrid to be in the Benidorm direction. Zaragoza is a bit on the east side.
*Alternatively, try Vitoria-Burgos-Valladolid, all dual carriageway & non-toll. Then look for a castle or two, such as Peñafiel, Medina del Campo, Coca.
*Segovia worth a stop to see the Roman aqueduct & sample suckling pig.

South of Madrid, sorry, not too familiar as yet.
As for the Portsmouth-Santander ferry, it's always expensive I find & the Bay of Biscay can get rough.
Hope some of that helps.

Excellent informative post R.I.E.

I prefer the St Malo-San Seb.route myself and use it quite a lot, (just occasionally Caen), then onwards via Zaragosa towards Valencia, an excellent and easy route.
I've not yet visited that civil war town, Belchite, though, so I shall have to make a point of it on a future trip.

We've done the France routes in the past and found them quick although very boring, think M1 for hundreds of miles. Never had a problem at the tollbooths using a visa card, most of the french seem to want to queue and pay in cash, so the card booths are usually free of traffic.

Nowadays we use Portsmouth to Santander or Bilbao, it only seems more expensive. By the time you factor in fuel costs/tollbooth charges, maybe an overnight stop or two, then both routes work out more or less the same.

We drive over in October, Portsmouth to Bilbao, the ferry and cabin cost around £240 (one way) Once off the ferry we can be down to the Costa Blanca with an 8 hour drive, refreshed straight off the ferry.

Bear in mind the last time we drove down thru France it took us 25 hours from the Tunnel to the Costa Blanca and that was with no stopover. Its around 1500 miles or so, so its not a journey to be undertaken lightly, we only stopped for fuel and the odd 60 minute break because of tiredness, thats an average of 60mph, so effectively travelling at Frances 82mph limit the entire journey. Travelling at speed is mentally fatiqueing don't forget that.

Thank you for all your information, the main thing I have to consider is a 7 year old black lab! so decided to drive through France take our time, and take stops when need for us and the dog

25 hrs with no stopover doesn't seem like a great idea, even switching drivers,...... must be shattering.

It's only 14 hrs from St Malo to Valencia on fast quiet easy road.

Anyone not living in the South of England, (I'm way up in the far N.E.) can get a good nights rest on the overnight ferry, Portsmouth/St Malo.
I prefer to take it easy and have a second nights rest in a cheap motel at Bayonne, then reach Valencia early the following afternoon.

The ferry timing from N.Spain suits me better for the return, but it's a while since I saw it at that sort of price, seems to be going up all the time.

have to agree Dick.
did it once with the BH and we did 5 hours each which gave us an average of 250miles each. That was enough, so it too us 3 days, found some pleasant places to stay, pleasant meals, pleasant people - even in France.

did it once by myself , by the end I knew I was really pushing the limits with poor reaction times. and it took me 3 days to recover