Leaving Your Trip in BILBAO

This page offers help (concrete or informational) on leaving your trip. Topics include...

1. Where you leave your trip (see immediately below).
2. The closest airports.
3. Our “Access Packages,” designed to help you reach them.
4. Suggestions on how to time your ongoing travel, whether you are having us arrange it, or doing it yourself.
5. Service information regarding train travel from your trip end location.
6. Suggested post-trip visits, especially when these are not geographically obvious, but are rendered economical and convenient by direct rail connections.
7. Hopefully helpful hints for those setting up their own travel from the trip.

If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.

1. WHERE and WHEN Do You Leave Your Trip?

Your trip disbands on Saturday, at the end of the afternoon, upon arrival in Bilbao, which you reach after a full and beautiful riding day. Most people then choose to spend the night there, and this is wise. See discussion of our “Access Packages,” immediately below, and also “Timing Your Trip,” further down.

If you wish to arrange your own ongoing travel (in other words, you do not want to set up any ongoing travel arrangements through us), a couple of hints regarding ongoing travel are offered at the bottom of this page. Otherwise...


2. The CLOSEST AIRPORTS

Bilbao has an airport, reasonably well-served within Europe, but with no intercontinental service.

Madrid and Barcelona are the closest intercontinental airport cities, with Madrid closer (5 hours by train, downtown to downtown). Paris can be reached in about the same travel time as Barcelona, but it farther away, and so a more expensive trip.

Santander and Valladolid, both served by Ryanair, are other regional airports that can more rarely be of use.

See “Service Information” for details.


3. Our ACCESS PACKAGES
as of January 15, 2009

Our regular “Access Package” puts you in Bilbao for Saturday night, and gives you a train ticket to Madrid on Sunday (tickets to Barcelona, Paris, and other Spanish destinations are available at modest additional cost).

Or, if you prefer, it offers a Saturday overnight “Hotel Train” to Paris or Lisbon (the same train is available on Sunday at additional cost).

Spending Saturday night in Bilbao, and taking a train somewhere on Sunday does not accomplish the usual goal of having you at a desk on another continent on Monday morning, regardless of which continent that desk is on. In order to catch an intercontinental flight on Sunday, you have three options:
- Fly to Madrid from Bilbao early Sunday morning
- Take the Saturday overnight “Hotel Train” to Paris for a Sunday post 11a flight from there. Or...
- Ride the bike train to Paris on Saturday night, for a flight scheduled at any time after 10a.
See hints regarding ongoing travel, at the bottom of this page, for a discussion of the flights.

If you choose to fly out of Bilbao, you will not need our “Access Package,” though you may still wish to book our Bilbao hotel for Saturday night (see “Alternate Arrangements,” below).
Our hotel is chosen to solve a bunch of logistical problems, and is well-located. If you book your own, you still have to drop your bike at ours, and then schlep your baggage around town to get to yours — only to return to ours to meet your trip buddies for the inevitable dinner in the adjacent Casco Viejo (see below for informatation on booking our hotel). In other words, this probably isn’t the night to get fancy with the hotel, unless you really love hotels.

Base (Starting) Access Package Price: 109€.
To see what this means in your currency, look here: http://www.bluemarble.org/CurrencyConv.html

Availability of the Bilbao hotel is normally guaranteed until 35 days prior to trip start, because we try to hold an allotment of hotel rooms until then.   Within 35 days (or for alternate projects, like overnight trains), availability must be confirmed, and costs may be higher.  We will always ask your approval before buying something at a higher price than the one listed here.

Included:

• A Saturday hotel night in Bilbao, shared occupancy.
  Option guaranteed until 35 days prior to the trip to singles willing to share.
  Single rooms are available at additional cost.
• Buffet breakfast on Sunday morning.
• Train tickets on a Sunday daylight train to Madrid.
  Train tickets are not refundable or exchangeable once ordered.  See below for extra cost modifiable tickets.
  
• Seat reservations on the train.
• All taxes, booking and baggage charges.
  OR
• A Saturday overnight “Hotel Train” to Paris or Lisbon.
  Train tickets are not refundable or exchangeable once ordered.  See below for extra cost modifiable tickets.
  Berth in a single-sex, 4-person sleeping car cabin included on the Paris train.   Berth in a single-sex, 3-person sleeping car cabin included on the Lisbon train.   The bus needed to reach Vitoria (departure station for the night trains) from Bilbao (1 hour) is also included.  Transfer between Vitoria bus and rail stations not included (8€ by taxi).  See below for available upgrades.
  

“Ride the Bike Train” Discount Packages (not available in Sept., 09):
- 49€ Saturday overnight train to Paris.
- 99€ Sunday overnight to Paris, after a Saturday night in Bilbao (which is included in the package).

Included in the “Ride the Bike Train” Discount Packages:

• Local train to the French border on Saturday or Sunday evening.
  Departs Bilbao at 6p. The Saturday train is compatible with a relaxed riding day, but not with a visit to Bilbao.
• An overnight train to Paris, couchette included on board.
  Upgrade to “Comfort Couchette” available on Saturday night only:  18€.
• All taxes and booking charges.
  

If you prefer to travel to Paris on Sunday night, the package additionally includes:

• A Saturday hotel night in Bilbao, shared occupancy.
  Option guaranteed until 35 days prior to the trip to singles willing to share.
  Single rooms are available at additional cost.
• Buffet breakfast on Sunday morning.All taxes and booking charges.
  
  

Options Offered at an Extra Cost (subject to availability)
Prices are in addition to the “Base” Access Package prices. For a general discussion of train upgrades, see here. Topics include the relative comfort of first versus second class, and different types of accommodation available on overnight trains.

• Sunday daylight train to elswhere than Madrid. To Barcelona or Santiago de Compostela: 16€. To Paris or Nice / Côte d’Azur: +49€.
  Seat reservations included on trains which require them.
• First class upgrade on daylight trains. To Barcelona: +36€. To Paris, Nice, or Madrid (Madrid train includes meal service): 46€.
  French upgrades valid from the French border only. The local train from Bilbao to the border is one class only. Train to Santiago de Compostela is one class only.
• Sunday overnight train (after Saturday night and Sunday in Bilbao). To Barcelona: 25€. To Lisbon, Paris or Nice / Côte d’Azur: +39€.
  “Couchette” sleeper berth included on overnight trains (sleeping car upgrades are available, see below for cost).
• Upgrades from the included couchette on overnight trains, whether on Saturday or Sunday night (note that these discount fares may not always be available):
  - To Paris: “Comfort Couchette:” +49€ regular rate, +29€ discount rate. +75€ / person for a private double sleeper cabin, +139€ / person for a private “deluxe” double cabin (including shower and WC, and also dinner, but you don't board until after 11p, so do you care?). 175€ for a private single, 229€ for a private “deluxe” single.
  - To Lisbon: 59€ to double, 119€ to a private single.
• Modifiable / exchangeable / refundable tickets: +26€ to anywhere in Spain or Portugal, +39€ to French destinations. +65€ if you have upgraded to a sleeping car berth to Paris.
• Tickets to London. Use the cost of your preferred route to Paris, then add 69€ if you are also purchasing tickets from London at the start of your trip, 109€ if not, or if you prefer a changeable ticket (in 1st cl., add 109€ or 149€; 1st class tickets include meal service).
• Tickets on the Paris airport train, to Charles de Gaulle or Orly from anywhere in the city. Follow this link for details.
• Single room in Bilbao: +26€.
  
  

Alternate Arrangements, in lieu of our usual packages (subject to availability).
Prices are complete (in other words, they are not in addition to the “Base” Access Package Price)

• Hotel night in Bilbao with no ongoing travel (based on shared accommodation): 52€ (+26€ single). Two people sharing a double bed pay 98€.
  Includes taxes, breakfast, booking charge.
  Price guaranteed to singles willing to share until 35 days before trip departure.
• Saturday afternoon train to Madrid: 59€ 2nd class.
  See service information, below. This train puts serious pressure on the Saturday ride, and should be used only if you really can’t do otherwise.
  

4. TIMING Your Trip

If we may influence your thinking on the topic of timing... like many once industrial cities, Bilbao exhibits more (faded) wealth than beauty. But the Guggenheim museum is a highlight of the Euro art world, and the city is incredibly alive, with an great night scene.

If your only interest in Bilbao is the Guggenheim, and you rush your biking day on Saturday (or skip it, and train into town), you can reach the city in time for a museum visit at the end of the afternoon on Saturday afternoon, and be ready for a Saturday evening departure. But if you can spare the time and the funds, we suggest spending at least Saturday night in Bilbao. Our base “Access Packages” presume a Sunday departure.

Like airplanes, trains from Bilbao require reservations. You must not only tell us where you wish to go, but at what time of day you wish to travel. Allow ample time to connect to a flight: it can take a while to get from downtown train station to airport check-in counter.....


5. Service Information
Schedules are approximate – exact timetables can be consulted at
http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/point_to_point/triprequest.htm.
Best trains are mentioned. Others are slower or have multiple connections.

• To Madrid. Sunday direct train at 5p (5 hours).
  This is about right for a visit to the “Gu” and a Sunday lunch in the old town.
  Other schedules with a connection:
  Saturday: 4:45p, arrive Madrid 10p. Puts serious pressure on the biking day: not fun.
  Sunday:
  - 7:45a, arrive 2p. Via bus to Vitoria (an hour), train from there.
  - 9:15a, arrive 3:30p.
  - 2p, arrive 8p.
  
• To Paris. Overnight: sleeping car train (a.k.a. “Hotel Train”) departs Bilbao at 9p, arrives Paris at 9a. Couchette train (a.k.a. “Bike Train”) departs Bilbao at 6p, arrives Paris at 7:30a.
  Both services require a connection circa 11p.
  In September, 09, a track work program means that the couchette train will operate 3 hours early, effectively making it impossible to catch on Saturday night.  The sleeper train (a.k.a. “Hotel Train”) will arrive one hour late in Paris, at 10:05a.
  In daylight: morning, midday and early afternoon departures, a 9-hour trip.
• To Lisbon. Overnight: via bus to Vitoria (an hour), train from there. Depart Bilbao at 10p, ar. Lisbon 10:30a, with an 11:30p connection from bus to train.
• To Barcelona. Local at 10a, ar. 7p. Express at 5p, arrive 11:30p.
• To Nice or Geneva. Overnight: depart Bilbao 1p, change at the border at 5p, arrive Nice or Geneva 8a.
• To Valladolid. Same schedule as for Madrid, but trip is 90 minutes shorter (2p train is direct).
• To Santander. 3 daily trains, 3-hour trip. First train at 8a, 1p and 7:30p.
  Schedules can be verified at www.feve.es.
• To London. Via Paris. Add 3.5 hours for the Paris station change plus the “Eurostar” from Paris to London.

6. Suggested POST-TRIP VISITS

Spend Saturday night in Bilbao, and travel on Sunday to Santiago de Compostela. This is a long ride (all day), but beautiful, and the train carries a restaurant car. We have hotels that we really love in Santiago, both cheap and more luxurious. See our “trips ending in Santiago” page for hints (and costs) of onward travel from there.


7. Hints on TRAVELLING INDEPENDENTLY After the Trip
Guests subscribing to an “Access Package” need not read this section.

See also “Timing Your Trip” and “Service Information,” above, as either of these may additionally help.

We gladly provide travel consulting (schedule or routing information) concerning post-trip individual travel. In particular, we have invested a great deal to become railway experts. Our service fees are reasonable: a 20€ charge for all but the most complex projects – or the most simple (for instance, only a 10€ charge applies if the service is limited to the preparation of a routine rail ticket). You will generally find them well-justified by the time they will save you in research, standing on line, overpaying for your tickets, or all three.

But, for some, this type of research is fun. So, here are some hints, intended to start off hardened “do-it-yourselfers.”

Trains. Schedules for all routes can be consulted on this web site, but which is strangely (and randomly) incomplete:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/point_to_point/triprequest.htm

All meaningful trains serving Bilbao are discussed above, however. If you leave Bilbao by train, it is virtually certain that it will be on one of these.

Planes. A couple of relatively inexpensive airlines serve the Bilbao - Madrid route: Spanair and Iberia. (Even lower cost companies pop up periodically, and then go bankrupt and disappear.) Low prices are usually available on Sunday morning flights, which are not crowded. If you are trying to connect to a Sunday intercontinental flight from Madrid, you will have to use one of these.
Note that both of these “interline” with most international carriers, meaning that you can check your bags all the way through in Bilbao, and that the airline takes responsibility for you if you miss your Madrid connection. Your baggage will probably still get lost, but at least you have a right to complain.

If your destination is downtown Madrid, flying typically adds 50€ to 100€ to the cost of travelling, and doesn’t save time once you factor in terminal times. Plus which, the train trip is beautiful, and rather more comfortable, even in 2nd class.


If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.