Trip to Spain

[ridgemere]

Hi all


I'm catching the ferry to Santander end of May and planning on riding back through Spain and France.
Any foccers with tips on good routes to take and cheap accommodation will be much appreciated.

[Falcon 269]

Route depends on how long you've got.  You must have some idea yourself of where you intend to go.  Share that and maybe we'll be able to offer better ideas on specific roads to enjoy.

Cheap accommodation?  Do a Google search on 'hostels in Spain'.  Always plenty of budget rooms available if you're not too fussy about the decor.

[cable tie]

yep i agree with mike, it all depends on how long ya got and there is vast amounts of good routes, and tbh it would be a crime if you did not have a couple days in the pico's seeing as your landing on the doorstep, 

[ridgemere]

Leave Santander on a Thursday morning and have told her l'd be back sunday. Getting serious grief already so I might stretch it to a Monday. :evil

[Falcon 269]

Back where?  Santander or the UK?

You're not making this easy for us ...

[ridgemere]

Sorry for being cryptic! The vague plan is to go across to Barcelona then up through France either the Alps side, central or Atlantic coast to Calais.


Got about 4/5 days riding to get to Calais. So tying to make the most of a short trip.


Never been before so just trying to get some idea of the best route to take, with the limited time span, from the experiences of others.


If Barcelona is a waste of time do say so.


Cheers Ju.

[Davidjw]

well I am off to Spain on May22nd going to Santander then heading down towards Murcia then up to the Alps and France then home , I have used Booking.com for hotels as for roads well just stay off the bigger roads and i dont think you will go far wrong , if you have a garmin sat nav i can send you some of the routes I have done to give you an idea , this is my first time to Spain so finding my feet

[Falcon 269]

Murcia is about 30 mins from me.  If you'd like to ask about good routes around this region, drop me a PM.

Just got back from a 250 mile round trip on the R1 out that way today.  Glorious!

Today's route:  http://g.co/maps/n4wsn

Mike

[Falcon 269]

Sorry for being cryptic! The vague plan is to go across to Barcelona then up through France either the Alps side, central or Atlantic coast to Calais.

Cheers Ju.

Barcelona is a great city but you won't have much time to take it in.  To be honest, you'd be better getting a cheap long weekend package with Queasyjet or Robbin' Oirish Git airlines if you want to 'do' Barcelona.

Just a thought.  Your Santander - Calais in 4/5 days is doable but have you considered sticking solely with Spain and making the return crossing from Santander? 

Riding is Spain is much better than France these days, where the police are bothersome and the fuel costs a good deal more.  Spanish weather is generally better (at least down south ... ) and the Picos de Europa are belting good playgrounds. 

As coincidence would have it, I'm helping a mate plan routes for friends who are also coming over via Santander for a short bike tour at the end of May .  Be happy to pass those on if you wish, just drop me a PM with an e-mail address.

Mike

[cable tie]

Hi I think only allowing 4-5 days you will be missing the point of the trip if you want to ride biking rds, and Santander to Barcelona than Calais unless you got a rocket up your ar5e and riding every motorway ain't do-able in that time scale, I've done Santander to Calais many a time and in 5 days riding biking rds but you got to be pre-pared to put the miles in, and the more into France you get the rds seem to get boring as you seem to be riding away from the great rds rather than to em, northern Spain ie the picos is a great place and fantastic rds to explore at leisure and as your landing there why not get the return ferry home !! otherwise you will be riding splash and dash all the way home, I've done the picos 3 times now and there is still plenty of great rds to ride you will not get bored And Spanish grub is better.

I'm sure you will enjoy your trip but most important is to enjoy it, I've done splash and dash a few times and the places I passed thro I can't even remember em because the focus is on getting home rather than being on holiday.

Dave.

[bwizz]

For a  nice stay in nr Santander i would try Posada Carpe Diem , I have stayed there twice very cheep , and nice people
good bike roads within easy reach

[Falcon 269]

... I've done splash and dash a few times and the places I passed thro I can't even remember em because the focus is on getting home rather than being on holiday.

Dave.

Absolutely, Dave!  Riding with one part of your mind on the ferry departure time isn't the way to enjoy a trip properly.

I'll take French food over Spanish any day, though.

[cable tie]

[quote author=cable tie link=topic=2189.msg16684#msg16684 date=1332093466]
... I've done splash and dash a few times and the places I passed thro I can't even remember em because the focus is on getting home rather than being on holiday.

Dave.

Absolutely, Dave!  Riding with one part of your mind on the ferry departure time isn't the way to enjoy a trip properly.

I'll take French food over Spanish any day, though.
[/quote]

Yes i could not agree more mike regarding splash and dash, i do it every year  :\  on the last day of every trip even with jp and dek on various trips we have just hammered away at the miles and its sole destroying tbh, i did imola wsb sept last year we took 3 days to get there riding great rds on our return my mates stayed overnight near calais for the ferry in the morn, not me i hammered on covering 800 or so miles in a day just so i could get my leg over  :b .

Dave.
Creme brulee / curry mussels gets my vote in france, but ive had some good hearty grub in the pico's

[Falcon 269]

French bread, cheese, wine and ... horse.  Hmmm.  Maybe not the last one.

T'is true that the food in northern Spain tends to be more hearty and interesting to the Brit palette than the Mediterrannean diet.

We've got all the sunshine, though. :lol

[pitternator]

Hi guys, an interesting thread. My tip if riding over to barcelona is to avoid it ! Unless you particularly want to see the city, the roads to it are manic. The montserrat ridge is impressive, but after that its just 8 lane suicidal motorway, and  a choked up coastal main road.
However I have ridden some great roads in the pyrenees, just over on the spanish side.. My route would be to take in the N260 Sort to la seu d'rgeil road ( just south of andorra)...it is IMI the best road in europe for sheer diversity of bends and challenge to ride. Set in an unspoilt national park, its my all time best ride. And even after doing it 3 times , I would do a ride to spain just to ride it. No doubt others have similar favourites...but if you can fit it in the route, then I would do so.
I dont have great fondnes for france tbh, I find its very poor in catering for the traveller, its very hard to find food in or  out of hours except on the motorway. On weekends, after 12 on a saturday - forget it.The small cafe restaurant is a dwindling  resource and most towns now only have fast food places- Macdonalds is king over there !
Fuel can also be hard to find.A sat nav is recommended to find it...
France is a massive country and IMO you should plan the route accordingly. To ride from calais to pyrenees is at least 2 days solid riding , using a high proportion of motorway.Given the high chance of getting caught and severely punished for speeding on french motorways, I suggest  plan around sticking to the 130 kph limit. I also think unless you plan a lengthy route through France, you wont really get a big feel of what its like.I have ridden many times through France, and would suggest try to take in riding through the Dordogne.I reckon the best part of france is the south west, you can avoid motorway to a great extent , taking in limoges, bergerac, agen, pau, is a reasonable scenic route.Once above normandy its best to stick to the motorway as the countryside is very flat and uninteresting .
One big advantage of french N roads is that many are quite close to the motorway, so if you fall behind schedule, you can switch over to motorway to make up time.

My choice if riding up from andorra would be to head for somewhere around montignac in the dordogne,take the N20 from andorra, taking in the lovely country from aix le thermes  through quillan ending up at carcassone ( medieval fortress), then take the country route north, but with motorway nearby.The final run up to montignac takes in sarlat and the dordogne, lovely countryside.... Day 2 would be montignac to orleans, again all cross country , ending up with the N roads to Orleans, again motorway is close by.I particularly like this run, and it does give a good feel of rural France. Day 3 is Orleans to calais , a fast N road/ motorway run, ferry or tunnel crossing around mid day from a 6.30 am start. Thats keeping to limits too.

I can supply a more detailed route if you wanted.

[ridgemere]

Fabulous. Getting some very welcome ideas. Many thanks.


Any detailed routes would be brilliant Pitter. I think my email address is in my profile.


Barcelona dumped!


Reading Dave and Mike's posts about cheese and curry has got me really looking forward to sampling the culinary delights that Spain and France has to offer. Does a Spanish Big Mac taste any different? I hear you can't get a Quaterpounder in France. Not sure why!

[garysimmo]

hi one great place to stay is a little b&b called La lune near Le man, english owners  nice clean rooms fully stocked ktchen, also dieppe always worth a vist, if you are overnighting near calais the ibis in st omer is cheap and in a great location and only approx 17k from calais.

[tomlinscote]

hiya
to add my 2 centimes worth, I live in south central France and there are loads of decent routes around, in fact Ride mag recently published 2 which pass near me....,  as I dont want to restrict my 1000, I return each year to the UK (fortunately I get it MOTed the same time as the Wetherspoons real ale festival - love frog food but really miss brit beer) I take a diff route every time and although I have done mine to Calais in one go I usually have one stop over in an ETAP hotel, roughly £35 a night inc simple brekky, also there are almost always cheapish restaurants very close to the hotels.
My last trip I took the back roads and had a great time If you are thinking of passing near Figeac, or Aurillac then pop in for a cuppa, there is a really great restaurant 2 mins walk that does rooms too, and the route from Aurillac to Calais isn't bad at all!!

[pitternator]

Tom
Its my point really - you do have to know where to go in France. If you simply stick to main roads, the roadside cafe is few and far between. I was amazed in 2009 riding down to the Pyrenees on mostly N roads, just how few  there were visible to the traveller, and they were not open at all on a saturday past 12 or on sunday . No doubt if one knew a particular town one would know where such is, but its not practical to do too much exploring on a time limit.In the alps or spain, generally there is much more choice and places open.Hence why macdonalds does a roaring trade on a weekend in France !...its actually quite sad for the reputation of french cuisine that all too often this is all which is available. I remember stopping at a cafe just past 12 in a small town  in the south west of france, smelling wonderful cooking ...only to be told they were not serving food, only a drink! Its terrible  for the tourist , but oh so typicallly french.- its their " le weekend" and sod everyone else !  The other thing you might see is a " frites" van, by the side of the road....hardly haute cuisine
My best experience was in 2005 where a small cafe did open its doors to us ( 11 bikers, all wet and miserable),en route to Orleans, after being shunned by several restaurants in Le Chartres( near Orleans)  and provided a superb plat du jour on spec...but it was not at the roadside,and  we encountered it by sheer chance.God bless that frenchman and his family!

[tomlinscote]

One reason why there may not be as many places open at the weekend is that they are open during the week for the local builders etc to get a 5 course meal (at midday) and so dont have to open at the weekend. That is definitely the case near me anyway, hence you are correct in that macdo is very busy esp on a Sunday