Mountains and Machines | Planet Pub2Pub

Mountains
and Machines

The inaugural Mountains and Machines tour will be taking place between the 05th and the 17th June 2024. If you'd be interested in reserving a place, please feel free to get in touch.

The winelands of La Rioja. The parched deserts of northern Spain. The winding roads of the Pyrenees. The bucolic valleys of the Dordogne. The Le Mans 24 Hour race. And the rolling greenery of Brittany.

String them all together, and you've got yourself a pretty epic road trip.

We certainly think so, anyway. Which is why we figured we'd make it happen, with our all-new-for-2024 road trip, which goes by the name of Mountains and Machines. But in a first for us, the trip doesn't actually kick off on the road - rather, we'll be getting the show started with a boat-party. Because let's face it, holidays which begin with a meal and a few beers on a mini-cruise across the Bay of Biscay are always pretty good.

The overnight ferry departs Plymouth on the afternoon of Wednesday 05th June, and your entry will have a cabin to itself, meaning you'll wake up refreshed and all set to roll off the boat and set a course for the Pyrenees. But that rather spectacular mountain range is a few days drive away from the Port of Santander, so there will be time to experience some Spanish sun before we climb up into the mountains, with the usual Pub2Pub attention to detail meaning that you won't be short of things to do and places to see, as we drop by the winelands of La Rioja, the desert badlands of the Bardenas Reales and the late-night culture of Catalunya. And then, as we hit the French border, the drive really goes up a notch.

Or rather more than a notch, in fact. A mountain range. We'll be driving the near-600 mile long Route des Cols, which snakes through the mountains from the Bay of Biscay to the Pyrenees, crossing 34 high passes as it does so. As road trips go, it's a bit of a classic, this one. And at it's end, there'll be a cold beverage awaiting, on the shores of the Mediterranean.

And then, the landscape changes yet again. We've already had coastline, winelands, desert and mountains; now it's the turn of rural France to show us its best side, as for day after day we wind our way north through the glorious scenery of the Dordogne and Limousin, before we reach the famous Val de Loire.

And at this famous valley of chateaus and suaveness, you'll face a choice. Either you can head to Le Mans to take in the famous 24 hour race which will be taking place during our visit, or alternatively, kick back and explore the classical splendour of France's chateau country. Whichever option you choose, you won't be disappointed. And then, I'm sorry to say that it'll be time to head up through Brittany to catch the boat home - sorry because for sure, you won't want the trip to end.

So, hopefully this brief run-through of the plan for Pub2Pub's inaugural Mountains and Machines road trip has whet your appetite, but remember, it really only scratches the surface of what we'll be laying on for you. As with all of our trips, you can expect the itinerary to contain all manner of great stop-offs, quirky diversions, marvellous restaurants and the occasional downright weird detour. Because it's these little additions which take our road trips to the next level.

And now, here is some further information on this newest of Pub2Pub road trips.

The outbound ferry from the UK to Spain leaves at 1545 on Wednesday 05th June, and arrives in Santander at 1315 the following day. There then follows twelve days on the road in Spain and France, including a two-night stop off in the Val de Loire/Le Mans area covering the Friday and Saturday nights of race weekend. The ferry back is from Roscoff, and comes into Plymouth at 2010 on the evening of Monday 17th June.

You can expect to drive around 1,700 miles in the course of the trip, which makes it a slightly less intense offering than some of our other drives, such as the French Revolution, but there will be so much to do during your holiday, you certainly won't feel short changed by this.

And finally, the price for this twelve day driving adventure, and the ferry crossings which bookend it? That would be £2,150, for either one or two people sharing a car. This includes includes both ferry crossings, three to four star hotel accommodation on each night of the trip, a full itinerary giving plenty of choice for things to do en-route, all navigation links and routings, loan of a radio to chat to other folk on the trip, and support from the Pub2Pub team in their dedicated support car, should you have any issues. Naturally, given this trip is somewhat longer than the other tours we've ran thus far, and includes a boat across the Bay of Biscay, it's a little more expensive than our other offerings, but rest assured - the value for money which we've made a cornerstone of the whole Pub2Pub undertaking is still there.

If you'd like any further information on the Mountains and Machines tour, or if you'd like to reserve a place, feel free to contact us at ben@pub2pubadventures.com , and hopefully we'll be seeing you for a drink on the ferry next summer, as we set sail for Spain for the drive of a lifetime...