This is one possible plan if we were to go Thursday to Tuesday, six days inclusive. We may want to extend the stay so we can see more of the places we visit (I’d like to do this).

Thursday:

• get a train from St Pancras to Paris.
• catch a TGV to Bordeaux
• Spend the night in a hotel in Bordeaux

Friday

• Rent a car to drive to Spain
• Drive 4.5 hours to Santander
• Check in to a hotel
• Mooch around eating nice food

Saturday

• Drive 5.5 hours from Santander to Vila Real to see Dave
• Rent an airbnb near by?

Sunday

• Drive to Porto/catch a train – Dave goes by train quite frequently
• Drink port & see the sights
• Stay in Porto?

Monday

• Drive from Vila Real back to Bordeaux – this is a 9.5 hour drive
• Give the car back
• Check into another hotel
• Eat nice French food and have some wine.

Tuesday

• Catch TGV to Paris
• Catch Eurostar to St Pancras

Costs

• Eurostar : 129 return
• TGV: 107.67 return
• Hotel in Bordeaux: say £100 upwards. Hotels near the train station are ~£130+
• Hire car: Something like a Peugeot 2008 is £312 for 16th – 19th Sept. so £104 each
• Assume a hotel in Santander is £100+ each
• A hotel near Dave is something like Quinta da Ermida – Turismo de Habitacao which looks nice. Staying Sat night is £227 so £76 each
• Hotel back in Bordeaux will be another ~£130
• Total each: 776.67.
• We’ll need food and fun money plus petrol so £1000 each is probably a good guess.

Eurostar

Travelling at reasonable hours its £385.50 total, so £128.50 each. It used to be the price of a train to St Pancras that arrives after 10am is cheaper (it’s classed as off peak) so we might want to catch a slightly later train? Discuss

TGV

A basic search on trainline.com says a return joinery on TGV is £385 total, so £129 each.