Hi all

I did a search on this topic but got no hits!!??!! Anyway, I plan to move to Spain next year and am looking at ways of renting a van in the UK and driving it myself to Spain with the ferry that goes from Portsmouth to Santander. I did some research and got a bit worried about negative reviews I read about the companies that are listed online and which do this kind of van rental, namely Way2Go and J-Hire. Apparently some people had tons of problems with their rentals and I even read some posts on other expat forums about the Spanish police and customs stopping larger vans from driving/getting on the ferries because of weight limits being very low for the vans. I am moving the contents of a one-bedroom flat so not that much to move but those posts got me thinking whether I should try to do this diy or if I should just pay a "man with a van" type of service. I got the feeling that those posts about the Spanish police handing out fines right, left and center to self-drive van drivers could have come from the said "man with a van" companies.....Would love to hear about your experiences and your views and recommendations on a move like mine. Many thanks.

Were driving over soon in our car, looked at the Spain ferry but cannot get a pet-friendly cabin, there's no way my little Shih Tzu would cope in a kennel so were going via France. Not worked our route through Spain out as yet but were driving to the Almeria province, i understand there are tolls in Spain as well as France so knowing my hubby it will be a route that's got the fewer tolls. Personally were planning to do it over 2/3 days. In the Spring were planning to hire a man who does a lot of removals to move all of our belongings over, by then we will be more certain on where we wish to be for many years in an unfurnished home.

Hi, I have travelled this route often, I have driven hired vans to the Algarve recently and have taken the Portsmouth to Santander ferry, and Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry, I have never had any problems with the Police and actually had to flag a Police vehicle down once in Bilbao when I got lost and found them very friendly, I am aware that they have stop check HGV vehicles prior to Santander and I presume this is the check for immigrants as they tend to stop non Spanish vehicles.

Hi have you booked your ferry? when i tried3 months ago everything was booked for pet-friendly cabin, the kennels don't appeal as our Shih Tzu is only 6 months old and not confident around lots of dogs and noise. Which is now why we've got a 3-day drive, I have health issues and need to rest every so often it'll be 1 stop in France one in Spain aim to get into vera around lunchtime day 3. Good luck when you do your drive across...