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passing thru spain from portugal to france

Posted by (Margate, FL, USA) on

our planned trip is may/june 2015. we were thinking of doing Portugal first, staying about a week, to visit Lisbon, Coimbra, then Porto. from porto we found there is a bus to compostela which seems to be a nice place to visit. but from here, our next stop is south of france (Montpellier or Marseille).

is there an easy passage thru northern spain thru the Pyrenees perhaps into france? and can anyone "sell" northern spain to me? it is one of our options. the other option is to bypass spain and fly from Lisbon to Marseille. btw, we have been to Madrid and Barcelona.

thanks much.

Posted by
7175 posts

Santiago de Compostela http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/ciudades-pueblos/grandes-ciudades/santiago_de_compostela.html
Oviedo http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/ciudades-pueblos/otros-destinos/oviedo.html
Picos de Europa mountains
Santander http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/ciudades-pueblos/otros-destinos/santander.html
Bilbao http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/ciudades-pueblos/grandes-ciudades/bilbao.html
San Sebastian http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/ciudades-pueblos/otros-destinos/donostiasan_sebastian.html

I would fly from San Sebastian to Marseille (you may have to connect in Barcelona).

Posted by
204 posts

thank you.

I checked the map and saw the area is not flat but kinda mountainous.

are these cities connected by good roads? is the bus system good? or is renting a car easy enough?

Posted by
12172 posts

If you stay along the coast in the Basque area until you get to Bayonne, then cut over to Toulouse, you won't notice the mountains as much.

We liked San Sebastian but didn't spend much time there. It seems like a great place to be in high summer (July/August) but was rainy and chilly when we were there in April.

Posted by
16893 posts

The roads in northern Spain are good but train and bus connections are not very fast or direct. And dropping a car in a different country adds to the cost. If you want to visit stops in northern Spain, I recommend driving, such as from Santiago to San Sebastian. To get to Marseille easily, you would fly there, whether from Lisbon or a Spanish city.

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