Bus from Bilbao to Irun

[chinalil]

My son and I arrive in Bilbao on 30/5 at 1000 hours and wish to go by bus from the airport to Irun to commence the CdelN on 31/5..
Is it necessary to book the ALSA bus beforehand? I am wary of doing this just in case the plane is late arriving. It is apparently the bank holiday weekend in the UK.
Thank you very much, love your website

 

[Castilian]

Hi chinalil! Welcome to the forum!

I don't know how busy are buses on that route so I don't know how advisable would be to book in advance. However, I'd like to tell you that I think the Alsa buses don't stop at the airport. You would need to get a bus from the airport to downtown Bilbao and the Alsa one from downtown Bilbao to Irún. Alternatively, you could take a bus straight from the Airport to San Sebastián (aka Donostia) with Pesa (www.pesa.net) and another one from San Sebastián to Irún with http://ekialdebus.eus (that would mean a short walk in San Sebastián because buses from San Sebastián to Irún make different stops in San Sebastián than the ones arriving from Bilbao airport). There's frequent service from Bilbao airport to San Sebastián and even more frequent from San Sebastián to Irún.

From San Sebastián to Irún, train would be another option. Take a look at www.renfe.com for the train schedules (be sure to check the Commuter trains Schedule because those trains aren't showed on the general Schedule as well as aren't showed on the booking area because you can't book them in advance). The train station used by RENFE is really close to the bus station. www.euskotren.eus is another option to go by train from San Sebastián to Irún but the walk to the closest euskotren station is more or less the same than the walk to get the bus I quoted above so if you are looking for avoiding walks, to take a RENFE train would be your best bet.

In other words, if you decide to take the direct bus from Bilbao airport to San Sebastián and you want the shortest walk in San Sebastián to take other transport to reach Irún, go to the train station used by RENFE and take a Cercanías train to Irún. If you don't want to take the direct bus from Bilbao airport to San Sebastián, you can also take a bus from Bilbao airport to downtown Bilbao and an Alsa bus from downtown Bilbao to Irún.

 

[Rajy62]

I took the PESA bus from the airport to San Sebastian and then a train to Irun. The alberque at the start of Norte is near the Renfe train station. It opens at 4PM. If you arrive early, have to wait. Usually there is a bus every hr i think. Is your son arriving at 10 AM or 10 PM. Best think is to go over to an info counter at the airport and ask for the bus ticket counter.

 

[Deleted member 34316]

Chinalil, having an entire day to get from Bilbao to Irun, you will probably save yourself a bit of stress if you don't buy the bus tickets ahead of time. It will be Monday, low tourist season, there is no holiday in Spain, and there are plenty of options as you can see from the posts above.
Just to let you know, the prices of Pesa tickets directly from the airport are highier than those of Alsa from the bus station downtown. (17 euro versus 8 euro).
Even cheaper option would be to travel all the way from Bilbao to Irun on the Euskotren (narrow-gauge railway which follows a good part of the Camino del Norte), but this would take you a lot of time, so probably not a good idea. Walking the Camino the Norte, you will cross that narrow-gauge train tracks many, many times!
Buen Camino!

Photo below: Euskotrain which you can take to go from San Sebastian (=Donostia in Basque language) to Irun.

 

[Julie & Greg]

Hi Chinalil, I assume you're flying from Stansted, me my wife and youngest son are doing the same flight a week later. We are getting the bus from the airport into Bilboa have a bit of a look around and then getting the bus to Irun at 14:15
All the best with your travels

 

[chinalil]

Thank you all so much for the extremely detailed responses, I'm overwhelmed to say the least. I shall
feel very confident when I land in Bilbao. Although this is my third Camino, I've only used this site scantily. I've never actually signed up hence not made any posts. I'm delighted now that I have and am getting some very useful info, once again, thank u Ivar, fellow pilgrims and all admin staff To respond to arthur1218 I had thought of doing that, seeing we arrive at 10 am, stop at Bilbao or San Sebastián for lunch then continue to Irun. To Rajy62, both my son and I arrive from Stanstead at 10 am, so excited about this Camino