Northern Iberia Trip Planning (long)

[Mr Tidy]

@Hysteric I'd thoroughly recommend making the trip North of the Border - you just don't find roads like that in our crowded corner of the country.

I did Peter's Coast to Coast trip in May and will be doing his NC500 trip in October, which is more justifiable because it's longer so is over more days.

 

[Hysteric]

@Hysteric I'd thoroughly recommend making the trip North of the Border - you just don't find roads like that in our crowded corner of the country.

I did Peter's Coast to Coast trip in May and will be doing his NC500 trip in October, which is more justifiable because it's longer so is over more days.

Hi mate, 100% unfortunately I was too late to the party for the nc500 this year.

If there is a last minute drop out I'd be in with bells on!

 

[B21]

Amazingly helpful write up for anyone considering.

I'll certainly keep my eyes peeled for the UK '27 trips to get my feet under the table. Coming from Surrey (near @Mr Tidy) it would need a night or two to warrant heading over the borders!

I was very curious about reliability but sounds like everything was within reason and manageable for our cars of an older persuasion. Yes I think the driver would wilt before the car in my case. 5hrs/days sounds spot on.

E85/E89 in my experience over 10 years and over 200 meets / drives / tours are very reliable…punctures the main and really only issue..

Important to find groups of folks who are of similar driving styles / aspirations / expectations…

Some groups I attended were either incompetent / bad / mad / dangerous ..others way way to slow ..others 3 hours and they were done ..a hard day …

There is a Scottish centred sub group that I belong to that suits me..it may not suit others ..

 

[1536Z4]

Firstly a big thank you to Peter for organising this trip and opening our eyes to Northern Iberia and also to the rest of the group that made this a truly memorable experience.
The reason Karen and I went down and back through France was 2 fold . One because Karen isn't/ wasn't a lover of spending a long time on a ferry and the other was because neither of us had experienced France apart from school trips and booze cruises back in the day . Without going into detail if we were to do it again we would drive down the East of France along the well known passes rather than the West coast as you don't see much of the coast unless you turn off down all the roads to the actual seaside towns . The salt lakes are worth a visit though around La Salaire especially if you are into bird watching as Karen is . Spain was a real eye opener for us and me especially as I hadn't been before and just thought of it as a giant Benidorm or just barren . I found it to be very beautiful and the people very pleasant . Everywhere was very clean and tidy with workman actually working if there were roadworks. We would definitely do the return trip by Ferry from Santander as it is only one night on the return trip and after you have spent days driving across Spain you need a rest rather than driving back through France . It is also cheaper than spending out on hotels and fuel through France plus ferry to Portsmouth. Peter mentioned about the heat and using Parador hotels but whatever hotel you decide to book make sure it has proper air conditioning in the bedroom. You need a good night's rest ready for the next day