I was reading the WSJ, which has an article on the luxurious El Transcantábrico train that runs across Northern Spain.

The route travels from Santiago de Compostela to Leon via Bilbao and back. The fare is €2,600 per person in a shared cabin and €3,500 single occupancy, and includes food and accommodations but not flight transfers or drinks. The trip takes 8 days, as the train travels during the daytime only, and stops at stations at night in order to ensure the passengers a good night's sleep.

http://www.eltranscantabrico.com/

Definitely a nice way to travel if I have the time and money.

hi yk,
I hope Thomas sees this post, as I know he has taken this luxury rail journey. I've done the route by car (at far less than half that cost) and have seen the Transcantábrico group at their dining spots (Paradors and such) along the way.

If I were lucky enough to receive this as a gift, I certainly could sit back, enjoy it and revel in the luxury, but if it were on my own nickel, I'd just sit and obsess about how many great journeys I could do in Northern Spain for that price! But that's just me, the obsessive Spain trip planner!

Hi Maribel, do you know how long has this luxury train been operating?

I am by no means rich enough to afford such a trip. And even if I could afford it, like you, I'd be thinking how many other trips I could take instead for this much money!

For a couple, that's €5200 for 8 nights, which comes out to €650/night. Yikes! At least food is included in that price.

It's been operating for quite a number of years-it's not new. There was once an equivalent luxury train trip run during the fall-winter for the south-the Al Andalus express, but it's not operating in '09.

Ferrocaril Español de Via Estrecha (FEVE) operates el TransCantabrico.

Last year FEVE came out with a low price 30-day hop on, hop off Pass: normally, Point-to-Point, FEVE is quite expensive but with the Pass, it would be very inexpensive. I don't know if the Pass will be available for Summer '09.

I concur with Maribel: if it were a gift. I would take it; but not on my Euro.

To the best of my knowledge, there are limited TransCantabrio 'runs' (maybe a half dozen) each Summer.

2,600 Euros is about 1,600 Euros more than it cost my wife and her sister to walk the Camino from the Pyrennes to Santiago in just less than 3 months.

For folks who plan to use the actual FEVE in Northern Spain, it's a "milk train" that runs on these narrow gauge tracks and stops in every town along the way. And it's a life line for those who live in these small towns to connect with the larger cities.

We spent a week outside of Santander last summer (and will repeat in June) in a town at the end of a FEVE line and just walked from our casona to the FEVE station to take the train into Santander along with the local commuters-much easier than driving and hassling with the heavy traffic going in, then negotiating our way to a convenient underground garage. The train trip took longer than the drive due to the many stops, but we preferred it to driving.