Travelling from Santiago to Ferrol

[Wandering Taff]

Hi everyone.

I have finally started planning our Camino next year (mid September) We plan to do the Ingles over 9 days taking it easy and soaking up some of the little towns along the way. We are then travelling down to Calp for our annual dancing holiday (more questions related to that on another forum maybe).

The plan is to fly into Santiago airport on the Saturday and travel up to Ferrol on the Sunday. Has anyone got any experience of this? I'm wondering what the best mode of transport is. I have tried to look ahead at the schedule but it doesn't appear to be published yet. I'm going to assume there are plenty of options.

Thanks in advance,

WT

 

[dick bird]

There are lots of buses, but the schedules haven´t been published yet.

 

[Wandering Taff]

There are lots of buses, but the schedules haven´t need published yet.

Thanks for the reply, Dick. I'll keep an eye out next year for them.

 

[Corned Beef]

Buses would be the main choice. There is a convolute rail route which involves taking the train -

Santiago/A Coruña then A Coruña/Betanzos (a really grim unmanned station) then Betanzos/Ferrol.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

@Wandering Taff , I used the bus as suggested above. Runs from the central bus station in Santiago. Pre purchase your tickets on Flixbus or similar. It's a fairly popular route.
Bus to Ferrol was an hour and a half and a very pleasant trip. I think €8.00? Drops you right in the heart of town.
Do try and leave yourself time to explore Ferrol, it's a very pleasant town.
Loved the Inglès, enjoy!

 

[naplesdon]

The Naval Museum in Ferrol is a must see.

 

[Wandering Taff]

@Wandering Taff , I used the bus as suggested above. Runs from the central bus station in Santiago. Pre purchase your tickets on Flixbus or similar. It's a fairly popular route.
Bus to Ferrol was an hour and a half and a very pleasant trip. I think €8.00? Drops you right in the heart of town.
Do try and leave yourself time to explore Ferrol, it's a very pleasant town.
Loved the Inglès, enjoy!

Thanks Peter,

We're really hoping it's possible to get straight to Ferrol on the day we arrive, that will give us a little of Saturday and the whole of Sunday there and we start our Camino on the Monday. I'll wait until the schedules have been published and see if we can swing it that way.

 

[Corned Beef]

A Coruna has an airport and according to Aena there are direct flights from Gatwick

Destinations | A Coruña Airport | Aena

Here you can find all the available information about the airlines and their destinations from A Coruña Airport. Visit the Aena website and find out more!

www.aena.es

There are buses to Ferrol from there

https://www.rome2rio.com/map/A-Coru%C3%B1a-Airport-LCG/Ferrol

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

Thanks Peter,

We're really hoping it's possible to get straight to Ferrol on the day we arrive, that will give us a little of Saturday and the whole of Sunday there and we start our Camino on the Monday. I'll wait until the schedules have been published and see if we can swing it that way.

In which case you'll need either the bus or a taxi from the airport to the central bus station. The bus to town takes around an hour and costs just one euro, but isn't as frequent as it could be. When I went to do exactly the same as you the bus schedules didn't work for me, so I took a taxi - €25 inc. tip ( which isn't necessary but I like to give). 15 to 20 minutes depending on traffic. Quite a good cafe (with terrace) , toilets etc upstairs at the bus station, plus a couple of snack machines downstairs where the buses leave from.

 

[Wandering Taff]

A Coruna has an airport and according to Aena there are direct flights from Gatwick

Destinations | A Coruña Airport | Aena

Here you can find all the available information about the airlines and their destinations from A Coruña Airport. Visit the Aena website and find out more!

www.aena.es

There are buses to Ferrol from there

https://www.rome2rio.com/map/A-Coru%C3%B1a-Airport-LCG/Ferrol

Thanks for the reply. Looking at it, it seems cheaper and just as quick to fly to Santiago. We'd also like our luggage stored there so will also save on shipping the luggage from A Coruna. Thanks for the alternative suggestion though!

 

[Leaderene]

I took the bus from Santiago and my walking buddy flew into ACouruna both plans worked well.

 

[Tincatinker]

Thanks Peter,

We're really hoping it's possible to get straight to Ferrol on the day we arrive, that will give us a little of Saturday and the whole of Sunday there and we start our Camino on the Monday. I'll wait until the schedules have been published and see if we can swing it that way.

Timetables don’t usually change much. Slightly increased frequency in summer is the usual.

If you know what day of the week you’ll be traveling just look at the schedules for that day next week. Good enough for planning possibilities

 

[jcat]

Last March I took a train direct from Santiago to Ferrol. By "direct" I mean that I didn't have to switch trains, but it did make a few stops along the way. Looking at the old email, departed Santiago at at11:22 arrived in Ferrol t 13:12.

 

[naplesdon]

A Coruna is worthy of a visit, as well.

 

[longwayhome]

I took the train last September and loved the comfort and the views of the passing towns . Yes it goes to A Coruna first and then on to Ferrol but was overall fast and comfortable. I walked from the station to my accommodation in town .

 

[Anne&Pat]

Last March I took a train direct from Santiago to Ferrol. By "direct" I mean that I didn't have to switch trains, but it did make a few stops along the way. Looking at the old email, departed Santiago at at11:22 arrived in Ferrol t 13:12.

We also took the same train time from Santiago to Ferrol in July 2022, no changes and a good journey. Got help at the station in Ferrol to call a taxi to our accommodation. Definitely worth spending a day to explore Ferrol.
Buen Camino.

 

[Pilgrim9]

I have also travelled by train from Santiago to Ferrol - twice, once in 2018 and again in 2022 - and really enjoyed the train trips. The trains I took stopped in A Coruña. The views from the train windows between A Coruña and Ferrol were superb.

 

[jimmyc]

Hi everyone.

I have finally started planning our Camino next year (mid September) We plan to do the Ingles over 9 days taking it easy and soaking up some of the little towns along the way. We are then travelling down to Calp for our annual dancing holiday (more questions related to that on another forum maybe).

The plan is to fly into Santiago airport on the Saturday and travel up to Ferrol on the Sunday. Has anyone got any experience of this? I'm wondering what the best mode of transport is. I have tried to look ahead at the schedule but it doesn't appear to be published yet. I'm going to assume there are plenty of options.

Thanks in advance,

WT

I caught the train to Ferrol in June. It went via Coruna but we did not need to change trains. Very quick and easy.
It is a lovely camino and 9 days should be very easy. However, there are some days when you will need to walk 20klms because of accommodation availability.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

I caught the train to Ferrol in June. It went via Coruna but we did not need to change trains. Very quick and easy.
It is a lovely camino and 9 days should be very easy. However, there are some days when you will need to walk 20klms because of accommodation availability.

Not necessarily. The forums own amazing @Elle Bieling researched, wrote and published this excellent guide in I think 2022. https://www.pilgrimagetraveler.com/camino-ingles.html .
I haven't double checked the accommodation options, but at the time of writing it was possible to break the Inglés down into nine days with a maximum length of 16 kilometers ( and that day, the last, can also be split into two days creating a 10-day camino with very short distances).
Bearing in mind that more and more people are walking this Camino, it is possible that even more options have since opened.

 

[Wandering Taff]

I caught the train to Ferrol in June. It went via Coruna but we did not need to change trains. Very quick and easy.
It is a lovely camino and 9 days should be very easy. However, there are some days when you will need to walk 20klms because of accommodation availability.

20km isn't an issue. We just didn't want to walk 25km+ everyday. Thanks for the reply Jimmy.

 

[Wandering Taff]

Not necessarily. The forums own amazing @Elle Bieling researched, wrote and published this excellent guide in I think 2022. https://www.pilgrimagetraveler.com/camino-ingles.html .
I haven't double checked the accommodation options, but at the time of writing it was possible to break the Inglés down into nine days with a maximum length of 16 kilometers ( and that day, the last, can also be split into two days creating a 10-day camino with very short distances).
Bearing in mind that more and more people are walking this Camino, it is possible that even more options have since opened.

Thanks again, Pete. We'll probably do 1 or 2 longer days anyway as we hope to spend an extra day in one of the towns along the way, not sure which one, I'll have to do some more research to see where is worth spending an extra day.

 

[witsendwv]

Buses would be the main choice. There is a convolute rail route which involves taking the train -

Santiago/A Coruña then A Coruña/Betanzos (a really grim unmanned station) then Betanzos/Ferrol.

There is a direct train as well. We took the train from Santiago to Ferrol on a direct Renfe and walked to Santiago. Afterwards we returned to Ferrol by bus before taking off on the FEVE across the northern coast. Both were fine, but I prefer trains.