Inexperienced seeking advice.

[Fudpucker]

Hi all.
Realistically how long to travel through France and down on to southern Spain starting from Calais and heading towards Malaga camping.
I'm have experience in touring and camping but not the two together. I'm not looking for routes just a rough idea of how long to allow. Long miles don't bother me but am unsure about time to allow for finding sites, what time of day is it best to arrive by etc. I will be traveling about May. Any advice would be very much appreciated.....F

 

[Engineer]

I find that anything more than about 500 miles a day is pushing it.

 

[Steptoe]

Hi all.
Realistically how long to travel through France and down on to southern Spain starting from Calais and heading towards Malaga camping.

[/B]

Two days.

First day to Bayonne, second day to Malaga.

 

[Richie B]

if your doing A&B type roads , then 2-3 days. I always camp, usually get on the road about 9/930 ride until lunchtime have a light lunch and a break then ride until about 330 stop and put campsite in the garmin and choose one about 30/45 mins away , and never had a problem finding one, if you use the municipal ones they are really great value and nearly always in the town centers so near to food and drink . enjoy

 

[Wapping]

Calais to Malaga direct is 1,300 miles, driveable in 18.50 hours.... At least according to Google.

Now, you have experience of touring and camping, but not both together. That doesn't matter, as all you have to do is join what you do know together.

Let's start.

What's the most miles you want to do in a day? Let's guess at 500. So, you'll be looking at a little over two and a half days to complete the journey, baring mishaps.

Doing 600 miles won't make a huge difference, so let's stick with two and a half days.

You will therefore be putting your tent up and taking it down twice. Does that sit well with you? Yes? Good.

Now, where to camp?

Plot your route in Googlemaps. Work your finger along the line until you get to about 500 to 600 miles. Is there anything nearby? Yes? Great, nearly finished. No? Never mind, jiggle your finger up and down until you find something close enough to your line to sut you.

Job done. Have fun. 2014 cannot come soon enough

 

[STUBBS]

google your camping sites youll need 2

 

[Flipfly]

It very much depends if you want to do it quickly on the toll roads, or slowly on the normal roads.
Having done the journey alone this summer (down to Almeria), I can relay my experience to you.
I took the chunnel at 1pm uk time. This got me into France at 2.40 (don't forget they are an hour ahead.
I don't do toll roads if I can help it, I got to Tours around dusk (9.15 ish) pitched the tent for the night and made my dinner. I stopped.only for fuel.
Next day I did 1000 miles. Left by 7.30 and arrived at 2 in the morning (stopped.for a few breaks and had to change the alternator belt which took an hour including a nice cool beer).
It is doable in 2 days, but you are going to be in the saddle for a long time!

Split it slightly better on the way back, but it was still 12-16 hours a day.

Trust me when I say, it looks big on a map, it's way further in real life!

So 2 days hittng it hard or 3 more relaxed days. 2 days relatively easy on toll roads, but imho you may as well fly if you're gonna travel by toll road.

 

[Simon W]

Doing it all on motorway would be deadly dull. Crashing it out as fast a possible is likely to be dull and also needlessly joyless. I'd suggest giving yourself more time so the journey is less of an ordeal and more of a holiday. You want to get to campsites with time to pitch up in daylight, when you're not already knackered, so that means getting off the bike about 6pm, pitched up, showered and cooking by 7pm. So you start looking for the campsite at 5.30pm.

If you can average 50mph on A roads (N roads and bigger D roads), riding from 8:30 to 5:30 with an hour for stops (no long cafe lunches) that's 400 miles a day. And that's a fast average speed. If you're going to average 45mph - more realistic if your route takes in villages/towns – you'd be looking at just over 350 miles a day. If you do half the route on motorway, you could plan for 500 miles a day... but I'd stick with 400-miles-a-day and use motorway to allow for slower/twistier/more fun roads along the way, getting lost or longer stops when you see something interesting.

Sounds to me like a three day ride...

 

[franco]

?

You didn't say how long you were staying? When I drove down to Nice from London, I was moving here, and not going back, so didn't mind blatting it down the motorway in two days, originally planned to do it in one, but got delayed at the tunnel and it was torrential rain when I got to Calais.
Anyway, if you've got plenty time, take the n-roads, have a nice week of discovering some lovely parts of Europe in what is likely to be fine weather. If you're in a hurry, take the motorway and do it in 2 days. If you're going for a week, that would be a lot of riding either side of a nice holiday

 

[bowser]

2 days hard riding, 3 days and less hard work.
I have to say having done that sort of distance quite a few times, the putting the tent up and down in the morning and packing away etc can be a real pain in the arse if you are trying to do things in a short time.
If your intention is to get to the end as quick as possible then there is plenty of cheap accommodation on the way.

 

[Wapping]

So, the upshot of these replies is very simple:

(a) You are unlikely to do it in under two days

(b) That you could do it in two (or more) days, depending on how far you want to ride each day and / or down what sort of roads you chose to ride. Your own timetable / optimism / pessimism will dictate the answer.

(c) That there are (depending on the time of year) campsites available. The jury seems to be out whether it’s a good idea to pre-book them.

(d) That hotels (of all sorts and of assorted prices) will be available, pre-booking optional.

In short, you have had your question responded to with as many answers as there are possibilities:

If you accept (a) and plump on (b) only you know the answer

If you accept (c) you’ll not need to consider (d).

If you opt for (d), you can probably reject (c)

 

[PvtVoytek]

Depends on the purpose of getting there I guess. Is it GETTING there or getting THERE? Girlfriend and I did it in June on 2 bikes (first Euro tour), took five days from Caen to Alicante but took time to find smaller B/C roads where we could and found some beauties especially through the Tarn valley. Went into Spain on the coast which is pretty awesome and then did our best to get away from the med motorway and up into the mountains to "head" for Alicante.
Averaged about 250-300 day but saw a lot.
We set the satnav at about 5pm for campsite and if we found another en-route just used that. No issues.

Enjoy.