Finishing at Burgos

[jahoran]

My father and I are hoping to do Stage 1 from St Jean to Burgos this October. We are due to start walking on a Tuesday and are flying home from Madrid the Saturday week afterwards. We are first of all wondering if 10 full days of walking is enough to get from St Jean to Burgos and also what the best way would be to get from Burgos to Madrid in time for a 11am flight on the Monday morning. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[HuskyNerd]

Hi Jahoran ~
Congrats on your upcoming Stage 1. The distance from SJPP to Burgos is approx 287 kms, so your goal of 10 days will be a brisk 28 kms/day. I've usually done this stretch in 11 days, giving myself a shorter day to either enjoy Pamplona some, or spend more time in Viana and Logroño. You might want to sketch out your stages via http://www.godesalco.com/plan/frances (copy and paste the URL into your browser if the link doesn't work) so you can see what it looks like.

You might want to consider jumping ahead to Burgos from wherever you are after 10 days, rather than killing yourself trying to get to Burgos. When you come back to do Stage 2 you can simply return to Burgos and make this year's ending point your next starting point.

To get back to Madrid you could take the train out the night before (see Renfe) or take a very early morning bus to the Madrid airport (go to www.alsa.es and choose Madrid Barajas as destination). I can't seem to find direct flights to Madrid from the Burgos airport (which you walk past as you enter the town).

Hope that helps. Buen camino ~
Sandy

[grayland]

Another very good reply by HuskyNerd.
Sandy's advice is very accurate.