I am planning a 10 day road trip (or train if better) from Barcelona to San Sebastian and going back through Southern France. I was hoping you all could help me come up with an itinerary of where to stop along the way and things to do please. The only cities I have as a must right now are Barcelona (flying in and out of), Bilbao, and San Sebastian. It will be in the middle of May! Thanks!
Posted by
Paris
7377 posts
10 days feels too tight for the loop you envision.
Barcelona alone deserves 2.5 days as a bare minimum and preferably 3 full days.
Likewise, I would not travel all the way to the Basque country for less than 3 full days, and you need a travel day to get there. The remaining 3 days are not enough to loop back to Barcelona via Toulouse; you'd need a week.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
6810 posts
It sounds like you are doing some travel brainstorming deciding among many countries for a 10 day May trip. Since none of these trips is beyond the preplanning stage, I'm wondering why you consider flying in and out of Barcelona a "must"? It is often more efficient to do open jaw--into one city, out of another. So perhaps, into Barcelona and out of Bilbao or some other city close to the end of your itinerary.
At your stage in trip planning with all the possibilities you are thinking of, my suggestion would be to start watching Rick Steves videos/TV shows. You can find them on this sight, your library, Prime, PBS and more. I find "seeing" places is so helpful in defining where I want to go.
Posted by
OP
7 posts
Thanks so much for the advice everyone!! I really
Appreciate the feedback. I agree I am concerned about going from Barcelona to Bilbao in such a short period of time. Thank you!
Posted by
Somerville, MA
691 posts
We did a variant of this last summer.
Fly into Bilbao
2 nights Bilbao
4 nights in French Basque Country (spent one of these days in San Sebastián)
1 night in Tarascon sur Ariege (to see the Grotte de Niaux)
3 nights Barcelona
Posted by
Bilbao
858 posts
And years pass by and Bilbao keeps being continuously misspelled as Bilboa, wonder if it´s the autocorrector?. So funny, as a non-native English speaker I think it has to do with the intrincated way English vowels are pronounced :):)
Posted by
Somerville, MA
691 posts
Just carelessness on my part. I fixed it.
Posted by
8722 posts
Back through southern France, yes.
Do Bordeaux and Carcassonne.
Posted by
NC
476 posts
We did this road trip, and had a great time, in September 2019. Changes could be made to meet your timeframe. The one stop we regretted was Carcassonne, which was Disney-like and, frankly, gross.
Day 1 - arrive Barcelona, drive to Zaragoza
Day 2 - drive to LaGuardia, lunch at Baigorri, drive to Vitoria-Gastiez
Day 3 - Vitoria to Bilbao
Day 4 - Bilbao to San Sebastian via small towns and/or Chillida Leku
Day 5 - San Sebastian
Day 6- to Hondaribbia
Day 7 - to Sare, Ainhoa, Espellette and back to Hondaribbia
Day 8 - to Bayonne via St. Jean de Luz
Day 9 - to Carcassone
Day 10 - to Barcelona via Dali Theatre Museum, Figueres
Day 11 - Barcelona
Day 12 - Barcelona
Day 13 - Barcelona
Day 14 - depart
Posted by
OP
7 posts
Wow!! That sounds like a fantastic trip. Thank you for sharing. How was San Sebastián?