Santiago de Compostela Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

From Santiago’s bus station, Castromil (902 29 29 00) runs hourly services north to A Coruña (€6.15, one hour) and west to Noia (€2.95, 45 minutes) and Muros (€5.70, two hours), and up to nine times daily south to Pontevedra (€4.95, one hour) and Vigo (€7.25, 1½ hours). Castromil also goes up to 10 times daily to Ourense (€9.20, two hours), and up to five times to Cambados and O Grove (€6, two hours).

ALSA (902 42 22 42) operates up to six buses daily to Madrid (€38 to €53, seven to nine hours), two or three each to Oviedo (€23 to €35, 5½ to 6½ hours), Salamanca (€22 to €27, 6¼ to 7½ hours), Cáceres and Seville, and one each to Barcelona (€62, 16½ hours) and Porto (€29, 3¼ hours) and Lisbon (€41, 8½ hours) in Portugal. ALSA also travels to Paris, London, Brussels, Amsterdam and Zürich.

Further daily services head for places along the Costa da Morte and Rías Baixas, and destinations to the east such as Lugo, Santander, San Sebastián and Burgos.

Car & motorcycle

Tolls on the AP9 autopista (tollway) are €4.50 to A Coruña (64km) and €3.80 to Pontevedra (57km). Parallel to the AP9, slower and free of cost is the N550. Street parking anywhere near the centre of the city is difficult, but several pay car parks are dotted around the periphery of the old town.

Train

You can travel to/from Madrid (Chamartín station; €42.20) on a daytime Talgo (eight hours) or an overnight trenhotel (nine hours).

Trains run almost hourly to A Coruña (from €3.60, one hour), and to Pontevedra and Vigo (€5.45 to €7.40, 1¼ to 1¾ hours). There are six or more trains daily to Ourense (from €6.60, 1½ to two hours) and one to Irún, on the French border, via León, Burgos and San Sebastián.

Santiago is the usual finishing point of rail holidays on El Transcantábrico.

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Air

Santiago de Compostela’s Lavacolla airport (981 54 75 00) is 11km east of the city. Ryan‑air flies daily to/from London Stansted, and Air Berlin flies to/from several German airports. Iberia flies up to six times daily to Madrid, three times to Barcelona and Bilbao, and once each to Amsterdam and Brussels. Air Europa and Spanair also serve Madrid, and Spanair and Vueling offer further direct flights to/from Barcelona.

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