Santander to Southern Spain

[neil 23]

Hello All,
Planning a trip to Southern Spain, near Alicante, looking for advice on best routes,places to stay etc.

1- On Plymouth to Santander ferry, whats it like to sleep on a reclining chair, is it noisy etc ? any experience of these ?.

2- what are best roads to travel on, looking to avoid motorways and cities/large towns etc where possible and allowing 2 full days to get there.

3- any good places to stay approx half way ?, small towns or villages ?

Any advice/ recommendations welcomed on riding on Spanish roads etc, will be using a Zumo sat nav, any tips/advice ?

Best Wishes to all.

 

[<<Mark_C>>]

Sounds like a great trip but how much are you selling it for?

 

[neil 23]

OOPS !

 

[red1]

Hello All,
Planning a trip to Southern Spain, near Alicante, looking for advice on best routes,places to stay etc.

1- On Plymouth to Santander ferry, whats it like to sleep on a reclining chair, is it noisy etc ? any experience of these ?.

Don't even think about it! Unless you are the sort of person who can go to sleep easily anywhere. Not the most comfortable experience especially when you are going to be riding a bike the next day. Pay the extra for a cabin and get a good nights sleep.

 

[boxer]

Don't even think about it! Unless you are the sort of person who can go to sleep easily anywhere. Not the most comfortable experience especially when you are going to be riding a bike the next day. Pay the extra for a cabin and get a good nights sleep.

Plus there's nowt like a touch of privacy when you and then somemore.

 

[somclan]

Chairs

I like the chairs section on that ferry... Can be a bit noisy if there is a school group using them... normally you get other travellers who like you just want to sleep.. Bring your bag and termarest up and crash out on the deck...dont forget your towel for the shower and / or the pool in the bar...Cabins are better but pricey if travelling solo as you got to pay for both bunks

 

[Flipfly]

Depends on where you want to go in Southern Spain, but I can highly recommend the west side of Spain between Portugal and Madrid, and heading down through any of the b roads. They will take longer but wow the scenery and some of the best twisty roads you can find.

If you go through the National parks keep an eye out for Vultures and big groups of deer (not to mention the wild boar).

Get off the beaten track, take another day to get there and you will see some truely stunning scenery and roads.

 

[worthy]

Do you have the route you took....?

 

[BegesRus]

I did Bilbao to Murcia at end of Aug on maily 'B' roads - the trip was fantastic - 850 Kms - I should have the track record on my Garmin - I'll did it out and post it - may be in a few days time

 

[Flipfly]

Just found a brilliant road that we did a couple of years ago. It's the LR-113 from Najera (just outside Longrono) to Villaveleyo. Then take the Bu-822 towards Quitanar de la sierra

Fantastic road surface at the start, then the tarmac gets dodgy but the scenery is feckin ace. Had vultures eyeing up my not inconsiderable mass like I was about to be chicken food. Threw a couple of manacing looks of my own, that scared em off

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

Depends on where you want to go in Southern Spain, but I can highly recommend the west side of Spain between Portugal and Madrid, and heading down through any of the b roads. .

Seconded

Neil, there's some useful info here

And here - the 'Silver' route mentioned in my posts is reccomended.

Andres

 

[Pathologic]

Best of luck

We were in spain this summer in a car . Still GS in the blood. We went through the Sierra Universidad East of Madrid. and stayed in Cuenca (here). Amazing country and roads.

Our Zumo was confused by the number of new roads they are building. MAke sure it is uptodate.

Regards,

Path.

 

[BegesRus]

Sorry but problems uploading the Garmin track log onto this page (file size too big) stumpted!
Suggestions anyone

 

[Daniboy]

Santander-Palencia-Valladolid-Avila-Talavera-Ciudad Real-Linares-Murcia. All on secondary roads.

 

[Daniboy]

If I may suggest...

 

[denmat]

worth the cash

i did a similar trip last summer with my daughter last july , from my experience its well worth having a cabin if only for somewhere to put your kit in and for somewhere to be ill ( laura not me!). we left santander and headed for burgos, excellent road and qiuet varied. We stopped the first night in a small town called Horche , just NE of madrid the hotel is called la canada.It has an locked underground garage and they were very helpful.the rest of the trip we stayed in ciudad quesada fot the next week before heading for home thru spain and france , what a good two weeks only troble is it makes you want to more.

 

[denmat]

silly me

forgot to mention the road from Horche to Cuenca you have got travel this one , we did it at first light and travelled the 100 ml approx and only met 1/2 dozen cars, thought i was in heaven.

 

[Boffer]

cabin worth it if you can afford to if not don't bother with the seats, uncomfortable & lots of noise, better off finding quite corner/shelf/window ledge with sleeping bag. Ferries usually arrive midday (made Gibralter in 1.5 days on 20yr old rat XJ650) plan to do the same again on GS but use back roads and 2 days. Don't bother planning stops there are so many beds available, if you arrive late at night police station a good place to ask (they have even phoned/lead me to the hotel before!). All adds to the fun of the trip

 

[peter wallis]

i drove from cartagena to santander by autoroute in september 08 and did it easily in one day however i found the heat a problem at burgos you have to come of the motorway for a bit due to road resurfacing it was 100 degrees dont worry about accomadation theres plenty everywhere,dont even think about the recliner on the ferry,get a cabin its worth it

 

[garfield]

I'm one of those people who can fall asleep anywhere.....I've booked myself a reclining chair on the Santander ferry, I dare anyone to make noise when it's sleep time...... ......besides live now sleep later......

As for the rest of the questions, I'm gonna improvise when I get there in April, will definitely be swinging through the Picos though.....