Spain/France

Sometimes more information about your trip is needed in order for us to provide helpful suggestions that fit your situation.
What's your itinerary, what time of year are you going, how many in your party, etc--these will be helpful.

'Best' for what? Best for your wallet, your comfort, quickest, something else? All forms of transport could have a place.
From where to where? As far as I am concerned Northern Spain is half the country.

Two are traveling. Dates are May/June. for three weeks. We have no particular plans as yet except for air. Plan to try to arrive in one country and leave from the other so as not to retrace our footsteps.

Just was interested in readers' views on cities, towns, etc. to visit and what types of transportation work best.

Thanks.

There is a lot to see! And wheels will help you to see it.

But you will probably find a very stiff fee to drop off a rental in a different country than the one you started in. So you might want to think about rail to connect the two countries, with local auto rentals as needed.

You might trying reading some guide books for the area and return with specific question. You can do it by bus, train, and car. But have to know where you want to go. Cannot write a guide book for you.

Don't need another guide book. Have already read too many of them. This is not my first trip to Spain/France. Just trying to figure in how to fit in northern Spain and southwester France.

You can drive, but picking up a car in one country and dropping it in another adds significant fees. There are various ways to plan around this, including doubling back, renting separate cars, or using car only on one side of the border.

Public transport is by a mix of companies. Since the national Spanish railway doesn't run along the north coast, those connections can be done by bus or local railway (e.g., Bilbao to San Sebastian). Rick's Spain guidebook will summarize transportation options for each area covered in the book, including a few towns in Basque France, and other guidebooks should also address the topic. The book is where I would start. Other travelers also like www.rome2rio.com for surveying a variety of transport options.

Thanks for all the info. I will check the web site you named. Also will reread Rick's Spain guidebook.

I think rail is pretty thin. If you want to see a lot, renting a car is the way to go.

If you just want to make your way from town to town, buses will serve the area adequately (but maybe only one or two a day between any two given towns). I wouldn't avoid buses, they're cheap and nice, but they can make it hard to make mid-day stops between towns you're staying in.