France to Spain to Mallorca and back again!

For the ferry, I booked online direct here Might save you a couple of quid. Also to think about is you could always mix up the ferries as IIRC it's about the same price/time (8hrs) to take the ferry to/from Valencia one way and Barcelona the other....


@Ogden, Nice write up, looking forward to reading more as I'm thinking of a route up that way for my next trip.

as an option LD lines have fold flat seats ( like the bussiness class airplane seats) on that route ( as long as the right boat is on) for about a £10

and the ride out of le havre through the little underpasses and over that bridge is a great start to a hoilday and one that i shall be doing to get to the west coast in August

though the route that Via michelin gives to get south doesnt go over the Pont de Normandie it goes over the Pont De tancaville ( about 3 miles futher up river looks a bit like a small severn bridge)

[Luckypants]

The Pont de Tancaville is more direct which is probably why the route sends you that way. The roads are a bit more fun that way to. I used this route as a way to head north and then went to ride the Pont de Normandie as a 'stunt', turned round and rode it the other way to carry on

both free for bikes tho

The route that the P2P guys are doing could be adapted quite well if you fancied comming back via Valencia

Originally Posted by blue curvy jester

as an option LD lines have fold flat seats ( like the bussiness class airplane seats) on that route ( as long as the right boat is on) for about a £10

Tell me more! Never saw that option when booking. Were are going on the Norman Voyager.

[ogden]

Originally Posted by ogden

If you need more inspiration, I've been writing up the Alps trip from a couple of years ago...

http://eldaifo.blogspot.com/2012/01/...le-part-1.html
http://eldaifo.blogspot.com/2012/01/...le-part-2.html

Plenty more to come.

And indeed there was - part 3 is up. A cautionary tale for us all.

Ld lines have a tendency to change ships if you end up on the Norman spirit Or the cote de albertere then they'll have them

DFDS are now using the Norman Spirit on the Dover Dunkirk route. Maybe will change, but at the moment it's the Norman Spirit, so I doubt we can book those seats if the planned ferry doesn't have them.

Originally Posted by chilli

Yeah the ferry prices aren't cheap I think I paid around 120E with resident's discount (we get a BIG discount on flights/ferries to the mainland)

If you're looking for cheap luggage take a look at www.louis.de they have some cheap options and their shipping is 10E. I bought their moto detail panniers and they've held up to some abuse. I bought the big tank bag but needed to do some DIY to make it work - the base zip was cr@p.

On the accommodation front, when I've been travelling I've used roadside 'Hostals'. they're generally cheap 20-25E a night with bathroom sometimes with a basic brekkie (coffee and pastry), TV etc. I've yet to find a way of searching for them on the web but if yr on the road keep your eyes open, some are a bit rough but generally they're bloody good for teh money.

ALso when you plan your route be aware that there are a lot of toll motorways, especially around barcelona (use google maps route thingy with "avoid toll roads" switched on to find a route). Roads in spain are generally pretty good so decide how much time saving you want over decent A roads and scenery.

Hope that helps

Thanks for the info mate. Had to find out about ferry cost because it kinda shocked me so wasn't sure. Hostals sound good to me.

I thought there were no toll roads in Spain? Bad info from elsewhere so thanks for the heads up. The Michelin site should give me a rough idea and I'll try and avoid some of these roads if possible.

Originally Posted by blue curvy jester

as an option LD lines have fold flat seats ( like the bussiness class airplane seats) on that route ( as long as the right boat is on) for about a £10

and the ride out of le havre through the little underpasses and over that bridge is a great start to a hoilday and one that i shall be doing to get to the west coast in August

though the route that Via michelin gives to get south doesnt go over the Pont de Normandie it goes over the Pont De tancaville ( about 3 miles futher up river looks a bit like a small severn bridge)

Thanks, will bear that in mind. Tbh I was thinking of the Pont de Normandie but either will be fine as long as I'm headed in the right direction.