Drive or fly?!

[Cupofteaandbiscuits]

We have a Eurocamp booked near Barcelona for August. We both have half a week of annual leave either side of the holiday and we have a 9 and 10 year old. We’ve thought about whether we drive. We live in the south east and are very very tempted to make it an adventure and luckily have the annual leave to do this. Has anyone done this? Is it a stupid idea? X

I haven't driven from the SE to Barcelona, but when I was a kid my family always drove on holiday and we went as far as Italy on occasion. The way we did it - non-stop driving for two days straight - I would NOT recommend! However, if you turn it into part of the holiday with driving kept to no more than 4-5 hours day I think it could be a really nice to see a bit of France en route. The Languedoc is one of my favourite bits of France and you could drive along the coast from Montpellier south, which would be lovely.

How many days either side do you have? 2-3 days annual leave + 2 days weekend? Or just 2-3 days of annual leave?

Would you share the driving?

If I had 4-5 days in total and there were 2 drivers, then I’d drive and make it an adventure, stopping twice along the way. If I only had 2-3 days or just one driver then I wouldn’t even consider it

We've done that before - we had a couple of nights stopover at Rocamadour on the way down and then a long drive back and with two nights in Parison the way back. We were able to share the driving and the drive itself wasn't hard at all but worth breaking up more if you can.

We drove from Yorkshire to the Costa Brava so just north of Barcelona in the 1990s before budget airlines were commonplace and it was such an adventure that I'd love to repeat. It would be even easier today with sat navs and the Millau Bridge cutting off a section of twisty turny mountain road. Do it!

Have either of you driven such a distance before?.

I would fly there instead of drive. Your children will likely hate the car and also seeing the back of your heads.