Lourdes? Where to stay and for how long please?

Hi belarmino101. About four years ago, my husband, myself and an adult son visited Lourdes. We flew on Ryanair from London Stansted to Pau and took a short train ride over from there. I just looked on the Ryanair website and they no longer fly into Pau but they do fly from London to Lourdes (these are very small airports) a few days a week. There should be bus or taxi service from the airport into the town. I also checked Skyscanner and it says that Air France has hops into that Lourdes airport, I would assume from Paris. Where are you coming from? Will you already be in France? Where do you go after Lourdes? Is the train an option? Train travel in Europe is easy. I used to live in the UK and flew Ryanair a lot. I am one of the people who has been satisfied with what they offer but you must follow their rules, particularly with regards to size and weight of what you can take with you into the cabin. I know a lot of people do not like flying with them but I flew multiple trips and never had problems. If you will already be in France then check out the Air France website and also the train schedule.

I liked Lourdes. LIke your wife, I really wanted to go there and visit the shrine. (On a diffrent trip I was able to visit Fátima and it was interesting to be able to compare and contrast the two.) The Lourdes area is beautiful, surrounded by mountains. We stayed at Hotel Majestic, an easy walk from the train station and more in the main area of town. It was about a ten to fifteen minute easy walk to the shrine. We were very satisfied with the hotel and the price was very reasonable for a good size triple but we were there in November, off- season. I would think that two days (maybe two nights) is sufficient time. We stayed two nights and then continued on by train to Carcassonne. Good luck. Hope this helps.

Sorry, I just reread your original post and see that you will be coming from Normandy. I checked Air France and all of their flights to Lourdes airport leave out of Paris Orly. Maybe you can break up your ten hour train ride and stopover for a night to explore somewhere else along the way? Or change the order and route of the places you will visit? Will you be in Paris at all so that you could leave from there?
Pat

Thank you SO MUCH. We are now going to fly from Paris. good idea! Mostly, thanks for confirming 2 nights there is enough!
We also went to Fatima. God Bless, Brad and Annie

Hello.

I went to Lourdes as part of a tour a few years ago. 2 nights is the perfect amount of time. We stayed at the Mercure Lourdes hotel. It was a short walk to the grotto, church, etc. Though there is strange/loud carpet in the rooms, the rooms were clean, the beds were comfortable, and the food at the restaurant was good. There are also plenty of places nearby to grab a sandwich or lunch.

Lourdes is a beautiful town. Enjoy!

I’ve been a couple times and other than the church and grotto, I found Lourdes to be one big tourist trap worth a few hours at most. I’ve never spent the night.