Best way Madrid to Pamplona

Katie A · Mar 22, 2016

Hi everyone,
Can someone tell me how much time I need to get from Madrid airport to Puerta De Atocha train station ? I arrive 8:40 am from Australia on a Saturday and on this day there is only a 9:40 am or 3pm train to Pamplona, I think the earlier one is cutting it pretty close. Alternately there is a indirect 10:30 am connection, would that be enough time ?
The bus is double the travel time so not that keen on that option.
Thanks in advance,
Katie

Mike Trebert · Mar 22, 2016

I arrived this week, took a cab into my rental apartment not very far from Atocha Station. I'd say the earlier train is cutting it too fine. Any little thing - baggage problem, Saturday, rain, and you'll miss it. If you chance it and wait in line at Atocha for a ticket, they might sell you one only if you can make the train! Good luck with the brain haemorrhage.

I'd go for the 10:30

Good luck, - Mike

peregrina2000 · Mar 22, 2016

Hi, Katie,
One thing that will make a difference is whether you are arriving in T4 (the new terminal where Iberia and its partner airlines arrive) or T1, 2 or 3. If you arrive in T4, the Cercanias train line will take you to Atocha in about 25 minutes. But the trains only leave twice an hour, once at 28 after and once at 58 after the hour. Metro will get you there, but it's much longer ride, and though I am not prone to hysteria on these things, I think it's safe to say there will likely be a lot of pickpockets on the metro.

There is no way you would arrive for a 9:40 am train. 10:30 would be very close too, I think. I would just buy the 3 pm train. Then when you get to Atocha, you could walk around (the Retiro park and the Reina Sofia museum are both very close and could be a great way to spend a couple of hours), or just collapse in a heap with jet lag in the departure lounge.

If by chance you haven't yet bought your plane ticket, check into adding the Madrid to Pamplona and Santiago to Madrid segments onto your international ticket. This is called the multi-city or open jaw option and it frequently is virtually the same price as going in and out of Madrid. And it is SO much easier. I learned about that option here on the forum years ago, and over the years it has saved me a lot of time and aggravation and probably money, too, since I just leave Santiago in the morning with no night necessary in Madrid. Buen camino, Laurie

Mike Trebert · Mar 22, 2016

You could make the 10:30 only if you take a cab. I had a quick 2-hour stopover in Dubai but it took me 24 hours all up from Oz. I was in Reina Sofia today to see The Guernica - HIGHLY recommended. If you're buzzed the jet lag might hold off long enough for a nice walk just across the road to the Reina Sofia and a hang out til 3pm. I hope you're not starting the C the next day if you try all that. But Laurie has done it all before and I haven't. And you're younger than I am. Most people are.

Mike

Mike Trebert · Mar 22, 2016

Katie - BTW, there's a set price for a cab into town - 30 Euros. I always budget for a taxi from any airport. Otherwise my brain starts leaking out of my ears and I can't hear properly.

Kanga · Mar 22, 2016

Katie, there are also buses direct from T4 (where you land) at Madrid to Pamplona. There could be a change of bus at Soria. See the Alsa website here

There is also 24 hour bus service from the airport into Madrid to Atocha - as well as metro. So no need to take a taxi. This compendium of links might be useful

Anemone del Camino · Mar 22, 2016

Take a bus from T4 basement at the airport, much simpler.

Urban Trekker · Mar 22, 2016

Katie A said:
Hi everyone,
Can someone tell me how much time I need to get from Madrid airport to Puerta De Atocha train station ? I arrive 8:40 am from Australia on a Saturday and on this day there is only a 9:40 am or 3pm train to Pamplona, I think the earlier one is cutting it pretty close. Alternately there is a indirect 10:30 am connection, would that be enough time ?
The bus is double the travel time so not that keen on that option.
Thanks in advance,
Katie

I'm in the same situation you are. April 12th 0900 arrival. Mass transit to Atocha. We opted for the later 1505 train to Pamplona, arrival time 1830. Better safe that sorry. According to GOOGLE maps it should take about 30 minutes via subway then train. GOOGLE is not always right. Buen Camino

Happy Trails

Urban Trekker · Mar 22, 2016

I stand corrected. A bus leaves about every 15 minutes from the Barajas to the Atocha train station. Bus number 203. Takes just under 1 hour according to GOOGLE maps. Buen Camino

Cayou · Mar 22, 2016

KATIE: The Atocha Station is a BIG place with different entrances, x-rays machines, corridors, and boarding platforms. I would go to the atrium information center that's before and to the right of the entrance to the train track area. They are very helpful and you will avoid some confusion later.

whariwharangi · Mar 22, 2016

Lots of variables. Not likely you are going to get off the plane and through customs in under an hour even assuming your flight arrives on time.

Fastest way is to take Renfe Cercanias from Airport T4 to Puerta de Atocha. It takes about 30 minutes. Unfortunately it runs only every half hour.

Metro takes about an hour from Airport T1T2T3 and T4 and involves transfers.

EMT Madrid offers Airport Express bus from Airport T1T2T3 and T4 to Puerta de Atocha every 10 - 15 minutes and takes about 40 minutes.

Alternatives to train include ALSA bus from Airport T4 and Intercambiador de Avenida de America to Pamplona via Soria or Zaragosa. PLM Autocares offers bus service to Pamplona .

Getting around in Madrid

The airport in Madrid is called Barajas (MAD). There are 4 terminals. T1, T2, and T3 are located in one building. T4 and T4S are connected by an Automatic People Mover train. There is a shuttle service that connects all terminals.

Madrid Airport (MAD)
http://www.aena-aeropuertos.es/csee/Satellite/Aeropuerto-Madrid-Barajas/en/

Connections to Madrid include Metro, EMT bus, and light rail transit Cercanias.

The Metro has stations at T1-T2-T3 and at T4. The trains run every 6 - 12 minutes.

Cercanias has a station at T4 and trains run every 30 minutes.

EMT Madrid operates a bright yellow express bus every 13 -20 minutes from the airport T1-T2-T3 and airport T4 to Puerta de Atocha with two stops enroute.

EMT Madrid operates bus #200 from the airport T1-T2-T3 and airport T4 to Avenida de America.

Madrid Metro
http://www.metromadrid.es/en/index.html

Madrid Metro Map
http://www.metromadrid.es/export/sites/metro/comun/documentos/planos/Planomayo2013.pdf

Madrid Cercanias (operated by Renfe). Cercanias trains go direct to Chamartin station and Puerta de Atocha station.
http://www.renfe.com/viajeros/cercanias/madrid/index.html

EMT Madrid Airport Express - Airport to Puerta de Atocha
http://www.emtmadrid.es/Aeropuerto

EMT Madrid #200 - Airport to Intercambiador de Avenida de America
http://www.emtmadrid.es/Aeropuerto

RENSHAW · Mar 22, 2016

Hey Katie!
Taking into account all the messing around getting to the centre of Madrid , the best is by bus. The bus to Pamplona stops at T4 and Pamplona bus terminus is only a short walk to the old town. I have done this countless times - the only way to better it is to take a Taxi to Pamplona.......... big bucks .........unless there are a few of you and the taxi takes you all the way to SJPDP?

Deleted member 3000 · Mar 22, 2016

With checked baggage, it took me 1:40 in January to get to Chamartin, the stop before Atchoa. I was able to get directly on the Cercanias which left five minutes later. If there is traffic, a taxi might not be much faster.

Kanga · Mar 22, 2016

@Katie A I'd be wanting a sleep in Madrid after the flight from Australia, unless you are having a stop-over somewhere.

Katie A · Mar 22, 2016

Guys,
Your help has been wonderful ! I am still deciding but arrive T1 so I'd say either a) EMT express bus to Atchoa for the 3pm train & check out the museum
b) get to T4 for the bus to Pamplona (Renshaw can you please direct me to the best website as I keep getting no buses leaving on 23rd April or its in Spanish!)
c) Stay in a cosy hotel near Atchoa, then catch train on Sunday. Have been worried about getting over the jet lag before attempting the Napolean route from SJPDP ....
Have temporarily booked Corazon Puro for the Sat night for ease of lift to SJPDP and their well reputed hospitality
Anyway, thanks again everyone, you make it so much easier to research
Buen Camino
Katie

RENSHAW · Mar 22, 2016

Kanga said:
@Katie A I'd be wanting a sleep in Madrid after the flight from Australia, unless you are having a stop-over somewhere.

HEHE Who is our Aussie forum member who forgot to reset his watch and left the Pension at midnight thinking it was 6am?
He though that all the restaurants were opening up early untill he passed a Farmica sign.

Katie A · Mar 22, 2016

Kanga just got the Alsa link to work from your post and one leaves 10:45am from T4 so that should be enough time surely ... Like the idea of not dicking around getting into Madrid sleep deprived and arriving Pamplona 3:30pm.
Thanks so much
Katie

whariwharangi · Mar 22, 2016

Katie A said:
Kanga just got the Alsa link to work from your post and one leaves 10:45am from T4 so that should be enough time surely ... Like the idea of not dicking around getting into Madrid sleep deprived and arriving Pamplona 3:30pm.
Thanks so much
Katie

You should have enough time to catch 1045 bus.

However, if your flight arrives late ... the next ALSA bus leaves Avenida de America at 1230. If needed, take EMT #200 bus from airport to Avenida de America.

Mike Trebert · Mar 22, 2016

Katie A said:
Guys,
Your help has been wonderful ! I am still deciding but arrive T1 so I'd say either a) EMT express bus to Atchoa for the 3pm train & check out the museum
b) get to T4 for the bus to Pamplona (Renshaw can you please direct me to the best website as I keep getting no buses leaving on 23rd April or its in Spanish!)
c) Stay in a cosy hotel near Atchoa, then catch train on Sunday. Have been worried about getting over the jet lag before attempting the Napolean route from SJPDP ....
Have temporarily booked Corazon Puro for the Sat night for ease of lift to SJPDP and their well reputed hospitality
Anyway, thanks again everyone, you make it so much easier to research
Buen Camino
Katie

Katie, I think the Napoleons route is closed until end of March. I'll check when I get to SJPDP on Thursday because I want to go that way too. Go ahead and ask me if I was disappointed!

If you download Chrome (Google's browser) it will let you translate a site. Otherwise Google seems to have made it difficult to translate sites from other browsers.

Mike

jmcarp · Mar 22, 2016

Katie A said:
...The bus is double the travel time so not that keen on that option...

Since you can catch the bus right at T4 at the airport, factoring in the time into Madrid from the airport may make it a non-issue. My memory is a bit hazy, but as I recall the bus took maybe 4 hours at most. The buses are really not bad, but do lack some of the amenities of the train.

Katie A · Mar 22, 2016

Mike,
Good luck with Napoleons route, hope it opens for you. Did you see the pic of the pilgrim in shorts in the snow a couple of weeks ago ? I'm hoping by another 4 weeks the snow will have to have melted ....
Buen Camino

Mike Trebert · Mar 23, 2016

Ah Katie, Your travel date wasn't clear to me. Lucky you up there with Napoleon. - Buen Camino

Anemone del Camino · Mar 23, 2016

RENSHAW said:
HEHE Who is our Aussie forum member who forgot to reset his watch and left the Pension at midnight thinking it was 6am?
He though that all the restaurants were opening up early untill he passed a Farmica sign.

That is too funny!

xcountryrider · Mar 23, 2016

Hello all! My wife, daughter, son-in-law and I will be doing the camino in June. We will stay overnight in Madrid at Hostal Viky. Since we are so close to the airport, will we be able to return to the airport to take either the train or bus to Pamplona? Or, once you leave the airport, is access to those platforms not available?

Anemone del Camino · Mar 23, 2016

xcountryrider said:
Hello all! My wife, daughter, son-in-law and I will be doing the camino in June. We will stay overnight in Madrid at Hostal Viky. Since we are so close to the airport, will we be able to return to the airport to take either the train or bus to Pamplona? Or, once you leave the airport, is access to those platforms not available?

All platforms are available.the only restricted areas are the boarding areas.

JillGat · Mar 23, 2016

RENSHAW said:
Hey Katie!
Taking into account all the messing around getting to the centre of Madrid , the best is by bus. The bus to Pamplona stops at T4 and Pamplona bus terminus is only a short walk to the old town. I have done this countless times - the only way to better it is to take a Taxi to Pamplona.......... big bucks .........unless there are a few of you and the taxi takes you all the way to SJPDP?

I decided to get a flight from Madrid to Pamplona. Less hassle and doesn't cost that much.

Anniesantiago · Mar 23, 2016

I didn't read this entire thread, I admit.
But I"m just stumped as to why people want to take the train when they can walk out of the terminal and onto a bus to Pamplona.
Having done both, the bus is SO much easier in my opinion, and much more pleasant than the noisy train.

DeadFred · Mar 23, 2016

jmcarp said:
Since you can catch the bus right at T4 at the airport, factoring in the time into Madrid from the airport may make it a non-issue. My memory is a bit hazy, but as I recall the bus took maybe 4 hours at most. The buses are really not bad, but do lack some of the amenities of the train.

Jim .. That bus you you got from T4 to Pamplona .. did you have a transfer at Saria ?

Anemone del Camino · Mar 23, 2016

DeadFred said:
Jim .. That bus you you got from T4 to Pamplona .. did you have a transfer at Saria ?

The bus I took took 6 hours to get to Pamplona and made one stop, but only for a change of drivers and it was at a gas station in the middle of nowhere by the highway.

jmcarp · Mar 23, 2016

DeadFred said:
Jim .. That bus you you got from T4 to Pamplona .. did you have a transfer at Saria ?

We transferred someplace, but I don't remember where it was. It was a pretty quick transfer -- it seemed like we simply got off one bus, grabbed our backpacks from the luggage bay, and walked right over to the other bus. And neither my wife nor I remember it being a 6-hour trip -- it was more like the 4 hours I mentioned before. Luckily, we had some snacks with us, otherwise we would not have been able to get any lunch along the way.

Anemone del Camino · Mar 23, 2016

jmcarp said:
We transferred someplace, but I don't remember where it was. It was a pretty quick transfer -- it seemed like we simply got off one bus, grabbed our backpacks from the luggage bay, and walked right over to the other bus. And neither my wife nor I remember it being a 6-hour trip -- it was more like the 4 hours I mentioned before. Luckily, we had some snacks with us, otherwise we would not have been able to get any lunch along the way.

If you try to book a ticket on Alsa you will see the trip is 5:30h long.

jmcarp · Mar 24, 2016

Anemone del Camino said:
If you try to book a ticket on Alsa you will see the trip is 5:30h long.

Well, we did it a couple of years ago, so perhaps memory is not so accurate, or maybe schedules, transfer times, etc have changed.

navarro · Mar 26, 2016

Kanga said:
Katie, there are also buses direct from T4 (where you land) at Madrid to Pamplona. There could be a change of bus at Soria. See the Alsa website here

There is also 24 hour bus service from the airport into Madrid to Atocha - as well as metro. So no need to take a taxi. This compendium of links might be useful

There is another bus company who takes you direct to Pamplona from the airport. I think they have service bus from Pamplona to Valcarlos. They use the route Pamplona Logroño Burgos Madrid. The company is PLM. I dont know exactly but I think that Alsa route finish at Logroño.

navarro · Mar 26, 2016

navarro said:
There is another bus company who takes you direct to Pamplona from the airport. I think they have service bus from Pamplona to Valcarlos. They use the route Pamplona Logroño Burgos Madrid. The company is PLM. I dont know exactly but I think that Alsa route finish at Logroño.

I was wrong I sorry. ALSA has a route to Pamplona by Soria my mistake is that I live near to Logroño and Pamplona people use a route to Madrid crossing by Soria. I was thinking about the route Madrid Soria Logroño instead the route Madrid Soria Pamplona.

RChristian · Apr 20, 2016

Anniesantiago said:
I didn't read this entire thread, I admit.
But I"m just stumped as to why people want to take the train when they can walk out of the terminal and onto a bus to Pamplona.
Having done both, the bus is SO much easier in my opinion, and much more pleasant than the noisy train.

I'm curious about recent experiences taking the bus (i.e. comfort/cleanliness/ease of service) as I haven't been able to find much info specific to those issue in the last year or so. I am in a similar bind with respect to a tight timeline to catch the train (already booked, unfortunately) on 30APR, so am looking at the ALSA bus as a backup in the [likely] event I cannot make the 1530 train to Pamplona. Separate note, looks like I could rent a car one-way for about €43... but that seems to be stretching the spirit of the Camino a tad! Thanks in advance.

Anniesantiago · Apr 20, 2016

Spanish buses are NOTHING like Our Greyhound buses. They are Mercedes Benz buses. Clean. Comfortable. Large viewing Windows. Quiet. Inexpensive. Walk out of the terminal and get on a bus to Pamplona. Check the times at movelia.es.

RChristian said:
I'm curious about recent experiences taking the bus (i.e. comfort/cleanliness/ease of service) as I haven't been able to find much info specific to those issue in the last year or so. I am in a similar bind with respect to a tight timeline to catch the train (already booked, unfortunately) on 30APR, so am looking at the ALSA bus as a backup in the [likely] event I cannot make the 1530 train to Pamplona. Separate note, looks like I could rent a car one-way for about €43... but that seems to be stretching the spirit of the Camino a tad! Thanks in advance.

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