Road map

Mobilvetta

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Planning on driving over to Spain for the first time from the UK in January, we have the Garmin camper 760 sat Nav, but ideally I would like a decent road atlas covering France and Spain should we get gremlins with the sat Nav, what do forum members use and which ones would you recommend, we have already ordered All The Aires books. Is there any decent comparison booking sites for saving on Ferry or Tunnel costs, that you can recommend. We have also joined ACSI camping card scheme.
 
I normally buy the AA easy read atlas of France. About £10 but will do you for years. There are 2 versions with slightly different scales. I normally go for the bigger scale.

There is also a version which covers Spain and Portugal.

My navigator also buys a paper folded map when in France from the IGN range. They are in all the supermarkets. She likes to be able to see a bigger picture than those shown on just the pages on the book.

Davy
 
We use the Michelin spiral bound maps. You can fold the pages right over to keep the minimum size. They do one for France and one for Spain and Portugal. Roads with attractive scenery are edged with green and the topography is shown so you can see whether you are heading over a mountain or along a valley.

As for ferries I would suggest checking out the ferry companies own websites first. The pricing is based on demand so that you will might find a significant difference in cost between one ferry and the next on the same day or different days. It pays to be flexible with your travel arrangements. If you are a member of one of the major clubs like the Campng and Caravanning Club you can get a discount of up to 10% by booking through them.
 
I always used to use the smaller Michelin road maps, the big ones that fold down to fit in your pocket, as they took up less room on the bike. For the motorhome I have bought a Michelin road atlas, went for the A4 size and must say it hasn’t disappointed me although we have yet to go to France with it. Detail and quality is excellent but as you would expect from Michelin
 
***** said:
I do use a Michelin map, but when I was trucking over Europe, I would always only buy a map from the particular Country.
In Spain, I would go into a garage and buy a Cepsa or similar.
Local knowledge is usually better!
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Thanks we are in Spain at the moment so will take a look at one.
 
***** said:
I do use a Michelin map, but when I was trucking over Europe, I would always only buy a map from the particular Country.
In Spain, I would go into a garage and buy a Cepsa or similar.
Local knowledge is usually better!
Click to expand...
Is Michelin not French?
 
***** said:
Yes it is. I did say when I was trucking. Nowadays any old map will do
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Just double checking as my mind doesn’t always function as it should :)

I do remember a big collection of A to Z’s when I had a couple of years as a field engineer st place I am now. Was before sat nav really although I did spend £600 for a beautiful Dell pda with plug in gps unit and a set of disks with maps plus another £90 for a 1Gb Sandisk memory card to load them in. Wasn’t anything like today’s stuff and was hit and miss if it picked up enough satellite signals. :(

If you want maps for driving round, checking as you go along, then you need much larger scale than my road atlas which will be one reason you got local maps I expect, the fold out ones used to be best for that but not used them for many years now. For planning the next drive then the one I bought is really good. I use my sat nav if I don’t know where I am going so the two are a good combination for us and nothing like the A3 size AA road map of the UK I have as a quick look which direction to head if needed :)

At the moment our French trip is on the back burner, we don’t want to be in France and have problems bringing dogs back in as we are thinking of staying until end of May ish. Need to see how things pan out but we don’t want to go without the dogs so may have to postpone til autumn we will see.
 
The A to Z’s were excellent but if I didn’t go somewhere for a year or so I could need a new one because of changes. Fortunately it wasn’t everywhere like that though as none of them were cheap. There’s something about a decent map and I like to have a study but I don’t miss struggling with the fold out ones on the steering wheel cos it dropped on the floor when you had to brake then lost the bit you needed ha ha.
 
Bri said:
I got this AA France Book recently as I always draw or write on the pages so replace every other year when possible £5 no Brainer
https://www.theworks.co.uk/p/european-travel-guide/aa-2019-big-road-atlas-france/9780749579685
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You must be tidier than me.

Throwing away maps is something I almost never do, even though I write all over them.

When possible, I'll even mark my maps with the routes taken - It simplifies the annotation of my photos after subsequent download. I take loads of photos!

I take pleasure in pulling out an old map of a country that I may never return to, and the scribbles bring memories flooding back. That's why I keep my maps, no matter how old.
 
Mobilvetta said:
Lol, no this trip involved catching a plane, the motorhome was left at home, hoping to drive that to Spain in January.
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Hi Mobilvetta, we notice you are from Blackpool..we from Fleetwood !! Where in Spain are you now and which part do you plan to visit in your motorhome this January ? We on our third wintering in Spain and will be down on the costas in January. Maja
 
maja07 said:
Hi Mobilvetta, we notice you are from Blackpool..we from Fleetwood !! Where in Spain are you now and which part do you plan to visit in your motorhome this January ? We on our third wintering in Spain and will be down on the costas in January. Maja
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Hi we are at Dona Pepa urbanisation which is in Quesada in Costa Blanca, we like it around here as we enjoy cycling and we have a lot of friends here and the climate tends to be dryer, although so far the weather has been hit and miss since November, been nice and sunny today 21° hopefully it will last for a while.

We havent fixed an itinerary and we are going to keep it flexible, we intend setting off from Calais and visiting places in France, if we see somewhere of interest enroute then we will spend a night or two there, not in any rush to get to Spain.

Although one wonders if we would be better heading to Spain first were the climate tends to be better then set of to tour France in March, before heading home in mid in time for Easter. It will be our first time we have done Europe and we are new at motorhoming as we have only had it a few months and never camped before apart from a couple of weekends in September and October so a bit excited and apprehensive at the same time.

I haven't retired yet and have a taxi business in Blackpool, so like to work in the summer months when we have tourists about. Hopefully with the support and experience from this forum we will not make to many mistakes.
 
Mobilvetta said:
Hi we are at Dona Pepa urbanisation which is in Quesada in Costa Blanca, we like it around here as we enjoy cycling and we have a lot of friends here and the climate tends to be dryer, although so far the weather has been hit and miss since November, been nice and sunny today 21° hopefully it will last for a while.

We havent fixed an itinerary and we are going to keep it flexible, we intend setting off from Calais and visiting places in France, if we see somewhere of interest enroute then we will spend a night or two there, not in any rush to get to Spain.

Although one wonders if we would be better heading to Spain first were the climate tends to be better then set of to tour France in March, before heading home in mid in time for Easter. It will be our first time we have done Europe and we are new at motorhoming as we have only had it a few months and never camped before apart from a couple of weekends in September and October so a bit excited and apprehensive at the same time.

I haven't retired yet and have a taxi business in Blackpool, so like to work in the summer months when we have tourists about. Hopefully with the support and experience from this forum we will not make to many mistakes.
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Hi Mobil.....all depends on priorities and preferences......France will be freezing all January, many sites closed and water turned off in free Aires....to have the best weather-wise heading to as far south in Spain then working your way back up through France as the weather improves later would be best. Some may say there's more to life than sunshine!! Whatever, looking forward to shorts n t-shirts in January myself !!! Maja07
 
maja07 said:
Hi Mobil.....all depends on priorities and preferences......France will be freezing all January, many sites closed and water turned off in free Aires....to have the best weather-wise heading to as far south in Spain then working your way back up through France as the weather improves later would be best. Some may say there's more to life than sunshine!! Whatever, looking forward to shorts n t-shirts in January myself !!! Maja07
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Are you getting the ferry in January to Spain or do you intend driving through France to get to Spain, I hope the weather is settled in January, but it's been very unusual and unsettled so far in November, I think you could be right that it's best to head to southern Spain first, but it can be cold in Spain in January.

We have normally gone to Thailand for 3 months in January to escape the winters, so this will be the first time we will miss, although I did say to the Mrs only yesterday that if the weather doesn't start to improve soon here, then perhaps we should go to Thailand for January and set of in the motorhome in February. Have you been to Spain in January, my cousin who lives here said that had some snow last January here.
 
We've done this for the last 6 years and France in Dec and Jan can be miserable. Last year for the first time we used the ferry direct to Santander and drove home back thru France this year probably both out & return trips will be on this ferry.
 
I have a cheap Europe road map, Collins but there are lots of others and then use
Maps.Me online for detail. Once downloaded , and you can choose which parts of a country to have, it can be used offline and as a Sat nav. We use the Sat nav when walking and cycling. If you use it for cycling DO consider setting it to Walking as it keeps you off busy roads. We have occasionally had to get off our bikes and push because you can get onto tracks that are soft sand or have difficulties but we've never had a problem.
You can also download and add the wildcamping POIs too.
It is a useful detailed backup.
 
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