Travel Advice

Iberia Airline has excellent rates at the moment (low $600's round trip, multiple legs) out of Dulles Int'l Airport, though the Dulles-Madrid direct flight does not begin until about March 27. Before that, you have to fly through Chicago, Boston, New York, or Miami, adding a lot of travel time. You can fly into Pamplona and return from Santiago de Compostela. In Pamplona, you can either begin your pilgrimage directly, or take a bus/taxi to Roncesvalles or St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port to begin.

I would suggest that you check into a flying all the way to Biarritz. The connection from there to SJPdP, even if you have to go by bus instead of train, is much easier than going via Madrid.

Hi,

The service is not suspended between Bayonne and SJPD. It's just provided by bus instead of train. Same difference in schedule and price.

The Paris way is the best and easiest IMO.

Cheers,
Jean-Marc

Hi -
We fly from Canada so we have fewer carriers to choose from, however it's always been cheapest for us to get a ticket to London and then take another carrier to wherever we want to end up. Last year we flew London to Biarritz and that was OK, but its a bit of a hassle as transatlantic flight lands at Heathrow but the budget airlines fly out of Gatwick or one of the other London airports and they're quite a distance from Heathrow. You will have to pay for the shuttle ($58 US) between airports, and depending on your arrival times and times of the shuttle (and traffic), you may have to overnight in London for another cost. Should you choose to fly to London and then to Biarritz, this site outlines details:

http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/hea ... ansfer.htm

So I think that you are doing this properly by researching carefully and comparing the real prices.

By the way, we always go from 2nd week of April till the 2nd week of June, and I've found our return flight to be quite a bit higher no matter when we book.

Best of luck with your plans and buen camino!

lynne