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Northern Spain to northern France


Lateralus
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We did 500 miles a day on motorways/toll roads,

it is a bit of a drag but there's a strange sort of masochistic pleasure in it, I would do it again :lol:

 

That's hard work. Because I stop every hour, that would be 6 legs of one hour each, with stops at motorway services in between. Overall with an hour for lunch it would take about 9 hours.


I much prefer taking 12-14 hours, but riding country roads and having more interesting town centre stops.

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If it were me.. after Pamplona.. i would have the greatest pleasure in crossing the mountains from south to North.. and as its my first ever tour. (ok it isnt.. but lets pretend). I would prefer to stay at an english owned place. you maybe pay a little extra.. but theres local knowledge which is always worth a lot. maybe more if you dont speak much french. (or spanish)


as an example.. This place. http://www.fontaines-escot.com is 110 miles from Pamplona.. but you can easily double that by taking a scenic route.


They mention bikers.. which is always a good thing.

 

Our property is the perfect holiday destination for:

Motorbikers and cyclists looking for a campbase near the famous cols

 

A quick check and they have their cheapest room available.. arr: 17/8 dep: 20/8 will set you back £128 so.. £42 per night. double bed and breakfast.


a day out begins with this view: https://goo.gl/maps/Xp6dmwDf3Z72


up that little lane from the hotel... then 'which way today?


 

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That place looks great, certainly for one night at least. I speak bad Spanish and slightly worse French - enough to muddle through as a tourist, but not enough for a detailed discussion about touring and routes!

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  • 2 months later...

I did a trip in June this year, down to Santander 1- way and Chunnell return (always have a cabin though if you can stetch to it ... so much better) and I then did the fairly short trip over to the French side to a nice town called Pau (about 160 miles) and then the day after to an even nicer place called Albi (about another 170 miles) ... I did this leg via sat nav and avoiding tolls and motorways and it was fantastic, lovely roads with the snow capped Pyrinees as the back drop and Albi is very nice.

I then legged it down to Sth of France so not relevent for you ... however on your way back to Northern France try and slip Troyes in there as its a really nice town.

My only other advice is whilst camping is ok its also a right faff and even more so if its very hot ... I did two weeks and all on airbnb and never paid more than £30 and met some lovely people along the way.

I did a couple of long days i.e. 500 miles but they were not the enjoyable days as much as when it was less than 300 with nice coffee stops along the way.

I have also done Pamplona, a place called Burgos and also a place called Salamanca whist in Spain on other trips but that was always having the ferry return so giving more time for hanging around the great roads of Picos.

I think many of us have made mistakes by trying to cram to many miles and places into too shorter time ... but its all fun, now if its lots of places then its lots of holidays booked, short on time then I do fewer miles but spend longer in fewer places if that makes sense?

Whatever you do you will have a blast ... makes me itchy to go again just reading this thread haha!

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Thanks for that, will definitely look into those suggestions, and certainly using hostels or airbnb for accommodation. :thumb:


Have a few other things to sort out (garden, phone upgrade, buying a motorbike), then detailed planning of this trip can begin in earnest. :mrgreen:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well I'm now only 6 weeks away from being on a ferry to Spain, and other than having booked that ferry, I've so far planned nothing!


Started having a look around at potential accommodation options, but have decided I actually want to plan the route/roads I want to travel, and find accommodation to suit. Following other discussions, I'm also erring towards using my phone for satnav* and having some paper maps for at least the Pyrenees bits. Really struggling to justify the cost of of a Satnav at the moment!


Are these 1:150k Michelin maps likely to be sufficient? The tiny sample map appears to show a decent level of detail, with scenic routes highlighted, so just wondered whether a couple of those in a tank-bag is likely to get me through a few days of exploring.


[strikeout]Given that I arrive at 18.15 on the Weds evening, how far should I realistically aim to get that night? Want to avoid staying in cities, so as long as there's a bed and somewhere to eat that night I'll be happy, but the more scenic the better. Somewhere like Eugi seems to tick the box very nicely, but at 280km I'm wondering whether it might be a bit ambitious. However it looks like a great place to wake up, and right near some excellent-looking roads to get me straight into the mountains the day after.[/strikeout] In fact, as I'll have done nothing other than sit on a ferry the rest of the day, over the course of writing this paragraph I've now convinced myself that's what I'll do. :mrgreen:


*I've somehow ended up with a contract which gives me a slightly ridiculous 25GB of data a month, which I can use abroad, subject to a "fair use" restriction of a mere 15GB! :lol:

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I generally go for the 1:200,000 michelin maps.. they have a great selection in Waterstones. you should make the effort to go there.. and see what they have. there may be something even better for the area you're heading for. though.. i really do rate the ADAC map Ive already provided you with for simplicity it cant be beaten as easy to follow.


ah.. it appears there may not be maps to the scale above available for spain. still.. its definitely worth it trotting down to waterstones. 3rd floor.

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This app is free and you download the maps to your device or SD card, so even though you have all that data allowance, if you are half way across the pyrenees and need to re-route, you are not reliant on having a data signal. Only works as a sat nav on Andrpid, but I'm sure there will be an openstreetmap equivilent for Apple.


http://osmand.net/


San Sebastian is a great city and it's the food capital of the basque country with amazing seafood and amazing "pinchos" or "pintxos", which are a basque tapas. If you decide to go there let me know and I'll get you a recommendation of where to eat.


Hondarrabia also a great place to spend an evening. If you go there this pub has the best reputation https://goo.gl/maps/ibVJ24TcB7n, but ignore the tapas that are lined up on the bar, they are for the tourists, order the good stuff from the menu!

Edited by Anonymous
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This app is free and you download the maps to your device or SD card, so even though you have all that data allowance, if you are half way across the pyrenees and need to re-route, you are not reliant on having a data signal. Only works as a sat nav on Andrpid, but I'm sure there will be an openstreetmap equivilent for Apple.


http://osmand.net/


San Sebastian is a great city and it's the food capital of the basque country with amazing seafood and amazing "pinchos" or "pintxos", which are a basque tapas. If you decide to go there let me know and I'll get you a recommendation of where to eat.


Hondarrabia also a great place to spend an evening. If you go there this pub has the best reputation https://goo.gl/maps/ibVJ24TcB7n, but ignore the tapas that are lined up on the bar, they are for the tourists, order the good stuff from the menu!

 

Thanks, will have a look at that app, but think I'm going to give Copilot a go too - thought I'd seen a free trial option for it.


As for the cities, I'm a little cautious about finding somewhere secure to park up overnight, which is a bit of the reason for wanting to keep out in the countryside. Also want to get out into the mountains quickly on the Thursday, and in a city I'm likely to get drawn into sight-seeing by foot! :lol:

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I'd be lying if I said I didn't worry about bike theft on these trips, but the bike is the means of getting me to the places I want to visit, so it seems a bit daft to allow the fact I'm on a bike to stop me going there. So I just try to find hotels with a secure / underground car park as getting the bike put of sight is the best security you can have, or if I have to park on the street I take a big chain and lock it to something solid.


Ask me sometime about the the time I nearly got bikejacked in Orleans by 4 big tooled up black guys in a Lexus 4x4. :shock:

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Following other discussions, I'm also erring towards using my phone for satnav* and having some paper maps for at least the Pyrenees bits. Really struggling to justify the cost of of a Satnav at the moment!

 

Personally I would rather had a dedicated sat nav and have a phone and maps as backup but if you think that you would be fine with the phone then go for it! I'm geographically challenged and like a sat nav to say oi dick head you're going the wrong way rather than rely on maps so should my sat nav fail I would switch to phone then maps if I am totally screwed :lol: :lol:


I would at least do a few trips to make sure the phone will work right and not overheat or run out of charge etc rather than find all this out when in Spain! but just remember that it will be hotter in Spain and the sun could be beating down on your phone


I can't help much on the planning or routes as I have never been to Spain on the bike maybe [mention]XTreme[/mention] knows more?


Planning something would be a good thing as the last thing you want to do is find yourself riding through cities as thats no fun and not touring in my opinion :lol:

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I have a pretty good head for directions, and since the whole purpose of the trip is exploring, I'll be fairly relaxed about it all when out there!


Will post in the sat-nav thread rather than here, but tired co-pilot today with the phone in my pocket and it worked fine, so there's always that option if I don't want it on the bars. Need to sort a power supply and case to test it properly though. :thumb:

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Better than me then :lol: I get lost outside my back yard :shock:


I am a lot better than I used to be and I am never afraid to "get lost" as long as I have some sort of way to get me to where I need to be and enough fuel :lol:


We did a 10 day trip in Germany a few years ago with only one hotel booked! all the others we just turned up it worked pretty well and even though we had sat navs we still looked at maps to see what looked good and where the sun was shining and headed that way and just explored what was out there!


It was an experience and we had a great time on some fantastic roads but I think I would sooner have some sort of plan

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Wouldn't be much of a town planner if I couldn't read maps! Something that always bugs me when I fly somewhere too - have to get my bearings as soon as I can after landing.


For budget reasons as much as anything I'll look to book some accommodation, but with plenty of flexibility for what I do in-between. May even build in time for some tourism off the bike! :shock: Although that may just end up being the random exploration of eateries as I pass them! :lol:

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Following other discussions, I'm also erring towards using my phone for satnav* and having some paper maps for at least the Pyrenees bits. Really struggling to justify the cost of of a Satnav at the moment!

 

Personally I would rather had a dedicated sat nav and have a phone and maps as backup but if you think that you would be fine with the phone then go for it! I'm geographically challenged and like a sat nav to say oi dick head you're going the wrong way rather than rely on maps so should my sat nav fail I would switch to phone then maps if I am totally screwed :lol: :lol:


I would at least do a few trips to make sure the phone will work right and not overheat or run out of charge etc rather than find all this out when in Spain! but just remember that it will be hotter in Spain and the sun could be beating down on your phone


I can't help much on the planning or routes as I have never been to Spain on the bike maybe @XTreme knows more?


Planning something would be a good thing as the last thing you want to do is find yourself riding through cities as thats no fun and not touring in my opinion :lol:

 

Can't offer any advice on Northern Spain routes.....but I can tell you now that a phone left exposed will fry in the heat!


It can even overheat in your jacket so you've got to keep them well hidden during the Summer.

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I can tell you now that a phone left exposed will fry in the heat!


It can even overheat in your jacket so you've got to keep them well hidden during the Summer.

 

And if they are running a sat nav app and gps, and on charge because the battery won't last a couple of hours, then they fry even quicker.

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Hmmm. Advantage Team Satnav.

Motorbiking is truly wonderful. It can take the most outrageous expense and, given a little time for thought and reflection, transform it into a reasonably good buy, or even a wise investment, and sometimes you can promote it to the rank of absolute necessity.

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:stupid: this is so true!! I wanted some normal boots... found some I loved... but they were 70 quid. begrudgingly bought them *grumble grumble*


Saw some bike boots... 140 quid? bargain!

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