Road trip Spain

[Turk]

I've been researching a road trip I have to take across Spain in March and it dawned on me that there may be some Racedepartment members that either live in Spain, or have already done a Spanish road trip that could give me some suggestions.

I'm landing in Santander and need to get to Calpe (near Alicante) on the eat coast. I was going to go to Zaragosa, then down to Calpe on day two. I do need to be in Calpe so I can't go adding days, I just want to find the most interesting way there.

Anyone who's driven in Spain knows how expensive it is to use the motorways, I've been looking at how practical it is to avoid them for at least some of the trip and find some more interesting roads. I see there's a basque country trip but it's out of the way for my destination.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Or do you know what it's like to take local roads? I've heard they can be very busy.

 

[Salvatore Sirignano]

I´m living in Madrid at the moment, although not really driving around much at the moment. However, the roads are great, not much traffic to be had on the motorways.
If you can, I implore you to initially head west out of Santander into Asturias, and down through Panes and Potes amongst the Picos de Europa mountains - stopping off at the Mirador de Santa Catalina. You won`t regret it!
I´ve driven in Scotland, New Zealand, Austalia, California, Chile, Argentina etc - and Asturias/Cantabria are up there for stunning roads

Santander to Calp

www.google.com

 

[Turk]

That's not too out of the way, it's only really adding another hour or so to the final destination, and I was really hoping to drive one of those mountain pass type roads. Cheers. I have more time on the first day now, I thought the ferry got in at 15:30 but it arrives at 08:00.

I just need to figure out where I'd overnight on the way down.

During the holiday I have planned to drag everybody to Toledo for a night.

 

[Salvatore Sirignano]

You get cracking views on the N621, you might want to take your time blasting round those roads, in which case, perhaps stop for the night somewhere a bit north of Madrid? There are so many places to recommend to visit, Leon, Segovia, Salamanca, Toledo, Burgos - you could spend a week working your way down...

 

[Turk]

It would be cool to spend a week travelling, might extend the trip down by a day "by accident" But I'm going down to visit my mother so I have to spend most the time in Calpe and maybe do journeys from there. I like historical stuff, so I'll probably try and find somewhere with some nice medieval or ancient buildings.

 

[manc0ntr0]

I'll tell you to mandatory visit Asturias, but I'm little biased as I am from this place called "natural paradise".
You can go through the Liebana valley in Cantabria if you don't want to travel too much to the west. There are beautiful places too.

 

[Turk]

I'll tell you to mandatory visit Asturias, but I'm little biased as I am from this place called "natural paradise".
You can go through the Liebana valley in Cantabria if you don't want to travel too much to the west. There are beautiful places too.

If I didn't have to be in Calpe I would love to. I drove down from France the last time and I was amazed at the north of Spain, it was incredible. We stopped off in Bilbao for a few hours that time.

 

[Turk]

So it looks like my Spanish holiday is going to be a bit longer than expected, wasn't really expecting things to get so bad. I got to do your route @Salvatore Sirignano. It was a bit rainy and over cast, but that made some of it look even more dramatic, but we had patches of sunshine. When we were at the highest point we were in cloud and couldn't see anything underneath. Parts of it reminded me of the west of Ireland. Everyone agrees the next family holiday is happening in that region.

We were booked in to stay in Alcala De Henares but we decided to play it safe and head straight for Alicante. 12 hours on the road, the new car got a baptism of fire and came through well. Got to spend one more day on the road, went up into the mountains here and got some pictures, next day was complete lock down, been house bound since, no way to get home as all ferries are canceled from Spain to Ireland until April. Spanish police are doing a good job though, they have check points on the way into town and are making sure there's no unnecessary travel.

Hope every one is keeping safe out there.

 

[Salvatore Sirignano]

So it looks like my Spanish holiday is going to be a bit longer than expected, wasn't really expecting things to get so bad. I got to do your route @Salvatore Sirignano. It was a bit rainy and over cast, but that made some of it look even more dramatic, but we had patches of sunshine. When we were at the highest point we were in cloud and couldn't see anything underneath. Parts of it reminded me of the west of Ireland. Everyone agrees the next family holiday is happening in that region.

We were booked in to stay in Alcala De Henares but we decided to play it safe and head straight for Alicante. 12 hours on the road, the new car got a baptism of fire and came through well. Got to spend one more day on the road, went up into the mountains here and got some pictures, next day was complete lock down, been house bound since, no way to get home as all ferries are canceled from Spain to Ireland until April. Spanish police are doing a good job though, they have check points on the way into town and are making sure there's no unnecessary travel.

Hope every one is keeping safe out there.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the area! Shame about the present circumstances, hope you don´t end up stranded for too long!
Take care