Maribel,

Thank you very much for your advice on the apartments. We noticed that some have AC and some do not - given the climate in San Sebastian is this not much of an issue? The weather is milder than the heat in Madrid from all I have read.

What I have learned regarding travel to San Sebastian is......The plane,while faster, is also considerably more (190 euros each and there are three of us). The train is appealing to us (are we crazy?) because we think it may provide us with an opportunity to sleep (after a red eye flight from Toronto...after a 3 hour drive to the Toronto airport from Rochester,NY) and also see some of the countryside. Yes? We arrive in Madrid at 11:30 am, and the train leaves at 4:10 from the Charmartin Station and arrives in San Sebastian at 9:30 pm. We are thinking that between our arrival and departure we will go to our friend's apartment,leave unnecessary luggage and then go to the train station. Maybe too ambitious considering how tired we may be. The cost for the train is $112.00 USD per person for a first class ticket - less for a coach...is there a real value in the first class ticket vs coach (other than lounge access and the meal provided)? Are the seats significantly nicer? Should we buy tickets online before we leave?

We had planned to rent a car and drive from San Sebastian to Santander but I am having a difficult time finding A) a car and B) an automatic that is less than $700.00 a day!! My husband will drive a stick but it has been a while! Many rental companies do not seem to allow a one day rental with the different pick up/drop off sites. Any thoughts on a car rental?

Thanks again for all the comments shared and please...any advice/suggestions we would love to hear them. CCZNY

Have you considered the bus?
http://www.alsa.es/portal/site/Alsa

Also has up to a dozen departures from Madrid to San Sebastian daily. They offer supra and supra + (similar to economy plus and first class on airlines) which gives you lounge access in Madrid. There's a supra plus leaving Madrid at 3:00 arriving in SS at 8:15 pm for 45 euro (one way pp). Normal service (with stops and no "extras") takes 5 hrs 45 minutes and is 31.79 euro.

In some cases I prefer bus service to train. Personally I'd choose the supra plus bus at 3pm (the timing works with your arrival time) over the train.

cczny,
Did you check round trip fares Madrid-S.S. on Iberia or just one way?
With Iberia it's often much cheaper to buy a round trip, then just discard the unused return. Worth a try....I always, always, check the round trip fare and compare with the one way.

The Supra Alsa bus service is the least expensive way to go from Madrid to San Sebastián, as CathyM notes. And it takes about the same amount of time as that afternoon Alvia train, for which there are no Web or Estrella discount fares available.

From San Sebastián to Santander, I would personally take the Alsa bus.
I've taken it, and it works fine.
The Supra service makes just one stop in Bilbao and takes 2 hrs. 40 min. (24.85), while the normal service makes 5 stops at takes about 3 hrs. (12.99).

There are only 2 supra departures-at 7:10 am and 3:10 pm, while you have 9 regular departures.

This would save you a great deal of money.

bookmarking info for spain trip planning

Where does the Alsa bus leave from in Madrid ??

Have you tried checking National for car rental? I was able to get a 10 day rental on an automatic for 260/290€ compact/intermediate sized car same price for May 2009 and again I got the same price for November this year. I did not pick up or drop off at airport though - there is a higher price on airport I found. I did pickup/ drop at train station/ city center for 2009 it was pickup Bilbao - drop Madrid Chamartin. For Nov I checked pick up And drop Madrid. But went with pickup Seville drop in madrid. It was the same price for either one for me. I booked last month so it wasn't super early.

Also booked a round trip tix Madrid to Seville last week on Iberian for 60€ pp and will dump the return tix. One way was 260€ pp. Play with return dates. It lowered if I said I wanted to book a weeklong rt trip.

It does not appear nygvic was interested in your deals with National, which is not the least expensive way to rent a car in Spain. National is Atesa in Spain, and always includes the basic insurance in its rates.

Robert, it appears they were looking for a car rental based on the query:

<i> We had planned to rent a car and drive from San Sebastian to Santander but I am having a difficult time finding A) a car and B) an automatic that is less than $700.00 a day!!...Any thoughts on a car rental?</I>

The National rate I referred to is less than $700 a day for an automatic and can be booked on their website, www.nationalcar.com. But if you want to continue to play pissing match at the expense of a poster's question, I'm sure you will feel free to continue.