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Traveling from San Sebastian to Lourdes

Posted by (California) on

Hi,
My husband and I are travelling to London and Paris in late April to May. As a side trip, I booked us a flight to San Sebastian, Spain to see the Basque country for a couple of days. From there, I am thinking to go to head back to Paris with a stop to visit the Shrine in Lourdes and stay overnight. I booked our stays but am unsure on how to go about our travel between Spain and France. Has anyone done this trip and taken the train? Is it practical to consider driving ourselves through the mountains with a rental car?
Here the itinerary I planned:
04/26: London to San Sebastian ( air travel and hotel booked )
04/28: San Sebastian-Lourdes (hotel in Lourdes booked, need help with transit planning)
04/29: Whole day in Lourdes
04/30: return to Paris ( transit planning)

Thank you!

Posted by
2984 posts

Sweatshirt,
I don 't know about trains, but if you rent a car in Spain and return it in France you will pay Avery, very large drop-fee.

Posted by
3604 posts

Your best options are first to return to the French side of the Basque Country, to Hendaye or Bayonne, and either rent a car there if you can find an office in Lourdes to return it, or take a train to Lourdes from one of these cities.

To get to Paris from Lourdes, you can either take a direct TGV train or, from Lourdes-Tarbes airport, one of the two daily flights to Orly Airport with Volotea.

Posted by
8419 posts

The drive is pretty easy. I’ve had a rental car the couple time I’ve visited Lourdes. Since you intend to return the car in France, from San Sebastián (SS), take public transportation into France and rent the car there. That avoids the large fee for dropping the rental in another country. There will still be a one way rental fee, but much smaller.

An alternative would be rent the car in San Sebastián, visit Lourdes, then return the car to San Sebastián and return to Paris from there. That eliminates any one way charges and you could return to Paris from SS.

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