The Route Plan

So, Mr Castellano and I sat down the other night to address the route...again. I still can't figure out why I can't save it to google, so here's a pic instead.

We tried various routes, whilst adding up the costs of autoroutes (tolls), not using autoroutes, etc. and came to the conclusion we would follow the route that uses no tolls (having racked up over £120 potentially using autoroutes).

**Useful info on 2013 autoroute charges...
http://www.autoroutes.fr/FCKeditor/UserFiles/File/Tarifs%2022%20f%C3%A9vrier%202013.pdf**

We leave Thursday eve after work, to head down to Dover for the 22.45 ferry, which gets us in to France just after midnight. Then we will get the f out of Calais and head to Abbeville Aire for a quick stopover (will include GPS co-ords when we have done the stops).

We need to be in Valencia by Monday morning, so it's game on for us, with the aim to get there Sunday night, having stopped for Friday night along the way and in the Pyranees on Sunday.

Again, I will add proper info as we do the journey.

Getting a little bit excited now! eek!

Ferries....arrrggggghhhhh!

We researched several different ferry options in our planning stage. They're so expensive!

Having visited a few different sites and trying to out smart the system, we succeeded. Although it's not easy.

We figured we should find a decent ferry from Spain to Ibiza first, just incase it was ridiculously expensive and may change our minds! There are quite a few options when booking a ferry from Spain to Ibiza. We could have gone from Denia, Valencia or Barcelona. Checking out each option, Valencia came out cheapest - and it's also the fastest, landing us in San Antonio in just uner 3 hours. 

We used travelsupermarket for part of the search, along with directferries, balearia and acciona. However, directferries came out on top at a cool 284euros for a 2 week return sail.

Anyways, so, we have our way off one island and on to the next...so, we just needed to get from UK to France or Spain.

Firstly, we looked at Brittany Ferries, which go from Portsmouth to Santander on a 24 hour ferry. The cheapest we could find was £849 return - yikes! So, that was scrapped from pretty much point go.

Having previously travelled with DFDS, the Dover to Dunkirk route for £49 return we figured this may be an option. Sadly, we have fallen out with DFDS lol. The price has doubled, even when trying for different dates. The cheapest we found this was £85. Ok, so not too expensive, but having paid half that the past two years, we were admamant we could find it cheaper.

On to P&O, which came out at £64 return from Dover to Calais, which we were pretty happy with.

After tweeting DFDS and P&O for promo codes and discounts, who both came back to me quickly, but weren't much help, we decided to book. At this point, we also discovered that it was slighlty cheaper again if booking in Euros (cheeky tip!).


Our travel is now booked - yippeeee!