justlaz

I have an upcoming holiday in May where we are staying a few nights in San Sebastian and then a few nights in Bordeaux. I currently have a car rental from the Bilbao airport and a drop off at the Bordeaux train station, however the rental cost with the one way destination fee comes out to almost $1300 (!) since we will drive from San Sebastian to Bordeaux. Obviously this is an insane price to pay for a car rental over 5 days, but I'm having trouble finding viable alternatives because there's not really any train routes that directly connect from San Sebastian to Bordeaux.

The only alternative I have is to rent a car in Bilbao airport (BIO), return to San Sebastian airport (EAS), somehow take a cab from San Sebastian airport to the Hendaye train station in France to Bordeaux and rent a car in Bordeaux - This save me about $300-$400 which includes the 2 car rentals, cab ride and train ride from Hendaye. Logistically this could be a major PITA and I'd kind of rather pay the extra cost just to save the stress and headache.

Anyone have any alternative suggestions? Or anyone have experience crossing the French border from the San Sebastian airport?

mlin32

There's reasons for what you are seeing.

A one-way rental into another country is always extremely expensive. Imagine renting a car in the USA and returning it in México......

Train services don't really work between Espagne and France for a good reason : there is a break of gauge in the railroads (Iberian versus standard gauge). Only exception is high-speed rail (TGV/AVE between Barcelone-Perpignan).

To solve your problem, there are intercity bus services (like Blablabus) that run between Saint-Sébastian and Bayonne or even the aéroport Biarritz/Bayonne, from where you do a one-way rental or catch the TER/TGV.

Advice : Driving is very expensive right now with fuel (diesel or petrol) costing 2€/litre and consider also that the autopista and autoroute between Saint Sébastien and Bordeaux are tolled.

Marambio

Your best friend is the local train (Euskotren Topo) that runs between San Sebastián and Hendaye every 30 minutes or so. At least when I was there a few years ago the schedule showed Basque names, so look for "Donostia" and "Hendaia" stations. From Hendaye there are several TGVs and TERs that run up to Bordeaux every day.

On BIO-EAS - maybe better ask in the Spain forum, but I think there are also trains and otherwise buses (ALSA) are pretty good in Spain.

justlaz

Thanks! I think we are going to end up doing 2 separate rentals, one in BIO to San Sebastian, then take that local train from San Sebastian to Hendaia, then TGV to Bordeaux and then another rental in Bordeaux. I only found out about Euskotren just yesterday because I didn't find any routes on Renfe, which I guess is a completely separate entity. Saving about $600+gas doing this, appreciate the help!

Marambio

Yes, Euskotren is a separate company owned by the Basque government which operates commuter/local trains (the line between San Sebastián and Hendaye is, technically speaking, part of the San Sebastián metro). For some reason their schedule doesn't appear in independent websites and they have no interconnectivity with Renfe or SNCF - meaning that whenever you Google train links between France and Spain, you'll only find the TGV to Barcelona.

NickB

A good resource for info on cross-border train travel is the man in seat 61 website. The relevant page for San Sebastian to Bordeaux would be this one.

kerouac2

In any case, yes, you want to leave your rental car in Spain and get a different rental car once you are in France, if you really need one. But you should really just take the train to Bordeaux.