Driving to Southern Spain - quiet dog friendly places
Discussion
We're going to take our dogs down to Spain next month as we're planning a 3 week ish trip. We're up in York, so looks like its 25 hours without stops, so we'll do this over a couple of days.
Rough plan us to leave York early hours, get a 6am chunnel crossing and do a long first day around Poitiers for the first night in a hotel. Day 2 drive from Poitiers to Burgos area with another overnight stay before heading to Nerja from Burgos. Had orginally planned one night stop but I think 15 hours each day will be a bit much.
Looks like most of the Ibis hotels are pet friendly, I just wanted to see who's done similar journeys with their dogs before and any pointers as to where to stay?
Rough plan us to leave York early hours, get a 6am chunnel crossing and do a long first day around Poitiers for the first night in a hotel. Day 2 drive from Poitiers to Burgos area with another overnight stay before heading to Nerja from Burgos. Had orginally planned one night stop but I think 15 hours each day will be a bit much.
Looks like most of the Ibis hotels are pet friendly, I just wanted to see who's done similar journeys with their dogs before and any pointers as to where to stay?
We took our 2 dogs with us down to a friend's villa near Valencia in September '23.
Because we weren't on the clock we took 5 days to go down and a week to come back avoiding Autoroutes etc. where possible. The first thing I'd say is if you can spend a bit of time driving some of the back roads through the Pyrenees it's well worth the effort as the scenery is stunning especially if you can head to or from Carcassonne which is also worth a visit.
As for accommodation, we ended up using the Accor website for most of our overnights as they have a dog filter which shows all the hotels in a given area that are dog friendly and those we used were all very clean, welcoming and not overly expensive.
If you want any specific information on where we stayed and the route we took please let me know.
Because we weren't on the clock we took 5 days to go down and a week to come back avoiding Autoroutes etc. where possible. The first thing I'd say is if you can spend a bit of time driving some of the back roads through the Pyrenees it's well worth the effort as the scenery is stunning especially if you can head to or from Carcassonne which is also worth a visit.
As for accommodation, we ended up using the Accor website for most of our overnights as they have a dog filter which shows all the hotels in a given area that are dog friendly and those we used were all very clean, welcoming and not overly expensive.
If you want any specific information on where we stayed and the route we took please let me know.
Voodoo Blue said:
We took our 2 dogs with us down to a friend's villa near Valencia in September '23.
Because we weren't on the clock we took 5 days to go down and a week to come back avoiding Autoroutes etc. where possible. The first thing I'd say is if you can spend a bit of time driving some of the back roads through the Pyrenees it's well worth the effort as the scenery is stunning especially if you can head to or from Carcassonne which is also worth a visit.
As for accommodation, we ended up using the Accor website for most of our overnights as they have a dog filter which shows all the hotels in a given area that are dog friendly and those we used were all very clean, welcoming and not overly expensive.
If you want any specific information on where we stayed and the route we took please let me know.
Thank you. One of our dogs is a tad deranged (Border collie) so I'm not sure we want to be in a car for longer than needs Because we weren't on the clock we took 5 days to go down and a week to come back avoiding Autoroutes etc. where possible. The first thing I'd say is if you can spend a bit of time driving some of the back roads through the Pyrenees it's well worth the effort as the scenery is stunning especially if you can head to or from Carcassonne which is also worth a visit.
As for accommodation, we ended up using the Accor website for most of our overnights as they have a dog filter which shows all the hotels in a given area that are dog friendly and those we used were all very clean, welcoming and not overly expensive.
If you want any specific information on where we stayed and the route we took please let me know.
but I think a small detour will certainly make the trip more interesting. Great, I'll have a look at the Accor website. We haven't decided on a vehicle either ... I'm struggling to work out how we'd sqeeze 2 x adults, 2 x roadbikes 2 x dogs and 2 x snowboards etc into the E63 s estate, so may need to take a van from work which will be less interesting to drive on those roads.Seriously consider the Portsmouth to Saint Malo crossing. There are dog friendly cabins. It takes about 6 hours and cuts out the M25/M20 (which can be a nightmare both ways) plus a chunk of northern France. Gives you a break too.
Last time I drove to our place in Southern Spain from the Midlands it took about 24hrs of driving, 12hrs over 2 days shared driving with one stop near Bordeaux. It was a lot, and without dogs, so suggest 3 days is reasonable.
The Michelin route planner is useful and includes tolls: https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/
Best to avoid Paris,Barcelona and Valencia, instead head for San Sebastián, Burgos, Madrid. But don’t arrive near Madrid on Friday afternoon as everyone was escaping for the weekend like we did
Get a toll badge. Something like Blip&Go which takes about 10 days to a week to arrive. It costs a few euro a month buy only when you use it and the toll costs are the same. It saves a lot of time over a long journey. https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/
Have a great journey.
Last time I drove to our place in Southern Spain from the Midlands it took about 24hrs of driving, 12hrs over 2 days shared driving with one stop near Bordeaux. It was a lot, and without dogs, so suggest 3 days is reasonable.
The Michelin route planner is useful and includes tolls: https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/
Best to avoid Paris,Barcelona and Valencia, instead head for San Sebastián, Burgos, Madrid. But don’t arrive near Madrid on Friday afternoon as everyone was escaping for the weekend like we did
Get a toll badge. Something like Blip&Go which takes about 10 days to a week to arrive. It costs a few euro a month buy only when you use it and the toll costs are the same. It saves a lot of time over a long journey. https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/
Have a great journey.
I drove to Spain and back in the summer with the dog and I just slept at the French rest stops. They're generally excellent.
I dunno if you know Paris but I wouldn't want to be tackling that in the middle of the day. I drove through it at 6am there and 3am on the way back and even with little to no traffic, it was still a total nightmare trying to figure out which lane to be in and which exits to take, let alone the insane junctions that have no logical structure, speed cameras, and spooky tunnels.
I'd definitely recommend getting the tags for France and Spain. They're superb and save a lot of farting about that you don't need on a long drive. I found the Spanish toll roads were nowhere near as frequent as in France (for the bit I did at least, about an hour down the coast from Barcelona).
I dunno if you know Paris but I wouldn't want to be tackling that in the middle of the day. I drove through it at 6am there and 3am on the way back and even with little to no traffic, it was still a total nightmare trying to figure out which lane to be in and which exits to take, let alone the insane junctions that have no logical structure, speed cameras, and spooky tunnels.
I'd definitely recommend getting the tags for France and Spain. They're superb and save a lot of farting about that you don't need on a long drive. I found the Spanish toll roads were nowhere near as frequent as in France (for the bit I did at least, about an hour down the coast from Barcelona).
JEA1K said:
Thank you. One of our dogs is a tad deranged (Border collie) so I'm not sure we want to be in a car for longer than needs but I think a small detour will certainly make the trip more interesting. Great, I'll have a look at the Accor website. We haven't decided on a vehicle either ... I'm struggling to work out how we'd sqeeze 2 x adults, 2 x roadbikes 2 x dogs and 2 x snowboards etc into the E63 s estate, so may need to take a van from work which will be less interesting to drive on those roads.
No problem, dogs can sometimes be a bit of a nightmare on long journeys but I think a small detour will certainly make the trip more interesting. Great, I'll have a look at the Accor website. We haven't decided on a vehicle either ... I'm struggling to work out how we'd sqeeze 2 x adults, 2 x roadbikes 2 x dogs and 2 x snowboards etc into the E63 s estate, so may need to take a van from work which will be less interesting to drive on those roads.One other piece of advice I'd offer if your planning on using the tunnel is go over on a late crossing and stay overnight near Calais. We've been doing this for years with or without the dogs as it's usually a lot quieter so no queues, you can have a meal and relax in the evening and then enjoy a good breakfast and fresh start in the morning. It really sets the trip up nicely and does away with the frantic rush on day 1.
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