Driving to Andalucia - mad?

[TheSconeOfStone]

I have family near Granada. They retired there 8 years ago. I have flown down to visit but DH and DCs have never been. We are thinking about going next year and spending a few days by the Med while we are there as kids have never been (we usually camp in France, Belgium or Netherlands). I can't take leave at Easter as peak time for my job. August too hot so looking at Summer half term.

DH wants to drive as he loves a road trip and hates flying. We did lots of long drives before the DC came along. I have a plan to do Brittany ferry (we are right by the port) overnight to France then France/Spain over two days. One week in Spain then 3 days to drive back. Kids will miss a few days from school but this will be the last chance before yr 6 SATS for DC1.

I'm sort of excited but wondering whether this is just mad and whether we should wait for May 2019 and gets flights asap. DC are 7 and 10 and we have electronic entertainment for the journey.

We have done it loads of times, including with young grandchild. We stop just south of Bordeaux day1, just south of Madrid day 2 and have an easy third day. The mountains can be difficult in bad weather (not a problem for you) and the Madrid ring road is challenging. We go right round the outside on the M50 and then take the paid R4 to Aranjuez. Lovely drive.

We've driven to Portugal 4 times now and dd is 6 so even when she was tiny we did it. We normally go Dover to Calais, drive all day and stop off just over the border in Spain then drive the rest of the way to Portugal, so 2 days.
We have taken 3 days and had 2 stop offs before.
Dh once drove to Alicante in one go it took 24 hours

I still have nightmares of the one way system round Granada. I would hate such a long drive, but we are all different.

My aunt drove me round Granada and it didn't seem too bad. We did the Netherlands this summer and after the whole Rotterdam/The Hague road system nothing scares me now

I've done it a few times. How about the ferry to Bilbao? It can be quite fun! Then a two day drive down. My favourite overnight stop so far has been Merida.

Thanks for all the replies. We were thinking about the Santander ferry but so expensive and limits the days we can cross. I have found a reasonably priced flying solution. I may fly with the kids and let DH drive on his own (only half joking).

TBH I think the worst part is the roads in uk
Once in France Spain its much easier

I’ve done northern Spain by ferry and driven home to Midlands and I’ve driven to Barcelona and back after ferry diver Calais

We used to take the ferry to Santander and then it was 11 1/2 hours drive to costa del sol. Agree with comments above on the Madrid ring road etc. On the way back we used to stop at Burgos so it was an easy drive back to Santander to get the ferry. A lot depends on your children and if they're good in the car, ours are, but some are not and only you can make that call.