Bike Transport from L.A. to Biarritz & Santiago De Compostela/ Coruna to L.A.

[Wayne of LaVerne]

I am flying Delta in May. Any tips or tricks? Maybe ship it ahead as freight? Any Santiago bike shops that can box bike for trip back, or where I can buy a box to repack it? The main delta flight should be able to handle the oversize box, but can the short leg using a partner airline (air france) ?
I read where some smaller planes do not have the cargo capacity. I don't want any surprises.
I definitely want my bike & not a rental. Thanks

 

[wally]

Hello & good luck

I just finished riding the camino frances on my bike. Approx 500 miles.

Here's what I found.

Regardless of whether you have a folding bike or a regular size bike, the airlines will require that you have some type of suitable packing for the bike. In my case, our bike club has a hard shell bike case that also meets the european train standards (48" l x 36" h x 16" wide) It's expressed in centimeters and believe me they will check.

If you do not have a bike box or suitable bike bag, there are companies in the u.s. that will rent these to you for a short period of time (cost approx $250).

When you arrive at the airport, the airlines will charge you extra to ship the bike box/bag. If you tell them that the box contains a bike, they will charge you one tariff. If you tell them that the box contains 'sporting goods' they will charge you a lower tariff (go figure). That extra fee will get you from your home departure city to your destination city.

Now comes the interesting part. You are in your destination city and you have now assembled your bike. What do you do with the bike box? This means two problems to solve: one is where you store the bike box and the other is the fact that you have to come back to the same spot to pick up your bike box at some later point in your itinerary.

Usually, the hotel where you stay at your arrival city can arrange to accept your bike box for a nominal daily fee. You can also store the bike box at many of the airports or train stations (Consigna) but this is at a much higher daily fee rate.

Moving on: If, after arriving at your destination city, you have assembled the bike but then want to take a bus or a train to another city, you have to source a suitable bike carry bag. The bus stations (ALSA) sell these for about 10 euros and the folks at the train station will just give you a blank stare (get used to this).

I found the bus companies far easier to deal with as it relates to a bike packed in a bike bag. The bag fits down below in the cargo hold of the bike. For the trains in Spain, you have to wait for 20 min. before your departure before you can board and this means a mad scramble to get your bike in the train section that holds the larger luggage and then back to your seat. The folks at the train station like to get out their tape measures to confirm that your bike bag does not exceed size limits. You should plan to carry this bike bag with you during the duration of your ride on the camino (it folds up small size).

the trains in spain are sleek, modern, on-time and fast and a joy to ride. If I had it to do all over again, I would likely not use the trains at all, relying instead on bus for transportation.

I would very seriously consider renting a bike if you can complete your journey in a short period of time. the cost of the rental and convenience is less than the hassle of securing a bike box, blah, blah blah.

See my first statement for reassurance.

Buen camino!

 

[AdaR]

My son and his wife traveled from San Francisco last year and took their bikes with them. I do not recall what airline they were flying with, but their bikes were checked as their one piece of luggage, at no additional charge. They carried the rest of their belongings in the panniers as "carry-on."
I suggest you contact your airline and ask about that.
For packing the bikes, they bought or were given standard cardboard packing boxes from their local bike shop. The bikes were disassembled and packed carefully, using spare clothing for padding.
Upon arrival in Florence (after hauling the boxed bikes through a few train stations, some for a fee or tip), they assembled their bikes and the boxes were discarded.
Once they arrived in Santiago, after 3 months of biking across Italy, France and Spain, we found a Mailboxes Etc (Not Correos) that sold them boxes and packed and shipped the bikes back home. I think the cost of that final shipment was about $200 for two bikes.
It all went very well, even though they had no idea how they were going to send their bikes home until just a week or two before arriving in Santiago.
Sad footnote... after all that, one of their bikes was stolen from their own apartment, just 3 days after getting back in the states.
Buen Camino.

 

[Bajaracer]

I am flying Delta in May. Any tips or tricks? Maybe ship it ahead as freight? Any Santiago bike shops that can box bike for trip back, or where I can buy a box to repack it? The main delta flight should be able to handle the oversize box, but can the short leg using a partner airline (air france) ?
I read where some smaller planes do not have the cargo capacity. I don't want any surprises.
I definitely want my bike & not a rental. Thanks

Do not ship your bike ahead unless you want to see your bike stay in customs hell.
There are bicycle shops in Santiago that can help you box up your bike for a reasonable fee, cheaper than Mailboxes Etc.

 

[Walsh Camino]

We have cycled Camino Frances twice and both times brought our bikes from the US aboard American Airlines. The fee per bike was $75 each way, and may be as high as $150. Either way, if you are going to be using a bike for nearly a month as we were, it was still cheaper than rental. More importantly, as a petite woman, not many rental bikes fit me well and so having my own bike, with my trusted Brooks saddle, was a great benefit to enjoying my Camino.

The first time, we took the train from Paris to Bayonne. (We left our bikes packed in the cardboard bike boxes until we reached SJPP.) From Bayonne, we hired Express Bourricot to transport us and our bikes to SJPP. There we assembled the bikes and cut up and discarded the cardboard boxes.

Our first trip was prematurely aborted in Astoria due to the sudden death of my father. We took the front wheel off and wrapped our bikes with garbage bags and duct tape in order to put them in the luggage cargo of the ALSA bus from Astorga to Madrid. At the Madrid airport we were able to get bike boxes from Iberia and check home on American Airlines.

The second trip we flew to Barcelona for some pre-Camino sightseeing. We went to the train station twice to get info about boarding with bikes and could not get clear guidance as to whether all four of us would be able to board the same train with our bikes. Our solution was to rent a minivan and drive firm Barcelona to Pamplona where we assembled our bikes and began our Camino.

In Santiago, you can take your bikes to Bicicletas Velocipedo and they will box up your bike for the return flight home at a very reasonable package price that also includes transport for you and your bike to the airport.

Buen Camino!

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hola Wayne and welcome the cycling camino. If you search back through this section you will see really good posts by newfydog and some not so good by me. In a couple of them I mention various cycle shops along the Camino Frances. There is a really helpful one in Pamplona; another good one in Leon and a really excellent one in Santiago - in fact on you last day if you ride the walkers camino into SDC you will go right past it. They provide a packing service and can then arrange transport to Coruna - but you might need to provide a hotel address - their courier would not deliver (for me) to Madrid's main airport. If I can find my copy of a cycling info booklet (published by CSJ - UK - the British society that is ALL THINGS Camino) I will provide names and address. If you search the CSJ web site - (csj.org.uk) you might find it. Otherwise do some searching - or ask any specific questions and we will try to answer them. Cheers.

 

[MikeC]

Hi Wayne,
I have just used Velocipedo in Santiago to ship my bike back to Uk.
Gave then the bike on Monday morning and it arrived Saturday.
Well packed and no breakages.
They use UPS to ship.
Cost was Euro 120; they quote 190 to the USA.
Burn Camino

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hi Wayne,
I have just used Velocipedo in Santiago to ship my bike back to Uk.
Gave then the bike on Monday morning and it arrived Saturday.
Well packed and no breakages.
They use UPS to ship.
Cost was Euro 120; they quote 190 to the USA.
Burn Camino

That's them - they could not have been more helpful. Even gave me directions to the nearest car wash facility so that I could pressure wash my bike, so that it would be clean enough to pass Australian quaranteen laws. Cheers