Take it easy on the country roads - they have poor road markings. If you are tanking it you'll often find you're at a T junction and its too late - crunch! I know, had experience in France '93 when driving quick in Nova Sr no road markings or warning triangle Citroen turning in to the road I was on cut corner ouch!

You can be on a mountain road thinking you are shifting and find some old boy in a bread van right on your bumper!

As earlier posts definitely worth it for the scenery - just don't expect the frogs to be friendly!

+ I would have thought a trip like that would be great in a Fabia vRS

Have a nice trip!

Take it easy on the country roads - they have poor road markings. If you are tanking it you'll often find you're at a T junction and its too late - crunch! I know, had experience in France '93 when driving quick in Nova Sr no road markings or warning triangle Citroen turning in to the road I was on cut corner ouch!

You can be on a mountain road thinking you are shifting and find some old boy in a bread van right on your bumper!

As earlier posts definitely worth it for the scenery - just don't expect the frogs to be friendly!

+ I would have thought a trip like that would be great in a Fabia vRS

Have a nice trip!

Well, we are doing the trip from Spain to UK and back in May/June.

Have done it twice before and even at our ages - 70/68, it's OK.

Try Norfolk Line, from Dunkirk to Dover: our return fare, inc., car is only 68 Euros but we booked on line late last year.

Santander Ferry is stupidly expensive. We calculate that even with tolls, overnighters, fuel & grub doing it our way its much cheaper than flying and renting a car in the UK for four or five weeks!

Well, we are doing the trip from Spain to UK and back in May/June.

Have done it twice before and even at our ages - 70/68, it's OK.

Try Norfolk Line, from Dunkirk to Dover: our return fare, inc., car is only 68 Euros but we booked on line late last year.

Santander Ferry is stupidly expensive. We calculate that going our way via Dunkirk even with tolls, overnighters, fuel & grub it's much cheaper than flying and renting a car in the UK for four or five weeks!

I used to work in Export Sales and thus did a lot of driving in Europe (Rover 416si company car if youre interested lol).

This was some time ago however and I used to thrash the 416 so my MPG was terrible.

Anyway, I have done Exeter - Madrid alone, via Plymouth - Roscoff. You really need to stop half way, for sure.

Enjoy the drive though, and make a scenic route as others have suggested if you've the time.

On the topic of tolls, what I used to do was put my hazard lights on as I approached the toll booth as I would always get out of the car and walk round rather than lean across the car (Rover 400s are pretty wide inside). A lot of forgeiners will see your hazards and not pull up behind you.

For those that do pull up and give you dirty looks because you dared hold them up for 30secs then at least you've tried to warn them avec les feux!

My total drive was 2900 miles. That included, going to Dover, driving from Dover to France, France to Spain, Spain to Portugal. Took 2 days. Long long journey... Paris is horrible to drive through...

Well planned & it will be a great experience, we have done a few long drives on the cannonball, the first leg is normally over 1000 miles, we did UK to Morroco one year so thats sort of the way you are going + a bit.

The main roads on the continent are a joy to drive on, OK you pay tolls but they are not horrendous & it means you can cover a lot of miles quickly, if youve got a couple of days plan the route to add some points of interest, might mean a few more miles but fun.

This site will give you the "legalities" for each country + some basic advice http://www.rac.co.uk/web/travelservices/european_motoring_advisor/

Only other advice is get the car serviced a couple of weeks before you go to make sure its up together, not a day or 2 before, if they find anything then its a panic to get it fixed, also should they **** anything up on the service you wont know about it before you are on your way. Also a good recovery package is worth looking at, cheapest isnt best, some of the cheapest simply give you a flight home from the nearest airport, you at least want the option of a hire car to complete your holiday, imagine if someone tail ended you 50 miles off the ferry in france & all you get is a flight back to blighty, at least with a renter you can carry on.

If possible avoid travelling during the busy weekends in the summer, also avoid french public holidays, unlike the UK where a bank holiday is an excuse to shop in many areas of France everywhere including garages & restaurants shut & they holiday as families, brilliant idea but a pain if you are short of fuel or hungry

Going from Uk, to Portugal, there's about 15 Toll bridges, each being over 10 Euros, i remember one was 37 euros. It's a complete drainage of money!

Does anyone have any advice on what to do if a breakdown is experienced on the continent while driving a Skoda still under it 3 year warranty?

If I break down in France in my 3 month old Furby Vrs can I still get warranty work (if it is a genuine warrenty issue) undertaken at a French Skoda garage or would I have to claim for a refund for the repair once I get back to England?

I'd have peace of mind knowing the correct procedure before I leave for my holidays in August. Thanks to anyone who can enlighten me.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do if a breakdown is experienced on the continent while driving a Skoda still under it 3 year warranty?

If I break down in France in my 3 month old Furby Vrs can I still get warranty work (if it is a genuine warrenty issue) undertaken at a French Skoda garage or would I have to claim for a refund for the repair once I get back to England?

I'd have peace of mind knowing the correct procedure before I leave for my holidays in August. Thanks to anyone who can enlighten me.

You should be perfectly OK, The AA cover also extends to Europe & is handy if the car is under 3 years old but out of warranty on mileage (I know yours isnt.)

For total peace of mind & also to find out what you have to do should you break down call Skoda

Škoda Customer Services are on 08457 745 745

The ŠkodaAuto Customer Service Centre is open between 8.30am and 6.00pm Monday to Friday and between 9.00am and 12.30pm on Saturdays.

Lastly watch out for speed traps on the Motorways in France, Especially when you are heading home, the French have worked out we all rush to the ferry & are nicking an awful lot of people, if you want to speed keep to about 160 kph, last week that was only a 90 Euro fine

I live in Madrid and have done London-Madrid and back, did it in one day (each journey) and even that was a bad idea, you need the triangles, car insurance green card, high visibility jacket kept in the inside of the car and spare bulbs. if you come to Madrid give me a shout we can have a couple of cervezas and tapas.also go to this website for all the speed cameras in Spain. http://www.supermotor.com/revista/actualidad/2005/03/256546.html and http://www.supermotor.com/revista/mapaRadares20040729.pdf let me know if the Spanish is a problem.