Road trip advice. Northern Spain etc..

BigDave

BigDave

Member
Next year 2026, I am looking at doing a bit of tour [with some mates],,of Northern Spain, Picos mountains, and poss into Portugal.. The Douro valley etc...

This I would take about 2 weeks to hopefully leisurely drive it..

Anybody hear done this, or have any advice / recommendations of visits, places to stay, things to see.???

Thanks...
 
BigDave said:
Next year 2026, I am looking at doing a bit of tour [with some mates],,of Northern Spain, Picos mountains, and poss into Portugal.. The Douro valley etc...

This I would take about 2 weeks to hopefully leisurely drive it..

Anybody hear done this, or have any advice / recommendations of visits, places to stay, things to see.???

Thanks...
Click to expand...
I've done this 3 times in the last 4 years with a road trip with like minded folks next year..

B21

Thread 'Northern Iberia June 2026.. all slots taken'

Just a place holder for those that maybe interested in enjoying part or whole of such a trip.

Having been in country on 3 separate road trips this is the best of the best..imho

Portsmouth to Santander through the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean then back across the Pyrenees to then head to the Northern Western most part of Galicia then meander back through the mountains and coasts of northern Spain to Santander

14 nights in country.

What could possibly go wrong …

B21 aka Peter E89
Stevepg aka Steve F Type Roadste
Gerry Z4M Roadster
Tony Z4M Coupe
Stuart E85

B21

Thread 'Yet another plug for Northern Iberia road trip'

I’ve done two recent Northern Iberia road trips with some of the folks here…

This year SWMBO decided to take a month to more fully explore this fabulous part of Europe.

Not much to say that hasn’t already been said,,

The road network is just amazing…so many roads have been upgraded..makes you weep about the state of British roads.

The scenery just keeps on giving..go around another bend and it’s another change of scenery.

In 3,000 miles and 30 days we saw 2 F Types, 2 TTs and a Disco that were UK plated..after the port. Only saw one E85 Spanish reg..

Only the Northern European drive...
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B21

Thread 'Pyrenean Road Trip 6th-15th September 2022'




Something I've not done in any of my Z4s is a European road trip.

Whereas I've been many times over many years all over Western Europe by bike and Eastern Europe by Lada!

So this is a bucket list indulgent trip in Zeds.

The plan is to rendezvous at Ashford earrly afternoon and take the Chunnel and then arrive for a first night not far int France.

Next day is an autoroute blast to La Rochelle.

Then one or two days down to Biarittz or San Sebastian taking N and D roads following the Cote Sauvage (Atlantic Coast)

From there a two or three day trip across the Pyrenees...

Depends on your bag ..maybe read these write ups of past trips and maybe ask some questions thereafter?
 
Done this a few times now. Can't think of better, clearer free flowing roads than northern Spain especially the Picos 👍

Portugal, PARTICULARLY the Douro valley you couldn't drag me back to. Roads very slow and congested, eating etc very expensive compared to northern Spain and people definitely did not seem happy to have us there.

Both IMO obviously
 
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Portugal I found was congested with poor road surfaces and whilst lovely wasn't a patch on Spain for driving or the people

The Pico's mountains are stunning and full of empty good quality roads and considerable drivers


My advice is take it slow and find the back roads

The CA184 road out of Ojedo/ Potes south is sublime

There's great places to eat and stay and all very good value

The one place you couldn't drag me back too is Andora I've never been anywhere with so many angry people/drivers
 

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Just been for a walk in Northern Spain. Lovely part of the world. There were some great looking roads, with no cars on. Santiago de Campostella is well worth a visit, and not just for pilgrims.
 
Other thing I should've mentioned was we get the ferry Plymouth/Portsmouth to Santander. We've also driven from tunnel but if you want to concentrate on the areas yov've highlighted the overnight ferry makes a huge difference.

If you are going that way the ferry books up pretty quickly. We're already booked for next year and the spaces are already limited 👍

Oh, and as Andy says, Andorra was awful. It was that unforgettable, I'd forgotten we were there but Andy's provided photographic evidence 😂
 
BigDave said:
Thanks chaps, for the info. Very helpful. I shall have a cogitate, and make some decisions shortly...
Click to expand...
On the Portugal bit..I didn’t go with the guys to Portugal but this year SWMBO and I spent quite a while in Portugal…around 8 days …but…we were not in the traditional tourist areas …we were in the area near the eastern Spanish border….there is some beautiful countryside there and the roads were ok..it’s just not got as good as the Spanish equivalent..Portuguese locals are a little less welcoming we found than the Spanish locals but I guess that’s the various national traits…I think we may have crossed some of the roads that the two Andys went on ..and certain areas are very popular with French and other tourists…Northern Spain seems to be abandoned apart from Spaniards..
 
Cheers folks for the info. The ferry has been booked... I now ,,,,,have a 3 week window of possibilities..
Week 1 is Potes / Pecos mountains, week 2 could be a jaunt over to the Pyrenees, week 3 is still in the planning...:driving::driving::cool:
 
I've been going on driving trips to Portugal since 2015 (and Spain longer than that), mostly in the areas north and west of the Douro valley. Yes, the food isn't as good as Spain and the Portuguese can come across a bit dour in comparison (they're more like Brits than the expressive Spanish). But it would be a shame to miss out on an entirely different country and distinctive culture and architecture, if you're in the vicinity.

And while Portugal being a much smaller country doesn't have the breadth of routes that Spain offers, the best Portuguese roads are really very good indeed, such as the N103 from Braganca north to the border.
 
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