Portugal Middle January - Early February 2020

[Lorraine]

Jeff and I would like to know of anybody is going on theses dates, perhaps you could show us, or advise us on which route to take who has been before, stop off Aires, how long if you only drive approximately 200 miles per day, places of interest to visit, where you would get the ferry too (would like to be able to have my dog in a cabin), or does the fuel cost out way the ferry ticket cost, time probably won't be at limit.
Any advise or travel companions would be most appreciated

 

[witzend]

Jan / Feb can be poor weather for driving thru France the ferry to Spain is more expensive than driving but IMO worth it for the convenience

 

[Lorraine]

Driving down from Dieppe our route would be
Rouen
Evereux
Orleans
Limoges
Bergerac
Mont de Marsan
Dax
Irun
Pampalona
Logrono (the Rioja area)
Salamanca
Caceres
then west to Portugal
Castelo de Vide
Baragem de Poava

All toll free

or from Caceres, go south to Badajoz and go into Portugal further south

incidentally, I used to truck to Madrid, Lisbon and Porto about 30 trips per year and through the winter and very rarely got held up due to weather, and in any case, you have your bed, kitchen and toilet with you

Thank you very much for this, do you stay on Aires or use campsite, to do your washing after a few days before you get where you are going and do you use a campsite when you arrive at your destination in Portugal or do you travel about
Sorry for all these questions but I find the information you are supplying us with very beneficial
we've not been before and I have not heard anybody talking about how they did, just that they have been
Jeff wants to try this route first before hopefully many more

 

[witzend]

Laundry is easily overcome as in France a lot of supermarkets in Portugal have launderettes outside. 3 mths a year for 5 winters never visited a campsite. Or paid for aire's as all seem to busy preferring to visit other locations but rarely alone as Southern Portugal gets busy in Winter. Check the poi's here I expect there's many alternative locations listed

 

[witzend]

incidentally, I used to truck to Madrid, Lisbon and Porto about 30 trips per year and through the winter and very rarely got held up due to weather, and in any case, you have your bed, kitchen and toilet with you

Their only talking of 200 mls a day say 4 hrs driving 20 hrs to spend site seeing in France in Jan/Feb Last time I was their at that time of year it was -6° from Northern Spain to well up into France

 

[rugbyken]

we do this trip over this period every year though our preference is the long ferry down & drive back up through france late march in the better weather , with a dog you will really struggle to get a santander or bilboa crossing last two years we have done the st malo crossing saves about 250 miles of driving for us a full tank of fuel & you drop straight down rennes/ nantes/ bordeaux you can avoid tolls by going la rochelle instead of niort and then biaritz a comfortable two day drive 45mls , best advise would be get south quickly early january even in northern spain would likely be below freezing

 

[Pauljenny]

From Manchester, an easy drive Portsmouth, then to Caen is a 6 hour ferry crossing..No cabins, or dog problems.
Easy , toll free roads to Spain. The A1, San Sebastian/ Vitoria, is toll free but hidden on some satnavs.
In January, it's probably too cold for sightseeing until you get well South of Salamanca, then you can relax, using POI s and that other website, that we don't talk about on here.
On WC, European travel is a fine thread... " Spain, Portugal, where are you.? Loads of info on there.
When you get down here, give us a shout, if you've any questions, or fancy a meet up

 

[Lorraine]

Thank you Paul/Jenny for your comments
We never even thought about the cold, might have to change the times
We would like nothing more than to meet up

Edit

Does my dog have to stay in the M/H 6 hrs on her own
She is very frightened traveling on her own so I couldn't possibly leave her on her own

 

[Topmast]

I don’t know about Spain but Portugal can go either way weather wise in January we have been working in tee shirts one day and minus 8 the next with ice lasting on water buts until lunch time. When we moved we wondered if we should take our sheepskin coats very glad we did.

 

[RichardHelen262]

We went down this January we went via the tunnel but through France and north an spain and also in Portugal we were get evening temps between. -6 to - 14but once we hit portugal we we’re getting nice sunny days but frosty nights so we moved on to Spain where things were much warmer,on the way down we just used Aires as we did for much of the 6 weeks

 

[witzend]

Yes, I did know,Thanks, I was just saying how we do it

No you referred to your days as a lorry driver driving thru with out any delays and never being held up for road conditions they aren't doing that so stopping with minus temps won't be much fun for them or not for us anyway it's why for last 2 trips we have been using the Spanish ferry route

 

[Lorraine]

I don’t know about Spain but Portugal can go either way weather wise in January we have been working in tee shirts one day and minus 8 the next with ice lasting on water buts until lunch time. When we moved we wondered if we should take our sheepskin coats very glad we did.

Bit like here

 

[Biggarmac]

Over the years I have used the tunnel (once) Portsmouth to Le Havre / Caen (several times) then driven through France and Spain to Portugal. Portsmouth long crossing using a pet free cabin or kennels then down the centre of Spain. It can be bad weather on any of the routes, but they are much better at clearing the roads than here.
My preference is the long ferry crossing and then getting to the Med as quickly as possible. With your dog if you can't get a pet friendly cabin on the long crossing you are probably going to have to look at the tunnel and the long treck through France.

 

[PeteS]

We drove down to Spain this year in January and drove back end of March, Total cost for us was just around £600 in food and fuel plus we used a couple of aires/campsites as the weather was cold for electric hookup.
Next year we are taking the ferry to Spain and it is costing us £860 that includes a 10% discount from a Club Voyager member, so probably £200 more expensive. Our moho is 7.5m and we also have bikes on the back so you pay for that.

We enjoyed the drive down through France but it was cold and wet as you would expect. We avoided any tolls, if we had used the tolls then the cost of the ferry would work out cheaper for us.
We drove down the western side of France, thought it might be warmer but we also wanted to visit Salamanca for a few days in Spain so it made sense to go that way. Coming back we kept to the eastern side of France.

By using the ferry we are getting to Spain a few days earlier so we thought we would give it a go. Plus if Brexit does happen without a deal then I would like 90 days in Spain where its warm and not waste 8 of them driving through France and back on this occaision.