Madrid to StJPdP

[Bem48]

Hi there,
coming from NZ and arriving in Madrid, what would be the best, quickest and
easiest way to connect to StJPdP ?
I'm thinking either train/bus to Bilbao or Santander, from there train/bus to
Bayonne and then train to StJPdP. Can this be done easily in one day ?
Does anyone have timetables, fares etc ??
Or is the option Madrid-Pamplona-Roncesvalles and Taxi to St Jean quicker and
cheaper ??
Thanks for your replies
Bem in Sydney

[HuskyNerd]

Hi Bem and welcome to the Forum. You've hit on one of the challenges of the Camino: how to get from Madrid to SJPP. It is possible to get a train to Bayonne, then to SJPP or to train to Pamplona and then cab to SJPP. Perhaps the most difficult thing is figuring out the Renfe (Spanish train system) website, which is not very helpful connections.

To train it directly to SJPP you need to go Madrid to Vitoria/Gasteiz (via Medina, Valladolid, Palencia, Burgos) then Vitoria to Hendaye via San Sebastian. From Hendaye you can train to Bayonne, then train to SJPP from Bayonne. The Renfe Map for this route is here: Media Distancia . You can also see on this map the route to Pamplona via Logrono or Vitoria.

To find schedules, go back to the main Renfe site here Renfe, click on "Horarios y Precios" and find Madrid (*) (all) as your origin and for the Hendaye option put in Hendaye (Hendaya) as your destino. Using 8 May 2011 as an example date you find 2 schedule options, one leaving at 08:00 and one at 16:15. Both are 5 hrs 51 mins in duration. Click on the (seemingly invisible) hyperlink over the Alvia and you'll find the intermediate destinations are shown in a pop up (for your viewing pleasure). Now go to the www.raileurope.com website where the French SNCF trains are easily located and plan a trip from Hendaye to St Jean Pied de Port, for which you can see (at least for the May 8 example) that you have multiple departures. If you were, indeed, traveling on May 8 you could leave Madrid (Chamartin station) at 08:00, arrive in Hendaye at 13:51 and catch the 19:05 train to Bayonne and arrive in SJPP at 22:25. Alternatively, you could taxi the 36 kms from Hendaye to Bayonne and catch the 15:05 train to SJPP, arriving there at 16:23, which is the option I would choose.

To me this is easier than the Pamplona option, which has three departures on our sample date from the Madrid Atocha station. There is a van driver who will (reportedly) take pilgrims from Pamplona to SJPP which is a 90-minute/70 km drive over the Pyrenees. There's info on other postings in this Forum about how to contact this driver. I believe I heard the cost is approx 70E, depending on how many pilgrims there are to share the cost.

So . . . . there are some options for you. I hope this helps. Buen camino!

[BHinSanDiego]

Hi Bem, I walked my Camino last year from May 22 to June 23rd, as you can imagine it was a trip of a lifetime. I started in St Jean too so I have some info I think will help you get there. The key is actually getting to St Jean and I located and used a unique service for this purpose. Anyway this is how I got there from Madrid. I arrived in Madrid and took a shuttle from the airport to the Atocha train station, one can also take the Metro but this was less stressful. I took the train from Madrid to Pamplona, it takes about 3 hours and there are a number of trains per day. Upon arriving in Pamplona I had contacted another shuttle service that serves the Camino. They are called Express Bouricot, their website is www.expressbourricot.com. The company is based in St Jean, they picked us up at the train station and delivered us to our Alburgue in St Jean, we paid about 24 Euros apiece which I think was a great deal, all you have to do is make a reservation and let them know where (train or bus station) and what time you need to be picked up. They have a few restrictions because of insurance, such as they can't pick up and drop off on the same trip within Spain, but since you are going from Spain to France that's not a problem. The days travel time was about 3 hours on the train and another 2 or so going to St Jean

[BHinSanDiego]

BTW Bem if you have any questions about ways to get to St Jean or the Camino feel free to contact me