Hi - I have used both sea routes and they both have advantages.

Santander - good points faster crossing - modern ship
bad points very small cabin, limited activities for kids, food expensive - swimming pool nearly always closed

Bilbao - good points - larger cabins and larger bathrooms - huge ship - loads of facilities for adults and kids - good entertainment - large choice of eating
bad points - long crossing - older feel to whole ship -


Driving - OOH - have to be very patient with the kids. You need stop in France which can be expensive and if not pushing it may need two nights in France although we always manage with one from Valencia to Dieppe or to Calais. Boredom is big turn off driving all the way and backache as well. Can work out fractionally cheaper then using long sea crossing but will always take longer overall apart from when using tunnel.

Vic Reeves does this. He told me that as well as little bags correctly labelled stuck to the roof of his caravanette he also carries a wind up accordian that plays the Marseillaise
http://www.marseillaise.org/audio/marseillaise.mid
and a stuffed parrot on his shoulder facing through the rear window.
He says it helps him get through the monotony of driving through France.

If you go by road, somebody mentioned putting each toll fare in individual bags, forget that!

We used our credit card, those gates in the toll gates are the least used, you drive up, insert your card and the toll is automatically deducted, nobody touches your card except the machine. Then you drive through while all the ones using cash are still queuing up.

From memory our total costs for fuel and all tolls from Yorkshire to Alicante and the return leg came to £470 this doesn't include the tunnel fare as we got that free with Tesco tokens Amazing fuel mileage in a 1.6 Citroen Picasso, filled up the tank just outside of Paris coming back and the one tank of fuel got us all the way back to East Yorkshire!

Did a check with P&O for 9 Sept For car 2 Adults and 2 Children in one cabin came out at £369.

We go back from Cadiz twice a year to the UK and prefer that to the thought of flying works out cheaper for our 2 times 3 month in the UK.

Jim

Yes the card way is easiest and best for us. Diesel is cheapest in Spain so try to fill up just over the border and UK is cheaper than

Hi Mitzy we usually use P&O but after November its Hobsons Choice and we will have to use Brittany.

Have thought about Travel Club discount can you give me any details as to cost and what you get out of it.

Jim

Pride of Bilbao (P&O) is finishing this month so the Portsmouth Bilbao route is stopped. You can still do Portsmouth/Plymouth Santander and either boat is pretty good.

We have looked at Travel Club but if you just do the one crossing a year it does not pay since to join you have to pay£100.

Depends a lot on where your going in UK. Brittany offer you Plymouth or Portsmouth from Santander which can make quite a difference.

Jim

I have to admit I am not a member, I am using someones elses membership and signing on as a members guest. I got £23.40 off the price of the ferry crossing. I'm assuming if you are actually a member you get a better discount than if you are a guest

I wouldnt use P&O now even if they were carrying on, even though Brittany are slightly costlier. I know someone suggested the P&O boat is better, but imho it isnt. The Brittany ferry has more outside space, including an outdoor cafe and lots of seating. It's not really any more expensive than P&O to eat on, although one of the Brittany ferries only has one restaurant inside.

The P&O ferry is shabby in comparison

We do the crossing twice a year. March to April and Mid-September to end of November.

Jim

It costs £100 to join and would give you that back in one trip with a four berth underoccupied cabin a large saloon car and eating dinner in the restaraunt but you have to pay every year.

Thanks Mitzy and John and Kath

Will make enquiries about it when I book next.

Jim

Using the below route, which is a 'trucker's route', you avoid toll roads, and run alongside them. I only stayed in 1 hotel on my trip, which was 30e room only. (the reason being, by the time I stopped it was midnight and too lae to book in, so took 40 winks on services a couple of times through the night/day) The ferry was £60.

route 1 Algorfa to Valencia (around valencia direction north just before the toll other side of valencia) come off at Sagunt and follow signs to Teruel. Zaragoza to Huesca then Haca all this is dual and empty roads (nearly at the border) follow through the tunnel to Pau.
Pau to Garlin to Roquefort and Langon (this is a fast single lane road)
follow on to Bordeaux ring road pick up signs for Angouleme
then Poitiers follow signs for Chatellerault and Tours
then its Vendome to Chateaudun to Chartres
Dreux is next to Ereux to Rouen here you will see and follow signs for Calais
nearly there now its onto Abbeville to Calais
this route looks tricky but it is fast and if you follow this on a map it cuts right up the middle of france the toll roads will have you criss crossing most of the time.
route 2 taking in Andorra
its now reverse till you get to Chartes follow on to Orleans
then Vierzon to Chateauroux
onto Limoges and Cahors this is a toll free motorway
next is Mountauban to Toulouse onto the ring road following the airport signs
next is Foix and onto Andorra
into Spain now and a decent cup of coffee
just pick up signs for Lieida around ring road and pick up signs for Tortosa thats close to the sea
take the 340 south on the coast road to Valencia
around valencia ring road and then look out for the sign for Alicante that says interia route this will put you on the road to elche the same one as in route one.
Elche to Algorfa

I enjoy driving so distance is no problem.
I have only done route 1 though

We tend to do a route similar to route one by lic although we do come from the Sol end of Spain, we have not had any problems with it and do find it easy and quick.

When we came down in June we did take a couple of the cheaper toll roads just for something a bit different but they are not essential.