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?

Lesson learned here that you aren’t the kind of family who will enjoy road trips. IME it needs at least one of you who actively enjoys driving, and a real load of planning around where you will stop when/how long it takes to get from a to b/what you will do about food to be enjoyable. In your shoes I’d drive to San Sebastián and enjoy the rest of my holiday there. I think planning the journey home so you do it within a day or two would be sensible. It is certainly possible - last week my husband drove to Berlin and back within 36 hours (not recommended, but he managed!)

Google maps says it's just over 3 hours driving. If you set off at 10.00 and arrived after six, does that mean lunch and wee took 5 hours?!?

On a road trip like you planned I'd have made an effort to set off asap, with a QUICK lunch and wee stop. Even splitting the day into chunks of driving 500 miles is possible. Breaking for a 5 hour lunch, 2 days here and there in one place, stopping to surf etc is not compatible with a road trip where you hope to be covering 1500miles+ as well as having a considerable break in Spain before returning.

Your planning was completely unrealistic.

Are you in a rental car? Drive to the nearest airport and fly to Spain?

Ooof that sounds bad, but its gonna be one for the memories!

I'm in the north of spain as I type this, massive heat wave, lots of traffic, restaurants packed and everything is very expensive. A road trip is a great idea in (lets say) October, just not in August (when everyone and their mother is on holidays). Best thing you can do is find a little town by the beach in the border of France and Spain, stay there for the rest of your trip and chill (Hendaya or st jean de luc comes to mind).

When I was a child, every summer my parents and I used to drive from Cherbourg or Le Havre to the Costa Brava in 2 days or 3 days max! We would book our hotel ahead so no need for worrying about finding accommodation. How did it take you so long to get to Biarritz???

We once did Lyon to central London in a day (to get to a gig). We set off at dawn - I think about 5.30am, having packed the night before. It was just me and DH, a couple of years before we had kids. I was the only driver, and we were in a little Toyota Yaris. It was August but the motorways were clear and so we basically drove marginally under the speed limit the whole way. We grazed all the way but stopped for the loo from time to time, and to buy antihistamines because my hand had been bitten by a horsefly the night before and kept swelling. We bought jambons at a service station around lunchtime and were at Calais at about 2.30pm, which was 90 mins before we expected to be and we were able to go straight onto the Eurotunnel. We stopped off very briefly at home in SW London but were parked up on Park Lane (we were on our way to a gig in Hyde Park), with our car still full of holiday crap and snack wrappers at about 6.30pm. Danced until 10pm. Drove home.

I was 32 then. I wouldn't do it now!

This reminds me of a friend doing a similar trip from Yorkshire to Barcelona last summer. They had it planned to the nth degree with lovely stops booked and a firm plan. And then a few months before the holiday their car conked out and the numpties replaced it with an electric one and had to stop a zillion times to charge the fecking thing. They got 1 day in Barcelona instead of 5 then had to drive all the way home.

OP you need to reframe it: make a list of the nice things you’ve done each day, the lunches here and there and the places you’ve seen. Stop trying to fit it all in. Then crack on in a straightish line to Santander, stop off at the gorgeous places along the way and try to relax.

Then never drive that far again.

To get back, I'd tag team and drive nonstop through the night. One sleeps while the other drives. Listen to Radio 4!

Are you driving an electric car? I this the reason your journey is taking so long - because you have to hang around whilst you recharge your car?

Just fly next time, OP @Fishy54

OP we did something similar. Hired a van and planned on going down to the south of France. Soon realised we weren't enjoying the road trip at at all, so detoured to the coast from Lyon and spent the rest of the trip in a far more leisurely way staying for 2-3 days at a time on lovely campsites travelling north up the coast. Then just a short drive to the ferry port before home. Sometimes you need to change your plans and salvage what's left.

That still doesn’t make sense. We drove an EV to south France last year and our biggest problem was that our battery would be charged so quickly that we didn’t even have time to enjoy our coffee break. The charging infrastructure in much of the continent is superb.

4 days into the journey and your only at Biarritz 😱 Are you going by tractor.
You should be on the costas by now.

Well all I can say on that front is they are also known for fannying around, but the stopping to charge the car had a big impact on them actually getting anywhere on time so it was an unplanned night here and there and some very long lunch stops. It was a farce and they came home exhausted.

This year they flew to Corfu from our local airport and were stunned to be on sun loungers just 7 hours after shutting their front door 😂

We did Chamonix to Rotterdam in a one-er some years ago in a Fiat 500, no overnight stop, 14 hours. Both of us driving though. This year we did Amsterdam to Argentiere with one stop overnight at Troyes. We’ve also done Carcassone to Gibraltar (16 hours) without an overnight.
OP what’s done is done, but don’t just keep driving. Get somewhere and chill. Don’t move, hike or do anything for two or three days and you’ll feel less frazzled.

Agreed. We drive an electric car too and we do road trips all over Europe. We've been as far as Sicily, Poland, Norway (not all on the same trip of course). We stop to charge the car, go for a wee, maybe grab a coffee, stretch our legs and then onward again. It really doesn't hold us up at all.

I love Biarritz, such a cool town, spent many a summer there in my early 20’s.

There’s an amazing youth hostel a short bus ride from town. I’d base myself there, your teen would probably love it, it’s very social and has private rooms with en-suites.

Your DS can learn to surf, the instructors are very good. There is also a cute cinema with subtitled films. There are lots of amazing beaches a short bus ride away too if you want a change to the main beach in town. And don’t get me started on all the fab places to eat.

You can get a very quick train to San Sebastián for the day so that you stay out of the car. The local transport (trains and buses) is so good around there, you could completely avoid getting back in your car until your journey home.

Oh OP I'm so sorry it's been crap up to now, but you are so close to do many fantastic places. (I live here in northern Spain).

San Sebastian ( you have to see it) , Bilbao
(all the Bizkaia / Cantabria coast);... Laredo ( fantastic beach) on the way to Santander , Noja, Santander city...

I hope you can pick at least one and enjoy it.
Fingers crossed for you it all works out better.

And If add , the sooner you get into Spain the better.
I know I'm biased , but I find the south of France really boring in comparison.

Cross that border today!!!

OP not read many posts but wanted to say -
stay on the motorways if you can afford the tolls. They 're quite fast.
I have driven London to Nice via tunnel in 11 hours.

@Fishy54 "not My idea. Husbands. Kept saying we need a good 2 weeks. Flight were more expensive. Didn’t fancy flying."

Is his name Clark Griswold by any chance?

Bit of a sweeping statement today the least! So the amazing Pyrenees and stunning coasts and fine food and wine are ‘boring’. Each to his own I guess.

You need to throw some money at this to save it from total disaster. Find a place to stay in Biarritz for 3 days. Go to Bilbao or Santander for 4 days to get some Spanish in. Ferry home.

I'm absolutely baffled by why it's taken you so long to get hardly anywhere. We've done Portsmouth/Plymouth to Santander/Bilbao countless times - 24 hours on the ferry and then 12 hours drive down to southern Spain. Then we did Portsmouth into a French port (can't remember which one) and down to southern Spain, we stopped in Burgos to stay the night for that one. So about 1 1/2 days driving.
are you sharing the driving with your DH, I just can't believe you've not made it into Spain yet...