closest airport to Saint jean pied de port

Biarritz is the closest airport. Easyjet does a Gatwick to Biarritz flight that gets you there around noon. There is a bus that goes from the airport to Bayonne train station. From Bayonne, you can get a train directly to St Jean. Our flight landed on time and we didn't have to wait too long to pick up a bus (the bus stop is to the left hand side as you leave the front door of the airport). There is more than one bus, so make sure that you end up on the one that says Bayonne Gare (Gare=train station). This gets you into Bayonne in time to get your train tickets (it is just a local train) and have a drink or two at the bar across the road from the station before the train. You arrive in St Jean while the pilgrim's office is still open (Aceuil des Pelerins). Just follow everyone wearing a rucksack uphill and into the old part of town. You should try to book accomodation ahead of time in St Jean. You can get your credencial at the Aceuil. They also give you information sheets, which we found handy as our guidebook (The Way of St James, published by Cicerone) wasn't very useful about accomodation info.

The flight from Gatwick is quite early in the morning, so we arrived in London the night before and spent the night in the YoHotel (which is a Japanese style pod) right in the airport. There are also pods for two.

An alternative route to bear in mind is to fly from Gatwick on the British Airways 0750hrs (arr.1025) flight to Bordeaux, then bus to train station,then TGV to Bayonne connecting with the SJPP train. You get into SJPP at about 4.15pm, setting you up nicely for an early start the next day. It was relatively painless for me in May.

The advantages, apart from avoiding the revolting Easyjet and Ryanair, are that there are no extra charges for check-in baggage, boarding card or drinks/snack on board. It cost me £56 one way in May booking only 3 weeks beforehand (more expensive in high summer). The train was about €30.