Transport from Bordeaux to Bilbao?

Kanga · Feb 3, 2015

We have some friends who will be joining us on the Camino del Norte. We are trying to find ways of getting them from Bordeaux to Bilbao. The two alternatives that come up are a 14 hour train trip via Barcelona (!) or a bus that leaves Bordeaux at 2:45 am or 3:45 am. That will do if necessary, but does anyone know of other options?

mspath · Feb 3, 2015

Try Bordeaux to Hendaye/Irun on SNCF (French train) and Irun to Bilbao on RENFE (Spanish train).

Kanga · Feb 3, 2015

Thanks Margaret. The most flexible seems to be train to Hendaye/Irun, then bus to Bilbao.

Charles Hansen · Feb 4, 2015

Kanga said:
Thanks Margaret. The most flexible seems to be train to Hendaye/Irun, then bus to Bilbao.

If they take the train to San Sebastian (easily worth an overnight), there is a narrow gauge Basque train to Bilbao. We took it the other way and then cycled to Bayonne to start our Camino - with the train to SJPdP.

Castilian · Feb 4, 2015

Some options:

SNCF train to Irún and bus from Irún to Bilbao (with Alsa). If the SNCF train that suits them ends in Hendaye, they can either take a taxi to Irún or walk it or take an Euskotren train (they run every 30 minutes) to Irún (or San Sebastián and a bus from San Sebastián to Bilbao) or take a bus from Hendaye to Bilbao with Pesa (if its schedule suits them)...
SNCF train to Bayonne and bus from Bayonne to Bilbao (with Pesa).
If they are train fans, SNCF train to Hendaye, Euskotren train from Hendaye to San Sebastián (aka Donostia) and another Euskotren train from Donostia to Bilbao (aka Bilbo).

mspath said:
Try Bordeaux to Hendaye/Irun on SNCF (French train) and Irun to Bilbao on RENFE (Spanish train).

Going from Irún to Bilbao with RENFE means a (big) detour and a change of trains in Miranda de Ebro.

Karen Osman · Feb 5, 2015

Kanga said:
We have some friends who will be joining us on the Camino del Norte. We are trying to find ways of getting them from Bordeaux to Bilbao. The two alternatives that come up are a 14 hour train trip via Barcelona (!) or a bus that leaves Bordeaux at 2:45 am or 3:45 am. That will do if necessary, but does anyone know of other options?

Hi, I am also looking at the best options and alternatives as we are flying in from Aust - most likely arrival port would be Barcelona, but need to try and find out about public transport options and hours involved. Any input out there from anyone would be a treat. Thanks Karen

Kanga · Feb 5, 2015

Hi Karen, Train seems the best from Barcelona. Avoid the Europe Rail website. It's a very expensive booking agency and does not give all the options. If you are in Oz you will get kidnapped to that site if you Google Spain trains or anything similar. Go instead directly to the www.renfre.es website or Capitaine Train which is an agency but much more reasonable.

camino07 · Feb 5, 2015

We caught early train from Barcelona Sants to Irun this past May. Pleasant 6 hr trip.
I always use Raileurope.au and find it simple and not too expensive. Each to his own

Kanga · Feb 5, 2015

@camino07 have you compared it to buying a ticket directly from Renfre or even at the station?

camino07 · Feb 6, 2015

At my age Kanga I go for the simplest way and not necessarily the cheapest as I'm in the process of spending the kids inheritance

Kanga · Feb 10, 2015

Yes I can understand that @camino07 but it's the issue of not being given all the alternatives that I find annoying. I would not mind paying the extra 50 euros a ticket it seems to cost if I got something for it. But they don't even tell you all the connections and possibilities. It is geared to inter Europe trains, not intra country services. And on principle I don't like being kidnapped by a website. One of my first jobs was working for an early Consummer Affairs Department. Never ask me to a Tupperware party - I'm the hostess's worst nightmare.

Enough - sorry to hijack the thread.

Al the optimist · Feb 10, 2015

camino07 said:
At my age Kanga I go for the simplest way and not necessarily the cheapest as I'm in the process of spending the kids inheritance

Love it!

I look forward to me using that on my daughter!

peregrina2000 · Feb 10, 2015

Kanga said:
Hi Karen, Train seems the best from Barcelona. Avoid the Europe Rail website. It's a very expensive booking agency and does not give all the options. If you are in Oz you will get kidnapped to that site if you Google Spain trains or anything similar. Go instead directly to the www.renfre.es website or Capitaine Train which is an agency but much more reasonable.

Kanga, have you been successful using the RENFE website? Of my many attempts over many years, I have only been successful once, booking the AVE from Madrid to Sevilla. Every single other time, I have had problems at checkout with my CC. I know this is not an uncommon problem, and I know RENFE has supposedly been working to correct the problem, but no matter what I do ("verify" my Visa, call my company to advise them of an international purchase, etc), I've been a dismal failure. For the past few years, I've taken to flying out of Santiago so that saves me a lot of time and annoyance.

Buen camino, Laurie

Kanga · Feb 10, 2015

peregrina2000 said:
Kanga, have you been successful using the RENFE website?
Buen camino, Laurie

Hi Laurie, I've not needed to in recent years - I've just bought tickets locally on the day.

Castilian · Feb 11, 2015

peregrina2000 said:
Kanga, have you been successful using the RENFE website? Of my many attempts over many years, I have only been successful once, booking the AVE from Madrid to Sevilla.

How to use the web of RENFE (and if you don't succeed, what other webs you could try instead):

http://www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.htm#How_to_use_www.renfe.com

I think the above link might be useful.

peregrina2000 · Feb 11, 2015

Castilian said:
How to use the web of RENFE (and if you don't succeed, what other webs you could try instead):

http://www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.htm#How_to_use_www.renfe.com

I think the above link might be useful.

Thanks, Castilian, most of the problems that US users have, once they get through the website itself, is that the site doesn't accept my credit card. This is true no matter which of several cards I use, whether I have had them "verified" or not, or whether I have called to tell them to accept a charge in Spain.

That seat61 document is a very good tutorial in how to use the RENFE system, unfortunately that's not my problem! I have heard that RENFE was going to correct this glitch -- have others from the US been successful buying tickets on RENFE.com?

Buen camino, Laurie

Castilian · Feb 11, 2015

peregrina2000 said:
That seat61 document is a very good tutorial in how to use the RENFE system, unfortunately that's not my problem!

Yes, I know but I thought the two webs he quotes as alternatives might be useful for you (although I don't have personal experience with them); specially the one that has (in theory) the same prices that RENFE (it wouldn't hurt to verify if they are really exactly the same prices though). I thought too that the tutorial itself might be useful for some readers. And that's why I posted it: because it could be useful both for you (getting a clue of where to book if you fail to make it on the web of RENFE) and for other users having other sort of problems when trying to book through the web of RENFE (that could be solved reading the tutorial itself).

Kanga · Feb 15, 2015

Castilian said:
How to use the web of RENFE (and if you don't succeed, what other webs you could try instead):

http://www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.htm#How_to_use_www.renfe.com

I think the above link might be useful.

It is!

anniethenurse · Feb 15, 2015

peregrina2000 said:
.... For the past few years, I've taken to flying out of Santiago so that saves me a lot of time and annoyance.

Buen camino, Laurie

Hello all,

I usually do like Laurie that means I fly as close as possible to my starting point and fly out of Santiago on one multi- destination ticket.
Saves time and there is no worries. If needed I take a bus and purchace the tickets while in Spain, France or Portugal.

Buen camino

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