Mohammed

Can anyone suggest a interesting route road or rail from Bordeaux/France to Madrid/Spain with about 2 or 3 overnight stops. We will be two pax and foodies especially sea food and good wine, and like architecture, wild open places, and I am a serious amateur photographer.

bilboburgler

"pax"?

Have you thought of taking a bicycle along the Euro 1 which gets you about 2/3rds there, then back roads should suffice

PalenQ

San Sebastian (Donostia in local Basque parlance is preferred)- then Burgos, another neat old town are two good stops. Burgos has a famous cathedral and a serparate and equally renown old monastery.

Christina

pax=people

I believe you have to change trains at the border (at Irun). You could stop in San Sebastian or Bilbao. I think you have to change to get from Irun to Bilbao, also, but total trip is about 4 hrs. Bordeaux to Bilbao will take a little over 9 hours in itself. I don't know of any exciting stops between Bordeaux and Irun, you could stop in Biarritz but you know what that's like.

From Bilbao, you could easily go to Santander and from there to Madrid is about 5 hrs by train.

PalenQ

St-Jean-de-Luz is a great stop just before Hendaye/Irun - lovely beach - neat ole town bot quite as glitzy in reputation as Biarritz but on the main rail line - Biarritz is a few mile bus ride from its train station.

Dukey1

"wild open places" sound like somewhere IN the Pyrenees

Robert2533

The only direct rail service between San Sebastian and Bilbao is the Euskotren. http://www.euskotren.es/sites/www2.e...TIA-BILBAO.pdf

The train station in Biarritz is about a 20 minute bus ride from Bar Jean, a good first stop in Biarritz.

PalenQ

The Eskro Tren I believe takes longer than the also direct bus service Donostia to Bilboa.

bilboburgler

Thanks Christina, I thought it might have been an imperative peace.

PalenQ

I believe you have to change trains at the border (at Irun).>

Always now that the Talgo trains are history - track widths in Spain are broader gauge than those in France and most of Europe - thus trains cannot physically go thru and all change at either Hendaye or Irun - the old Talgo night trains (now discontinued with the opening of the new high-speed rail route France-Barcelona-Madrid) had wheels that could be cranked in and out and thus could go on the rail lines of each country.

The new Trans-Pyrenees high-speed line from France to Barcelona and the high-speed line to Madrid from there are all built to standard gauge used in most of Europe (except Finland and the USSR and Portugal besides older Spanish lines) so there are now perhaps thru trains France to Madrid but via Barcelona.

Another way to get to Donostia from Hendaye, French border station is to take the Tren Eskro from the Hendaye SNCF station to Donostia - a neat route that has you going right up the middle of streets in towns - a really interesting ride and very frequent - mainline rail links at Irun have large gaps in schedules so you may if going that way be stuck for a few hours awaiting a train to Donostia from there. And the Treneskro station in Donostia is smack in the heart of the old town - the mainline RENFE station is a bit further out.

For lots of great info on French-Spanish trains check out these IMO superb sites: www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.comand www.budgeteuropetravel.com. You can score deep discounted tickets if booking far enough in advance to get these limited in number ducats sold on each train - for France - www.voyages-sncf.com or www.capitainetrain.com - same trains same fares but latter is said to be easier to use; www.renfe.com for Spanish trains - NOT easy for many to use - have had legions of complaints about that site on Fodor's.

mikelg

The best option is a car drive to San Sebastian, spend one or two nights there, then to Rioja wine country (a two hour drive), spend one or two nights there. You´ll cover everything you´re asking on your post. Absolutely.

PalenQ

What about drop-off fees for renting a car in France and returning it in Spain - I understand they can be dauntingly steep - rather take the train to Donostia then rent a car once in Spain (or in Irun, Spanish border train station if coming from Bordeaux.

Robert2533

The selection of rental cars is poor in Irun. The nearest location would be the airport in Hondarribia, where you have to pay the airport tax when picking up a car. The best bet would be in Donostia, downtown or the rail station (the new Europcar location).