France and Spain, fall 2024

Since it doesn't sound like you've booked your flights yet, have you considered booking an open jaw itinerary where you'd fly in to Paris and back to your home out of Spain? On the website for your airline of choice it will be under the multi-city or multi-destination tab. It would not be booked as 1 one-way tickets. Even if the open jaw is a bit more expensive you'd want to figure in the ticket price for the fast train from Spain back to Paris.

I agree with Pam... even if its a few bucks more it's way more convenient.

Well that ship has sailed. : ) Flights are booked, and it was a LOT more money to do multi-city. We are fine with it because I have much more French than Spanish language knowledge and familiar with CDG.

One possibility is to fly on Vueling airlines directly from San Sebastián (aka Donostia to locals) to Seville. And/or vice versa. They’re a Spanish budget airline, but good, and we’ve flown them before.

We spent 4 weeks this past spring In the Basque Country/Bordeaux/Loire Valley. We flew into Bilbao and out of Bordeaux. We spent 7 nights in Bilbao and 6 nights in San Sebastián. We used a company (it’s actually a couple - Zack is originally from Michigan and his wife, Irene, grew up in Bilbao) called Best Of Basque to help plan our day trips. We used them for several private day trips out of both cities and highly recommend them. They provided our transfer from Bilbao to San Sebastián as part of one of our private tours. We took the high speed train from Hendaye, France to Bordeaux. It’s a 30 min drive from the Hendaye station to San Sebastián. Our hotel arranged a driver/taxi for us. I think flying to Seville makes the most sense as recommended above out of the Basque region.

Hi Milly, you could fly, but since you have time, 3 weeks, you could take a few days to go to Seville and back.

Paris to Bordeaux is the easy, TGV. When you are ready you can take the train to Hendaye, and the Euskotren to San Sebastian.

After San Sebastian, take a bus to Zaragoza. It is a bit underrated, but you will find most people who have visited are glad the did. From Zaragoza, you get the AVE to Madrid, and then to Seville.

You have plenty of time to plan so you can create a nice itinerary.

Thank you! That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. The tour company and how to do Bordeaux to San Sebastian, especially. So it doesn’t sound like there are good rail options from the Basque Country to Seville?

All of these are good ideas, and I will look into each of them and return with questions after that. Thank you so much!!

There's super-fast rail service from Madrid to Seville as well as from Zaragoza to Madrid.

Between San Sebastian and Zaragoza service is quite limited. There's a 7:10 AM departure taking about 4 hours. The afternoon departure (2:04 PM) is currently scheduled to take over 5 hours; it seems to include a segment on a slower, local train because of track work somewhere along the way.

From San Sebastian all the way to Madrid you have departures at 9:02 AM and 3:17 PM, both taking just under 5 hours.

I appreciate the last post about train ride times/lengths because that is the kind of information I need to do the itinerary. With the train travel we are doing, both in France and Spain over 4 weeks, is a rail pass advisable/convenient?

Here’s a way to catch high-speed trains for most of your itinerary: TGV trains run from Paris to Bordeaux in 2-3 hours. After Bordeaux you can reach Hendaye, France on the border with Spain in just 2.5 hours. TER trains do this route as well. A local commuter train called the “Euskotren” has trains running from Hendaye to San Sebastián-Amara station in 31 minutes. For this route, just buy the tickets at the Hendaye station for San Sebastián “Amara” train station before boarding the train. From San Sebastián/ Donostia station to Madrid the fastest high-speed train departs at 9:02am arriving at Madrid Chamartin station in just under 5 hours at 1:56 pm. From Madrid Atocha station high-speed trains reach Sevilla Santa Justa station in 2.75 hours.
Since you are planning so far in advance, you will be able to buy heavily-discounted high-speed train tickets for France by buying them when they first go on sale online 90 days in advance of the departure date at www.sncf-connect.com. The Prem’s or Losir tickets are the least expensive. These are a real deal because the ticket price includes the seat reservation and SNCF recently allowed refunds and changes with some time limitations. They are often €19 to €25 when they go on sale. These tickets often sell out just days or even hours after first going up for sale, so mark your calendar for 90 days in advance of your train’s departure date so you can go online and buy the tickets you want. For train tix in Spain or France you can first check schedules and prices of all the train companies before buying them at www.TheTrainline.com. Another ticket reseller called “Petrabax” sells Renfe train tickets on its user-friendly website, www.Petrabax.com
Since you only need tickets for Paris to Bordeaux and Bordeaux to Hendaye along with SanSebastian/Donostia to Madrid Chamartin and Madrid Atocha to Seville Santa Justa— buying point-to-point train tix will be much less expensive than a train pass for these four legs.
The glitch-prone website for Spain’s national train company, “Renfe,” will have tickets available at some point online. While Renfe claims its policy is to put high-speed train tickets on sale 90 days in advance, in fact, Renfe does not follow its own stated timelines and one never knows for sure when Renfe will put a high-speed train ticket for sale online.
Because life is short and meant to be enjoyed, I don’t recommend the Renfe website.
You can check Seville to Paris flight options at www.Skyscanner.com The good news is there are non-stop 2.5 hour flights starting at under $100 on Transavia and Vueling Airlines.
Have a great trip!

Milly, if you do decide to move around in Spain, you might have better results if you post on the Spain board.
Give the dates and number of days you are want to say, mention that you don't want rent a car, and if you prefer staying in one place and making day trips (for example a longer stay in Madrid with trips to Toledo, Segovia, etc) or if you prefer moving around a bit.

Also you will get better recommendations listing some of your interests. Food, history, architecture, etc.

As for my earlier suggestion of going from San Sebastian to Zaragoza, a modification could be San Sebastian to Logroño, then Logroño to Zaragoza. If you are interested in wineries and tapas, this would be a good option. There is an express bus that between SS and Logroño which takes two hours. And you can get to Zaragoza by train in two hours.

Wow, thank you for that concise summary of the high-speed rail situation…exactly what I was hoping for!
And, yes, I will post on the Spain forum later too…just thought I would start with France since trip begins and ends there.
So appreciative of all this information from everyone.