Hi all, next fri morning i will be coming off the Le Harve boat and aiming for portimao as my final destination. I will be on my 6th card come saturday so looking for ideas on how far down in spain i will get and somewhere decent to weekend. this could be one for welshboyinspain, thanks in advance.
first question, when are you starting your week because its not 6 cards its 6 24hour periods so if you start monday 8am you can drive until sunday 8am, just thought you might not know the difference 
anyway if you come off le havre can you start with a clean card?
if so you should make castets friday night.
now it depends also on the route you take, burgos then salamanca to sevilla “ruta de la plata” pretty boring motorway with few places to stop or the more popular irun, sunbilla, cintruenigo, almazan, medinacelli, madrid then A4 all the way to sevilla.
if you take the 2nd route then saturday from castets with 9 hours you should make south of madrid on the A4 a restaurant called “el Queso” at km 102. if you get a bit of traffic or maybe you suffer from a slower truck another good place to stop is “venta molino” at la guardia, i think km 82ish take the exit for the bp petrol station and its the last restaurant after the bp garage, fit romanian waitress 
restaurant el queso is really good value for food and has a good shop that sells lots of stuff for the truck including electrical items. have a safe trip fella
yes will be on fresh card out of le harve and will need to be parked up by sat night. i know the sunbilla, valverde route but never crossed my mind to go that way heading for the algarve. do you think this could be the more cost effective route rather than salamanca way? thanks.
euroboy:
never crossed my mind to go that way heading for the algarve. do you think this could be the more cost effective route rather than salamanca way? thanks.
no
Vascoingles:
euroboy:
never crossed my mind to go that way heading for the algarve. do you think this could be the more cost effective route rather than salamanca way? thanks.no
whats your longer answer vas?
less peaje via A4 and mileage pretty much similar, depends if he’s crossing portugal from huelva or further up but then there’s peaje in portugal. i forgot that all english MUST go past burgos to get to sevilla rather than the route the spanish take
Euroboy,if you have time on the way back,check out the new swimming place in Le Havre,it is called Bains des docks,outdoor heated pool with recycled sea water,indoor pool,with saunas,jacuzis,rivers,hot and cold dip pools,and so on,about 5 euros for the swim,or 10 for the luxuries side of it,plenty of eye candy.
There is a similar pool in Dieppe,on the seafront.
Contrary to popular beleif, the A66 Ruta de la Plata from Salamanca to Sevilla has loads of places to stop (for your benefit James!).
Starting east of Salamanca on the A62, there is Km 177 Siete Ingles (good parking and resturant), Km 225 (mediocre parking, decent restaurant, decent showers), Then onto the A66 Km 348 Arapiles (good parking and resaturant), then a new Cepsa at approximately Km 375 (reasonable parking decent resturant), Km 494 (good restaurant, showers and parking with seperate area for fridges), Km 730 (good parking and resturant).
Additionally to the above which are directly alongside the autovia, there are numerous pueblos with an abundance of bars etc… Parking is rarely a problem so long as you arent too cheeky.
i agree there are those places mark but apart from arapiles i wouldn’t weekend in any of those which is what was asked, i still think if you’re heading to sevilla from irun then the route i use is less mountains, less peajes and better parking but each to their own 
Lloret de Mar■■? 
I went to Lloret once, came back engaged.
zebadee:
Lloret de Mar■■?
Back in 1986 my mate Carl knocked a tree down with the back end of his tilt on the sea front
at Lloret doing a ‘U turn’, it pulled up a couple of paving stones with it’s roots!! He went straight to report it to a local Guardia Civil station but couldn’t find one so didn’t bother 
Ross.
Thanks for all the replies, think we gonna go with welshboy and go via madrid cordoba etc. One thing i forgot to ask if there are showers where you recomended? Toby not coming back le harve way, got to stay down portimao for 4 weeks then over to munich. Fingers crossed it will be tip munich and i will be ble to head home!!
Not sure if the bus station is still in Lloret or not,but many of us used to park in the bus station,sometimes i would park behind the hotels,and not too far away from the beach then,nobody objected.There tends to be a lot of Russian visitors to that area of the coast.
WBIS,i am confused about your post about why the English must go via Burgos,to get on the Salamanca to Seville new route,would that be the best way?
Victors was a dump,i would use the cheese shape big hotel,when it was owned by the old spanish couple,now eastern european owners/managers.It did have good showers and a decent drivers menu.
Another friendly place was the last cafe at the end,towards Burgos,Gallician owners,home made soups,fresh fish stews and meat casseroles,and the famous meat and spud soup,that they all did in that area,great in he cold winter months.
The club there may have been the pull for punch happy drunk brit drivers.
Euroboy,great little club in Navamoral de la Nata,on the national 4,met my bird there,we hired a car to the expo in Lisbon,visited a nun in Madrid,who was some dodgy dealer with the Columbian FARC,they have no human rights in that country,the bird would beat me up,and drank like a fish,got so bad,i had to stay in a hotel fearing my safety.
There was a large water park along that road somewhere,and a big dam,very scenic area.
toby1234abc:
WBIS,i am confused about your post about why the English must go via Burgos,to get on the Salamanca to Seville new route,would that be the best way?
Victors was a dump,i would use the cheese shape big hotel,when it was owned by the old spanish couple,now eastern european owners/managers.It did have good showers and a decent drivers menu.
Another friendly place was the last cafe at the end,towards Burgos,Gallician owners,home made soups,fresh fish stews and meat casseroles,and the famous meat and spud soup,that they all did in that area,great in he cold winter months.
The club there may have been the pull for punch happy drunk brit drivers.
you’ve answered your own question there toby, it seems like all brits must go to victors but its a dump
I used to go to the Algarve regular til 4 yrs ago and always found the Salamanca way easiest and quickest. Now the new motorway is complete from Salamanca to Seville, twas a piece of ■■■■. Would come off the boat at Caen Friday evening and be tipping in Villamoura Monday morning. Was plenty of places to park … I used to use Monasterio (sp?) a lot.
monasterio is a good place, there’s a new hotel now after the town called Leo very good. I don’t think the OP wil get that far Bear, he doesn’t drive like you
welshboyinspain:
monasterio is a good place, there’s a new hotel now after the town called Leo very good. I don’t think the OP wil get that far Bear, he doesn’t drive like you
Just to clarify, Hostal Leo is NOT in the town of Monasterio, its a few clicks down the road on the A66 right on the Km730 exit.
Hombre:
welshboyinspain:
monasterio is a good place, there’s a new hotel now after the town called Leo very good. I don’t think the OP wil get that far Bear, he doesn’t drive like youJust to clarify, Hostal Leo is NOT in the town of Monasterio, its a few clicks down the road on the A66 right on the Km730 exit.
I didn’t say it WAS IN the town I quite clearly stated AFTER 