Best way to get to Gray, France from Santiago de Compostela?

[emilene]

We're starting to book all our connections now and would love some suggestions re the best way to get to Gray in France from Santiago. We're doing a barging trip after walking the Camino and need to collect the boat in Gray. At this stage we're looking at perhaps flying to Barcelona and then travelling up by train. Going to Porto was an option and we're also looking at perhaps flying from Santiago to the closest airport to Gray - have to research all the flights - barging brochure quotes Lyon and Dijon airports to be the closest to the town of Gray. (Lyon 242km, Dijon 50km). I guess we'll have to look at the options in two categories - a) the cheapest and b) the quickest. I'm hoping someone might have done this exercise and knows what works best!

 

[Arn]

Since you haven't booked your tickets, consider flying "open jaw" this means you start from one city, fly into your destination...travel around a bit...then depart from another city on the way home.

Here's an example from KAYAK...they search out prices from many different travel companies:

http://www.kayak.com/?kw=kayak+airfare+ ... 2012-04-19

http://www.kayak.com/flights/IAD-LCG/20 ... 2012-04-19

In this case I landed in A Coruna in bound...but flew out of SDC back home.

No only do you eliminate backtracking, you can see other sights once you finish the Way.

In the above example, my first option (in and out of same airport) cost $1015 R/T

The second (open jaw) out of SDC was $980. In today's economy, any savings are good.

In your case, you'd probably want to fly from SDC to Paris.

Dijon airport is very very small, there are hardly any flights. I would strongly recommend taking advantage of the excellent rail network in France, get a cheap budget airline to Paris and then take a train to Dijon; you have one every hour from Paris or so and it takes only 1h30 by TGV.

Hope that helps.

Arn

 

[emilene]

Thanks Arn - I have bookmarked that site. I appreciate your advice!