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Languedoc-Rousillon and Northern Spain in March

Posted by (Oregon) on

I usually plan trips well in advance, so this feels last minute for me! We will be visiting friends in the Languedoc (somewhere near Carcasonne) for 5 days in late March, then will spend 3 days traveling to and seeing Guernica, Bilbao or Pamplona before heading to Barcelona for 4-5 days. We will rent a car upon arriving in France, and might take it into Spain if that makes sense. We have several questions:

1) Which airport should we fly into in France (from the west coast of the US)?

2) Should we keep our rental car as we travel into Spain?

3) Should we spend our 3 days traveling across the Basque region to Bilbao, or would we be better off spending it on the coast between Coillure and Barcelona or somewhere else?

Any other advice anyone might have is welcome, we are fairly flexible at this time (I think!). We are hoping to visit Carcasonne and Minerve at the very least during our time in the Languedoc.

Posted by
784 posts
  1. We flew into Montpellier from Seattle. This was in 2005 and we flew BA via Heathrow, transfering to Gatwick, which I would try to avoid in the future, but the Montpellier airport is nice, fairly small, manageable, and easy to navigate out of. I'd see what kind of connections you can make with Air France and Delta. IMO I would prefer CDG to Heathrow. We had no trouble getting an automatic car there, too.
  2. Would need to check with the rental car agency to be sure they will allow you to take the car into Spain. Are you flying home from Barcelona? If so, keep in mind that there is a substantial surcharge for dropping a car in a different country than you started from. May be best to drop the car in France and take the train to your first Spanish destination.
  3. I love Collioure. It is only 6 miles from the Spanish border. In fact it is the last French exit on the Autoroute. Can't really advise you on how to spend those three days, but there is a lot to see and do in Languedoc-Roussillon, which is my favorite area of France.

Bon voyage.

Posted by
28082 posts

I enjoyed the Basque Country a lot this summer. You're going in March. Check historical weather stats. They show that Bilbao's weather is fairly moderate but tends to be cloudy. Barcelona is typically quite a bit warmer and has 50% more hours of sunshine in March than Bilbao does. This may not matter to you. [Bolded to show edit.]

I would definitely choose Bilbao over Pamplona. Bilbao has a nice historic district as well as the Guggenheim and Bellas Artes museums. Pamplona's pleasant to wander around, but to me not as interesting as Bilbao. It's cooler than Bilbao in March but sunnier, though not as sunny as Barcelona.

I haven't been to Mediterranean France so cannot compare.

Often it costs quite a lot extra to fly into a small airport like Montpellier on a single ticket, but airfares are unusually flaky this year, and who knows what you'll turn up. Definitely check Montpellier and Toulouse, which I think are the closest airports of an significant size. But I'd also look at Marseille to see whether there's such a huge difference that it would be worth the hassle and time of landing farther away. Marseille's airport is 4 - 5 hours from Carcassonne by train.

Posted by
10625 posts

People who live in Carcassonne use the Toulouse airport, an hour away.
The Mediterranean side has much better weather that time of year, though you can still run into rain.

Posted by
12313 posts

Northern Spain can be very cold in March and the north coast won't have beach weather. In March, I'd suggest Barcelona and Valencia. Valencia has their las fallas festival in late March. If I were in the area, I'd plan for it.

Posted by
41 posts

Thank you all so much! I am going back and forth between wanting to just do Languedoc-Rousillon and Barcelona in order to have more time in each place, and wanting to include Le Pays Basque because it seems like we are passing so close. Now I will add Valencia into the mix as well, because I am always looking for local festivities. Not sure how much time we will want in Barcelona. We spent 10 days in Paris and it was wonderful, but of course we wished for more :)

I am grateful for any more thoughts or advice. As I get further into the planning process I am sure that I will have more questions!

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