ribeirasacra

**Roncevalles to SdC in six days** yes it can be done but what is the fun in that? What do you end up doing a load of one night stops with all of that packing and unpacking, booking in and out of hotels. Trying to find your accommodation. Just is a waste of valuable vacation time.
If you do this drive then use the Autovía del Cantábrico (A8). Great sceneryand a 1000 more locations to stop at. Added bonus most of the route is not in wine land ;-).
For me I find the inland route via Vitoria-Gasteiz - Astorga etc.rather flat and boring.

Yostwl

That isn't a lot of mileage for a 2 week road trip. As for how long to stay in each place, it depends on what you want out of your visit, your personality, and where you are going. Some places are stops just for convenience or have just one or two items interest that you want to see or experience, and might not be worth a longer stay unless you enjoy being bored.

On our drive through the the Spanish, French, and Andorran Pyrennes from Bilbao to Barcelona, we spent from one night to 4 nights at our various stops, just depending on the circumstances and what we wanted to do in each place.

On the other hand, our European trip last year was 8 full days just in Paris. And we've had previous non-road trips with a week each in just 2 cities. Then we've had other road trips with stays at various stops from 1 to 5 nights. There is no one right way to travel. It just depends on what you want out of the trip and what fits your needs and personality.

dwdvagamundo

Thanks, you all. Yost, it also depends on where you're going. I'd love to do a "hub and spoke" trip to northern Spain, but don't think there are bases that would be better than simply biting the bullet and changing lodging every nite or two. As I say, I hate to do it this way, but don't see an alternative without doubling the time we have available for this trip.

Ribeira--while the coastal road would undoubtedly be more scenic, a large part of our purpose is to follow the Camino. The reason I mentioned the tour guides--one of which was Fodor's Spain--is that they recommended the route we are planning to take as a "suggested itinerary", so it can't be all that outré.

I'll throw out another idea: I had planned to prebook lodging and try to stay in paradores. But I'd also like to leave some time for exploring places that meet our fancy and avoid what Mrs. Vagamundo calls "forced marches." What risk would we be taking if we "winged it" in October? It would preclude our staying paradores every nite, but if we reserved two or three nites in the paradores in Leon and SdC, could we find lodging by booking one day ahead along the route?

Nepenthe

I look forward to reading a trip report on this expedition from the Vagamundos.

dwdvagamundo

Thanks Nepenthe--

However, because of the negative comments and some reluctance on the part of my navigator, we're rethinking this and will start another thread when we get it down.

This would start in Barcelona, spend more time around there, and pretty much stick to the Mediterranean coast a little bit west and as far east as Antibes. We did some of the Cote d'Azur a few years ago and my navigator (AKA spouse) liked it a lot.

I do want to see Carcassonne and Perpignan at some point in my lifetime.