Flying to Spain for El Camino del Norte

[andrespuente14]

Hello peregrinos!

I wondered if anyone could give me any advice of where to fly to if starting the Camino at Irun? I walked the Camino Frances 3 years ago and now have itchy feet! I'd like to walk as much as I can and have heard that the earlier stages are some of the most beautiful.

I would welcome any advice of where to fly to and any good albergues in Irun if possible!

Gracias, Andres, :lol:

 

[Deleted member 3000]

It is easy to get from the Biarritz airport to Irun.

 

[mspath]

Hello peregrinos!

I wondered if anyone could give me any advice of where to fly to if starting the Camino at Irun? I walked the Camino Frances 3 years ago and now have itchy feet! I'd like to walk as much as I can and have heard that the earlier stages are some of the most beautiful.

I would welcome any advice of where to fly to and any good albergues in Irun if possible!

Gracias, Andres, :lol:

Andres,

Fly to Biarritz. For traveling from Biarritz to Irun see the Forum topic el-camino-del-norte/topic5993.html. There is an Hospital de Peregrinos de Irún, but a better selection is found in San Sebastian. For all see this Euroski link http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es./etapa-de-irun-a-donostia-san-sebastian

See also this link for the Amigos del Norte http://www.caminosnorte.org/

Buen Camino,

Margaret

 

[andrespuente14]

Dear Margaret,

Many thanks for the info regarding Biarritz, I'll have to have a look at flights from there and also the travel details you've posted. I've been looking at flights to Bordeaux and Bilbao but they're not very frequent. Where was your favourite place on the Camino del Norte?

 

[viajero]

I flew to San Sebastian. There was a bus that passed the San Sebastian airport that went to Irun.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

It looks like two airlines, Vueling and Iberia, serve San Sebastian:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Sebasti%C3%A1n_Airport

A few more go to Biarritz:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biarritz_% ... ne_Airport

 

[anniethenurse]

I flew to San Sebastian, too.
The San Sebastian airport is only 3 km from Irun (closer to Irun than to the center of San Sebastian).

 

[andrespuente14]

There's obviously a wide range of choice, which is great.

On a separate note, has anyone travelled the northern route during August? I'm wondering what clothes I should take and whether I can take the same equipment etc. that I used for the Camino Frances.

So many questions!

Muchas gracias.

 

[mika]

I flew to San Sebastian, too.
The San Sebastian airport is only 3 km from Irun (closer to Irun than to the center of San Sebastian).

Yes, the airport of San Sebastian actually _is_ in Irun. You can start your camino from the airport exit.

 

[Aquitaine]

I wanted to cycle from Hendaye Gare this winter via the northern route and the primitivo. It seems, however, that it will be cheaper to fly to a start point than to get there by train. As far as I can see, there are no cheap flights to and from San Sebastian airport but there are cheap flights with Easy Jet to Bilbao (Fridays and Sundays if flying from Manchester) and from S de C with Ryanair to Stansted on Fridays. (I won't double back from Bilbao to Irun, just to say that I have covered the whole of that camino).

I am still unclear about the business of carrying the bike on the plane. Is it possible to get the approved packing materials at the two airports (Manchester, in my case, and S de C)? Is the price prohibitive, cancelling out the saving on the seat? (I've seen £40 quoted, which is more than the seat price but not intolerable.) Budget airlines are famous for their customer care. Does that extend to tolerance of cyclists?

 

[poogeyejr]

You can fly to San Sebastian, but I found much cheaper flights from Vancouver to Bilbao.
There is a great local train system called Euskotren it is 3 hours from Bilbao to San Sebastian and Irun is 15 minutes further. It is a picturesque way to see the countryside. I preferred it to the bus - all we saw were highways.

 

[aysun]

Hi!
i would take fly to Biaritz and then from there start walking......i don´t no if anyone try it. But on my way back home after my camino frances, i stayed one night at the albergue in Biaritz, and in the morning when i was going to trainstation i saw yellow arrows from the albergue, and this arrows was not pointing the road to the trainstation from the albergue.

so iam wondering if anyone knows more about whether its possible to start camino north from biaritz???

sorry, this is little bit out of the topic

 

[MikeJS]

Yes you can walk directly from the airport at Biaritz by heading first to the coast and then turning left! Keep the sea on your right and you will get to Irun. However, you will probably need 2 days to get there. We got a taxi from Biaritz to Bidart and walked about 27km. There is a bus on the route at times but m=not in Sept when we left.