Paris to Pamplona

[TMcA]

We want to visit a friend in Paris before resuming our Camino in Pamplona. I have looked at two sites for help, Trainline and Rome2rio. The former shows reasonable and fast train travel from Paris Montparnasse to Hendaye. The latter shows train to Hendaye but the continuation by bus is "on demand" with a link to a Spanish transport company (EDSA) and a note about "summer schedule".

Travel by air via Iberia from Paris to Pamplona is much more costly than the train and involves a long layover in Madrid. Air travel from Paris to Biarritz is less costly but the problem of continuation remains.

I am trying to avoid multiple bus transfers and my wife and I have already walked from SJPP last spring so routing through SJPP would just add additional legs, I believe. Any help would be appreciated.

Tom

 

[whariwharangi]

You are missing a leg. Its Paris to Irun/Hendaye. Irun to San Sebastian. San Sebastian to Pamplona.

SNCF TGV trains terminate in Irun on the Spanish side of the border.

SNCF TER and Intercites trains terminate in Hendaye on the French side of the border.

There is often a transfer at Bordeaux. Sometimes the transfer is from a TGV train to a TER train. The information is available on the schedule.

Metro Donostialdea (Euskotren) connects Hendaia (co-located with Gare d'Hendaye) to Irun Colon (across the bridge over the railway tracks from Irun Renfe Station). This is 3 km distance. You can take the Metro to San Sebastian Amara but its across the river from San Sebastian Renfe and bus station. Trains run every half hour.

Renfe operates trains from Irun to Pamplona twice daily.

Renfe Cercanias operates commuter trains from Irun to San Sebastian at least every half hour.

PESA operates buses from Gare d'Hendaye to San Sebastian/Donostia. (every place here has two names) Twice daily.

ALSA operates buses from Irun Renfe station to San Sebastian. Schedule varies with season and is limited.

CONDA (ALSA) operates buses from San Sebastian to Pamplona hourly.

Note: I've not found a reliable EDSA schedule.

From Biarritz Airport

Take Transports64 bus #816 from Biarritz Airport to Gare d'Hendaye. Some buses terminate at Irun Renfe Station. Hourly.

PESA and ALSA operate buses from Biarritz Airport to San Sebastian. PESA twice daily. ALSA varies by season.

 

[BShea]

Or... You could grab one of the cheap flights from Paris (CDG or ORY) into either Barcelona (BCN) or Madrid (MAD) and then bus or train to Pamplona.

 

[TMcA]

Renfe operates trains from Irun to Pamplona twice daily

@whariwhar...

Thank you for your help. I did not initially find any Irun-Pamplona trains on the Renfe site. However using a Google search (train from Irun to Pamplona), I did find the two departures.

Metro Donostialdea (Euskotren) connects Hendaia (co-located with Gare d'Hendaye) to Irun Colon (across the bridge over the railway tracks from Irun Renfe Station). This is 3 km distance.

It seems like it would be easy to walk from the Hendaye station to the Irun station. If there is enough time to make the connection, that is. Have you made this transfer? If so, do you see any problem with walking to the Irun station?

 

[BShea]

Super easy to walk from Hendaye to Irun... maybe 30 minutes max. As you exit the station, you turn right and head for the bridge. There is a metro line as well that's just to the right of the station called Euskotren, but it's a nice walk into Irun and through the downtown area, so I prefer to walk it.

There is also the option of taking the bus from Bayonne or the Biarritz airport. http://transports64.fr/Interurbains?lang=fr Under Vos Fiches Horaires, click on bus 816. Only 2€, but takes longer than the train. It'll drop you right in front of the station in Hendaye.

 

[mspath]

For more on walking from the Hendaye rr station over the international foot bridge to Irun see the posts/links in this
earlier thread.

Also see these posts.

Since you may be walking from the Hendaye gare to Irun do stop at the small bar/resto Chez Alain on the way at 11 ave d'Espagne. They are most friendly and do a very good daily menu for 13.50 euros. If you wish you can even take a shower for free! The place is a routiers or truck stop but in no way hyper macho. I loved it autumn 2015. See more here--
http://restoroutier.free.fr/fiche_64_hendaye.htm

Bon chemin and Buen camino!

 

[whariwharangi]

@whariwhar...

Thank you for your help. I did not initially find any Irun-Pamplona trains on the Renfe site. However using a Google search (train from Irun to Pamplona), I did find the two departures.

It seems like it would be easy to walk from the Hendaye station to the Irun station. If there is enough time to make the connection, that is. Have you made this transfer? If so, do you see any problem with walking to the Irun station?

No, I have not made the connection.

Yes it should be possible to walk. It involves about 3 km of urban walking and includes crossing a major bridge called Puente de Santiago. You might want to go for a virtual walk using google earth.

 

[whariwharangi]

Or... You could grab one of the cheap flights from Paris (CDG or ORY) into either Barcelona (BCN) or Madrid (MAD) and then bus or train to Pamplona.

You could ... but it takes almost as long to get from Madrid to Pamplona as it does from Paris. Barcelona isn't a whole lot better. If you're going to fly ... go to Biarritz.

 

[BShea]

I was actually thinking in term of costs. It might cheaper to fly to Barcelona ($35 on Ryan) then catch a bus to Pamplona as ground transportation in Spain is so reasonable and frequent. Also, less connections... just the Barcelona metro from the airport into town to the bus station. It's probably less travel time as well... if I remember correctly, the train from Paris is 5 hours or so, then a couple of hours to get to Irun, then a couple hours on the bus to Pamplona. The flight to BCN is less than 2 hours and I think the bus to Pamplona is around 4 hours.

 

[whariwharangi]

Its possible to take an SNCF train from Paris to Barcelona Sants. There are frequent Renfe trains from Barcelona Sants to Pamplona. I'm not sure if its faster or cheaper ... but this route has the least amount of transferring.

 

[TMcA]

@mspath Thanks for the resto tip. We (my wife will be with me) will stop there, time permitting.

Right now I am pretty sure that we will take the morning TGV train from Gare Montparnasse. It's scheduled arrival in Hendaye is about 1:30. According to my internet search, there are multiple bus lines with departures starting about an hour after the train arrives. The bus stations are across the river in Irun and not far from the Hendaye train station. The bus options all require several transfers...I think they all pass through San Sebastian. I have written the Pamplona Tourist Bureau to help with the bus schedules, since I am getting error messages. Perhaps the May 19 departure is too far out.

San Sebastian is a lovely town and I am even thinking we should overnight there and then grab a bus and head for Pamplona the next morning and then begin our Camino. For our first day I already planned on stopping before Alta del Perdon (Uterga) or just after that (Zariquiegui). So a short day on Day 1. But if we do that we will not be able to have tapas (okay, pintxos for you Basque speakers) in an excellent bar/resto that we happened upon last year on the street where the bulls run.

Again, thanks to all who have furnished their help.

 

[TMcA]

Thanks to excellent service on part of the Pamplona Tourist Office, I now know that bus service is available at 5 and 6 PM from Irun to Pamplona. Thanks to mspath we will kill some time with a nice meal at Chez Mongobert which may be the new name of Chez Alain (both have same address - 11, ave d'Espagne). Then pinxos later in Pamplona. I am getting hungry just writing this.

I appreciate the comments of those who suggested plane travel, but train travel is our preference because it's more relaxing and our backpacks and poles can be carried without going through the emballage process again. Emballage is the process in which our packs and poles are wrapped in an environmentally heinous amount of plastic wrap at the Montreal airport.