[Closed] Going to the Pyrenees for summer hols, advice sought.

Take the tunnel, use the tolls, the driving is easy. Take your bike and go to Ainsa.

+1 for Ainsa. Also, go to Ordesa National Park, bikes not permitted, however it really is a fabulous place for trekking.

Get one of these [url= https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/ ]tolls made easy and faster[/url]

Shoulda said I'll be going with the family, 12 and 7 year old kids, so it won't be so much about the biking although I should have it with me.

Ainsa still good, there's a couple of campsites with swimming pools and the town is a nice old one with an old fortress on top. Marked bike routes that are really good.

I find Ainsa trails too hot in Summer, the high mountains and French side are more pleasant unless it's raining which means it's time to cross to Spain.

Caen, free dual carriageway to Nantes, campsites at surf/swim spots down the west coast as far as St Jean de Luz (Camping Bord de Mer from where you can walk into town), St Jean Pied de port then cross to Spain and follow the biker road before recrossing to La Pierre St Martin. D918 east staying anywhere you like. Gavarnie.

There's a really nice heated outdoor swimming pool in Pau (le Stade Nautique de Pau is the best swimming pool I've ever swum in and that includes the Barcelona Olympic pool), a chateau to visit, the Jurançon vinyards to visit. Pau campsite is not great but there are nice ones up the valley d'Ossau.

*disclaimer: I've lived in Pau for 24 years

Good timing - we are off to Prats de Mollo (eastern end of the Pyrenees) this year and was thinking of driving.

We've used the Santander ferry from Plymouth, and drove back twice. Once we did a bit of pottering in the Picos de Europa then the Pyrenees on both sides of the border.Home via Dordogne and Northern France. Second time with kids (15 months and 3 yrs) We had a great place booked in Nr. Luchon for a week and took a week and a bit to drive back via various stops on the west coast of France.

Both holidays we're great.
Luchon + AQR day guided MTB was great.

Off to Saint Savin,Haute-Pyrenees for a week of road riding in September. Decided just to drive from Ayrshire after looking at flights and connections for the past few months. My Mrs can share the driving and it'll be a good road trip.

Plus one for Gavarnie, Lovely campsite we stayed at there, high up terraced site. Nice outdoor pool nearby.

Edinburgh to Pyrenees is 3 days in the car each way with stops if you are planning in doing anyhting at the stops ? We've stopped before (years ago) at the "theme park of the moving image" at Poitiers. When we where students with 4 drivers we used to do Hampshire to French Pyrenees in a long day.

If you did Portsmouth to Caen (overnight) or Cherbourg you could visit the D-Day landing beaches.

Unless you, the wife and the kids like driving for anything other than a 3 week holiday I would fly and rent a car.

I'd recommend driving to Hull and taking the overnight ferry to Zeebrugge. We find that the fuel and overnight stop saved makes up for the extra cost over a short ferry crossing, plus you get a decent sleep on board, take the kids to a film, etc.

Then get off the boat fresh for a good crack at it in the morning. We generally one-hit it from Zeebrugge to the Alps - about 10 hours. Pyrenees is another 9-10 hours, although you can obviously save some time by not going via the Alps...

We've also done it Hull-Zeebrugge with 2 kids - we always sail from Hull for Pyrenees, Alps, Austria, Germany etc.

Did one overnight stop each way in France - big drive but fairly clear apart from minor queues at some tolls. Really try and avoid French school holiday rush weekends on the Eastern French motorways as the tolls can be clogged for hours (advice from my French boss).

Second the advice about the temperature in summer. Ainsa is lovely but it´s not a summer destination IMHO. You´d be better somewhere on the French side, choosing different time, or going somewhere higher on the Spanish Side. Formigal area (but not Formigal!), or Benasque would be my choices.

Ferry is a great way to go, arrive to Bilbao and then you can be in Ainsa in 3 hours driving or Luchon in around the same or a bit longer. It´s expensive but so is the drive through France and it´s all quality from off the ferry as you head through the Basque Country and on to the Pyrenees.

Lescun is stunning and much less of a zoo than Gavarnie.

It was the French side we were thinking if as one option is to visits friends in France on the way down.

There's a good campsite overlooking Zarautz "tharowth" if you go via Bilbao. A great beach, good surf, ice creams, nice old centre in the middle of the concrete to wander around.

If I went back, I'd go to Lescun before Gavernie. Mainly a crowds thing tbh, the Cirque De Gavernie is fantastic, but I most enjoyed it from the surrounding hills rather than the foot of the waterfall. Absolutely loved the Ordesa Canyon.

Cirque de Gavernie is well worth seeing, as is the Col du Tourmalet to see what a long and horrendous climb the TdF does.
Bagnères-de-Luchon is a pleasant town and you can take the cable car with your bike in the summer to Superbagnères and have a complete blast all the way back to town without turning a pedal !
We stayed in a small unspoilt French village called St Lary. Its quiet during the summer but can get busy in the ski season especially weekends.

I've never started that far North but I think its quite drive able

Starting from down here I find the longer Channels crossings to Britanny much better. They avoid detours round London and more importantly Paris. As well as giving you a place to sleep. However they are not cheap

I like the Cirque to Gavarnie but not the town. It seemed to be full of not very well looked after horses and their excrement (but this was in the 90s). The people who ran the horses seemed an odd sort, Cleaning their nails with huge flick knives in Cafes etc.

I have camped in Barege on the Col do Tourmalet and enjoyed that as a base

IMHO the best tourist attraction that we have ever visited was the Aquarium in Brest so you could use that to break the journey. Your kids would be the perfect age.

http://www.oceanopolis.co.uk/

There is also a historical theme park on route as well. I think that's the attraction my kids most wished they had been to

http://www.puydufou.com/en/

I'd get the ferry,either one way or return, from Portsmouth or Plymouth to Bilbao/Santander.You're doing a lot of driving & this route breaks it up.
We got the Plymouth-Santander ferry the other year,I'd use it again.
http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/ferry-routes/ferries-spain/plymouth-santander

One option is to stay overnight with family in Dorset so Portsmouth or Plymouth might work. Is it worth driving the extra for the Pyrenees over the alps?

If you do the Pyrenees from Scotland and use Portsmouth Caen/St Malo rather than Calais there's not much in it distance wise.

The Pyrenees are more family friendly with good hikes that aren't epic. The valleys are green and pleasant and the weather better, especially in August. The Alpine valleys are much more populated and industrial till you get quite high. I like the southern Alps - Gap, Embrun (and the lake), Briançon, le Verdon, Provence.

I find the northern Alps spectacular but more hostile. There's a climber/alpinist/extreme sport buzz in Chamonix I liked when a part of it but you can sit around a lot waiting for better weather. I detest Switzerland so will leave others to comment but like the German and Austrian Alps which have a similar feel to the Pyrenees - green, pretty villages, tourist friendly.

This year will be our 5th year in a row travelling to the pyranees with 3 kids. Always go from Portsmouth (from Macclesfield). Done it numerous ways. The easiest for us definitely taking the ferry to Santander. This year going to be epic 24 days 1 week in Noya near Bilbao, then a week in Andorra maybe a few days in Luchon and then a week in Argles Gasost.

Argles is good with quite a bit to do for families. We are staying in the Sunella in a chalet but it is the most expensive campsite ive ever stayed at. If you prefer something quieter Camping du lac up the valley is excellent.

We often stay at a campsite called predolugue in Luchon.

If you've got a road bike you can quickly access some many of the many of the famous tour cols from those two towns and if you set off early be back mid morning.

I'd recommend too taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao/Santander. From there you are straight on to the motorway network for north Spain. Plus the ferry journey is really quite nice and relaxing, much less hassle than driving the whole way IMO.

We haven't done a family in The Pyrenees. I went in the 1990s with friends

IMHO for a family holiday the Alps, specifically chamonix, would be better. The only down side being the weather being less reliable

We went in 2006 (I just looked it up scary how time flies). The kids were 9 and 6. We did some great days. The Grand Balcon Sud is a classic work with a cable car at each end. One day went up the Aiguille De midi be cable and the walked the Grand Balcon Nord and did the ice caves of the Mare De Glace and then got furnicular back to town. Outdoor sledging was popular and there is a Alpine animals park where you go in with the animals. We all found the town exciting to be in. There are huge snow caped mountains towering over the town and its packed with people. (also in the photos is my teenage niece who joined us for some of the trip)

La brevent start of the grand balcon sud

[url= https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1635/23834188910_aa702ce529_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1635/23834188910_aa702ce529_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/Cj9rZy ]Chamonix[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_clinch/ ]John Clinch[/url], on Flickr

Grand balcon Sud

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Up The aig' de midi

[url= https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1459/24021709832_e7f377af87_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1459/24021709832_e7f377af87_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/CAHxqU ]Chamonix-3[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_clinch/ ]John Clinch[/url], on Flickr

Cable car up said mountain

[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5644/23503014393_cd6437a7c3_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5644/23503014393_cd6437a7c3_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/BNT6m6 ]Chamonix-4[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_clinch/ ]John Clinch[/url], on Flickr

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Grand Balcon Nord

[url= https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1502/23503005493_5b6d3dedda_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1502/23503005493_5b6d3dedda_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/BNT3GD ]Chamonix-6[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_clinch/ ]John Clinch[/url], on Flickr

Inside the Mer de Glace

[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5794/24021688482_caa6a449fb_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5794/24021688482_caa6a449fb_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/CAHr5N ]Chamonix-7[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/john_clinch/ ]John Clinch[/url], on Flickr

Mer De Glace

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Noya or Noja, Stainypants?

If Noja, we walked along the beach on the way to Compostelle. We swam between the rocks and thought it would be a good place to spend a few days.

Noja is beautiful, spend a lot of childhood summers there. Amazing beach. Town might even be finished by now...

It can get very rainy though! North coast of Spain is actually pretty wet.

[i] stevenmenmuir - Member

So thinking of going to the Pyrenees in the summer and never been before. Probably going to camp, driving from Edinburgh. We have a few options to break up the journey but is driving there mad? Where's best to get the ferry? What's the best way across France, toll roads? Any campsite recommendations, places to visit? And anything else you care to share. [/i]

We're moving to the Pyrenees next month (from South Africa) to start renovating a property we bought last September. It's a few km's outside the MTB "mecca" of Ainsa.

If you PM me an email address I'll send you some info on the area - there's lots to do and it's a lovely part of the world.

When we drove down there from the UK we went via the tunnel and the French toll roads. It's a bit of a trek and a bit expensive but manageable. Next month I will do the journey again but on A roads. Will let you know how that works out!

there's lots to do

We'll talk again around November next year. If you're not riding a bike or renovating your place I suspect you'll be very present on STW. 😉

Ainsa sounds like it might be too hot for me, especially in summer. Also it turns out my other half was thinking of the Alps or somewhere else but not the Pyrenees.

With current airline luggage costs flying then renting a car and camping might be a stretch - I have done this - in the Pyrenees as it happens, and it was hopeless - we took as much as we could get away with tent and pots wise but it was a stupid idea.

Belgium has some nice campsites !

You've had the best advice on where to go from Doug above. Ainsa is lovely - the MTB trails were originally walking trails so on foot or bike is good (but tough). Luchon a very different area - faded spa town is interesting but again good walking and cycling on marked trails. (Caveat - as anywhere if you want the do the best riding in the shortest time pay for a guide). Great road riding around Luchon as well with a set of famous tour Cols.

The drive south through the UK will be the stressful bit. The drive through France really isn't bad at all - we head to just South of Paris on day 1 leaving London late afternoon. Then a relaxed day with a decent break for lunch on day two arriving early evening in Luchon (or just over the Spanish border). There are frequent rest/picnic stops on the French pay roads.

It is a long way though - I don't know how long you've got but why not make it a multi stop tour with the furthest point being the Pyrenees?

I drive Leeds to the Pyrenees (near Andorra on French side) 2 or 3 times a year. Usually just do tunnel to Calais and down via Limoges and Toulouse.

It's long but an easy drive. We usually have a stop over on the way down because we generally set after work on a Thursday evening and arrive at my sisters about 5pm the next day. On the way home we tend to do it in one go. door to door, 1000 miles, 6:30am - midnight!

My sister and bro in law have recently opened a chambres d'hotes http://www.lesvoletsjaunes.com/ if any one is passing through the area.