Lourdes Travel Forum

We will be visiting Rome and would like to go to Lourdes as a side. We have 5 days. Do you have recommendations on the cheapest, safest way to travel (plane, boat, train, bus, half and half) and route? If possible would like to stop in Paris one of the directions. Is Nevers near and is it possible to visit from Lourdes and how would we get there? Is there a convent which has room and/or board, hotel reasonably priced? If train which choice, euro rail pass or point to point. Since our $ has shrunk quite a bit we need to do this the most cost effective way. Thank you for your suggestions.

Air France fly Rome-Lourdes, but it won't be cheap.

Train will be a cheaper option, but will take quite some time (24 hours or so, with several changes). Stopping en route in Paris might well make sense.

Look at

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml for basic timetables/routes

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html for Italian trains/fares

www.sncf.co.uk for french trains/fares in English

www.venere.com will be worthwhile investigating for accommodation in Paris (and Lourdes).

I do not suggest that you buy (or even consider) the Eurail pass. It is highly unlikely that you will save any money by doing so. Buying point-to-point tickets as you go will be cheaper. You would be sensible to buy them the day before so that you can be sure of a seat on those trains which require reservations but you can get them at any time (as long as there is a seat on the trains previously mentioned).

Do you have five days for Lourdes or five days all together? If it's five days for Lourdes, I would take the train with a stop in Paris. But if it's five days for the whole trip, I would fly there.
This year Lourdes is celebrating the 150th anniversary and some million pilgrims are expected.Be prepared for it to be very busy!
This website gives you a first impression and also some information:
http://www.lourdes2008.com/index_en.html

Try ryanair.com now, they have sales. From Rome Ciampino you can fly to Brussels Charleroi, and then on to Pau near Lourdes. It will cost you less than 100 Euro one way.

All of your replies are good suggestions and I'll do further study later today.
Travel is inclusive in the 5 days. How far is Pau from Lourdes?

Would a suggestion be to wait and buy the train ticket in person rather than online? Are train tickets less expensive at the station? Are there travel agencies in Rome/Lourdes which I could get the tickets from? I think there is an American Express in Rome.

Last night I was looking at taking a train to Milan then to Lourdes. Seemed more direct than Rome to Paris to Lourdes but there was no price shown and it may have been sold out. Then looked into Ryan Air from FCO to Barcelona and train to Lourdes. That didn't seem like a good idea either, long layovers.

Will check Ryan Air again to Pau. Is there a train from Pau and how close are the train/airport/bus stations in Pau?

I doubt if the train was booked out: it's more likely to be a site glitch (unless you were looking at one which departed almost immediately). However, if you were looking on the bahn.de website then they rarely post fares for inter-country travel unless departing from Germany. You need to look at the Italian/French rail sites for that.

You can easily buy tickets from the railway stations: there really is no need to seek out travel agencies. Buying ahead online will, sometimes, get a cheaper fare (advance fares are sometimes cheaper, and these are what you might find online) but I doubt that tickets will be posted to you abroad.

Nevers is over 400miles away from Lourdes. It is between Lourdes and Paris on the railway line so may be a possibility on a trip Lourdes -Paris. Unfortunately, 5 days means you will probably have to fly Rome-Pau to fit it all in.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187171-i780-k506395-Transport_from_Pau_to_Lourdes-Lourdes_Midi_Pyrenees.html
See this!

Thank you all for your suggestions, especially Leics for suggesting looking into point to point trains. That ended up saving us money vs the railpass. Two trains were Prem fares but that ended up working out because we changed two of the regular train reservations.

We flew from Rome to Paris and then discovered the Paris Metro and train system. Took a few days to figure it all out but fortunately I booked the train travel with extra time between trains in case we got lost. We traveled to Nevers, Liseux and Lourdes with Paris as the home base and yes we did do it in 5 days. All train stations were within walking distance to our destinations and hotels. I used Trip Adivser and Venere for hotel suggestions.

Glad you had a good time.........and that you saved money! Eurail passes are simply not the bargain they once were:checking point-to-point fares first always makes sense.

We are visiting Paris in May 2009. Would like to take a day trip to Nevers. From reading the responses it seems you could take the train (90 min) to Nevers. Is it possible to walk to the St. Bernadette's shrine from the train station? As we only have one day, we are hoping to do this trip in a day and then retunr to Paris. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

http://www.sainte-bernadette-nevers.com/anglais/frsanctu.htm

will give you details in English about the shrine, address, opening times etc.

If you put the address (34, rue Saint Gildard) into:

http://france.map-vista.com/nevers-map

and click search you will get a streetmap of Nevers. It certainly looks as though the shrine is within feasible walking distance of the station, although you may prefer to take a taxi (or possibly a bus....ask at the station when you arrive).

www.sncf.com will give you times and fares of Paris>Nevers trains. Check nearer your visit, as both may have changed a little by then.

Thank you LEICS for your reply. Will check out the suggested websites.