Traveling From North Wales To Alicante Best Route With A Dog

[cris r]

Hi we are planning to travel to Spain with our dog, probably next month. We will stay for six weeks. Can anyone give me advice on the best possible routes. I was looking at the ferry Portsmouth to Santander but the prices were quite expensive. Has anyone done this journey who can offer advice. We will be travelling from Hampshire for the start of the journey
Many thanks for any info

[Buenchico]

A few months ago I had to research some travel options for a dog-owning couple who were visting the UK. Nearly all of the ferry companies require dogs to be housed in kennels (or in their owners' cars) on a nasty, smelly, scarey car deck. However I was struck by the dog-friendliness of Brittany's Portsmouth to Le Havre service, where they've got cabins which you can take your dogs in, together with a dedicated pet exercise area. So, given that you're starting from Hampshire, that would seem to be a possibility for you to consider:
http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/ferry-routes/ferries-france/portsmouth-le-havre

That would obviously give you a longer drive than from Bilbao or Santander but the crossing would be far cheaper. You could either take the A10/A-23 route, down the western coast of France and across Spain, or the A75/AP-7 route, cutting across France and then along the southern coast of France and the eastern coast of Spain. You'd have about 16 or 17 hours of driving on the Continent, so that's either a couple of very long days or, probably better, three fairly relaxed days (with time to stop and enjoy some sights).
https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/

(For comparison, it's about 9 hours drive from Santander to Alicante)

[mushroom25]

just varying one of the routes above - from Le Havre take A13 to Rouen then cut across country on the N154. much of it is dual carriageway and it's not that busy, more importantly it cuts out Paris. then A71 from Orleans to Clermont and A75 to the coast; it's a tremendous road with much of it over 800m altitude, plus the awesome Millau Viaduct (which is the only bit of the A75 you pay for). from there it's mostly coast running on the A9/AP7.

Le Havre to Clermont easily do-able in 6 hours, as is Clermont to Perpignan. from there it's 7 hours; in all 3 relatively pain free days with 2 overnight stops.