We are planning a trip to Barcelona and would like to rent a car and drive the Camino from there. Does anyone have suggestions on the best way to get from Santiago to a major airport in Spain or Portugal? Any tips are greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Chicago
8166 posts
Use this site
https://www.viamichelin.com/
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
You should plan to return the car in Spain to get the best rates and train connections to Portugal are poor, so forget Portugal.
Madrid is obviously the major airport but Santiago de Compostela airport can still be a starting point for connections through either Madrid and London with Iberia/British Airways, through Frankfurt with Lufthansa, through Dublin with Aer Lingus, etc. Have you tried a search from there to your home or next destination?
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7164 posts
There are daily flights from Santiago de Compostela (SCQ) to Madrid on Iberia airlines as well as via train (www.renfe.com) Any idea which driving route you plan on taking to follow the Camino, i.e., are you picking up the French Camino near Logrono? We drove the Camino from St. Jean Pied de Port in 2017. Will be walking part of the Camino later this year, from Sarria to Santiago.
If driving part of the Camino, below are some interesting places along the route worthy of stopping at.
Mirador Alto de Perdón, a few miles outside of Pamplona on the NA-6056
Fuente de vino (wine fountain) Bodegas Irache. On the camino by the Monastery de Santa Maria de Irache. Rather than being a water fountain, it dispenses wine.
Puente de la Reina
Burgos
Leon
Puente de Óbrigo in Hospital de Óbrigo
Crucero de San Toribio, near the exit to San Justo de la Vega on the N-120.
Astorga
Crus de Hierro or Cruz de ferro it´s near Santa Colomba de Somoza on the LE-142 road. Famous stop on the Camino.
Church of Santa María, Alto de Cebreiro
Alto de San Roque
Cruceiro de Melide, Melide - oldest wayside cross in Galicia.
Santa María de Leboreiro
Monto de Gozo, just outside of Santiago
Posted by
Washington DC
28106 posts
If your flight options from Santiago de Compostela look really unattractive, you might take a look at Vigo as well. I think it has more flights. There are fairly frequent trains between the two cities that take as little as 50 minutes, but of course you'd have to get from the train station to the airport. Note that Vigo has two RR stations. It appears that the faster trains go to Vigo Urzaiz.