plane out of santiago

[Kiwi-family]

Does anyone have experience with waiting to book your outward journey from Santiago until you've arrived (or perhaps when you're close enough to the end that you can tell when you'll be getting there)? I'm keen to have a general plan, but would harbour hopes of walking a bit quicker....if we arrived in Santiago with four or five days to spare I'd love to zip back to Paris and spend the time there before returning home. If we had pre-booked tickets it would cost to change them. But will it cost more to be buying at the last minute? And if so, how much more? And what would the chances of getting three seats on the same flight be?

 

[ffp13]

Car hire can be an option for a small group, there are some great economical cars , that is if you don't mind driving on the right (wrong) side of the road, I saw the daily non discounted airfares to Paris , a chauffeured limo would be cheaper

 

[Kiwi-family]

I've driven a big motorhome extensively through Europe so driving would not scare me! What is a problem is taking a rental car from one country to another. Or do you know of a rental company that allows this?

 

[jastrace]

Hi Kiwi family,

While I agree that driving/bus/train would be cost effective and a great way to see the countryside you could loose a day or more travelling. The other issue of course if driving you would be exhausted by the time you drove 1500km or so and got to Paris. My vote is to spend the extra money to get an extra day in Paris.

This website gives you a list of the airlines that fly in and out of SCQ (Santiago): http://www.aena-aeropuertos.es/csee.../en/Page/1048690016843//List-of-airlines.html. Perhaps use that as a starting point to work through your connection options.

I did a check of Vueling (also available via Iberia) and found that if you were to book now for a week in advance you would pay 162 Euros (Tarifa Optima - mid range price) per person one way to Orly and you have a choice of one or two flights, both with long wait times in Barcelona. This would effectively mean a full day of travel anyway, although less tiring than driving.

If you book a month in advance the price goes up to 234 Euros but you have lots of additional flight options that might suit you better, such as an overnight stop in Barcelona (awesome!) and arrive early in Paris. You might get different results with other airlines and at different times of the year.

Perhaps some of the Galician locals can comment on their experience with flights.

Cheers,

Jason.

 

[jastrace]

I've driven a big motorhome extensively through Europe so driving would not scare me! What is a problem is taking a rental car from one country to another. Or do you know of a rental company that allows this?

We did some research about this and found that dropping a car off in a different country, although still Europe, added a lot of additional expense. I think Europcar allows it between some destinations in Portugal and Spain. But I can't find a combination of dates and locations (Santiago and Paris) that will generate a quote and so I assume that means that they can't help. There would be someone who will do it. Train might be the best option if the whole family are travelling.

 

[ffp13]

Be wary if using eurail for your train travel, especially in France, only a small percentage of reservations on each French train are made available to eurail customers. I was unable to reserve a seat from Nice to Paris because all eurail places were used for over a week, however they would sell me a full priced seat, so much for my first class eurail ticket, not worth a cracker if not booking weeks ahead.

 

[Cejanus]

I was in the same dilemma and looked at a number options inlcuding overnight trains back to Paris. However I have taken a punt worked out when I should arrive in Santiago and made an advanced booking with Veulling Airlines for 15 May. I am allowing myself forty days to walk. I am a slow senior walker and will take rest days along the way. I am aiming to arrive on 14 May but if I am a day or two early then I can rest in Santiago and then party in Paris.

I got my airline ticket for $120. Leaves Santaigo at 12:10 and arrives Paris CDG at 14:50 and is a direct flight. This included one case/pack to go in the hold. Cheaper if you take it's hand luggage.

I too am from Downunder and want to make the most of my five days in Paris.

Check out Skycanner for fares.

When are you walkin? Perhaps our paths will cross somewhere.

 

[cecelia]

On three different occasions I have booked flights out of Santiago after I arrived there with no problem. There were two of us and no delays although our flights were twice to London and once to Paris. There are at least two travel agents a couple of blocks from the cathedral (towards the train station) and several others in the newer part of town. The ones close to the cathedral were very good at looking for the cheapest available flights and recommended that I take the train (5 Euros) to A Coruna because the flights were cheaper from there.I think all 3 flights were with vueling. Having said that - the last one was in 2009 so everything could have changed since then.
Good luck with all of this.