{"id":37038,"date":"2020-01-13T17:53:39","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T17:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=37038"},"modified":"2020-01-14T15:24:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T15:24:31","slug":"brittany-ferries-economie-portsmouth-to-santander-with-a-motorhome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/brittany-ferries-economie-portsmouth-to-santander-with-a-motorhome\/","title":{"rendered":"Brittany Ferries Economie – Portsmouth to Santander With a Motorhome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Zagan la autocaravana<\/em> is parked with his amigos<\/em> at the free aire in Santander (N43.47226, W3.80263<\/a>). His owners are feeling a tad discombobulated, finding themselves in northern Spain in just a couple of days, instead of their usual week or two drive across France. The reason being, this trip they took the Brittany Ferries Economie ferry from Portsmouth to Santander (scroll to the bottom of this post if you are just interested in our top tips for this ferry).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Zagan settling in at the free motorhome aire in Santander<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had a quiet, but sleepless night in the Fox and Goose car park in Greywell<\/a>. My mind was racing and nerves were starting to kick in. I’m not a huge fan of ferries because I get seasick. I really wish I could be like the smiling folks you see in the adverts, tucking into a meal or relaxing in the bar watching the sunset over the ocean, but in reality you’ll find me as horizontal as possible, looking pale and feeling rough. I’m not entirely sure why I thought this ferry would be any different. I can only think that I was putting my trust in some recommended seasickness tablets at the time of booking. As the departure drew closer, that trust was starting to wear thin.<\/p>\n

Our ferry was due to depart at 8.45am on Saturday morning, so on Friday morning, we drove the rest of the way to Portsmouth. We’d checked Park4Night and discovered that you can stay overnight for free at the Port Solent complex (cinema, shops, restaurants, gym next to a marina), if you got permission in advance (N50.83982, W1.09574<\/a>). I called them and spoke to a lovely fella who took our registration and phone number, gave directions to where best to park and assured me we wouldn’t be woken by security at 2am! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mixed parking for motorhomes at Port Solent, Portsmouth – but call and ask first<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a quick look around the marina at Port Solent, we decided to catch the bus for a look around Portsmouth. The bus stop at Port Solent had no information on it so we sat for a while until a lady wandered over to ask us what buses stopped there as she’d never seen any. At this point we opted to walk the half a mile to the main road, where we caught the X-4 into town (an all day ticket was under a fiver each and cheaper than a return). It looks like the bus stop at Port Solent might just be for show, or the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower – it’s taller than it looks here!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once in Portsmouth we realised we’ve both been here before as we’d been up the Spinnaker tower, but can’t remember when or who with. It must be pre-blog days, so we’ll have to have a look through our photos and see if they give us a clue. We gave our legs a good stretch on the Millennium promenade walk down to Southsea castle and back, reading each of the information boards describing the historic fortifications and houses of disrepute along the route. The walk gave us a good feel for the naval importance of the town. We also got to see a hovercraft land on the beach next to us. While this is probably a fairly normal occurrence for those who catch it over to the Isle of Wight, for me it was something new and exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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