I've been thinking..... next year

[SteveW]

I think if you are UK based and want to ride your own bike on Tarmac (as opposed to a Fly/ride trip) and only have 6 days, then your proposed route is great.
On a road trip like this, if you are going with a buddy and you're camping have a proper pre-deployment meet up to decide who's taking what, to avoid duplication of kit.
Even if I am just using B&B's/Hotels I always take a small stove, a mug and loads of those 3in1 coffee sachets.
It's good to just stop at a nice spot and have a brew.
Over the years I've learnt to gradually reduce the amount of kit I take, remember it's Spain/France not Outer Mongolia!
Don't overpack with food/water/Oil/Distress Flares etc, this stuff is available on route if you need it.
....don't over pack with clothes, wash Tshirts, socks and underpants at the end of your days riding, if they are still damp in the morning bungee them to your bike and let them dry as you ride.
Oh, and if you haven't already got one, those micro fast drying towels are good, pack up nice and small.
This used to be me!

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I evolved into this!

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[Redmurty]

Ade come and have a brew and a chat

cheers Spud

[-Ralph-]

From your avatar it looks like you have a GS with a 300 mile tank range? In which case fuel is less likely to be an issue for you, but I'd say you still want to give yourself at least a 50 mile contingency. Don't wait until you need fuel to get it, fill up before your warning light comes on.

Again a GS is more suited to that kind of trip than either of my bikes, so may be more comfortable and less tiring over long distances, but regular stops is still the best piece of advice I can give you. My rule is every hour, on a GS you might want to make that every 90 minute or 2 hours, but like the fuel, the key is stop for a break before you feel like you need a break. Don't turn it into an endurance test. Stop somewhere you can do something, get a coffee, get fuel, mooch round a shop, have something to eat, etc. Stopping at the side of the road for 5 minutes and wandering around the grass verge looking at the view doesn't count as a break.

I rode to the France/Spain border this year, and only had 8 days to do it in, and the purpose of the trip was not sightseeing, but to go and visit a friend and spend some time with him. So I rode 1000 miles from Northampton to St Jean de Luz over 2 days, spent 4 days there, then did the same on the way back. Doesn't sound much until I tell you I did about 1400 miles of that 2000 on twisty roads and only did about 2 hours of motorway each day to get the first 150 miles under my belt early in the day. All 4 days I did about 13-14 hours from 8 in the morning to 9 or 10 at night.

Yes I was asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow each night, but on arrival at my destination each night I felt absolutely fine. The reason I felt fine was because of my hourly stops. Riding 7 x 1 hour rides is easy, riding for 7 hours with only a couple of stops is bloody tiring.

Make sure your mobile phone is going to work in France, no point having breakdown cover if you can't phone them. If that's not an option (work issued mobile phone, bad credit rating, pay as you go restrictions, etc), you can buy a French pay as you go in any French Orange shop for 30 euros and it comes with 10 euros credit already on it. http://agence.orange.fr/6183-boutique-orange-calais

[-Ralph-]

PS: In six days I wouldn't say your going to see much of Spain. However you get to the Spanish border, ride or ferry to Santander, it takes 2 days there and 2 days back, so you've only got 2 days left out of your 6.

I'd just plan a 2000-2500 mile trip round France, covering 350 odd miles a day and see what you want to see in France. Leave Spain for when you have more time.

[Beam me up]

If I had six days from getting off the boat in Santander to ride home I'd plan a couple of days in the Pyrenees perhaps at the end of the second day aim to be somewhere like Foix. Then I'd take a cross country route up to Millau and the Gorges du Tarn, then I'd head back west towards Oradour sur Glane and the perhaps towards the coast at La Rochelle or up to somewhere on the Loire (Saumur). You then have a fairly easy days ride home. Probably not too many miles a day but for a first trip it's probably enough

[-Ralph-]

Sorry, I thought you had six days total, leaving Dudley to getting back to Dudley. Of course you loose a half day in each direction just getting to a ferry port.

If you have six days after rolling off the Santander ferry, then you could do three days spain, three days working your way up through France, no problem.

[Roadcaptain]

Adrian myself and 3 others are planning the same probably for the first week of August, for them it is also first time abroad,you would be welcome to join us, I live in Devon so we would probably have a night here first for those that want to!

[Redmurty]

come and have a couple days at the HISS and ride back up through France with us

cheers Spud

[skipper]

I returned 3 weeks ago from a 1 week trip to andorra but with a dover calais crossing rode down France into spain then andorra and back to calais. Riding through france is much more pleasure than spending 2 days on the ferry bored. One tip never pack to your Max leave a little room for what you may pick up on the way.

[Simon_100]

Hi there, I wrote my blog specifically for folks like you - and just today had some lovely feedback on the same theme: check out the last comment here.

Spain has it all, brilliant roads, amazing scenery, lovely food and wine and great accommodation - bearing in mind that Spain is the country more or less invented tourism so it's the traveller's paradise - and the north is where the Spanish go on holiday

But you do have to work at it a little to get the best, hence all the basics for independent travel.

Assuming you have six days in Spain to and from Santander you have loads of options: the Pyrenees is the safest bet as the weather is more reliable but if when you arrive the forecast is good then think about riding all the way up the north coast to Galicia, taking in the Picos de Europa on the way out or back.

Either way you can then ride into Portugal and along the 'Sistema Central' mountains that take you to the north of Madrid, then back north through the Picos de Europa - again, a lot depends on the weather, along the coast it's changeable but once inland it is far more stable.

come and have a couple days at the HISS and ride back up through France with us

cheers Spud

Spud is right, a visit to a HISS rally is hard to beat - well I would say that wouldn't I :whistle: - in general the HISS events take place at camp sites, so anyone can pop in, but at the May HISS in Aragon we have a camping exclusively for our own use during the week when otherwise it's closed, so I'm nor sure how that would go down with the owners although I'm meeting them next week and I'll bring it up.

Meanwhile, something that some other folks have mentioned - and with all due respect to them - avoid Andorra like the plague, it's a total dump, and worse, all the roads leading to and from it are atrocious - and if your idea of fun is to sit in the broiling sun for up to three hours going through customs . . .

Cheers

Simon