hnlowe
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 4 years ago
Hi, three of us are hoping to travel with bikes from Santander to Irun next summer. Wondering which is the best way to do it and if we need to book the bike spaces in advance. We don’t want to dismantle the bikes. Many thanks.
nltrainer
Traveller
1336 comments
By TRAIN this is not very easy, as there is a line along the coast via/change in Bilbao and San Sebastian=Donostia, but thats Euskotren for large part (in Basque country) and its not train so much, but more like a tram (assuming brits know what that is). IF you want to use the RENFE trains=the national system, you have to go very far inland and change and this makes the whole trip much, much longer. In fact I highly doubt it will be possible without taking the bikes apart.
Better to post-but perhaps seeing the leeway you might have done already, on a specialised in this bikers forum.
nltrainer
Traveller
1336 comments
Just out of curiosity I tried to look for it-info is only in spanish on the ENFE site;
for the original RENFE trains, this means going very far inland and due to long waits (Valladolid is best) it takes all day. You MUST somewhat take bike apart as max allowed length is 1,20. Its free, but you must also reserve space for that (unclear if that can be done online-, anyway with IR you acannot book online-only at ticketing) for both trains.
On the scenic coastal tram-like line its FEVe (now alsomowned by RENFE, do not waste a travel day fir this, normal fare is much lower) Sant-Bilbao (only a few/day, much faster expressway buses run hourly) its 3 eur for the bike (max 2/train), plus the normal ticket.
Euskotren runs Bilbo-Donostia (near horuly) and often from there to Hendaya=Fr border, but I did not look for info there, the main site is in incomprehensible Basque You must buy separate tickets for each trip..