Spain is a beautiful country with wonderful cathedrals and Moorish castles. The mountains are beautiful but they can be hazardous. Some of the mountain roads in Spain are little more than a track and some of them lead to a dead end, so you need to take great care when you drive in that country. Spain has a system of toll booths on some of the major roads and all of the motorways, they also have quite strict speed limits in built up areas, so make sure you know the rules of the road.

People go on and on about the Costa del Sol and it does have some lovely buildings and pretty white villages but you can get a lot more wind than you might expect. The Costa Blanca in the Valencian region is far more temperate and the evenings are to die for. In the summer months you can stroll down a street in almost any town and smell the orchids that grow in profusion there. Even if you are on a driving holiday take the time to get out of the vehicle and look around. Up in the mountains there are orange groves galore and the smell is wonderful but as above, mountain roads can be really hazardous and they are the last place you would want to break down.

Most rental companies may come and retrieve their vehicle but you could be left stranded if you don’t have the proper breakdown cover. You should check with your insurance or whoever holds your breakdown cover because you would need to extend it temporarily to include Euro breakdown. Once you have that cover you can take your holiday with confidence, some breakdown insurance even pays for your flight home so it’s worth checking out. The mountains are beautiful, but not so great that you’d want to be out there alone at the dead of night.