Getting at 16 year old from USA to Leon?

[cabigred]

OK, my friends, here is the challenge. If my teenage son was going to try to meet me on my Camino, how could I get him to Leon in the simplest manner? He is 16 traveling alone from US.

 

[Thornley]

OK, my friends, here is the challenge. If my teenage son was going to try to meet me on my Camino, how could I get him to Leon in the simplest manner? He is 16 traveling alone from US.

He flies to Madrid and he gets the train which takes 3.30 hrs to Leon
Flights to Santander , which is close , go via Madrid if you land in Paris etc.

If you have a few $$$ flight into Paris then into Bilbao with Air France but in all sincerity Madrid and train is the safest, quickest and most direct.

 

[whariwharangi]

Fly to Madrid

Renfe Train to Leon. Trains to Leon depart from Madrid Chamartin. Chamartin can be reached by Metro from either terminal or Cercanias from T4; or,

ALSA bus to Leon. Buses leave from Madrid Airport T4, Estacion Sur, and Estacion Moncloa. The bus stations are co-located with Metro stations Mendez Alvaro and Moncloa.

 

[Kiwi-family]

I hear a little anxiety in your question. Can I assure you that he will be OK? Last year when I walked in France and Spain for three months I sent my 15 and 16 year olds to India on their own - from New Zealand and it included changing terminals in Kuala Lumpur. They were fine! If you are meeting your son in Leon I'm sure he'll be fine too.
Our only difficulty was finding an insurance company that would provide them with cover - and even then it had to be at adult rates for both of them. Theirs cost more than my trip with four kids (and a husband for some of the time)!

 

[Damien Reynolds]

Ditto on the Madrid to Leon suggestion. I'd go as far as say that after he gets out of T4 in the Madrid airport (the terminal where he will most likely arrive), he goes to the taxi stand and says "Charmartin" to the driver he gets assigned. Next, after the drive that I think will cost about 20 or 30 bucks, he gets on a train using a ticket that you pre-ordered and printed from http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/ . Now, once in Leon, your child uses his smartphone and enters the destination address where you are to meet (unless you have taken the effort to meet him at the station) into google maps. From the station, if you are in the hotels near the cathedral, or at the alburgues, its about a 3/4 mile walk or so. Easy peasy.

 

[timr]

Agree with the above. If at 16 he is anyway anxious about getting to the railway station "in a foreign country" then, as suggested, getting the Alsa bus from T4 at Madrid airport would be easier. You do need to book in advance, but this is easy. I always find www.movelia.es/en easier to use and navigate and pay, than the www.alsa.es/en site, even when booking an alsa bus. The bus service is excellent, if not superfast. But beautiful, clean, comfortable, well-featured: headphones, sweets and bottle of water supplied IIRC, and this was the regular, not the luxury service. When I was getting it last year, to Logrono, even with pre-printed ticket, he insisted on passport identification against his manifest, and didn't bother with the ticket. I guess this was because the bus was going to be full.
I will be getting it again to Leon 3 weeks yesterday!!
Enjoy your time together!

 

[naplesdon]

At sixteen one is old enough to drive, therefore think for themselves.

 

[Thornley]

At sixteen one is old enough to drive, therefore think for themselves.

And in the old days Don , go to war.