Coming from canada

[Bonnie]

Coming from Toronto, Ontario Canada Mid-September to walk the Camino for 10 days - starting in St. Jean Pied de port. Any suggestions which airport to fly into, and how to get to St. Jean; and where to fly out of? My friend and I are expecting to walk the first 200 km in 10 days (allowing 4 days travel to/from Spain.

[HuskyNerd]

Hi Bonnie --
The easiest way to get to St Jean PdP is to fly to Biarritz (BIQ), transfer to Bayonne train station, and take the train from Bayonne to St. Jean. There are flights to Biarritz from a variety of European airports (London, Paris, Amsterdam etc). I notice a cheap fare from Toronto on Alitalia to Biarritz via Rome and Lyon, France. Check out Cheap flights | Free flight comparison from Skyscanner.net or similar websites for flight arrangements and www.raileurope.com for train schedules from Bayonne to SJPP. Interestingly it's even cheaper to fly on British Airways to Madrid via London Heathrow. If you chose that option you could either fly to San Sebastian (about 50 kms from Bayonne) or train to Irun/Hendaye, a short transfer to Bayonne.

Approx 200 km from SJPP on the Camino Frances is Santo Domingo de la Calzada, which has good bus connections to Burgos, from which you can either catch a train back to Madrid or fly out of its small airport to Madrid via Barcelona. I prefer trains in Spain as the smaller airports like Burgos have few and fairly expensive flights.

Buen camino ~
HuskyNerd

[RandyStG]

Bonnie, last year I walked the from St. Jean to Santiago. I found it easiest and cheapest to fly with Thomas Cook to London and then on Ryanair to Biarritz. If you can fly to Paris, it would work but you still have a long trip to get to St. Jean. I would be careful flying into Spain unless you plan to have a holiday first. Otherwise getting to St. Jean from Spain can be a hassle. I had no problems at all with my travel.
Have fun planning
Randall

[BHinSanDiego]

Last year when I traveled from California I flew into Madrid arriving about 7 or 8 AM, caught a 10AM train to Pamplona, which took about 3 hours, then took a shuttle service Express Bourricot, Express Bouricot. They picked us up at the train station and we were in St Jean by about 4PM that same day.