AboutVíctor Díaz Expertise I live in Madrid,and travel frequently to Valencia. I have also travelled to many places all over spain, if haven't been there i'd try to help anyway providing my knowledge and links.
I enjoy trekking in the mountains, and know pyrinees, Picos de Europa and mountains in the center.
Question Hello, I have several questions in order to prepare to our two weeks trip to the Pyrenees from the 9th till 24th of SEP. We land in Bilbao and plan to go to San-Sebastion for two nights. from there probably to Parque Nacional de Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici and from there to the erea of Ordesa. My boyfriend and I are in our thirties, and not very experienced with hicking. I would like to have some tips from you about planning our trip. For example, does it make sense to take a car? we will probably take a tent with us and plan camping. What is the best way to get from one hicking route to the other? we wouldnt like to get stuck for a day because there are no buses, but it is also not very nice to pay for a car we dont use for a few days because we went hicking, and then to get back to the beginning of the route to pick up the car... What is the best way to get from San-sebastian forward?
Thank you very much for your help,
maya
Answer Hello Maya
Rent a car? i strongly recommend it. The places you are going to visit have not very good public transport. You will spend a lot of time realizing how to get to your planned destinations and waiting for the few buses that cover that area.
Also, many campings are not right near a bus stop, and you may need to walk a lot from the nearst bus stop to the camping site.
And, many important routes for hiking are not close to campings, and a car is needed to reach the starting points.
Also it will give you freedom to move directly from one valley to another and to visit towns in the area, not only to reach the trails.
May be there could be one or two days that you don't use it, but in general it would be better to drive rather than relying in public transport.
The only con is that you will need to plan routes that return to the place where you parked your car, but that's what i normally do and there is still plenty of routes to do.
For Aigues tortes i recommend to stay in two different places, in order to visit the west and east side of the park.
East side, there are many campings around Espot and at least one main trail from the parking of the east entrance to stany and refugee of Amitges http://reddeparquesnacionales.mma.es/en/parques/aiguestortes/index.htm
In the west entrance, there are several campings in the area, get your car to the west entrance parking, or use a jeep of the national park from Boi information center (last time i was there some years ago they offered this service, i didn't use it and walked from the parking)
following the main trail to Estany Llong.
another intersting trail is the one marked as 2 in this map http://reddeparquesnacionales.mma.es/en/parques/aiguestortes/guia_mapa.htm
Probably there are more interesting trails from the west area, but the main trail of the east is also highly recommendable, i see you have enough days to visit both areas.
Another places of interest in the area are the romanic churches at the Boi valley, specially the Tahull one. http://www.vallboi.com/en/
You could visit also vall de Aran, and even move there and do some trails, including the one marked as 4.
there are many campings. The acces to the national park parking area is closed in summer and can only get there with buses (frequent) from Broto, i don't know if in september the parking opens again or if the bus service is still the only way to get in the park.
ok i just have found that for 2009 in september:
1 al 13 Septiembre first bus to Ordesa:6:00 h, last bus to Ordesa:18:00 h, last bus returning to Torla:21:00 h
From the parking or Ordesa the main trail follows the river and most people get to the cascade Cola de Caballo(horse tail). This is the best trail in ths spanish pyrenees in my opinion. A must.
In the map of the site is marked as route 1. There are many other in the park to choose. http://reddeparquesnacionales.mma.es/en/parques/ordesa/itinerarios.htm
Other areas of interest that you could visit: Benasque (river Esera valley), valley of Hecho.
Maps:
I use to buy maps of the areas with the trails and some reocmmendations of routes. These maps are probably the best. You may find them at any kiosk or bookstore in the area. http://www.editorialalpina.com/
To get from San Sebastian to Espot (the farthest place to the east) ViaMichelin recommends driving via France, probably is the fastest and shortest route.
From there you could return to San Sebastian in several days as you detour to some valleys via Espot->Boi->Castejon de Sos->Ainsa->Torla->Biescas->Jaca (visit this town!)->Pamplona http://www.viamichelin.co.uk
