Heading abroad

My wife and I are discussing the possibility of taking Eva to the Algarve. Advice/tips would be most welcome, especially about servicing/breakdowns etc.

Hi Stoney

Even though we have lived in Belgium for the last 5 years we have been down to Northern Sapin and Portugal from the UK a couple of times or actually back as well. If you don't fancy driving down through France the Portsmouth Santander crossing is good but not cheap as it is an overnight...Portsmouth bilboa for us is more usable as we spend a lot of time are Zarautz (however it is two nights on the boat and its ok if you like bingo..bingo and more bingo and want to spend 10 pound on a sandwich and coke)...where in the summer there is great surf and a fairly european VW community

Santander is obviously nearer to Portugal - means you can come down through Leon or push west and do the scallop trail (st iago de compostela) then drive down the Portugal coast - hot in summer but good

if you come through france the long drive is via french catalunya - perignan to barc then valencia and the coastas swing around Andalusia and head up...again nice tour but slow and expensive

Via madrid and Seville or madrid badajoz also works but means driving through spain ---can be a pain in the proverbial .

Carry a fairly full tool kit take at least two oil change kits, spare belt and then make sure your euro recovery is good and is a return not a return if cant be fixed...it is really worth the extra...return can be quicker and cheaper than sitting and waiting for parts.

Some VAG dealers will look at Brazilians others will not give time of day. Small backstreet garages are sometimes hard to find but my usual way to find anything anywhere in europe is to ask the germans, they always seem to know.

Going across gren spain and rioja we have twice picked up convoys of vws. ... mainly surfers but also everything and everybody from starry eyed rich kids to retired swiss in t2.5s. They can be a god sent if you find one as you can almost build a complete t2 from the spares carried.

hope that is some help .....if you come back through france and head through the basque region the headwind on the A63 Biarritz Bordeaux is straight across you most of the time so driving in a Brazilian can be fun