If you take your own beer / food onto the boat (and try and find a 25% discount code to use or at least 10%) it helps. Its a long way to Santander - prob. almost £100 each bike in fuel, plus tolls, a hotel night (just trying to help balance) Is that 268 with a cabin? time down there, over to Monaco and Nice then back skirting the Alps (or taking main routes if weather good perhaps?)
Valid points Alblade, cheers. I'm almost tempted to rethink my dates. (cursing!) Enjoyed reading a lot of the 'touring' threads and am chomping at the bit, but spending 15 days in a cold wet saddle is no joy only that we won't be at work and will at least be riding. Seems South is the answer So many suggestions, shared experiences and great pics - thanks My partner now has her heart set on a 2008 black n white blade (my initial favourite) so it seems I'll also be selling a kidney prior to our off set! The debate continues..."..
I think March will annoy you unless you spend all the time way south - and even then the decent parts could well be closed by snow but it does look good like that. Black and white blades = lush - find a mint one and its a classic colour scheme - just put on paint protection film asap and a rad guard Mine after a little bit of work (wheels to white for example) when it was a year old Drop me a PM if you have any questions about times / areas - earliest I have been away is 1st week in June and been snowed on and had roads closed - not fun
All good advice on here, as you'd expect. A couple of things I'd add: 1. I wouldn't worry too much about the weather at Easter. We went to Monaco at Easter a few years ago, leaving on April 1st. Weather was fine all the way down - in fact got much more drenched by rainstorms when going to Italy in June the same year! As mentioned, the Alpine passes will be closed but Route Napoleon will be open unless there's unseasonably late heavy snow on the higher bits. 2. Avoid getting stiffed by banks or Bureaux de Change by getting a free FX debit card (e.g CaxtonFX card, FairFx card, etc). No fees at all and the best exchange rates on the High Street. They're so easy to use as you can check your balance and load the card whilst on the road, meaning you only need to load it up with however much you need to spend. 3. Disclocks are good, but I take one of these: Oxford Trip Lock, which acts as a disclock but also allows you to lock the bike to something immovable, even if you can't park the bike near to it. Also good for securing your luggage to the bike. It's very light and wraps around the luggage when riding so doesn't take up space.
Spanish weather is very fickle so early in the season as much of it is on a plateau. I also went to Morocco last year, we left end of March and returned middle of April and had snow both ways in Spain, in fact on the way down the eastern half of Spain had loads of snow, you just can't tell what will happen. The bottom half of Spain was good but it was "intersting" getting there and if I was doing it again i would take a heated jacket to suppliment the heated grips. Bon voyage.....
