Thank-you.
What a wonderful place to live……
Santiago is very very special.
We stayed close to Ribadeo en-route from Gijón/Oviedo and although the hotel was fine, it was a bit isolated with very little around it. In retrospect, we should have pushed on and had 3 nights in Santiago instead of the 2 we had.
Enjoy your trip to visit your daughter.
Just finished planning and booking our 2023 road trip around the Dolomites and Lakes Garda & Maggiore in Northern Italy. This year we were also in Northern Spain and Portugal including the Picos de Europa, Porto and the Douro Valley and I agree with previous posts. Brilliant part of the world, fantastic seafood and lovely people. I can thoroughly recommend Salamanca, it’s a brilliant city. We sailed from Portsmouth to Santander on the new Brittany Ferries “Galicia” which was a very pleasant and relaxing experience. The Picos are only about one hour from Santander which is a real bonus and they are fabulous. Next year will be our third significant road trip in our MX5 so I thought I might include a few tips from our trips which might help someone contemplating something similar.
We use 2 sports holdalls for clothing and personal effects which fit nicely in the boot plus a small rucksack for toiletries. We also take a squashable cool bag & freezer blocks for days out and food shopping. Rather than take both sports bags into the accommodation, just take sufficient clothing for the time there in one bag.
As mentioned elsewhere, the Revo rack is brilliant, however, although the rack is fine with a hard folding roof provided the “hoop” part is positioned at the rear of the boot, carrying a suitcase can be inconvenient if you want to put the roof up or down. There isn’t enough clearance so before operating the roof, the case must be removed every time. Although it doesn’t actually take long, it seems to take ages when it’s raining hard and you want the roof up!
Our solution was to leave the rack empty and just use it if we needed a food shop en route. We carry a light nylon hold-all that folds up very small and a plastic collapsible crate which folds flat & stows behind the passenger seat. When needed the crate then goes in the hold-all (it stops the food getting squashed) & both go on the rack under an elasticated cargo net.
Even on a 3 week trip we don’t take many clothes due to the space constraints so every few days we stay in an apartment with a washing machine for 2 or 3 nights, do the laundry and off we go again. You can easily buy a couple of extra t shirts or undies if you need to anyway.
Booking.com is great because it keeps all your accommodation in one place and you can apply a filter for a parking space or washing machine as required. I plan a route and book all accommodation in advance to avoid wasting time once there. We have generally found that booking a one bed apartment is about the same price as an hotel or b&b and you get more space and you don’t have to eat out all the time which can get expensive over 3 weeks.
Don’t forget to check your sat nav just before you go to make sure the countries you intend to visit are actually available! We got off the ferry in Santander early on a Sunday morning only to find that the Spain & Portugal maps had completely disappeared. After an initial panic, we had to buy extra data on a phone contract to use Google maps to navigate for the entire trip! I discovered subsequently that every time our sat nav is updated online, it uses up the memory and starts to clear maps to make more space. An extra SD card is therefore required!
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I can thoroughly recommend the Galicia, very relaxing and smooth crossings (the weather was very favourable in June though). We saw whales and dolphins on our voyage which was very exciting!
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Sounds hopeful……. the other possibility is the “Salamanca”……not sure if this shares the route with Galicia or if one or other will take over the route. Must have a look.
Brittany Ferries state “Galicia” & “Salamanca “ are sister ships operating out of Portsmouth to Santander…it’s not clear which of these is doing the Rosslare/Bilbao route
Just checked on Brittanyferries.ie - it would seem that both Galicia & Salamanca ply the Rosslare - Bilbao route. If you go on the website & click on (link here):Brittany Ferries you should find the information on the two ships. I suppose it depends on the day & date you select which one you get.
Thanks very much- that’s exactly the information I was trying to find, and I failed miserably!
You’re welcome!
Hi there, just read your travel trip which has inspired me to do something similar. I’d always thought my MX5 was a tad small to travel far and wide. So planning a tour of southern Spain next year.
One question though, where did you put the spacesaver wheel?
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Good to hear your plans…… we had the spacesaver in the boot, ‘upside down’, and packed the wheel with sandals and other small but rigid items. On top of the wheel, inside the boot went the soft Mountain Equipment green bag, with about 20kg of stuff, mainly wife’s dresses etc (!). This bag wasn’t overfilled,so it was possible to “squash it” to fill the available space. Still left room for a shopping bag of bits & pieces beside it. The T45 Oxford bag is waterproof- as opposed to water resistant- (designed for motorcycle use) with shielded zips etc and it went on the Revo-rack. We weighed it before leaving and it was 10kg approx- enough for my stuff and about half of what the rack is rated to carry. I just took the view that the less weight on the rack, the less likely it is to fall off……I didn’t start really trusting it for several days- but driving through the Cantabrian mountains from Santillana del Mar to Oviedo in wet and windy conditions made me realise it wasn’t coming off. Glad I kept it light though! We were away 5-6 weeks, probably too much stuff with us…… bearing in mind we had access to a washing machine for 7 days, in Lagos, Algarve.
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Hi David, many thx for your advice and tips, sounds like you had a great time. I think we might have a trial run in the UK first.
its the weather that makes it…pulling off the motorway from Lisbon and using the country roads through Silves to Lagos, hood down and 28 degrees at 6.00 pm…
Good luck
DC
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On the subject of the weather, on a hot, sunny day it’s very easy to ‘fry’ in the MX5 cabin with the roof down. In 2019 we were stuck in slow moving traffic on the motorway around Rome in 38 deg C temperature. We couldn’t put the roof up and switch on the AC because of the case on the rack. The traffic didn’t actually come to a complete halt at any point either which might have given me enough time. My wife put up an umbrella for some shade, prompting some quizzical looks from the locals!
I found that my forearms were starting to burn but only had short sleeved shirts onboard. At our next stop I bought a loose fitting long sleeved shirt from a vintage clothes shop and I now always keep it in the car when abroad just in case! So don’t forget to pack one!
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No air con in our 1.8…… just 2 wide brimmed hats with cords to stop them blowing off: and buckets of factor 50, which as I’ve said before is nearly impossible to clean off the door cards…
Have you tried baby wipes? They are good on grease and also for cleaning flies off motorcycle helmets & leathers. Great for getting brake dust off wheel rims as well. We always keep a pack in the glove box.
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Will try this. Thank-you
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