hey yall...................

il soon be heading back to sunny shores , ive lived abroad for the majority of the last 10 years , lived in Tenerife for 1 year , then mallorca for 1 year and 5 years in ibiza , i work for a holiday company and usually come back to n.ireland for a few months a year .

this time im heading back for a more longterm stay , il most likely be goin to the balearics , and as i live in n.ireland i usually have a bit of a nitemare getting out there at the start of april ,, i usually have to fly from belfast , to the uk mainland , then get a flight from uk to mallorca , and then a flight / ferry to ibiza ! , it takes a full day for what would usually be a 2.15 hr flight from belfast to ibiza , if it was a bit later in the season and all the filghts etc have started .

this time il be taking a lot more stuff out with me , and il be driving over .

my journey starts :
n.ireland - rosslare (southern ireland ) drive - 260miles)

rosslare - cherbourg (ferry - about 16 hours i think)

cherbourg - barcelona (drive - 850 miles )

barcelona - balearics ( ferry - 5 hours i think )

iv planned a route using Google earth :http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&hl...3711,20.566406

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it should take about 4 / days , and cost about £500 - £550 , but its a trip iv always wanted to take .

has anybody gone this route before ? , and if so what tips / advice would you give ?
i was planning on just using a map , but i have a friend who may lend me his sat nav system , and i can post it back to him once i arrive .

thanks in advice .

Tim

ps , i have worked for a travel / holiday company for years so if anybody needs any help with questions about that , just give me a shout .

cheers

Sounds lke great fun, im intending to drive to the costa del sol from Northern England in the next few months. Just make sure you book hotels on route and ensure you have plenty of time to get to them incase of traffic jams, ferry delays etc. I was considering ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao over Dover to Calais but it works out more expensive even with extra fuel/mileage/tolls/hotel for france and of course takes longer. Think that ferry was about £350 one way to take the car. V. expensive.

As for your specific route, obviously ive had no experience with it. But i have driven france before. Remember the motorways have expensive tolls. So you could be paying about £50+ in tolls to get through france. Which is also very fun when youre on your own and the toll booths come up on the left!

Have a safe trip!

onlineamiga, when i checked the portsmouth to bilbao ferry price about 2 weeks ago it was £200 one way for the date we wanted, i didnt book it because wasn't 100% sure that everything would be ready for that date, as it happens it is and have now booked it, cost a bit more, paid £270 for it in the end.

Interesting, i just slapped in an estimated guess of when id be going. But i might have accidently chosen the easter holidays which made it expensive. If i can get a quote for £200 i might do that. Anything to avoid touching french soil :P

Probably looking at £50 dover to calais crossing, £50 of fuel, £70 road charges and £50 in a hotel room to drive through france to get to spain. Plus its 1000kms on the car, so ur looking at £220 abouts to drive through france.

So i figured over £350 was expensive for the ferry but i might try some different dates now see if i can get it cheaper

My reckoning on it was that i'd rather be on the ferry for a couple of days being able to walk around than stuck in a car for the whole time. As it turns out, my husband is gonna drive with the father in law, and me and my daughter are gonna fly over after they have arrived. I reckon i got the good end of the deal there

Yeah I thought that too, but Id be on my own so might be kinda boring. Ive done the ferry from Hull to Amsterdam and that was fun. Ive searched around and got it down to £230 which definately isnt bad really. Definately considering. I guess when i know an exact date I want to go Ill look at prices then. If its cheap i'll do the ferry, catch some R&R and then drive from bilbao down to the costa. Either way it'll be a fun trip.

Don't forget there is also Plymouth to Santander that is just overnight, I did the ferry (Bilbao) and t'other half came through France with the animals and trailor.

From Bilbao it was an easy days run down through Spain.

pwwm

I was wondering about that actually. Google maps say its a good 12 hours from Bilbao to Torremolinos. Which if the ship gets in at about 08:15, byt he time you get off its 09:15 which means that by the time you get to torremolinos it could be nearly 10pm at night. Plus 12 hours driving is a lot in one day. Has google maps over exagerated? i was thinking id need another night somewhere on route. . I picked out Manzares Ciudad real. which is 9 hours from bilbao according to google maps. If bilbao to torremolinos is easilly do able in the day then id do it, but if its stretching it, ill split it up a bit.

Sorry we have compeltely hijacked this thread from the original posters route.

I was off the ferry a 08.15 and here in Albunol in 10 hours that included lunch and photo stops this was doing no more than the speed limit.

It was an easy romp, dual carriagway all the way with no hold ups.

pwwm

Cool, might be worth going for it then. Just looked at the laternative route. I do like the sound of it because its only one night but its over £300. The bilbao one is cheaper despite being on the ferry longer.. strange :/

I usualy do come under what google maps says because i kinda drive a bit fast on empty motorways

The reason the Bilbao one is longer is due to the fact it goes whale watching on the second day, it actually dog legs out to find whales and dolphins etc, quite spectacular it can be. Going back to UK it is only the one night.

Also the Bilbao route does not carry your pets, no facility (unless this has changed) but the Plymouth -Santander one does.

pwwm

Nice, the bilbao one might be worth doing just for the sake of doing it then. ie something fun to do. But I would be on my own, so I dont know. I'll make my decision nearer the time.
Any internet access on bilbao route ?
2 nights on my own with no internet....... now that would be tough

Dont think so, actually cannot remember, I do know the mobile phone did not work and it cost you to use the satellite phone on boad.

I quite enjoyed the crossing but it was flat calm, this was at the end of September 2003.

pwwm

Thanks very much pwmm. Youre very helpfull. Sorry to the original poster for kinda taking over this thread. Please if anyone else can advise the OP then please do

talk about hijacking a thread !! ........... you 2 should be wearing Balaclavas ! .

hopefully i can now get a few replys for my post