# Travelling UK to Costa Del Sol with dogs?



## philng (Feb 15, 2018)

Would appreciate any feedback & tips from people who have travelled to CDS with dogs.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

philng said:


> Would appreciate any feedback & tips from people who have travelled to CDS with dogs.


Done it many times on many routes (car/ferry not air) with multiple dogs in both directions.

Ask away.


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## philng (Feb 15, 2018)

Thank you for coming back so quick.

We live in Cheshire so I guess best route is to drive to Portsmouth & catch ferry to Santander & then drive down to CDS from there?

Hope you don't mind me asking but do you have property in CDS? Just we have been considering for a long time but never found anything we like enough. I just hate the UK winter and may see this as a chance to get away from it for 2 or 3 months. 

Just would be interested in your experiences with dogs-I guess if you have done many times you find the whole trip ok? How long does it take to get there?

Is there a particular route/overnight stop off you take?

How do the dogs cope?

I know the dogs need a Pet Passport but is there any hassle boarding at Portsmouth/Santander? I would hate there to be any issues & we had to turn back!


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

We would, if we were doing it, use the Tunnel, drive down through France, then over the border and down to CdS. In France the "Première Classe" chain of inexpensive motels, allow dogs. With stop-overs at Calais and Bayonne, it is a 3-day trip which you can treat as all part of the adventure.

The advantage is that your animals are with you for the entire journey and provided they are OK with riding in the car, it is far less stressful for them (and for you.)


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## ccm47 (Oct 15, 2013)

The problem with travelling to Santander is that the dogs are on the ferry for a looong while. My dogs have trained themselves to only use grass or rough land when they need to relieve themselves, the ferry has neither. They do not enjoy crossed paws!

Personally we use Portsmouth to Cherbourg, perhaps Caen. We stop off at Cosham Tesco car park for a last dog walk before going down to the port a mile or so away. 

The only places we have ever been asked for pet passports is when boarding, or staying at a hotel or campsite. The former check the microchip is working and the latter that your dogs are not of a banned breed. Our dogs, and cat, are very well travelled too.
Travelling on the continent is much less of a hassle than in the UK IMO.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

We don't have property in Spain but lived there for 14 years and traveled back with Fraggle our little rescue dog on a couple of occasions.

We did it via Dover/Calais on the ferry.

It's a lot of driving, about 24 hours in total from Bristol to near Gibraltar.

We've done it in 3 days (2 stops) 2 days (1 stop) and, once, in 24 hours - non stop.

I would consider the tunnel as well but I do like ferries.

If you have a dog they let you on first (so you get off first) and we were having our dinner in the restaurant even before the ferry left port.

The dog(s) stay in the car for about 1 1/2 hours.

We've never had a problem going to the continent with passports but we have on more than one occasion coming to the UK. 

Once, Fraggle's passport had been filled out incorrectly by our Spanish vet and, on a Sunday night in Calais, we were told to go to a vet and get it sorted before we could board. There was a veritable queue of Brits at the vet with the same problems but it was all sorted satisfactorily for 10 Euros.

Another time in Santander all three of our dogs' passports were wrong (UK vet this time) so again we had to get it sorted at the vet (slightly more worrying in Santander where the ferries aren't exactly hourly).

The lesson is, make sure your passports are in order before you make the journey.

There are lots of cheap hotels in France which take dogs, I would advise booking them in advance to avoid wasting journey time searching for them.

Make sure your dog is restrained by a lead or a barrier when driving in Spain.

We did Santander/Plymouth and back once which is fun but, as has been mentioned, the dogs spend quite a lot of time on board which wasn't a problem for ours.

There's a 'poop' deck  which is quite sociable - lots of people spend much of the journey there with their pooches.

We went (from England) in the third week in July and the cost was about £1300 return so bear that in mind.

It's about 10 hours drive down the Ruta de Plata from Santander to CDS - so we stopped once. It's a very relaxed drive - not much traffic.

Next time we go we will go Dover Calais (probably in the tunnel) on grounds of cost, and take our time.

We will have to wait until Button our tiny miniature Yorkie has gone as she doesn't travel well as we found out on our last trip. Don't think she'll be with us much longer.

Sorry - that was a bit of a disorganised brain dump - must write this down properly as it's always being asked about.


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## davexf (Jan 26, 2009)

Hola 

We've done the trip many times; now prefer travel through the tunnel so we can stop every couple of hours so the dog can run around. We stop just before the tunnel and get a nine o'clock ish train. We then stop in Poitiers (France) and then Burgos (Spain). 

Love the Aires on the French motorways - the Spanish stops aren't so nice 

Davexf


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

May I ask a related question?

Do people use toll roads when driving through France?

We always have but I find them boring and expensive so I would like to try the other roads.

Would it take very much longer?

I usually go Calais, Rouen, Le mans, Bordeaux, Irun.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

jimenato said:


> May I ask a related question?
> 
> Do people use toll roads when driving through France?
> 
> ...


We use similar, E402 Calais, Rouen, Le Mans, E502 Tours, Poitiers, then E5 Bordeaux, Bayonne (overnight stop) Vittoria, Burgos, Madrid (using M50 round to R4) E5 down to Bailen then take A44, A316, N432. 

TBH, I couldn't tell which bits are toll roads other than R4 which cuts out all the slow bits via Aranjuez, but I don't recall thinking any of them being expensive especially given that they are good fast roads. In fact apart from some stretches most of the route was quite a good road (apart from delays going through Rouen but that isn't too bad if you pick your times.)


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## mollymonster (May 26, 2010)

Hi.. has anyone ever done these journeys with a "so-called dangerous breed" we would prefer to do the channel tunnel but one of my dogs is a Rottweiler?? Really don't want to do the Santander crossing.. I am really seasick and don't want the dogs to be ill/stressed.. thanks


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## davexf (Jan 26, 2009)

jimenato said:


> May I ask a related question?
> 
> Do people use toll roads when driving through France?
> 
> ...


Hola, 

Yes always use the toll roads - www.viamichelin.co.uk said each days journey was up to four hours faster using the toll roads - therefore if you are travelling for days - it is much faster. If you want to make a holiday out of the journey then don't use the toll roads. 

Davexf


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## ccm47 (Oct 15, 2013)

I've never had a rottie but have known some soppie ones. The info re dogs in France is here: https://dogwellnet.com/content/welf...ion/the-french-situation-dangerous-dogs-r188/
Hope it helps.


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