Hi
We have decided to drive to Carvoeiro nxt year from the UK with our friends and their 4 children!
Having searched the Forum already we plan to follow advice and use the Michelin route but obviously need to break it up into one or two stop overs.
Can anyone reccommend where we should stop to break the journey up into a fairly easy drive and any tried and tested hotels / B&Bs - economical options preferred!
Many thanks
Madge

Which route are you taking? We drove down in July from Plymouth/Santander. An easy drive, arriving in Carvoeiro in 9.5 hours with a few short breaks. Coming back we stayed overnight in a Spanish Hostel just north of Salamancar. Very good value. By the way, we had routes from the AA, RAC and Green Flag; believe me a good road map is better.

we are going to follow the suggested Michelin route from Calais as the ferry from Portsmouth is working out very expensive for two cars and 8 passengers,

Can see your point with 2 cars and 8 passengers; there were only 2 of us.

On a slightly different note regarding driving to CVO - has ANYONE found a way of getting discount tickets on the UK-Spain ferry?

The only way that happens is if you become a shareholder,otherwise its up to special offers which do get posted a couple of times a year but not in peak season.

Don't think you would get hold of any shares; the company is a private company with 99.99% of the issued share capital being held by a non UK registered company. There is a property owners travel club which offers discounts on tickets and restaurant meals, but there is a £100 joining fee plus an annual fee of £100.

Sorry Davek but i was talking about P&O not Brittany Ferries,im a shareholder and receive a 40% discount on all P&O crossings & cruises.

Sorry, I was thinking you were refering specifically to Brittany Ferries. Agreed shareholders can get some pretty good discounts and your 40% is far better than the best offered by Brittany Ferries property owners club. I feel tempted to buy into P&O now. Is there a minimum shareholding to qualify for such discount?

Hi Madge
We've driven out to Algarve several times. Our first time was from Plymouth to Santander (never again..it was winter time & sea in the Bay of Biscay was very rough..most were sea sick)...
That time we stayed at the El Cid hotel in Burgos, which was reasonable (lovely breakfast).
We've also stayed at the 'Picon Del Conde' motel near Burgos at Monasterio De Rodilla, which has camping facilities..bar and restaurant and swimming pool. The tel. phone no for this place is: 947 59 43 55 (don't know the code for Spain)..
Address is: Picon Del Conde, Monasterio De Rodilla, Burgos....the people running this are very nice...they even made up a 'breakfast' for us to take away (lovely warm baguettes with local ham)..its off the N1, 981 and has signs along the way/directions.
We also stayed at a hotel in Salamanca but can't recall name..it wasn't far from the university.

A couple of times we've been through the tunnel and taking the south road towards Le Mans, we stayed at the 'Green Seven' motel near Le Mans. The people here are very nice and speak English....it was reasonably priced and did a nice help yourself breakfast (they serve tea here too)
Don't know if this is any help to you Madge?
Anyway, bon voyage and have a lovely time

Could someone post further details of this 'Michelin' route from Santander please or any other preferred route. I would also like to know how much people have paid for the Plymouth to Santander ferry as we too plan to drive across next year. Thanks