lourdes and spain

There seems to be trains that take anywhere from nine to sixteen hours. You can drive it in eight if you hustle. There's a small airport north of Lourdes and another north of Pau. I've forgotten their names and have no idea who seves them, if anybody (I've only spotted runways). No matter how you cut it, it's going to be a mean trip on the first day. Getting from Lourdes to Santiago will be worse. If you drive, it's going to take a very large sedan or a small van. I wouldn't consider driving that far right after a long flight.

The closest international airport to Lourdes is Pau (PUF), but the only way you can get there from Madrid is via Paris, and the flights are very expensive. A better choice would be Toulouse (TLS). Easyjet will fly you direct from Madrid to Toulouse very inexpensively. Exact fare will depend on your date of travel. You could then rent your vehicle in Toulouse and drive the 130 Km to Lourdes. Train will take over 11 hours. Ed is right about driving from Madrid. Viamichelin.com says 6 1/2 hours and that's assuming no stops. 8 hours is likely a real good estimate. Flight MAD - TLS is only an hour and 20 minutes. Drive Toulouse - Lourdes is under 2 hours. I've driven from Santiago to Lourdes. I highly recommend you plan an overnight along the way. You're looking at 10-12 hours on the road if you don't.

thank you to both of you. this is what I found out after taking some of your advice. easy jet from madrid to toulouse,then express train from toulouse to lourdes(1 hour 45 minute) train from lourdes to san sebastian(3 hours) what do you think? it seems that we will need to get to bilbao to take a flight to santiago, other airlines like iberia wants too much money for flights.any ways it's going to be an interesting trip.

More food for thought as you puzzle this out: I'm pretty sure there's no direct train from San Sebastian to Bilbao - - they all go down to Vitoria, Burgos, or Miranda and then come back up. The trip will be longer than you'd probably suspect - - four hours, maybe more. The train station in Bilbao is down on the river close to the center of town. The airport is up on the plateau to the east. That means either a bus (which I think only runs from the plaza in the middle of the Gran Via) or the commuter train (different station on the other side of the river, but walkable) and then the funicular and a long walk or a bus to get to the airport. A couple of taxis might be the idea - - it's about ten miles. I also have the sneaking suspicion that there's a bus from San Sebastian to Bilbao (maybe even right to the airport) that may be faster than the train. Edit: I guessed right, here's the bus: http://www.pesa.net/pesa/horariosBD/ctrl_horarios.php?lang=en

From Lourdes to Santiago, a much faster and (probably) cheaper method than all those trains & buses would be to return to the Toulouse airport, from which the budget airline Vueling will fly you to Santiago de Compostela, with a single 1 3/4 hour stopover in Barcelona. Total flight time is 4 hours 15 minutes including the stopover. The only hitch might be that Vueling flies that route only 3 days a week. www.vueling.com