Santander to Cherbourg West Coast Trip June 2015

[Simmo]

A group of six of us with varied riding experience (1 year to 30+ years) & only 1 guided trip last year between us have booked on a ferry to Santander in June this year, sailing back 6 days later from Cherbourg (well actually 2 are coming back a day earlier, that’s the reason for getting to St Malo on the 5th day).
We are a group of 50 - 60 year olds who don’t want to do anything too demanding, but want to see some nice sights, stay in clean hotels in a town or village so that we can go out for a nice meal & a few beers at night.

I’ve spent the afternoon looking at Wappings posts & come up with the following itinerary:
Day 1 - Santander to San Sebastian
Day 2 - San Sebastian to Bordeaux
Day 3 - Bordeaux to La Roche-sur-Yon
Day 4 - La Roche-sur-Yon to St Malo
Day 5 - St Malo to Caen
Day 6 - Caen to Cherbourg
I’ve used motogoloco whch has come up with the following route:
https://www.motogoloco.com/map?route=6067
I’ve ticked the not use toll roads

The reasons for the stops is so that we don’t do more than 150 miles a day & that I’d like to prebook all of the hotels (to make it easier for me as the organiser) also one of the guys has a new Harley Road king & he would like secure parking.

Comments please on my plan so far.

Also
What’s the best search engine for hotels?
Should I make a route for each day to transfer to my Garmin or do the whole trip on one route?
I’m still perusing on whether to buy a bike orientated sat nav or would my car one do?

Thanks in advance

 

[WillSp]

Interesting trip, for hotels I would look at Booking.com, Trip Adviser & Hotels.com.
Booking.com allows you to select hotels with parking.

San Sebastián is a fabulous town, with 100's of Tapas bars in the old town. You will have a great night there. You have lots of hotels, but only about 15 in walking distance to the town with parking. Of the towns on your route, I would not miss this one.

Bordeaux, it's a big city, very busy, for me I would stay north or south, but not in the city. 6 bikes in convoy in Bordeaux forget it, unless you all have Sat-Nav, because you will get separated, it's a very busy city.

I would make each day a separate trip on the Garmin, or use Base Camp and upload to files to the Garmin.

For 6 rooms I would book in advance, if it's 3 rooms sharing it should be ok to turn up.

Car Sat-Nav's do not like the rain!! But a good waterproof cover should do.

Hope you enjoy your trip. Pity you will miss the Pyrenees.

Will

 

[Two wheels good]

Are you planning to add any detours to those routes? Some segments are quite short and on main roads you'll cover distance quickly.
For example St Malo to Caen is ~110miles and Caen to Cherbg ~80miles.

There are some nice scenic routes nearby. You will have the time to add them (or use them instead) without exceeding your distance limit
Maybe bestbikingroads.com could give you a few ideas.
For example:
- In Normandy I'd suggest D999 passing thru Brecey: i.e St Malo - Avranches - St James (US WW2 cemetary nearby) - St Hillaire, Brecey,Percy St Lo.
- Dinan is a lovely spot too.
Do you have a particular purpose going to Caen e.g WW2 museum? Otherwise Bayeaux would be more appealing/charming. And you're near D-Day beaches.
- I saw a recommended route on bestbikeing roads from Bordeaux - Saintes - Nantes too.

Avoiding riding through Bordeaux ( UNESCO heritage site) is good advice. Maybe find a hotel in a nearby town with a train link?

 

[Wapping]

Simmo, Thank you for the reference in your opening post. It looks like a great trip and one that I'm sure you'll enjoy.

If I had two criticisms of your plan and questions, they'd be:

1. MotoGoLoco (which I am growing to like) has routed you up the main roads. This is fine as it may well suit the mixed bag of your five fellow riders, their riding skills and wishes. However you could probably do something better between the six of you. But, for that, you'll need a map or three.

2. Suggesting hotels is never easy, not least as fellows very often have different expectations of what a hotel should consist of. They also have widely varying opinions as to what constitutes 'biker friendly' and / or secure. Putting that aside, the biggest problem still remains; that being that nobody knows exactly where on a route of many hundreds of miles you'll be at any one moment come evening.

So, what to do?

Here's my suggestion and I'm not going to do it all for you on day one.

Bike / hotel safety. France is not downtown Baghdad. Your friend's Harley will not be the only one in France this summer. Leaving that aside, it certainly won't be the most valuable bike or car France will see in June. Why? Because it's Le Mans and the value of vehicles on the road - over just that one weekend - will far eclipse your chum's HD, trust me. We'll come back to hotels later as we progress.

Now planning and maps. Arm yourself with Michelin's excellent route planning map 726 and with two of their new (and very excellent) maps that divide France into quarters. You will need maps 706 and 708. You'll also need a map for the Spanish bit too. The advantage of the 726 map is that it strips all the detail out, leaving you with only the main towns, larger villages and the principal roads, including France's so called 'Bis Tourist' routes. It's these that may want to use. The 706 and 708 maps will fill in all the finer detail. Report back when you've got them all and we'll move on. The maps are about a fiver each, bill your five friends £3 each and you'll get them for yourself for free. See, great advice already and we've not even started!

Richard

PS Do you all really need to go to St Malo to wave goodby to the two that bail out?

 

[JH]

Off Topic - But good to see you back Wapping - your absence on here has been to the detriment.

 

[Wapping]

Having said I'll not do it all for you. When you get your 726 map, have a look at:

Bairritz > Dax > Mont de Marsan > Agen. Then pick pick up the Bis tourist roads... Villanueva-s-Lot > Les Eyzies-de- Tayac > Perigeux > Chalus > Limoges > Bellac > Le Blanc.

At Le Blanc, you have a choice: Blois and then curve above Le Mans via Chateaudun / Alencon and up to the coast, or... Chatellerault, Saumur, La Flèche, Mayenne by curving under Le Mans and then up to the coast.

Be warned, if you hit Le Mans on the weekend of the 24 hour car race, it will be very busy!

The purpose of suggesting the route now, is for when you get your own 726 map. You'll be able to see what I've done. In reality it wasn't much; Michelin just made it easy. Is the suggestion perfect? I doubt it but it's not bad. Can you and your friends ride it in the time available? Most certainly, yes.

Now it's your turn.

PS Anyone wishing to get their own copies of the map and seeing how it's done for their own holidays, jump in.

 

[Wapping]

One thing I'll think you'll find is once you get in a rhythm, the miles will fly by. It's easy to do say 200 (not the 150 miles you are anticipating) on half decent country roads, no goat tracks. If you can get it up to 200 (an extra 50 a day) then at the end of day three you'll be a whole day (150 miles) ahead of where you might otherwise have been. That translates into a day off. The trick, if there is one is to keep things simple.

How do you do it? Easy. Leave, wheels rolling at 09:00 AM, not ten or ten thirty or whatever time your 5 friends had in mind. Ride for two hours. Stop for a coffee for 30 minutes. Ride for an hour and a half. It's now 13:00 and time for lunch and a fuel stop. An hour for lunch is good. It's now 14:15 as you took on fuel. Ride for two hours and stop for 30 minutes. It's now 16:45. Ride for an hour or an hour and a half. I'd be very surprised if you hadn't gone at least 200 miles.

As regards your route on the GPS. Break it up into days, or even parts of days. Give each segment a name that you'll recognise and / or number them consecutively. You can - depending on your GPS device - get clever in BaseCamp by giving each a specific calendar date and all sorts of other stuff, too.

 

[alecg]

Yes agree with JH, your sarcasm and infinite knowledge have been missed by one who has experienced both. Thank you.

 

[Simmo]

Hi Chaps,
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my questions.
I have taken the plunge & bought a Garmin Nuvi 390LM which so far seems to be very good, I’ve connected it to my Interphone F4 & put in a destination & it seemed to work ok. (I’ve not hooked it up to my computer yet though or downloaded Basecamp).
Will, I have been on the booking.com to look for hotels & as you say it seems to help you search for hotels with parking, I will also probably take your & Two Wheels good advice regarding Bordeaux. Thanks
Two Wheels Good thanks for your input I will look more closely at the maps regarding your recommendations, there are no definite plans of where we want to go I just chose places around 150 - 200 away from each other that I heard of (I know that’s perhaps not the best way, but it helped me to get the bones of a plan!)
Richard, thanks very much for your detailed input, I’ve already got map 726, 706 & 708 should arrive tomorrow. I used MotoGoLoco as when I used Google maps it got very frustrating trying to save a days map that I’d planned! Also with MotoGoLoco as it uses Google maps you can drag the green man onto the road to see what it looks like. It also seems very easy to upload to a Garmin.
Richard, I’ve just looked at your Biarritz to Le Blanc route on the 726 map & it looks good & you’ve used D roads, are they the one’s to use generally? We plan to go through Le Mans on Thursday, just to see what’s happening really.
The mileage was kept quite low as we wanted to enjoy the time off the bikes too, you know, nice food & good wine, with plenty of banter & laughs. But you are right that we need a structured start to each day & if we did more miles a day off would be a welcome bonus!
So when I get the 706 & 708 maps are you suggesting that I look at these using the greater detail & plan a route, then transfer the ‘waypoints’ onto Basecamp in daily routes? (As an aside I think I read somewhere that if you miss a waypoint Garmin makes you go back to it, is this right?).
Thanks again for your help.
Cheers
Paul

 

[Two wheels good]

Paul
The ViaMichelin website is very useful for choosing the scenic routes - look for roads with green border e.g. St Malo to Cancale on the coast.
I have to correct my earlier route. I didn't mean Avranches - that's the main road.
So, corrected: St Malo - Pontorson - St James (US WW2 cemetary nearby) - St Hillaire de H., Brecey,- Percy - St Lo.

Did you think about a detour on the Loire to look at a chateau, or two. But that will take you further east - Saumur , Chinon.
Bonne route

 

[Simmo]

Hi Chaps,
Well the 706 & 708 maps arrived today - wow, there is so much detail - Two Wheels Good, thanks for the green border tip, it’s also on the maps, I did look at your route, looks good, thanks.
I spent the rest of my time downloading the latest maps onto my Garmin 390, downloading Basecamp onto my MacBook & then downloading the maps from my Garmin onto my MacBook so that I can plan routes without having to have the Garmin plugged in. (I rang the Garmin help line as I couldn’t work out how to get the maps from my Garmin onto my MacBook, they were very helpful - it’s on the Garmin Express home page under map options - doh!)
I now need to get my arse into gear & plan the routes as we’re going away in less than 5 weeks!
Cheers
Paul

 

[Wapping]

Richard, I’ve just looked at your Biarritz to Le Blanc route on the 726 map & it looks good & you’ve used D roads, are these... So when I get the 706 & 708 maps are you suggesting that I look at these using the greater detail & plan a route, then transfer the ‘waypoints’ onto Basecamp in daily routes?

That's it in a nutshell. MotoGoLoco has given you the direct direction A to C via B. Now look at your maps to see if you can work out an alternative way to go, staying within your timeframe available / daily mileage / hotel needs etc. etc. That's all I did, using Michelin's 726 basic routes map as a guide

Do I use D roads? Yes, very often but only if the roads suit me. If they don't, I use other roads. The way I look at is this: I live in central London. If I had to ride 700 miles in a day to say the north of Scotland, I'd probably use the main roads and motorways. I'd not be using every minor B road I could find all the way. As that's the case, I'd not be riding every D road in France to ride the same 700 miles distance in a day either. If I had two or three days, I'd use other roads, dictated by where and when I wanted to stop.

Are all green lined yellow D roads in France 'great roads'? In a word, no. They are roads that Michelin has decided to classify as scenic and indeed many of them are. Some are also bloody awful for riding along on a motorcycle, if you are in a hurry to go from A to D via B and C. Why? Because they sometimes pass through lots of quaint villages, which slow you down or they are just crap roads. Great if you want to mooch along in your campervan or Mondeo with the wife, mother-in-law and three kids in the back, looking at the scenery. Less good for red-blooded bikers. So, by all means take them but first look at your detailed map and imagine what they might be like. Many of the roads you don't even have to imagine, as Google Streetview will probably show you exactly what they look like.

....& plan a route, then transfer the ‘waypoints’ onto Basecamp in daily routes? (As an aside I think I read somewhere that if you miss a waypoint Garmin makes you go back to it, is this right?

Planning is good, not least as there are six of you on the jaunt.

Yup, transfer the routes into your Garmin device, breaking them up into daily segments.

As to missing Waypoints? That will depend on how you set your routes up and / or the configuration of your GPS device and / or on how you use it. The dedicated GPS section is the place to go for info on this.

Well the 706 & 708 maps arrived today - wow, there is so much detail -

You really cannot beat a good quality map or three. Different maps, differing amounts of detail for different purposes.

I now need to get my arse into gear & plan the routes as we’re going away in less than 5 weeks!

You'll do it easily. Get one or two (or more) of your five mates to help you, too.

 

[Wapping]

Well the 706 & 708 maps arrived today.... I now need to get my arse into gear & plan the routes as we’re going away in less than 5 weeks!

Two weeks into the the less than five weeks. How is your planning going? Got it sorted?

 

[Simmo]

Not yet, reserved all of the hotels, had a meeting with the lads & they seem very happy with the basic outline of the trip.
Got frustrated with BaseCamp & when I've rang up Garmin they have been pleasant but not very helpful. Motogoloco on the other hand were very helpful. I'm also getting confused on how to set up guiding points.
Will be making a special effort tomorrow & at the weekend to really get my arse into gear, will also plot a route near home then ride it to make sure I know how it all operates.

 

[Simmo]

Hi Wapping & co here is my plan what do you think of it so far?
Day 1 - Santander to San Sebastian
Out of Santander up to Espinosa De Los Monteros then through Vitoria and onto San Sebastian - 183 miles
Day 2 - San Sebastian to Bordeaux
Via Biarritz, Dax, Mont De Marsen, Roquefort & Langon all on D roads - 182 miles
Day 3 - Bordeaux to Tours
via Angouleme, meeting with friends for lunch in Chateauponsac, then up via Chatellerault to Tours - 280 miles - big day! Mostly D roads again.
Day 4 - Tours to St Malo
Via Le Mans, Mayenne, Pontorson, up to & along the coast of Bay of Mont Saint-Michel & across to St Malo - 188 miles - mostly D roads again.
Day 5 - St Malo to Le Havre - ?
Day 6 - Le Havre to Cherbourg - ?
I’m pondering on Day 5 & 6 as 2 of the team go back to the UK a day before us, have reserved a night in Le Havre for the remaining four of us, was thinking of having a lazy couple of days in St Malo, then going back to Cherbourg, what do you think?
It might seem like I’ve not done much, but it’s took me three good afternoons as I’ve also been getting used to BaseCamp for the first time. (I best put my comments about that in the relevant forum to keep the mods happy!

 

[Wapping]

Looks like you've got it cracked.

Told you you could do it

 

[Simmo]

Cheers Wapping - I really do appreciate your support! Would you mind looking at the write up of me using BaseCamp? I did look at your ‘lessons’ which helped me no end! Really looking forward to it now!

 

[frog-n-flymo]

Best thing about this site is you're rarely the first to come up with an idea!

Hey Simmo, I've got this trip planned for a couple of months time. I'm going solo and am looking at a loop out into the Picos for the first day.

How did the trip go and what did, didn't work for you?

Cheers

Geoff

 

[Simmo]

It went really well, if anything I over planned it. Going up the mountains between Santander & Bilbao was good fun especially as we had just got off the boat. Enjoyed all of the towns & cities that we visited. Sat nav got a bit confused when we left Bilbao & tried to take us onto the autoroutes.
As you can see Wapping & co were excellent at coaching me to plan the route.