Bilbao to Zurich by train

Fly.
Trains will take forever.
And I am a train, not a plane person.

Hi Scott. There are many choices, you can see them on the bahn.de website. Take 15 - 23 hours. One choice is leave Bilboa 8:55 am, 6 transfers, arrive Zurich midnight. Another is leave Bilboa at 3:55 pm; 5 transfers, and includes a night train with couchettes from Bayonne to Paris; arrive in Zurich at 1 pm the following day. Or you could get to Paris in 9 hours with only 2 changes, stay there for a night or two, then take a train from Paris to Zurich in less than 5 hours.

There are no sleeper trains between Bilbao and Zurich. I think the shortest route involves three train changes (Barcelona, ​​Girona, and Paris) and takes over 30 hours.

For comparison, and just in case, Swiss Air offers direct flights from Bilbao to Zurich (1 hour 50 minutes flight time) every day except Wednesdays and Saturdays, at roughly the same price as the train.

Iberia offers daily flights from Bilbao to Zurich via Madrid or Barcelona (approximately 5 hours depending on the layover).

The route I would take isn't via Barcelona- it would be along the coast via San Sebastian to the border at Hendaye/Irun, then train to Bayonne for the night train to Paris, across Paris then the day train to Zurich.

The problem with that route is that the usual trip planners will not find the best route there because a) train travel between Spain and France is difficult and b) the railways of both countries are in an open war with each other.

Now if you want to break up the journey a bit there are a few interesting options.

The route would basically be Euskotren to Henday. Euskotren is cheap mass transit, not very fast, but is pleasant, with even some scenic stretches.
From Hendaye onwards the fastest is to go to Paris, and change there for Zurich, so you could spend some time in Paris if you wanted.
But another route would cut across the South of France, via Bayonne (where you have already been) Toulouse, Montpelier, Nimes, Lyon and Geneva. Losts of opportunities to break the trip.

Note that schedules september will not be all in the on line planers yet. My suggestion: Split the planning at Henday. Bahn.com now has the schedulesfor Euskotren included, so you can plan how long it takes to get from Bilbao to Hendaye. Then for Henday - Zurich look at sncf-connect, where you should be able to find most schedules, depending on where you want to break.

WengenK got it pretty much right.

The Basque Country was bypassed by most railway development in the 19th-20th century, partly becauseof geography and later because of politics - so all they have is a token servcie heading south to Madrid (eventually) with the vague possiblity of and east west connection part way. The local narrow gauge railways were designed to connect the villages and follow tortuous routes around the geography. You can take these trains from Bilbao to Sand Sebastian and then change to another to the French border town of Hendaye. The joruney by train takes 3 hours. The journey by the randomly time express bus takes 2 hours. The journey by car takes about 90 minutes. Which is annoying because when you need to travel there is a train from Hendaye to Paris at 09:22, which gives time for connection (and probably lunch) before a train to Zurich which arrives at 20:26 - but the first Basque train is too late to put you on it. If you really want to try this high speed train option a taxi from Bilbao (about 75 miles) would be the only viable option.

There are very few overnight trains in France because their system is to rely on very high speed during the day, but there is one which fits part of your route. You have to reach Bayonne, north of Hendaye by 20:58. That is possible even with the Basque trains. That train has couchettes and arrives Paris Austerlitiz at 07:03 and you need to be at Gare de Lyon by 09:26 (easy, also time for breakfast!) for the TGV to Basel, arriving at 13:23 - rather annoyingly during that period it is running by a different route and not continuing to Zurich so you have to change trains and arrive Zurich at 14:26.

So it is possible, if not fast. And a different month would have been easier!

For the record RENFE (spanish state railways) are not big on decent information and are usually in no hurry to supply anything to DB for the bahn.com service. Nor do they help with the Basque network. And the Basque management themselves don't make much effort to get information beyond their borders! for reference save this https://www.euskotren.eus/en

I think this trip calls for 4 nights in Paris. Sept 23: Bilbao to Hendaye (Flixbus is faster the Euskotren), Hendaye to Paris (direct TGV). Sept 27: Paris to Zurich (direct TGV),

Nor do they help with the Basque network. And the Basque management
themselves don't make much effort to get information beyond their
borders

At least now the Euskotren times are fed regularly in to MERITS, so planners like DB show them.

Things in this corner of the country might improve. France/Spain services were always a bit funny. Spain runs on broad gauge so normal trains could not physically run between the two countries for a long time. The pyrenees also make things complicated. As a result you have the paired border stations of Irun and Hendaye. For a long time French trains would continue to Irun in Spain, and Spanish trains would continue till Hendaye. The tracks between the two are mixed gauge, making this possible. Southbound passengers would change trains in Irun, northbound in Hendaye.

Then the SNCF decided that any train driver operating in France needed to be fluent in French, even for the 300m that Hendaye is across the border, and the Spaniards retaliated. And since then no passenger trains cross between Irun and Hendaye anymore. Hurray for European unity...

But things might change. The Spaniards are building a high speed train between Bilbao and San Sebastian, and from Sebastian to Hendaye the line is being regauged to standard gauge. The local authorities in both Spanish and French Basque country would really like to see a good regional train service connecting their regions. So we might get something like an AVANT like service from Bilbao to at least Bayonne one day. And even direct TGVs to/from Paris.

Until then: Given you have a few days: Pick a place you haven't been and that looks interesting to you, that is more or less in the right direction, and break the journey there.

If determined to do this in a day (which feels a bit much to me) there is an 0430 Flixbus from Bilbao on 23 September, arrives at Hendaye Rue de Béhobie (outside the station) at 0630.
In principle (although I think it is hostage to any problems on the roads, especially as the bus has started in Lisbon via Madrid) there is an 0702 train to Paris Montparnasse, arrive 1155, depart Paris Est 1245 (another tightish connection), change at Strasbourg and Basel, arrive Zurich 1726.
That is being sold as a through ticket by SNCF.

However they are also selling a 1310 connection from Paris Est, change at Mannheim , arrive Zurich 2000- which I think is a better bet, effectively the same price.

The flixbus continues to Bordeaux Paludate bus station arrive 0955 (and then as a through bus to Zurich arrive 0010!!), there is then a 1246 train from Bordeaux to Paris Montparnasse arrive 1455, for a 1622 from Est direct to Zurich arrive 2026- sold as a through ticket.

Paludate is very close to Bordeaux St Jean Railway Station.

Personally my choice would probably be the gentle journey to Irun on Day 1 (possibly changing to the regular RENFE Cercanias commuter train at St Sebastian) then Hendaye to Zurich on Day 2.