Most efficient travel Canada to SJPP and return from Santiago?

[Tofinoguy]

Hello All. We were going to do our first camino this year, but due to many factors have postponed it until March, 2015. We will be travelling from the west coast of Canada and know that we can take a few different routes. We will be slightly pressed for time and would rather make our connections to and from SJPP and Santiago as fast and as simple as possible to cut our travel connection time and allow us to walk the entire route within our time available. (I know that taking our time and using trains / buses and stopping in different cities and communities would be fun and a great experience as well, but we will not have that luxury on this excursion.)

I have been looking at flying to Madrid and taking the train, or flying to Paris and taking the train, or flying to London and flying in and out of London with Ryan Air and Easy Jet. Does anyone have any advice / experience in this regard? Is one of these methods faster and easier than the others, in order to save us some travel time?
Brian

 

[whariwharangi]

I flew Vancouver to London Heathrow. Transferred by National Express bus to Stansted and stayed the night. Next day went from Stansted to Biarritz (BIQ) with Ryan Air. Biarritz is the closest airport to SJPdP. Chronoplus local bus 14 to Gare Bayonne and TER 62 train/bus service to SJPdP arriving late in the evening. I went from Santiago to Madrid by train and stayed a night in Madrid. There are flights from Santiago to London by Ryan Air and Air Iberia. I went Madrid to London Gatwick with Easy Jet stayed a night near Heathrow then flew back to Vancouver.

Easy Jet flies Gatwick to Biarritz in summer.

I found flights to Paris Madrid etc all stopped in London and the transfer time made for a really long trip without a good sleep. A big problem for us islanders is getting to Vancouver. Flights to London are evening departures ... so its a long day just getting from home to London.

Advantage of travel via London is there are flights connecting to anywhere Europe. Its outside the Schengen zone so it doesn't count toward your 90 days. The language is English ... which is something when you are jet lagged. Downside is England is relatively expensive. Customs and security are much tighter and time consuming than in Europe. Travel between airports takes a lot of time.

 

[C clearly]

My plan for this October is to fly "open jaw" from Vancouver to Bilbao (through Toronto and Frankfurt) and then return from Madrid to Vancouver. Usually same price as a regular return ticket. You can look at combinations on the Air Canada website by using the "multi city" option instead of "return." I am not in a hurry and plan to rest a bit from jet lag before getting to St. Jean. I'll stay a night in Bilbao and maybe another at Corazon Puro near Pamplona, and get driven to St Jean. At least, that is my plan at the moment!

 

[Tofinoguy]

Thank you for the replies. I am just starting to look at our flights and getting input from others experience is always very helpful.
whariwharangi - Yes. I am comfortable with travel and connections in London, as we go there often and I know my way around. We have used those three airports as well. And yes, one downfall is the distances between the airports.
C clearly - I never thought about Bilbao. That is an option that I will look at.

 

[jirit]

I have done the Camino Frances twice. Each time I flew into Paris from Vancouver. I took the train to Saint Jean PdP and returned to Paris via train, though flying back can be less expensive.

Since you have indicated that you want to walk in March;

Probably the best option is an open jaws ticket with Air Canada into Paris (via Heathrow) from Vancouver and return from Heathrow back to Vancouver. Use Easyjet to get back to the UK (Gatwick) from Santiago. The Easyjet flight normally arrives long after the Heathrow to Vancouver flight leaves, so use that day to travel from Gatwick to Heathrow and plan to spend one night, before flying home to Vancouver.

Another option is KLM; Vancouver to Paris and Madrid to Vancouver via Amsterdam. This requires a train trip to Saint Jean PdP (on the day of arrival) and another, Santiago to Madrid with an overnight stay in Madrid. Pick a hotel close to the airport, since the flights leave early from Madrid to Amsterdam.

If you decide to go in mid May instead, then an open jaws Air Transit flight; Vancouver to Paris and Gatwick to Vancouver probably works well. Again use Easyjet to get from Santiago to Gatwick. If you are lucky you might be do the entire Santiago to Gatwick to Vancouver in one day.

 

[Tofinoguy]

Thank you jirit. I will look at these options as well. If we go this year (2014/15), we will be locked into March and part of April.

 

[Alf]

I have done this 4x and it worked
perfectly well. It is not the cheapest way but it's very efficient time wise.
Get to Madrid !!!! Then get an air connection to Pamplona ( 55 minutes
flight). From there you get a taxi to
SJPP ( 45 minutes).
In your way back flight from Santiago to Madrid.
You are going to save a lot of time and money to include the largest Hub in Spain, Madrid, to plan your trip!!!

Buen Camino

 

[Cari T]

TofinoGuy....

I live in Vancouver and will be starting in May 2015. The cheapest and most time effective way I have found is to fly Air Canada either thru Toronto or Montreal to Paris and take either the train or plane to Biarritz /Bayonne. If you book before midnight tonight, Air Canada is having a European seat sale. British Airways will fly you from YVR to LHR and then transfer you to CDG, but the timing is really bad and you really end up losing a whole day.

I've looked into other airlines... AC is the only one arriving first thing in the morning, 8:30 via TO or 9:30 via Montreal. Going thru London is a direct flight, but then you have the hassle and extra expense of flying to Paris or to Biarritz. From what I can see, the cost to fly into London vs. Paris is negligible, the only difference being the layover time and the convenience of already being 1/2 way there if you fly into Paris. Madrid is way more costly for the time I'm looking at.

Hope this helps! - I'm on the websites all the time looking for myself.. if you give me your exact dates, I can plug it in for you.. I don't mind and can keep watch. The fares right now are the lowest I've seen since I started looking in late June. I myself am going to treat myself to the premium economy class, just for the much needed extra legroom. Its about $170 each way difference, but I figure I'm worth it. Message me with your details if you so choose!

Cari

ps.. will be visiting your neck of the woods in late October

 

[Cari T]

If you decide to go in mid May instead, then an open jaws Air Transit flight; Vancouver to Paris and Gatwick to Vancouver probably works well. Again use Easyjet to get from Santiago to Gatwick. If you are lucky you might be do the entire Santiago to Gatwick to Vancouver in one day.

Jirit, how do you go about getting an open jaws ticket? do you have to book this thru a travel agent or can you do it directly through the airline itself? I've never seen it offered online

 

[Cari T]

Jirit, how do you go about getting an open jaws ticket? do you have to book this thru a travel agent or can you do it directly through the airline itself? I've never seen it offered online

oh nevermind... mental lapse.. I thought open jaw meant you could return at anytime without pinpointing a specific date.. my bad.. haha.. means multi-city ticket.. got it..

 

[jirit]

One more option is KLM open jaws (multi-city) Vancouver to Paris (via Toronto on Westjet) and Madrid to Vancouver. The inbound flight gets into Paris early enough so you can train into the centre and then catch the noon day train to Saint Jean PdP that afternoon.

In March 2015, the flights are about $1,000, a bit more if you want to catch the mid morning fight out of Madrid to Vancouver via the States (instead of the early morning flight via Amsterdam)

The mid morning flight might also work if you are able to take an overnight train from Santiago to Madrid to arrive in time to get to the airport, saving a night in Madrid.

 

[Tofinoguy]

Alf, Cari and jirit. Thank you for the additional replies and suggestions. I have been away from home for the past week and have not been on here.

Because of my wife's work schedule, we would like to start our actual walk on or about March 01 and complete it in about 36 to 39 days. It sounds as if we may be better off to go through Paris and possibly return via Madrid. I will need to do a little more work on this one. It looks as if I missed the seat sale, but I was not ready anyway.

 

[Cari T]

Tofino... it wasn't a huge $$ value anyways ... I'm on the site all the time.. I'll keep a watch out for your dates as well as mine ~ a few extra eyes doesn't hurt