ALSA bus Pamplona to SJPDP - 2024 timetable announced and booking open

[Bradypus]

Just saw a post on Facebook from Paul Garland about this year's bus service from Pamplona to SJPDP. Sure that Paul won't mind my repeating it here:

"ALSA BUS have just PUBLISHED their SCHEDULES for the PAMPLONA to SAINT-JEAN-PIED-DE-PORT service, and are taking seat reservations for the route. Service definitely starting again on April 1st but maybe the week before. As in recent years, just the one daily bus at 1200. Same price as last year.
ALSA *may* announce a later afternoon bus for peak periods, prior to covid there were more services each day.
The ALSA English-language website for schedules and seat reservations is:
https://www.alsa.com/en/web/bus

Remember to search for Saint Jean Pied de Port in full, not SJPdP. Tickets booked on the site are cancellable with refund or allow one change of date/time up to 2 hours before scheduled departure time of bus.
Advance seat bookings strongly advised, but there is an ALSA ticket office at Pamplona bus station (the bus station is underground, not easy to spot).

If you are needing to get to SJPdP before the ALSA bus resumes, or arriving in Pamplona too late in the day to catch it, there is an Artieda bus from Pamplona bus station as far as Roncesvalles, from where you can taxi to SJPdP.
The Artieda bus leaves Pamplona from Monday to Friday at 1330, on Saturdays at 1630, but there is no bus on Sundays or public holidays. Journeytime 70 minutes, pay cash on bus €5.45 .
https://www.autocaresartieda.com/

Schedule on website is current up to 24 September, although the service has been the same all year round the last few years.
Note that a taxi to SJPdP from Pamplona will be €100+, but much less (around €35) from Roncesvalles."

 

[trecile]

The earliest available date (so far) is March 25th.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Thanks for the schedule report @Bradypus and for the extra information too. I'm going to add a tiny bit.

Remember to search for Saint Jean Pied de Port in full, not SJPdP.

Exactly, but don't abbreviate Saint either.

Advance seat bookings strongly advised, but there is an ALSA ticket office at Pamplona bus station (the bus station is underground, not easy to spot).

It turns out that when you use Google Maps to locate Pamplona, Spain it uses a location just a minute walk north of the bus station. The red pin below shows Pamplona's location.



This is what the above ground part of the station looks like:

 

[CaminoFitz]

Just saw a post on Facebook from Paul Garland about this year's bus service from Pamplona to SJPDP. Sure that Paul won't mind my repeating it here:

"ALSA BUS have just PUBLISHED their SCHEDULES for the PAMPLONA to SAINT-JEAN-PIED-DE-PORT service, and are taking seat reservations for the route. Service definitely starting again on April 1st but maybe the week before. As in recent years, just the one daily bus at 1200. Same price as last year.
ALSA *may* announce a later afternoon bus for peak periods, prior to covid there were more services each day.
The ALSA English-language website for schedules and seat reservations is:
https://www.alsa.com/en/web/bus

Remember to search for Saint Jean Pied de Port in full, not SJPdP. Tickets booked on the site are cancellable with refund or allow one change of date/time up to 2 hours before scheduled departure time of bus.
Advance seat bookings strongly advised, but there is an ALSA ticket office at Pamplona bus station (the bus station is underground, not easy to spot).

If you are needing to get to SJPdP before the ALSA bus resumes, or arriving in Pamplona too late in the day to catch it, there is an Artieda bus from Pamplona bus station as far as Roncesvalles, from where you can taxi to SJPdP.
The Artieda bus leaves Pamplona from Monday to Friday at 1330, on Saturdays at 1630, but there is no bus on Sundays or public holidays. Journeytime 70 minutes, pay cash on bus €5.45 .
https://www.autocaresartieda.com/

Schedule on website is current up to 24 September, although the service has been the same all year round the last few years.
Note that a taxi to SJPdP from Pamplona will be €100+, but much less (around €35) from Roncesvalles."

Is there a 'return' bus from SJPP to Pamplona?

 

[Bradypus]

Is there a 'return' bus from SJPP to Pamplona?

Yes - it leaves SJPDP at 13:45

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Is there a 'return' bus from SJPP to Pamplona?

Yes. The bus turns right around to return to Pamplona. The schedule for March 30 is
12:00 to 13:45 with return to Pamplona being 13:45 to 15:30

Edit: @Bradypus is quicker than I am.

 

[geot]

"ALSA BUS have just PUBLISHED their SCHEDULES for the PAMPLONA to SAINT-JEAN-PIED-DE-PORT service, and are taking seat reservations for the route. Service definitely starting again on April 1st but maybe the week before.

Meh, my wife and I are planning to start from SJPdP in mid-March, and it doesn't seem like ALSA will be an option for us.

If you are needing to get to SJPdP before the ALSA bus resumes, or arriving in Pamplona too late in the day to catch it, there is an Artieda bus from Pamplona bus station as far as Roncesvalles, from where you can taxi to SJPdP.
The Artieda bus leaves Pamplona from Monday to Friday at 1330, on Saturdays at 1630, but there is no bus on Sundays or public holidays. Journeytime 70 minutes, pay cash on bus €5.45 .
https://www.autocaresartieda.com/

Schedule on website is current up to 24 September, although the service has been the same all year round the last few years.
Note that a taxi to SJPdP from Pamplona will be €100+, but much less (around €35) from Roncesvalles."

Thanks for mentioning this as an alternative. Looks like we'll need to investigate the taxi from Roncesvalles.

 

[DoughnutANZ]

Meh, my wife and I are planning to start from SJPdP in mid-March, and it doesn't seem like ALSA will be an option for us.



Thanks for mentioning this as an alternative. Looks like we'll need to investigate the taxi from Roncesvalles.

You could consider walking, afterall, you will be doing that in the reverse direction and so it is a viable option.

 

[Stephan the Painter]

Meh, my wife and I are planning to start from SJPdP in mid-March, and it doesn't seem like ALSA will be an option for us.



Thanks for mentioning this as an alternative. Looks like we'll need to investigate the taxi from Roncesvalles.

A Mainer also! Welcome!

I was looking for routes from the south of Spain to SJPP and my searches led me to this which I posted elsewhere:

As an alternate route to SJPP instead of going through Pamplona. This seems to be year-round.

If you're starting your trip in Madrid, there seem to be multiple buses every day from Madrid to Bayonne, France. A direct Bla Bla bus (6 hrs.), but sometimes ALSA is listed ( 9 hrs., with a connection). Various starting points, including the airport and train stations.
Then four 1 hour trains a day Bayonne to SJPP.

Here is a link to my search on the Bla Bla Bus website.

You could conceivably do this in one day if you left on an early bus from Madrid. But even if you ended up spending the night in Bayonne, you would get to SJPP 4 or 5 hours earlier than if you go through Pamplona and take the afternoon bus from there. And some of these buses from Madrid run overnight.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/an-alternate-route-from-madrid-to-sjpp-through-bayonne.84750/#post-1213993

 

[geot]

A Mainer also! Welcome!

If you're starting your trip in Madrid, there seem to be multiple buses every day from Madrid to Bayonne, France.

Actually we just booked a flight from Madrid to San Sebastian. We'll spend the night in Irun, walk across the border to Hendaye, and train from there to Bayonne and then SJPdP.

 

[Paul_Garland]

Just saw a post on Facebook from Paul Garland about this year's bus service from Pamplona to SJPDP. Sure that Paul won't mind my repeating it here:

"ALSA BUS have just PUBLISHED their SCHEDULES for the PAMPLONA to SAINT-JEAN-PIED-DE-PORT service, and are taking seat reservations for the route. Service definitely starting again on April 1st but maybe the week before. As in recent years, just the one daily bus at 1200. Same price as last year.
ALSA *may* announce a later afternoon bus for peak periods, prior to covid there were more services each day.
The ALSA English-language website for schedules and seat reservations is:
https://www.alsa.com/en/web/bus

Remember to search for Saint Jean Pied de Port in full, not SJPdP. Tickets booked on the site are cancellable with refund or allow one change of date/time up to 2 hours before scheduled departure time of bus.
Advance seat bookings strongly advised, but there is an ALSA ticket office at Pamplona bus station (the bus station is underground, not easy to spot).

If you are needing to get to SJPdP before the ALSA bus resumes, or arriving in Pamplona too late in the day to catch it, there is an Artieda bus from Pamplona bus station as far as Roncesvalles, from where you can taxi to SJPdP.
The Artieda bus leaves Pamplona from Monday to Friday at 1330, on Saturdays at 1630, but there is no bus on Sundays or public holidays. Journeytime 70 minutes, pay cash on bus €5.45 .
https://www.autocaresartieda.com/

Schedule on website is current up to 24 September, although the service has been the same all year round the last few years.
Note that a taxi to SJPdP from Pamplona will be €100+, but much less (around €35) from Roncesvalles."

The ALSA site today shows the 1200 bus running from March 24th onwards.

 

[PilgrimSusanne]

A Mainer also! Welcome!

I was looking for routes from the south of Spain to SJPP and my searches led me to this which I posted elsewhere:

As an alternate route to SJPP instead of going through Pamplona. This seems to be year-round.

If you're starting your trip in Madrid, there seem to be multiple buses every day from Madrid to Bayonne, France. A direct Bla Bla bus (6 hrs.), but sometimes ALSA is listed ( 9 hrs., with a connection). Various starting points, including the airport and train stations.
Then four 1 hour trains a day Bayonne to SJPP.

Here is a link to my search on the Bla Bla Bus website.

You could conceivably do this in one day if you left on an early bus from Madrid. But even if you ended up spending the night in Bayonne, you would get to SJPP 4 or 5 hours earlier than if you go through Pamplona and take the afternoon bus from there. And some of these buses from Madrid run overnight.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/an-alternate-route-from-madrid-to-sjpp-through-bayonne.84750/#post-1213993

Stephan, did you actually travel this route? How did it go? I'm looking at it for February 15. Advice? How did you get from Bayonne to SJPP?

 

[Tincatinker]

Stephan, did you actually travel this route? How did it go? I'm looking at it for February 15. Advice? How did you get from Bayonne to SJPP?

Stephan states in his post "Then four 1 hour trains a day Bayonne to SJPP."

 

[Stephan the Painter]

Stephan, did you actually travel this route? How did it go? I'm looking at it for February 15. Advice? How did you get from Bayonne to SJPP?

No, I haven't taken it yet. It came up when I was clicking around, searching for the quickest route to get all the way from the southwest of Spain to SJPP. But I think the bus originates in Madrid. And I plan to take it in early April.

When I searched for the February 15 bus, I got this at the Blabla bus website.
Make sure you choose bus only and no connections. You have to scroll around a bit or they offered you all sorts of irrelevant stuff. When I search for dates in April, there were morning buses as well. They might be sold out or they don't run every day. I think this is a Madrid to Paris bus that just happens to stop in Bayonne.

And to get from Bayonne to SJPP, the train is the standard French train service. And when I check for February 15, there's five trains a day

Here on the national French train site SNCF

And here on Rome to Rio.

I think this is a very useful winter itinerary from Madrid. Hope you find it so. Let me know if you give it a try, Thank you.
Originally, this itinerary was offered to me on Google maps. I noticed when I check Rome to Rio and Google Maps they often give me different answers. So I've gotten into the habit of checking both both.

 

[SFHiker]

Hello all. Can anyone suggest the best option for getting from the Pamplona airport to the bus station?

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Hello all. Can anyone suggest the best option for getting from the Pamplona airport to the bus station?

Taxi. They discontinued the bus connecting it to the bus and train stations. Enquire there, they substituted a subsided fare (1€ or less) for taxis to a place near the bus station but the devil is in the details (that I don't know). There are bus stops on the road outside the airport but its a walk (see Google Maps and its StreetView). The airport and bus station aren't far apart so regular taxi fare won't be too much.