Morocco trip, traveling advice please

[JimmyLJ71]

I'm off on a Morocco trip next year with Atlas Overland, i've done a few trips with them now, but not to Morocco.

We apparently take the ferry from Algeciras and therefore would stay in a campsite the night/day before somewhere near by.

I'm starting plan and think of how long it will take and alternatives to traveling across France and Spain.

How many days/nights should i allow to travel across France and Spain?

What would be the best route?

I also need to work out the costings, i recon its about 1500 miles, but then there will be tolls etc, is there anyway i can find out rough toll prices?

The other alternative is to catch a ferry to Santander.

 

[SpinDrift]

Hi Jimmy,

when I went to Morocco I got the ferry to Bilbao - which is a few miles away from Santander. I landed early morning, around 8.00 and drove straignt down to Estepona which is just short of Algeciras in around 12 hours. The distance was just under 1000kms. The route was Bilbao, Burgos, Madrid, Granada, Malaga, Estepona. Dont remember if there were tolls. We did the centre of Madrid at around lunch time - busy but no problem, although you need to watch the road numbers and route.

The campsite in Estepona was the Parque Tropical http://www.campingparquetropical.com/ It is just off the road to Algeciras and I used it both coming and going. It is about 45 minutes away from Algeciras.

This year when we end down to the Pyrenees we went down the west coast of France but diverted towards Toulouse - some 1000kms whuch we did in around 12 hours, just short of the distance you would have to cover to get to Spain. Tolls were some £20?? You would head straight down to Pamplona in Spain instead.

You can use http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/ to get an idea of routes and tolls.

Whether you drive down or get the ferry to Spain is down to personal preferrence. I think you need to work out what it would cost in diesel verus the cost of the ferry. The ferry is not cheap. The ferry lets you get there without the long driving days but could be a bit boring. One option is to get the ferry to somewhere like Caen.

Enjoy the trip.

cheers

Reinhard

 

[Graham]

I would not pay any tolls.
You can pick your choice,

Calais to Orleans
A16
D901
A28
N154

Then Orleans to Millau
N60
D952
A77
N7
A75
Arrive Millau
Them Barcelona
Then the beautiful "side of mountain" road at Castelldefels (C32)

From there I don't know.
The route from Calaois to Castelldefels you can do without spending a penny on tolls.
Castelldefells is about 30km south of Barcelona.

I have pm sent you the French tolls costs.
I wanted to display them for all to see, but they are .pdf, so I can't see how to attach them.

Graham

 

[Graham]

Well, it looks like there is no way to pm you teh tolls in .pdf any way.

Sorry.

Graham

 

[JimmyLJ71]

No probs, thanks for the advice

 

[Paul]

What about the route into Tangiers Port, anyone tried that yet?

 

[Julian]

Yep, I did Tarifa-Tangiers. A bit of an eye opener but not to bad
The cool bit is that the main customs hall was used in one of the Bourne films

 

[Maximus]

Jimmy, I drove to Morocco via Dover, France, Spain and Cueta last year. To be honest the cost of driving, tolls, accomodation/ camsites en route isn't much different from getting the ferry to Spain and driving to cueta. You can see a detailed breakdown of costs here - http://sahara-overland.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tra

I think if your in a convoy with CBs the drive can be a bit of a crack. But if you are on your own the drive becomes a little tedious (and I enjoy driving).

 

[pugwash]

Get the ferry

the costs are about the same once you add in the cost of fuel, an overnight stop, the ferry to Calais (and potentially the driving costs to either Plymouth or Dover- depends where you are).

Also you get a really relaxing start to your holiday on the ferry - its a nice ship, and you can eat well (the posher all you can eat buffet is good value- if can supply 4 days worth of smoked Salmon Sandwiches!). Also you get off the boat early, which means you can cross Spain in one day- you get down to Algeciras without feeling too tired.

Last couple of times we ended up driving into the national park north of Algeciras and finding somewhere out of the way to camp overnight- as we were out of there early to get to Carlos's for tickets we had no problems.

Driving the length of France AND Spain in a 4tonne loaded truck isn't as much fun as you might think !

 

[Crispin]

I would not pay any tolls.
You can pick your choice,

Calais to Orleans
A16
D901
A28
N154

Then Orleans to Millau
N60
D952
A77
N7
A75
Arrive Millau
Them Barcelona
Then the beautiful "side of mountain" road at Castelldefels (C32)

From there I don't know.
The route from Calaois to Castelldefels you can do without spending a penny on tolls.
Castelldefells is about 30km south of Barcelona.

I have pm sent you the French tolls costs.
I wanted to display them for all to see, but they are .pdf, so I can't see how to attach them.

Graham

Any tips for when you arrive there?

 

[Ian Rubie]

Any tips for when you arrive there?

Expecting the usual

to that one.

 

[Graham]

This is one of my friends web sites.

http://swift-kontiki.co.uk/toll-free-ro ... sta-brava/

Generally almost always no tolls, except for very short "well worth" tolls.

All the way past Barcelona to Costa del Sol, with almost zero tolls.

From Calais,
First stop Sully sur Loire (450km = 5 hours)
Second stop Millau, 500km = 5,5 hours from Sully sur Loire
From Millau, either head Barcelona, or Madrid

The best thing is, it can all be done toll free.

Graham

 

[JimmyLJ71]

WOW

Been off line for a while, lots of advice, thanks everyone

I think i m probably going to catch the ferry to and from Santander, me thinks its going to be very tiring driving all that way back, and i enjoy a good boat trip.