Barcelona to Lourdes Driver

It would be cheaper to rent a car for a couple days and spend a night there. It’s a 5.5 hours drive each direction if you’ve driven in that area; longer if you haven’t.

Thank you. Yes, we would sleep a few nights in Lourdes, but I am nervous driving in a foreign country.

Another option would be to take the train from Barcelona to Zaragoza. There you can visit the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar. From Zaragoza it is about 3.5 hours drive to Lourdes.

The 12th of October is the Pilar, the main fiestas of Zaragoza, so the days around the 12th the city will be celebrating. The floral offering is quite impressive.

If you are staying in a hotel, I would ask them to recommend a driver. I've done that a few times in Spain and it's worked out well, although not inexpensive, of course.

For many years I was too nervous to drive in Europe. Being from New York City, where most people do not even own cars, I was not a confident driver (still am not and I hate to drive at home). So I would hire drivers the few times I wanted to get from place to place not taking public transport, or if there was very little public transport.

A few years ago, I wanted to spend a few weeks in Southern Spain in an area where having a car is a must.
So it was either take a chance and rent a car, solo, or not taken the trip.

So I rented a car--automatic, with GpS installed--at the airport in Jerez, drove to my hotel, and drove around every day or every afternoon for a lunch in a restaurant--and the rest is history, Until last March, I avoided driving after dark, which limited my restaurant dinners. But I prefer to the my big meal in the evening, so I took the chance and drove at night for the first time. Alone. Now I think nothing of driving at any time of day, anywhere in Spain.

Since then, I rent a car every March to return to the same hotel. Not only that, but I do the driving when my partner joins me. In the past year alone, we've driven from Valencia to Denia and back on one trip. Before that, I drove in Sicily for about two weeks, and last month, we had a rental car during our visit to Galicia.

I'm going through all of this to tell you that if you want to take the chance, as I did, I would urge you to go for it. I find it a lot easier than driving around New York. Roads in Spain are almost uniformly excellent and drivers are much more skilled and polite than the average person behind the wheel in the NE USA. Or that's how it appears to me!

And being able to drive opens up so many destinations that I would not have visited due to the absence or inconvenience of taking public transport. You cannot imagine how true this is, for me.

If an anxious driver like me can do all of this, I believe that you can, as well.