89 days of Winter travels

Not long to go now before I head down to Rosslare and get on the Stena ferry to Cherbourg I used my Tesco vouchers which gave me 4 times the face of the voucher ( I think it’s changing to 3 times next year). I have booked one of the captains class cabins as I had lots of vouchers. It’s a nice sailing time, leaves Ireland late afternoon arrives the following morning (Sunday) at 10.30 local time. Will I find any shops open? Probably not. I’m intending on crossing into Spain on the Somport tunnel which will be a first for us. I have around 1000km from Cherbourg to Somport which I intend to do in 3 or 4 days. France tends to be cold and closed in November. I have initially decided from Somport to head to the east coast and then meander clockwise into the algarve.
We have nothing booked campsite wise as we reckon there will slightly less snow birds this year and we know roughly which sites we want to stay on in addition to great choice of Aires.
Couple of sites we will aim to use as we like them for different reasons. Valfarta peace and quiet, Xabia/Javea lots of Nepalese restaurants, Mar Azul (stocks the Acsi book) camping Albufeira, 10 minutes walk to the old town. And zambujeira (approximately 50 miles north of Sagres, it’s just a nice site.

I have stayed on quite a few sites and Aires in Spain and Portugal so I know the ones I’ll avoid but I’m looking forward to finding some new favourites.

I will try to avoid the Aire at IKEA Mercia the Aire is free the shops are not.

As we are British we can only stay for a maximum of 90 days so we come back in January via the Brittany ferry from Bilbao to Rosslare.

Enjoy your trip Jamie, wish it was me going too

Have a smashing trip Jamie/Amanda.
We probably won’t get this year, but maybe after Christmas….
Keep us updated.

Hi, Jami/Amanda have a great holiday, I am not going to butter you's up in saying you deserve it sure you did nothing all year,
Stay safe will hope to see you early next spring,

If you skipped over to Gibraltar for a few days would that not get around the 90 day limit,or is it an Insurance issue?

Off topic but I just checked my insurance it allows me 180 days. Through Motor CarVan Wise

Not jealous at all !! .... Have a great trip Jamie and Amanda and keep us all posted with the odd post or pic from time to time.

Having done it again during the summer, dont fill up but have enough fuel to get you through to Spain as its cheaper there than France.

We stayed at 43.304314250620976, -0.43644441895603947 in Pau, lovely stopover but no services on our way back and at Camping Le Gave d'Aspe 42.876706618233534, -0.556846014647023 on our way up to the tunnel. Not sure if its open at that time of year but it was a lovely simple campsite on the ourskirts of Urdos which is the last village before hitting Spain on that route.

Have a good one Jamie and Amanda, safe travels.

Regarding insurances, isn’t there a maximum you can leave your home unoccupied? Is it enough that someone “stays” (even if only long enough to move the piling post) how does house insurance company know whether anyone occupied it during your time away?.
Likewise if your holiday insurance only covers you for specific number of days for any one visit, it shouldn’t matter if claiming for something at start or finish of holiday.
I know the less than 90 days is for UK citizens , Jamie could you /would you get an Irish passport ?

There are huge differences in the unoccupied periods across the different policies. They range from as little as 28 days cumulative in an insurance year for some of the cheap policies to 60 days per absence and not acumulating for high end policies. Mine is the latter and I just get one of the offspring or siblings to spend a weekend in the house once every six weeks or so and that restarts the clock.
As said in an early post, I forgo the forty odd euro discount for having an alarm so if it goes faulty or someone forgets to set it any claim won't be effected.

The discount is in recognition of the reduced risk due to an alarm being fitted and operating.
If the policy does not require an alarm and one is not declared then having one, operational or not, would not increase the risk.
Having an undeclared alarm actually reduces the risk to the insurance company free gratus

Does any Insurance give real discounts in the first place, When all of them have a net, that they catch figure out of the sky with, and see if it will fly again.

We are currently in Benidorm Jamie, having meandered down the west coast of France then hugging the east coast of Spain. We will get home just before you travel. All good with the trip so far. Covid certs required for campsite reception on arrival and all restaurants, even outside in France. No interest whatsoever in the certs in Spain. Masks obligatory in indoor spaces in both countries, like at home. You should have no difficulty getting a pitch. There are lots of Dutch as usual but we are on Villasol for the last few days and there are still a good few pitches available daily. Saw almost no UK or Irish in France but since Valencia there are a good few UK vans and caravans. We met two couples from Ireland in Javea - they were the only ones in 7 weeks. Weather has been really pleasant. Still getting to 25 deg at the moment. Hope you and Amanda gave a great trip.

jami, if you were even thinking of applying for Irish naturalisation, this is the year to do it because of Covid you will have fulfilled, the first condition, but maybe too late to act on it now,


"Have a period of 365 days* (1 year) continuous reckonable residence in the State immediately before the date of your application for naturalisation and
During the 8 years before that,,,, have had a total reckonable residence in the State of 1,460 days* (4 years)"