Lourdes Travel Forum

How long is the travel time between Lourdes and Barcelona via train? Thanks.

Not easy taking the train for this journey at all. You could go by bus :
http://www.mcrit.com/euram/documents/op_eurolines.pdf#search='Autocars%20Lourdes%20a%20Perpignan'
OR you could take a train from Lourdes to Hendaye then another train into Barcelona.

Thanks for the link. Will check it out.

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml

will give you train times for most european trains, and is the easiest rail site to navigate.

http://horarios.renfe.es/hir/ingles.html

is the Spanish railsite, which may give you fares as well

It's not a difficult journey by train, but does take 9 - 10+ hours (depending on train departure), with changes.

You will need to buy your ticket beforehand (at least some of the trains on each journey are reservation-only), but you can do that at Barcelona station (perhaps the day before).

Thanks for the info. Actually, it's my sis who'll be in Lourdes and she thought of making a "day" trip to Barcelona. Well, after receiving your replies, she might as well kiss her plan goodbye ;)

Thanks again!

Erm.....yes, a daytrip is not at all feasible.........did she not realise how far it is? :-)

Apparently not ;) She'll be in Lourdes on Aug. 30 and would like to catch the early evening procession. She has nothing planned on Aug. 31 before she flies back to UK on Sept. 1. Hence, she toyed with the idea of visiting Barcelona on her free day... Any suggestions on what she can do or where she can go on Aug. 31?

Don't know the area, but from looking at my map:

Carcassonne might just be feasible for a daytrip (around 3 hours on the train), and is a fascinating place (the castle was the inspiration for Disney's castle). I have a Carcassonne page.

Toulouse, Bayonne and Biarritz are all about 2 hours by train.

The bahn.de link will give train times, www.sncf.com times and fares (won't be much in comparison with UK train fares).

I can recommend Toulouse. It's 2 hours by train and a very pleasant city with plenty to see.

Bear in mind 31st August is a Sunday and many shops etc will be closed and trains are infrequent, so plan with care.

Again, thanks so much for your responses. Will start browsing on the places you suggested.

After taking your advises on staying in Lourdes and making a day trip to Toulouse, my sister was informed that the flights to Lourdes on the day she wanted are fully booked and her option is to fly to Paris and take a TGV to Lourdes that will take around 6 hours (is that correct?).

Given this scenario, she is now considering staying in Paris and just take a day trip to a place an hour or 2 by train. Versailles is out as we had been there before. She is considering Chartres and Rheims as they look close to Paris based on the map, but are they really are? How about Lisieux, how far is it by train? It seems a very small town and aside from the shrine/birthplace of St. Therese, what other activities can she do there?

Again, thanks in advance.

Yes, it takes 5-6 hours to Lourdes from Paris.

The French train service is www.sncf.com which will give you times and fares. An alternative (easier) site is

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

although it won't give you fares. Use 'Reims' not 'Rheims' on the bahn.de site search.

Chartres is about an hour away by train, Rheims about 45 minutes.

http://www.chartres-tourisme.com/pages/en/index.php

http://www.ville-reims.fr/index.php?id=721

I haven't been to Lisieux but the tourist information site:

http://en.lisieux-tourisme.com/In-Lisieux,1,0,110.html

might help.

The other options will offer more to see/do, I think.

Thanks, thanks so much for your reply and tips :) I forwarded the site you mentioned to my sis.