My wife and I will be traveling from Barcelona to San Sabastian/Bilboa to Toulouse, France by train. Then renting a car to go to Albi and possibly Salat and on to Lyon. Then dropping the car and getting a train to Lausanne and then to Interlaken and Luzern. Finally leaving to go back from Zurich. I am thinking of buying individual point to point train tickets. Even by passing the SwissPass. Does this make sense and should I buy train tickets prior to leaving US? I will be traveling from June 27th thru July 9th. Thanks, Steve
Posted by
Montevideo, Uruguay
37 posts
Hi Steve, I will only comment on the first leg of your trip, as I did the route San Sebastián to Toulouse to Albi last may. My concern is: have you checked the train connection between San Sebastián and Toulouse? I couldn't find any decent connection when I was there and still can't now. I ended up taking a night bus (Eurobus), leaving San Sebastián at 00:30 and arriving at Toulouse around 5-6 am. It wasn't the end of the world for me, since I'm one of those who can get some sleep anywhere, but it can be really annoying for anyone else. I also had to wait until 8 am for the luggage storage to open at the bus station, since I wasn't staying at Toulouse for the night and wanted to go for a walk for some hours (something similar could happen to you with the check-in hour at your hotel). I guess you could consider renting a car in San Sebastián and drive to Toulouse instead, but then you'll have to take into account the drop-off fee. There were no problems for the Toulouse to Albi leg, I took a regular bus for about 2 hours. There were no trains between the two cities though; they were suspended for that time of the year. Happy planning and travel!
Posted by
Montevideo, Uruguay
37 posts
Edit: bus from S. Sebastián to Toulouse was not Eurobus but Eurolines (http://www.eurolines.com)
Posted by
Dallas, Texas, USA
501 posts
What are your plans for Switzerland? How many days? Jungfrau?
Posted by
OP
Odessa, Fl, USA
45 posts
Andres, Oops. I thought that would be easy. I also looked and could not find a train from San Sabastian to Tolouse. I may have to rethink this. Maybe I will skip Albi and the Touluse Lautrec Museum and go only to Salat and the Dordogne area. Really thought Albi would be good to see. I can get a train into Bordeaux and rent a car there and drop it off in Lyon. Then I will go from Lyon to Lausanne.
Posted by
OP
Odessa, Fl, USA
45 posts
Jim, I was thinking of going to Lausanne for a day/night then to Interlaken for two night and to Luzern for one night. Take an early train from Luzern to Zurich airport for a 10:10 flight. Might be too much for a short period. I took a look at the train ticket prices and they did not add up to the SwissPass 2nd class prices. I know you get discount but I am not sure it would be a savings.
Posted by
Montevideo, Uruguay
37 posts
Steve, I guess you could plan it the other way around, starting in San Sebastián/Bilbao and then going to Barcelona, so as to catch a flight to Toulouse from Barcelona. Iberia flies non-stop to Toulouse some particular days of the week, so look up the date that interests you most. Albi is totally worth it, especially if you're interested in visiting the Toulouse Lautrec museum. Cheers!