Terrible holiday! Need advice

[Fishy54]

We are currently on a road trip which is not going well.

the plan was to drive to though France to get to Spain but the journey is taking too long and we are ending up booking into cheap affordable accommodation in awful places to break up journey and we are all stressed. No exercise. Too much time on the road and stopping in places that are making us feel depressed.

we have done this sort of journey before through Europe but for one reason or another this year we have failed.

we all got really upset last night that we have experienced nothing and we are already 4 days into journey with only 7 days left, not where we planned on being plus having to take into consideration the journey back home.

we don’t know what to do. Driven too far. We are 2 hours from Biarritz and was meant to exploring the north of Spain. My son was upset and wished we had stayed at home but being very mature and helping with ideas, my husband has come to a standstill and tired from driving, I’m stressed do to driving passed all the beautiful places to get to where we currently are.

if we carry on we feel like our time will be spent r in much the same way when we get to Spain as we have not allowed enough time to relax and and just be in between visiting places.

we have driven so far that we are at a loss as to what to do. My heart is not in the journey. I don’t think anyone’s was really . It was my husbands idea a while back and my husband and son speak Spanish.

we discussed other more restful options before we left home. I feel awful
that we didn’t pursue them. Nothing I can do about that now. But what should we do now. My husband is suggesting we just stay put. Find somewhere in France and stay here for a few days then drive back home.

we have already lost one day of accommodation as w weren’t going to make it in time for check in.

Alternative is we move on and carry with the plan. Our accommodation for first few 2 days now is quite remote. Which we wanted but now we fed up with the driving. Then we have 3 more days booked elsewhere to explore a different area. Then we have to make our way home. The only way we can get home now in good time is to take the long ferry ride home. Which will kill another two days. My husband seemed to think we first left home that we had enough time to do a loop and drive back through France visiting some lovely places. we now can’t do that.

I can’t sleep and don’t know what to do.

I feel awful for my son. He needed a good break as much as we did.

we are all wishing we had just cancelled this idea and had a single location holiday somewhere peaceful.

what should we do?

Next time you need an literary with estimates of mileage covered every day. Either that or take the train

OP thinking about it, it's like you've tried to fit two different holidays into one. A leisurely bimble with stops, sightseeing and sit down lunches, but also covering enough ground to get you all the way to northern Spain in a particular, shortish period of time. And you just can't do both, as you're discovering.

I do also think a PP is right that you've got yourself into a bit of a panic with it all so you're not thinking it through clearly. It's maybe because you had a stop somewhere uninspiring so that made if feel like a bit of a waste of time. But La Rochelle is lovely! I definitely wouldn't describe a stop there as terrible, so try and reframe that. And you've gone to Île de Ré, another lovely destinion. So really you're not having an awful holiday at all, you've just become a bit conscious of time now and want to plan the rest a bit more carefully.

Did you get a ferry booking sorted out? That will really take the pressure off the rest of the trip.

I suspect that it is to do with their behaviour too!
Stopping twice to charge the car from 20% to 70% takes much, much less time than stopping once to ge it from 20% to 100%.
Think 15m per break compared to well over an hour.
Combining quick top ups with loo breaks means that very little time is wasted.

We took our car to France last Autumn and had no issue at all with feeling slowed down. As previous poster mentioned, one place we stopped off for lunch on the long drive home, the car was charged up before we'd finished eating.

It's all in the planning.

Road trips do not work with one driver. It's far, far too tiring for them.

Next time consider a rail trip - a million times more fun and easy on the continent.

They're not sharing the driving. @Fishy54 has said that she doesn't drive on motorways anymore.
Personally, I think this holiday would be a good time to reverse that decision and give her husband a break. Doing all the driving from Northern France to Santander isn't my idea of a fun break.

Hondarrabia just over the border in Spain is lovely - old town, beach, coastal walks - and really not at all far from where you are now. Day trip to San Sebastian, Pasajes de San Juan, the Pyrenees, Pamplona (or back into St Jean de Luz in France). No need to head out beyond the Basque Country if you're fed up of driving.

Road trips do not work with one driver. It's far, far too tiring for them.

Tbf we do massive European road trips with just DH driving and it's fine but he seems to find driving far less tiring than most people do.

Yep. My partner does all the driving too. I will drive abroad no problem but he enjoys it.

We are the same. DH does 95% of the driving even on long road trips. He enjoys driving. If he wants a break for whatever reason then I will drive.
It's about what suits people though. We drive very long distances on some of our trips and we enjoy it but it's not for everyone.

It shouldn’t be hard to eat clean in France. That said, I think sometimes we need to be flexible in the face of challenges. For a road trip that might be comfy clothes and grab and go food or whatever helps to get it done efficiently.

You also need to decide and agree if your plan is to visit interesting places en route or go for broke and get it done. Chopping and changing between strategies will end up pleasing no one.

I've road tripped from Manchester to the south of France, then back up and east/west of France on my own a few times (for work). French roads are a dream to drive on - outside of August! I would not fancy it in school holidays. I'd get the train.

San Sebastien is amazing, do that. And for next time...I think your days of big road trips are numbered if there is only one driver. We did a 2,200 mile round trip holiday a few years back, but between 2 drivers it was quite easy to manage.

Yes. We are early risers.

This holiday has been the exception.

We have a great day at know Biarritz.

Yes. We are early risers.

This holiday has been the exception.

We have a great day in Biarritz.

We were really worn out.

@Fishy54 Is your husband doing all the driving? Several posters have asked, and you haven't specified.

She has explained in one post, and husband doesn’t like night driving.

We have done them before as I said through the whole of Europe - Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy on a ferry into Greece. Jumping on. And off ferries with our own car into Greece booking all the way. Air bnb, camping, I even walk straight into hotels with rooms appearing on booking.com asking us to allow us to have a family room cheaper than advertised.
We have done this Several times with confidence and ease.

This time things went wrong.

We began badly.
We began badly not because we are some daft inexperienced dithering travellers but because of other reasons plus and had less time.
I just needed a sounding board as I woke up first, My usual 5 am start as I do every day in the UK .

We are a dynamic family.

The first in our group of friends to do long
journeys with a young child. Strange how people judge without knowing anything about someone. Strange.

Sorry, I missed that post. I think expecting one person to do all that driving is a big ask. No wonder the driver is tired.

Some have been extremely unpleasant.

Those who have given good advice, support and encouragement have made a difference to how I had been feeling.

Thank you so much to those of you who have genuinely wanted to help and not even asked a question. As I did provide enough information on my original post.

The others I have ignored.

Under normal circumstances I would have bitten their head off but responding to them is not my priority.

Neither do they deserve a response.

Anyway, they probably thought that by given a run down of their amazingly fault free journeys that they silenced me with their overwhelming delusions of grandeur. I just couldn’t be bothered. My family needed my attention.

San Sebastian is beautiful and Bilbao is wonderful too if you fancy another stop off on the way to the ferry. I've done the ferry from Santander to Plymouth before and it's great - relaxing, much faster than the ferry from Bilbao (23 hours if I remember rightly?) so you can set off one day and arrive in the UK the next with no driving. Have a few drinks and a nice meal while you sail and make it part of the trip. Enjoy the rest of your holiday, I'm sure you will now you've decided what to do. PS sorry haven't read the full thread but have read all of your updates!

Where are you now OP? Hope you have made it across the border and into Spain.

Sometimes adventures don’t go to plan, but they can usually just be turned into a new adventure.

Santander is a lovely place to wander around, and whilst people would speak English to us, we heard very little spoken. I don't know if you are stopping off at Bilbao on the way - that was much more busy. In July we did a couple of nights Santander, two weeks in the Picos (hiking) and four nights in Bilbao. If you go to Bilbao suggest you park up and use the public transport - for 3 euros you can get a Balik card, top it up and then use it for all of you, you tap multiple times. It includes the metro, the buses, the trams, and the funicular - it gives a big saving. The transporter bridge was very interesting. If you do decide to go into the Picos from Santander then be aware that there are a lot of road works on the way to Potes and you can have long waits.

Seems to me like you’ve all had a mindset change since the last road trip . Have the health issues you’ve touched on started recently? I have always been able to just throw stuff in a car and hit the road, but have also had health issues which really makes life a lot less spontaneous and I never really know if it’s going to be a good day or bad day until I get up in the morning. I also have to be really careful with my diet which is added stress, as convenience food doesn’t work for me. Road trips are no longer for me, I’d be happier on a train where I don’t have to do as much and I can get up and walk about if feeling rough.

I think just make the best of it and put these type of holidays to one side for a bit. Don’t feel bad about it, focus on the good bits and turn the rest into anecdotes!

OP...are you in Spain now? Think we're all rooting that you are.