London ► Pamplona, Bilbao
Day 1, travel from London to Paris by Eurostar, leaving London St Pancras at 10:24, arriving Paris Gare du Nord 13:50.
Eurostar has two cafe-bars, power sockets at all seats & free WiFi. Plus & Premier fares include breakfast.
Cross Paris by metro or taxi to the Gare Montparnasse.
Day 1, travel from Paris to Hendaye by TGV Duplex Océane, leaving Paris Montparnasse at 16:11, arriving Hendaye 20:47.
This runs daily except Saturdays. On Saturdays, leave London 08:01 then the 14:05 TGV from Paris to Hendaye, arriving 18:47.
The impressive double-deck TGV Duplex Océane has a cafe-bar, power sockets at all seats & free WiFi, see the TGV photos above. I recommend an upper deck seat for the best views, any seat number above 60 is upper deck.
Times vary so check for your date at www.raileurope.com or www.thetrainline.com. Hendaye is on the French side of the Spanish border.


Day 1, travel from Hendaye to San Sebastian Amara on the excellent air-conditioned Euskotren metro, www.euskotren.eus.
At Hendaye, you simply walk out of the main station exit and the tiny Euskotren station is to your right in the corner of the forecourt, see the photo above. Buy a ticket from the machines or staffed ticket office, go through the ticket gates and hop on the next train. The station only has one platform and all trains go to San Sebastian, a 37 minute journey. Metro trains leave every 30 minutes until about 23:00. The station in San Sebastian is San Sebastian-Donostia Amara, called San Sebastian-Donostia on the information screens but plain 'Amara' on the station name-boards when you get there. The final destination of the train is usually shown as Lasarte. See the Euskotren photos above.
Stay overnight in San Sebastian, a lovely city, worth a longer stop. The Pension San Ignacio Centro is just 10 minutes walk from San Sebastian Renfe station and gets great reviews. If you want somewhere in the old town try the Pension Garibai or Pension Alameda.


Day 2 for Bilbao:

Hop on the hourly narrow gauge train from San Sebastian Amara station to either Bilbao's Zazpi Kaleak station (journey time 2h29 from Amara) or Bilbao's Matiko station (the train's final stop, 2h35 from Amara), fare €7.00, buy a ticket at the station.

The trains used on this route are similar to the Hendaye-San Sebastian trains pictured above, along a route with some good countryside and coastal views. In Bilbao, Matiko station is 18 minutes walk from the Guggenheim Museum, Zazpi Kaleak station is further from the Guggenheim (22 minutes walk) but closer to both the old quarter and the 19th century new town.

You can check train times & fares from San Sebastian to Bilbao at www.euskotren.eus, selecting Donostia-San Sebastian and Amara-Donostia, then Bilbao and Matiko-Bilbao. The adult one-way fare is shown as ida.

Incidentally, you can just about travel from London to Bilbao in a day if you leave London early, meaning around 07:00, but as the last train to Bilbao leaves Amara around 19:50 I've assumed an overnight stop here.

Alternatively, there are buses from San Sebastian to Bilbao run by www.alsa.es. The buses run every hour or two, journey time 1h30, fare €8 one way, €16 return