France to Spain

I think there's not much reason to leave the car and switch to train for the cross-border excursions. But if you do, that local border crossing is done by the EuskoTren, departing from Hendaye on the French side. Buses can be faster.

Although there are cross-border services, I believe they are rather infrequent, and Bilbao is over an hour beyond San Sebastian (by bus--train is far slower) so really not practical as a day-trip from anywhere in France.

I'm puzzled about why you want to stay in France to visit Spain. Or am I misunderstanding what you plan to do? I believe there is at least as much of tourist interest on the Spanish side of the border.

I took the TGV train from Bordeaux (nice town worth a stop) to the border town of Hendiaye. From Hendiaye there is a train service called Euskotrain that takes you to San Sebastian. From San Sebastian I did a day trip to Bilbao (expressly to see the Guggenheim which is amazing architecturally from the outside). If you don't drive to Bilbao take the bus it is quicker; as it takes the train 2 hours to get there (that was my only mistake). In San Sebastian I stayed at Hotel Monte Ulia. It has a parking lot. It is a nice hotel away from the center of tourists and that was fine with me.

In early July I returned from a very similar trip. We went first to Chinon, for a few days in the Loire, then drove to Bordeaux for a few days. We then passed through Hendaye on the way to San Sebastian for a few days. We visited Bilbao while staying in San Sebastian and then traveled to Barcelona for a few days. Then stopped briefly in Girona and Figures on the way back to Montpelier, where we dropped the car. From Montpelier we took the TGV directly to CDG and flew home.

I heartily recommend staying in San Sebastian for a few days, in the Old Port area if that's agreeable. Also recommended is dropping the car off somewhere just over the border in France and taking the TGV back to Paris. Otherwise it's a very long drive!

In any case, it's a great trip.
Have fun,
Ed

There's a long and detailed trip report on the site covering this area. I found it a worthwhile read.

Some useful information here...thank you! We have 21 days and would love to see some of Northern Spain. Has anyone stayed anywhere outside of San Sebastian that was great for exploring as well? Also does someone have suggestions on a couple of stopovers from Paris to Spain and realistically how long should it take us?

I stayed in Bilbao as well as San Sebastian. I preferred Bilbao, but I think there's a longer list of popular side-trips from SS. The interior capital of Vitoria-Gasteiz is also worthwhile, but I had to day-trip there because affordable lodging wasn't available at the last minute. The atmospheric hill-town of Laguardia (near La Rioja, so it has wine bars) could be a day-trip from V-G.

Farther south (not Basque Country) is Burgos, which is attractive and full of pilgrims. Notoriously windy, though.

Farther west along the coast is Santander, which has very little old architecture because of a fire about 70 years ago. Impressive beaches, but otherwise nothing to write home about as far as I'm concerned. I also though Pamplona wasn't very special, despite rather heavy tourist numbers in the early summer.

I haven't been to SW France, but these places are on my list for the next trip to France: Pau, Bordeaux, Dordogne (challenging without a car, though), and La Rochelle. And closer to Paris are Poitiers and Tours.

On a trip when I didn't plan to go into San Sebastian proper, I stayed at the smaller town of Hondarribia, near the airport. Hotel Palacete in the old town had a free parking spot (to reserve) and gave good directions to it.

Between San Sebastian and Bilbao, you'll find smaller beach towns like Lekeitio, but some hotels will close for the off-season by Oct. 15 or Nov. 1. West of Bilbao, Santillana del Mar is very cute with more hotels open.

We stayed in Logrono mostly because we have good friends that live there. It was during their wine harvest festival so the town might have been more lively than usual. Having said that - we had the BEST wine tour ever there. It was combined with a tapas tour of their town and it was phenomenal. According to my friend, tapas were made famous in Logrono. Great town. Great food. Great wine. We day tripped to Pamploma. We walked the path where they "run the bulls" and that was an experience. I personally would never go to a bull fight, but walking the path was something to behold. Stop at the Hemingway hangout "cafe iruna" and I suggest reading "the sun also rises". If you want the wine/tapa tour, message me. I will have to look back and find it. We want to go back to that area again.

"There's a long and detailed trip report on the site covering this area. I found it a worthwhile read. "

I believe Matt is referring to my report on French and Spanish Basque country (warning, it's VERY long): https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/basque-country-trip-report-bayonne-san-sebastian-vitoria-gasteiz-and-bilbao-may-2017

In it (among lots of other things) I detail the trains and buses between Bayonne, France and San Sebastian, Spain. Both work fine. You could then pick up a car on the Spanish side, if you won't be returning to France and if the cross-border drop charge is too high.

Like one other respondent, we stayed in Hondarribia, (same hotel as mentioned) an easy 30 min drive to SS...b/c we prefer to stay in small villages. In this case, we decided that it was a little too quiet, so moved over the border to the beautiful village of St. Jean de Luz....the one you can see across the water from Hondaribia. Wonderful!
Also, be careful where you turn in your car depending on where you originated. We turned in our Spanish rental in Hondaribia (really, the SS airport), then took a quick cab ride to the train station just across the border in France, where we caught a train to Bordeaux....all to avoid dropping the car in France. May sound complicated, but it really worked well, and avoided one-way drop off charges, several hundred euro.

Why drive both ways? Take one of 5 (currently) daily TGV services from Paris to St Jean de Luz. Pick up your car here, and tour the Basque Country - San Sebastián, Bilbao, Rioja, Vitoria Gasteiz, Pamplona.
For the drive to Paris ...
- Bordeaux
- Dordogne
- La Rochelle
- Loire Valley
- Chartres