For those trip itineraries that involve having a car what is the longest or shortest drive time between locations that you feel is practical? The recent itinerary from Porto to Bordeaux that I planned over a month long trip has the majority of the hops being less than 2.5 hours, with a lot of 1 hour hops.
Usually we are staying 3 nights in each location, with one 4 night stay, one 2 night stay, and one 1 night stay to break up a longer drive. Worth pointing out is the trip concludes with a 7 night stay followed by 2 nights in our departure city, Bordeaux.
Is a short one hour hop worth checking into and out of accommodations? I feel that yes, it can be worth it if the locations you are going are different from each other and the time spent there is long enough so that accommodation swapping doesn’t become tiresome. For example, Luarca (fishing village, coastal scenery, sea food) and Oviedo (seemingly appealing small city, cider bars, Austrian cuisine) are around one hour from each other but seem to be very different. I think the same can be said for Oviedo and Gijón. (Close but different) but corrections appreciated.
Of course you could day trip between these two places, but there is also the benefit of being able to spend some after dark time in a place as well as have some wine with dinner. Driving at night in Europe is not something I would do and would never drive after drinking.
On the other hand I want to avoid spending too much time driving in one shot. A long train ride can be enjoyable and relaxing but too many hours in a car is not something I’m comfortable with, even with stops along the way. I think my upper limit is about 3 hours.
On a driving itinerary how do you factor in drive times and distance between overnight accommodations?