Bordeaux to Bilbao Spain

I can’t help you with your travel question, but following for helpful answers. Next spring we will need to get from Bilbao to Bordeaux, and it seems there are no good options: Spanish trains that make—literally—fifty stops between Bilbao and the border, with a change of trains. Or buses. That was our choice until I read a horror story on line that made it sound like a third world bus ride. Google says driving time between Hendaye and Bilbao is 87 minutes, a long taxi ride.

Our friends did a similar trip last spring from our house in the Bordeaux area. They took the train to Hendaye then they took regional train from Hendaye (France) to Irun (Spain) (both at the respective border) to Bilbao. You could also take a taxi from Hendaye (or Irun) to Bilbao airport (I had another friend do this option.)

We did a lot of research about the trip from Bordeaux to Bilbao. There is tedious but cheap option and a more expensive but significantly more comfortable option.

We took the comfortable option: Train from Bordeaux to Hendaye, a town on the French Border (we're happy we used Trainline to book our tickets as it gives you updates in English (Bordeaux Station only announces in French and few seem to speak in English - there was a 45 minute delay in departure at Bordeaux but no one was able to explain in English that someone left a package on the train and there were security concerns that had to be addressed. They typically seem to announce the departure platform about 15 to 20 minutes before - then you need to scramble to find your platform ).

From Hendaye to Bilbao: We used a Private Transfer Car Service ([email protected]; +34 629 491 299; ask for Jose Manuel (best to email) - the owner) that was recommended to us by a local guide in San Sebastian. They were fantastic - our driver Nicolle texted me her number the day before and she picked us up promptly on-time at Hendaye Station in a clean quality car . It helped that she spoke in English) These guys seemed highly professional and provided us with top notch service! There are lots of other cars companies that have varying ratings - but I can only speak about our experience with this one - which cost us eu 275 from Hendaye to our hotel near the Bilbao airport). Mention my name "Vernon Fernandes" as they are probably know me well due to the many emails and calls I made to them while in Spain and France to assure myself that they were reliable. If you have not visited San Sebastian do make time to spend about 4 hours in this charming beachtown city with wonderful places to sample top quality Basque food!. Our guide's name was Ana Intxausti who lives in San Sebastian (check them out at www.sansebastianguides.com).

The cheaper option consists of the train from Bordeaux to Hendaye (no escalators at this station so be prepared to lug your luggage up a flight of about 10 steps), The Euskotren ( the Basque train which has a shuttle train between Hendaye and Sans Sebastian and takes about 35 mins - https://www.euskotren.eus/en/tren ); then a 10 to 15 minute walk from the San Sebastian Train Station to the Bus Station and a that is direct and takes about an hour to get to the Bilbao bus station). If you are comfortable with a light carryon and a back back and wish to save money it might be an option. We did stop at the bus station - which was crowded, people very comfortable sitting on the floor eating / sleeping, etc. Reminded of my early college days but also convinced us to take the more luxurious but more expensive option.

I hope this helps and will be happy to provide more info.as it was personally frustrating looking for reliable options and the dearth of available information. (I did get lots of suggestions to take the "cheaper: multiple trains and bus route" and was glad that we did not. (Just our personal preference and not trying to knock other ways to travel! (: