Hey MM! Departure date is quickly arriving and we are finalizing details of our trip. I like your advice about the Train to San Se from Madrid. I agree that It would be more compfortable then the bus. I like the "Costa Vasca" night train (couchette) that arrives in San Se ~ 07:00.
HERE IS THE QUESTION, if possible, we will purchase the ticket all the way to Hendaya in France. You said you drove to Biarritz recently and perhaps you can GUESSTIMATE a distance from Hendaya to Bayonne (I think ~ 30 KM). Do you know of any busses that do the Hendaya - Bayonne route?? From Madrid we plan on "zipping up" to Bayonne for a couple of days this way.
Your advice is appreciated.

Thanks!!!

Hi ELECTRACITY!

I couldn't recall how far or how long it was between your two French cities so I went to ViaMichelin to look it up. It seemed this trip was windy and I don't recall at all HOW FAR it was from one to another and have difficulty remembering HOW LONG it too to get from one to another. Remember, as you read in my journal , I remember places we visited relative to the nearest meal. hehehe..

So according to the ViaMichelin site, from one to the other is 23 miles and should take about 29 minutes.

0 mi Hendaye (for 1 mi)
N111 for 0.4 mi
N111 for 0.9 mi
Bretelle A63 / N111 for 0.4 mi
Bordeaux
A63 / E05 / E70 / E80 for 15.9 mi
Exit 5, Bayonne, Anglet, Cambo-les-Bains, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port
Bretelle A63 / D932 for 1 mi
D932 for 0.3 mi
N263 for 1.3 mi
00h29 23 mi Bayonne (for 1.8 mi)
------------
As for buses between the two, I really don't know, I'm sorry, but I would imagine it to be a small, regional bus line. EDDIE seems to know a lot about País Vasco (which, by the way, includes this lower part of France). Maybe he knows. I have guide books for Northern Spain but they don't include Southern France. Sorry!

By the way, you can read a few decent paragraphs about the French Basque Region and the different cities/villages @ http://www.europarcs.com/BasqueGuide.asp . We used this to decide where to visit. These include Bayonne, Biarritz, Hendaye, St. Jean de la Luz, and many others. It's worth a look.

Here are the other pages I printed and took on the trip:

http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/countries/herald/02basque.html
http://www.idealspain.com/Pages/Places/SanSebastian.htm
http://www.idealspain.com/Pages/Places/Vitoria.htm

Good luck and have a WONDERFUL time in "Pays Basque"! It's a beautiful part of Spain. I loved it (but not quite as much as I loved Galicia).

Saludos, MadridMan

Years ago, I bussed it from San Sebastian to Biarritz, spent a few days in Biarritz and caught a bus back to San Sebastian (not Hendaye or Irun). I don't know about the distance but it seems like it took about an hour. Your problem is probably how frequently they run.

Thanks for all your advice!
I wrote the Hendaye (Hendaya) tourist office and told them I would be on the "Costa Vasca" (sleeper)train arriving from Madrid at 07:35. My concern connecting.... somehow on a bus to Bayonne. Well, they answered and said that right outside the train station there is a Bus Stop that has a bus leaving for Bayonne at "07:59". Needless to say I am THRILLED. Even if we do not make that bus, we can always catch the next one.
This may be useful info for those of you who need to get to the San Se, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne corner of the Basque country.
PS: We are taking a bus back to Madrid as follows: Bayonne, San Sebastien, Pamplona (stop a few days), Madrid. This ride is a lot of fun and very senic, I have done it several times.
Thanks and cheers! Agur!