Driving to Spain through France.

I've stopped at an Aire before and the freezer wagons had their motors running through the night. They also went through a period of thefts from campervans and caravans.
Are the Aires basically service stations on the motorways that allow overnight stays were as the Municipals are more like campsites and generally in towns and villages?
 
Are the Aires basically service stations on the motorways that allow overnight stays were as the Municipals are more like campsites and generally in towns and villages?
Not service stations as in restaurants, shops, fuel etc - there'll be toilets and basic washing facilities but that's about it

Edit - there'll be service stations on the motorways as well of course, but Aires are more frequent. Also bear in mind lorries aren't allowed to travel on Sundays (except refrigerated ones) so they tend to park up in Aires and Service Stations on that day, so they can be busy
 
EDIT Sorry, repeating some stuff from above here. Aires on motorways are service stations, but you also find them on larger roads and are basically elaborate laybys, sometimes with and sometimes without a toilet. Some villages (the last one I lived at for example) provide a few spaces with electric points and a tap and toilet. The downside as mentioned is security and the fact there's no guarantee space will be available, although at this time of year that's not a concern. My sister won't use them and when she visits me will happily spend a week on the village ** star campsite which has all she needs. Prices here as you can see are very cheap.

 
Keep you windows closed on a night. Lad from Sunderland I know got gassed in a overnight camping place and got robbed of all his money, credit cards and passports on first night of holiday.
Got to the park late so police reckoned they may have been followed from ferry. As they had not got to their destination everything was in his wife's bag so an easy steal.
 
We are heading to Moraira in Spain end of the month, its my 1st time doing such a long journey.
Our route is Cherbourg down the west coast, past Nantes, Bordeaux, Pau over the Pyrenees past Canfranc ( I want to see the railway station )
Zaragoza to Valencia then down the coast to our destination. Its about 1000 miles all in.
We have 3 days for the trip.

So I am looking for any do's and dont's on the journey.
We are traveling in a camper and I have all the correct vehicle requirements so that is covered but I would be interested in is any recommendations for places to stop especially overnight.
Is it worth avoiding toll roads as I believe these can be quite expensive and we are not in a massive rush?
How expensive is fuel in France? I know Spain is cheaper than France but I have read that France is more than the UK at the moment.

Plus anything else I might of missed.
Cheers.
We used to live in Spain and had a villa in Benitachell, a village just down the road from Moraira, and equidistant from there and Java.

I used to drive there from Bilbao or Santander, but usually flew to Alicante and drove home about 50 miles away.
We often went up the motorway to Benidorm, 25 miles away.

I thought the Costa Blanca was was the nicest area of Spain.
To get to the Balearics via ferry from Denia is easy with Denia being about 10 miles from Moraira.
 
This thread conjuring up memories of a 13yr old me on the Siesta Bus, excited at moreorless being allowed to stay up all night marvelling at the wonders of the French Autoroute Du Soleil, and the horror that was Macon services.
Wondering what a péage was, and what a Aires du repos was. I managed to work out Aire du picnic.😉
 
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EDIT Sorry, repeating some stuff from above here. Aires on motorways are service stations, but you also find them on larger roads and are basically elaborate laybys, sometimes with and sometimes without a toilet. Some villages (the last one I lived at for example) provide a few spaces with electric points and a tap and toilet. The downside as mentioned is security and the fact there's no guarantee space will be available, although at this time of year that's not a concern. My sister won't use them and when she visits me will happily spend a week on the village ** star campsite which has all she needs. Prices here as you can see are very cheap.

Wow that is cheap, thanks for the info.
I am thinking maybe it would be best certainly off the ferry to aim for a specific site.
 
We used to live in Spain and had a villa in Benitachell, a village just down the road from Moraira, and equidistant from there and Java.

I used to drive there from Bilbao or Santander, but usually flew to Alicante and drove home about 50 miles away.
We often went up the motorway to Benidorm, 25 miles away.

I thought the Costa Blanca was was the nicest area of Spain.
To get to the Balearics via ferry from Denia is easy with Denia being about 10 miles from Moraira.
We are actually stopping in a Villa in Teulada. Cant wait.
 
We are actually stopping in a Villa in Teulada. Cant wait.
Our place was only a few kilometres from Teulada. I remember going to an open barbecue in the city square there during a fiesta. A nice place. Always sunny.
We bought our car ,an Opel Corsa 1.4 there. Left hand drive of course.
 
Just a update on our trip.
Left Poole on the ferry 8.30 Wednedsay morning and arrived Cherbourg to delightfully quite roads.I decided to do the non toll roads route which was fine apart from the major towns and city's were the traffic was very busy.
One thing I noticed in France was how much they stick to speed limits and rarely would people hog outside lanes when overtaking lorries which was quite refreshing.I had downloaded a stop over app which worked really well and we found a municipal campsite in a small village called Mansel.We did arrive quite late and it was closed but luckily near the entrence was an Overnite motorholme parking spot which suited us great and there was a small bar 100meters away.

Day 2 we travelled round Bordeaux and headed through the pyrenees as I wanted to stop at Canfranc the weather was dull today but the views were still spectacular.Originally I had planned to use day 2 as our long driving day but we were doing so well we stopped early in a campsite in Zaragoza and had a lovely evening chatting to an Irish couple who were heading home.

Day 3 was a comfortable 300 odd mile drive across Spain towards Valencia and then down to Tuelada. 1000 miles pretty much drama free for a EU virgin driver.
 
Just a update on our trip.
Left Poole on the ferry 8.30 Wednedsay morning and arrived Cherbourg to delightfully quite roads.I decided to do the non toll roads route which was fine apart from the major towns and city's were the traffic was very busy.
One thing I noticed in France was how much they stick to speed limits and rarely would people hog outside lanes when overtaking lorries which was quite refreshing.I had downloaded a stop over app which worked really well and we found a municipal campsite in a small village called Mansel.We did arrive quite late and it was closed but luckily near the entrence was an Overnite motorholme parking spot which suited us great and there was a small bar 100meters away.

Day 2 we travelled round Bordeaux and headed through the pyrenees as I wanted to stop at Canfranc the weather was dull today but the views were still spectacular.Originally I had planned to use day 2 as our long driving day but we were doing so well we stopped early in a campsite in Zaragoza and had a lovely evening chatting to an Irish couple who were heading home.

Day 3 was a comfortable 300 odd mile drive across Spain towards Valencia and then down to Tuelada. 1000 miles pretty much drama free for a EU virgin driver.
I'm glad your journey went smoothly through France down to Spain. Please keep your diary coming.

We set off to France at the beginning of next month for eight weeks and will be based south of Bordeaux around an hour away from the Spanish border.
 
That sounds like a great trip,we are only away 3 weeks all in but in part
this is a test for the future, we hope to spend much more time exploring Europe once we retire.
We did bring our dog with us and managed to get her an EU pet passport so that will help in the future.
 
That sounds like a great trip,we are only away 3 weeks all in but in part
this is a test for the future, we hope to spend much more time exploring Europe once we retire.
We did bring our dog with us and managed to get her an EU pet passport so that will help in the future.
How's the dog coping with the heat?
 
No problem,we are out of town so have a nice breeze and we only take her for a walk mornings and evenings, plus we have a pool which she loves.Its not that hot atm ,its actually raining today.supposed to get hotter from tomorrow but still only around 27 degrees which we get at home in Dorset so shouldn't be an issue for her.
 
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