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Northern Spain/Toulouse, France Road Trip

Posted by on

Hi everyone - I'm currently planning a road trip from Barcelona to Toulouse, France. At first, I was going to rent a car in Barcelona and drop it off in Toulouse but it's pretty expensive. We were thinking of renting a car in Barcelona, driving to the destinations we wanted to see - Talamantes, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Andorra, & Figures - before heading back to Barcelona and taking a train into France. I had a few questions - 1) can anyone recommend what town to stay in when driving from Bilbao to Andorra? The drive seems to be about 6.5 hrs and we will be heading out after spending the afternoon at the Guggenheim.

2) I'm going to Figures to see the Dali Museum and would like to see his house in Port allegations. I don't think we will have time for both and could see the Dali Museum in Barcelona instead. Is the Dali Museum worth going in Figures?

3) We will have time to visit a town or two in France before we fly out of Toulouse. Any recommendations on what towns to take a train from Barcelona to?

I really appreciate all the help!

Posted by
27187 posts

Also posted in the Spain forum, where I have placed my response.

Posted by
4132 posts

If you'd like to explore a little in France, I think you may want to rent a second car there, unless you are okay with just a city or two. There are some marvelous small towns in the Languedoc that are not served by rail.

Without a car, you might still consider Albi or Carcassonne. I found Toulouse to be a fascinating place in its own right, too. I assume that after Spanish Catalonia the French version (Collioure, Perpignan) would be too much of the same sort of thing.

Posted by
7 posts

Good point in possibly needing a car in France Adam to visit some of the worthwhile towns. So here are some slight revisions to my itinerary.

We would pick up the car at the Barcelona airport (after spending a few days in Barcelona) on Sunday Nov. 19th. We fly out of Toulouse on Monday Nov. 27th. We'd ideally spend at least one night in Toulouse and we'd like to arrive there by Saturday afternoon, so on Nov. 25th.

I was thinking that since we will be in San Sebastian at some point with our rental we can travel up to France and visit a combo of St.-Jean-de-Luz, Biarritz, Bayonne or Pau, depending on how much time we have. Then when dropping off the car back in Barcelona, we take the train straight to Toulouse.

The reason for Andorra was more for the novelty factor of saying we've been to Andorra and checking it out but it sounds like it might not be worth the detour and our time will be better spent in other towns like Figures and Port Lligat.

I'd love some thoughts on this.

Posted by
685 posts

Carcassonne is worth a half a day, for certain, especially with fewer tourists in November. Your probably can do that as a day trip from Toulouse.

I'll answer your question about Andorra here. I've taken the route from Barcelona to France via Andorra, and spent a couple of days there. It was the summertime and we enjoyed the vistas and some nice hiking. There are numerous ski resorts in the winter and hiking in the summer. It was definitely a checklist item but also a nice time in the summer -- I can't speak to late November.

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