A Summer Holiday in Spain's Costa Daurada

Some reflections on our recent 17 night touring holiday in Spain, which may be useful to readers who are thinking about a similar holiday to Spain’s east coast. I’ve tried to avoid judgements and to just stick to the facts!

Our outfit - my wife and I toured with a 2021 Coachman Laser 575 Excel with factory fitted Truma Aventa air conditioning, towed by a 2021 Land Rover Discovery Sport D200.

Planning and booking. December 2021 we decided to have our 2022 ‘main’ summer holiday (we’re both working full time) in September and in Spain. Last year we toured in the Dordogne and Ile de Re. The decision points for us were: dates 1-18 September, country (Spain) region (Mediterranean coast south of Barcelona but not too far south), primary locations (two, Tarragona and Benicassim) and ferry route (Portsmouth – Bilbao return) in that order. We booked the ferry and our first campsite at the Tamarit Beach Resort just north of Tarragona on 22 December. The outbound ferry departing on a Thursday was brilliant as it meant we would disembark into Spain on the Saturday morning. Our plan was for a relaxing holiday with 'light' exploration of Tarragona and Valencia and enjoy the local food and Rioja!   

Booking process. All bookings were made on line. For our two primary sites (Tamarit Beach Resort and Bonterra Park) we asked (using Google Translate) for a sunny pitches because we had air conditioning and didn’t want to be stuck under the tree canopy.

Brittany Ferries crossing. No hold ups or delays and a very comfortable crossing. We were pleasantly surprised by low price of the meals on board. What was disappointing was the removal of table service for dinner (on both trips) and closure of one of the restaurants, which according to Brittany Ferries was due to problems recruiting staff. On a long ferry crossing meals become milestone events.

Towing in Spain. The main autopista from Bilbao – Zaragoza is billiard table smooth with little traffic. We used autopistas whenever possible (because of the distances) and bought a Via-T Tag which allowed us to drive through the lorry lanes at the tolls at 30kmh – it really does work and is very satisfying! Northern/central Spain is mountainous across, which came as a surprise. At one stage we were driving along the autopista in a semi-arid landscape at over 1200m altitude. Consequently, I think we averaged around 25mpg. Fuel was discounted the time we were in Spain. The pump price for B7 diesel was Euro1.94 per litre and we actually paid around Euro1.77.

Driving distances. Bilbao to Tamarit was 350 miles, we left Bilbao on time at 8am and arrived at Tamarit around 5pm with short stops for fuel and food. This was an easy and comfortable journey. Returning from Bonterra Park to a campsite near Bilbao towards the end of our holiday we towed for 450 miles in one day leaving at 7:30 am and arriving at our destination in Islares around 6pm.  An interesting experiment but not one we would repeat because the autopista A3 from Valencia – Zaragoza had a poor road surface and climbed several mountain ranges. We've set our personal towing limit at 350 miles but dependent on the country and routes (for example I wouldn't personally tow that distance down the M1/M25/M4/M5/A30!)

Kit. There are numerous opinions about air conditioning. All I would say is that on the Mediterranean coast and in full sun we easily maintained 22-23 Celsius in the caravan 24 hours a day when the day time temperature was around 31-32 Celsius and 26 Celsius at night. Often we would leave the ac in ‘night mode’ with the curtains and sky-light blinds drawn. Our advice is to book 10Amp pitches if you have ac. We took an Isabella Air Arc Sun Canopy which provided superb shade and could be put up single handed in around 10 mins. Rock pegs are a must – we used Kampa rock pegs and an electric drill to drive them in.

Campsites. Tamarit Beach Resort was superb in every way. Its a large site but very well laid out and quiet. The staff had selected a fully serviced pitch with little shade as requested and less than 100m from the fine sandy beach. Tamarit also has a beautiful pool and sun terrace. Bonterra Park (in Benicassim) was by comparison good with smaller fully serviced pitches and dated facilities. Camping Playa Arenillas was an adventure! The pitch was only just wide enough for the caravan and awning and only just long enough for our 7.5m caravan – we dumped the car on a neighbouring empty pitch. The pitch was far from level and we ended up with blocks under the rear steadies and one wheel raised 10cm on our Lock ‘n Level. The EHU points required a EU plug converter (which we had brought with us fortunately) however the power tripped just with the load from the caravan fridge. Campsite staff blamed us but eventually let us plug into another EHU point which had enough power to run the fridge and ac in night mode. I wouldn’t recommend this site although it is close to the ferry terminal and Bilbao. Its worth noting that the Spanish school holidays don't end until 11 September.  

What would we do differently? Not much really other than to break the journey from Benicassim back to Bilbao and look for a better campsite around Bilbao (probably around San Sebastian). We will definitely return to Tamarit next time we’re in Spain and possibly head north into the Costa Brava.