Greetings All,
We are in the middle of a two month Spain adventure and want to travel from San Sebastian to Bordeaux by train or bus. All the information I find seems quite confusing. Or maybe I'm not looking at the right place. Can anyone assist?
Thanks Much, Lynne
To find train schedules for almost all of Europe, use the Bahn (German Rail) website http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en, following Rick's tutorial: http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/online-schedules
When I do this and put in "San Sebastian" to "Bordeaux-St-Jean" (Bordeaux's main station), I see one connection per day taking 3H 45m, leaving San Sebastian at 13:26 and getting to Bordeaux at 17:11. They also show one involving spending the night in the Hendaye station, which I'd avoid.
I didn't look at buses, but I'd start with Rome 2 Rio to find the companies, then check with the companies directly for the latest info: http://www.rome2rio.com/
If you need to travel earlier, there is one earlier departure from Hendaye to Bordeaux at 9:43 and there is local service across the border from San Sebastian/Donostia (two names for the same city) to Hendaye by EuskoTren, which is not reported on DB schedules. It's a separate train station in San Sebastian; see station info on pages 187, 193, and 210 of Rick's Spain 2015 book. Mondays-Fridays, there are more departures that terminate at Irun but you want one that goes all the way to Hendaye.
We took the regional Topo (the mole) train from the EuskoTren Station in San Sebastian to Hendaye. Cost was 4 euros. Then we took a bus to the pretty seaside village of St. Jean de Luz, France where we spent 3 nights before taking the direct train to Bordeaux.
Spain operates on a different rail gauge so you won't find many 'through' trains.
Check Renfe or Euskotren for San Sebastian to Irun.
Check SNCF for Hendaye to Bordeaux.
