Pyrenees Trip - Airport, Direction, and other tips

[yoni162]

Greetings all,
Planning a Pyrenees driving trip this coming Sep (optimistic), and was hoping for some insights on some specific questions. I did search & go over this thread (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=45&t=1386565&i=0) which was great.

Question 1 - Airport
As opposed to the majority here I guess, we are not arriving from Europe, but flying in..the main servicing airports I see are Toulouse (closest), Bordeaux (a bit farther) & Barcelona (forces you to drive the Pyrenees East to West, and probably a one-way rental. Or a roundtrip which doesn't make much sense..). Toulouse seems the most reasonable, however the rental car selection seems pretty dull. Barcelona Airport has very interesting cars So, any suggestions on that matter? Recommended car rental in Toulouse perhaps?

Question 2 - Direction
This is maybe simpler. Which direction is in your mind best to drive the Pyrenees across? One reason I'm inclined towards West to East is not having the sun in our eyes in the afternoon heading west. Any other recommendations here or there? Of course it's a semi-related to the previous question.

Appreciate the help.

[Ussrcossack]

Not a flying person,

Would Perpignan or Carcassone be an option

Great driving in the Pyrenees

[jimmydash]

I’ve motorcycled through the Pyrenees a few times. The area is fantastic to visit. Scenery, food, roads and people all superb. If you fly into Barcelona I’d suggest driving up to Puigcerda/Bourg Madame and then turning west. You can hop back and forward across the French/Spanish border enjoying many quaint villages along the way. Pamplona is wonderful for bars, restaurants, history, it has an airport too. From there you must visit San Sebastian it’s a must for its restaurants on the shore. Also, if time permits the drive up to Riano in the Picos mountains is world class unforgettable.

[omniflow]

jimmydash said:

From there you must visit San Sebastian it’s a must for its restaurants on the shore.

This - 100% this.

As well as an amazing Tapas Bar scene, San Sebastian has a total of 17 Michelin stars - consisting of 3 * 3 Star restaurants, 1 * 2 Star restaurant and 6 * 1 Star restaurants.

[yoni162]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the tips! Heard a lot about San Sebastian..
So Perpignan/Carcasson are fairly small airports, I think for us only the bigger ones are relevant..
Currently the plan is landing in Toulouse->San Sebastian, driving the Pyrenees going east & back to Toulouse..However Toulouse airport car rentals seem to offer fairly boring cars. Anyone ever rent from any other luxury/sports car rentals in Toulouse & can share their experience?

[Stephanie Plum]

Try and spend a night in Cadaques. Beautiful town.

[yoni162]

Noted Stephanie, thanks

[jimmydash]

I've mosty used Avis Preferred for car rentals, it's free to register. They've delivered cars from their total fleet collection to airports for me in the past. If I remember correctly I selected the car from their central website then indicated where I wanted to pick it up from.

[jimmydash]

...............and Toulouse is a great city. Worth spending at least one night in the centre, near Place Wilson. Restaurants are terrific and inexpensive - 3 universities there.

[smifffymoto]

Bordeaux is closer and a great city for a night or 2.
Make sure you go through Ariege,a real sleepy forgotten departement of France.It’s a place people go to lose themselves and bow out from society.
The views from Col dAgnes,Col de la Core and Col de Port are stunning.If you ferl energetic you could walk up Mont Valier,the highest peak.

I love Ariege,I have lived,worked and had a holiday home there,it’s a special place.

[yoni162]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the tips. Jimmy I'll try what you said with Avis.

[Desiderata]

I (used to) visit the Pyrenees regularly.
Girona (Barcelona) airport usually works best for us.

Edited by Desiderata on Monday 15th February 20:58

[Carbon Sasquatch]

smifffymoto said:

Bordeaux is closer......

Maybe ever so slightly closer to the San Sebastian end - but a lot further from the Perpignan end.

Toulouse is a good shout if you want a round trip & drop the car back where you collected it from.

If you'd rather one way - Ryanair used to fly to Biaritz - not sure they do any more though.

Easyjet (I think) used to do Pau

Not sure when/if the little airports will make a comeback.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

As for other tips - Andorra - make sure you arrive with an empty fuel tank as fuel is cheap - as are cigarettes & alcohol.

I love the place - so much so that I've not explored the rest of the Pyrenees enough - roll on retirement.....

[Whoozit]

It all depends where exactly you want to spend time. It's not a straight line route, getting around the mountains could involve a 100km+ north-south transit each time, at average speeds of 50-60kph. Better to plot out where you want to go, then connect the dots with the maximum number of M/N/A roads. The A roads aren't all that fast.

If you're hell bent on hiring a good car, then you're stuck with major airports. Alternative would be to drive down, or take the 24 hour ferry to Bilbao, then you're at leisure in your own car.

I spent several years around the Spanish side so ask away.

[DB4DM]

Andorra can be a pain, 5 seconds to enter from France, 2 hours to exit into Spain. Agree Cadaques is lovely and the Dali museum worth a visit. At the other end, St Jean de Luz is nicer than Biarritz imho

[yoni162]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

Toulouse is a good shout if you want a round trip & drop the car back where you collected it from.

Yeah that's why it made sense to book from there instead of planning one way flights & rentals.

Carbon Sasquatch said:

As for other tips - Andorra - make sure you arrive with an empty fuel tank as fuel is cheap - as are cigarettes & alcohol.

Will keep that in mind

Whoozit said:

It all depends where exactly you want to spend time. It's not a straight line route, getting around the mountains could involve a 100km+ north-south transit each time, at average speeds of 50-60kph. Better to plot out where you want to go, then connect the dots with the maximum number of M/N/A roads. The A roads aren't all that fast.

If you're hell bent on hiring a good car, then you're stuck with major airports. Alternative would be to drive down, or take the 24 hour ferry to Bilbao, then you're at leisure in your own car.

I spent several years around the Spanish side so ask away.

The route is sort of a zig-zagging across the border, starting from San Sebastian & finishing near Masella (trying to upload a picture), although after the comments here we might make it a bit more east. Of course starting from & ending at Toulouse AP. At least that was the original plan.
The route comes out at ~1,600 KM for which I've allocated 6 full days (not incl. flight days), so that's ~270 KM/day (5-6 driving hrs.).
That's until we saw the available car selection at Toulouse AP which made us think about changing course (and airports), but it complicates things logistically.
Still looking around for alternative places to hire (interesting) cars in Toulouse. Anyone have experience with roadstr.fr?

[Northernboy]

Have a look at Tarbes and Pau airports too. We fly in and out of Tarbes often (well, when travel is allowed), and it’s a great airport to get in and out of quickly, and right by the mountains.

[Whoozit]

Give your route, I'd look at flying in to Barcelona if that's the best car option, doing a one way rental to San Sebastian or Bilbao. The first leg of getting to Andorra or Viella takes 3-4 hours, then you pick up from there.

[yoni162]

OK, just checked this option. Interestingly the costs are similar (Spain rental is cheaper), but seems the one-way rentals prevents hiring some specific cars & limits the selection, which pretty much makes the added logistic hassle not that much worth it.
I did look at a Barcelona round trip - the pro is a (much) better car selection, con is a limited route since we'll need to come back to Barcelona AP (won't reach San Sebastian or even close to it).
We'll need to think about it. Really appreciate all the tips guys.