Travelling from Santiago de Compostela to Nice or Marseille

Sydney45 said:

Hi,

I will be finishing in SDC in September and want to get to Nice or Marseille. What would be the quickest way without breaking the bank? I had a look at the flights from SDC to Nice/Marseille and they will take the entire day with a 5 hour layover in Barcelona.

Someone suggested trains instead as they would be less restrictive (leg room and moving about), there are sceneries to look at, but they would also take the whole day.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hello Sydney45. I had a look at
www.skyscanner.com
and Ryan Air had a fare for $34 from Santiago to Madrid and then there were flights from Madrid to Marseille for around about $120. I just put in the date for 15 September 2014. Have a play with it. You will need to allow time for connecting flights and I am not sure if they go from the same Madrid Airport. You have a number of options here that won't cost a fortunate with advance purchases but then they lock you into specific dates. It really depends on the time you have. You could even catch a bus or train to Madrid and just chill out watching the countryside before catching a flight onwards from Madrid. A good travel agent could also help out here. I have a very friendly connection with my local Flight Centre.
Buen camino.

Sydney45 said:

Hi,

I will be finishing in SDC in September and want to get to Nice or Marseille. What would be the quickest way without breaking the bank? I had a look at the flights from SDC to Nice/Marseille and they will take the entire day with a 5 hour layover in Barcelona.

Someone suggested trains instead as they would be less restrictive (leg room and moving about), there are sceneries to look at, but they would also take the whole day.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hi Sydney, I think you should look at Cejanus' suggestion. I found it quite hard to organise a train trip back to Nice and finished up with an overnight stay in Barcelona and had to change trains at least twice or three times from memory. It was two full days of travelling plus the night in Barcelona. It's a few years ago now so things might be better. Just one other note of caution - the French train drivers sometimes go on strike without notice. We got stuck in Pau once with our flight to Sydney leaving from Nice the next day. We just managed to make a departure from Paris instead.

SNCF site has trains that go from Madrid to Marseille in 7 hours. The trip to Madrid from Santiago takes about 5 hours. I didn't try schedules but its likely a two day trip by train due to connections. This is the fastest route by train. Its probably the cheapest way unless you want to spend a lot more time on the bus.

Here is Marseille airport site
http://www.marseille-airport.com/

Here is Nice airport site
http://en.nice.aeroport.fr/

Select the destinations tab to see where flights to Marseille/Nice originate. The closest airport to Santiago with direct flights to Marseille is in Porto Portugal. Porto can easily be accessed by bus or train. There are flights from Lisbon and Madrid to Nice.

Best bet in terms of time is probably fly Santiago to Madrid and onward to either Marseille or Nice. It might be worth checking out Santiago to London to Marseille or Nice.