Southern Cross

Southern Cross - 3 weeks
France, Spain and a bit of Portugal (Loire Valley, the Basque Country & Galicia)

On this page, you'll find...

a description of the trip,
a thumbnail itinerary with links to the detailed region-by-region routes that it follows, and...
...prices and departure dates.

	Our Trips
	Overview Map of all of our routes Departure Calendar of our regular trips Guest-Initiated Trips Self-Guided Trips Charter Trips





	What's Included in the Trip Cost Accommodation Meals The Bike (usually) Transport within the Trip A Friendly Coordinator What's Not Included Additional Services you can add to the bike trip. Baggage Transfer Bike-Related Stuff “Access Packages” Reaching and / or leaving your trip.

	Related Travel Services Trip Prices Ready to Sign Up? Info for Trip Members Who Are We? Our Trip Philosophy Where Are We? Contact Us Home

At the time of the crusades, a Santiago pilgrimage was as meritorious as one to Jerusalem, and a heck of a lot safer. Pilgrims, Europe’s first tourists, gathered in Paris’s Latin Quarter, where the Cluny Museum is decorated with the iconic scallop shell of Santiago’s patron St. James. They then beat a path from abbey to monastery, cathedral to convent, across France and Spain, and to magnificent Santiago. Where they whooped it up for a while, and then went home.

Not much has changed. Santiago is still a hopping town. We loosely follow the historic trail, through the Loire Valley, the Pyrenees and the green lands of northern Spain, as we bike and train over roads still often travelled on foot.

En route are French castles, kings and cuisine; the beautiful beaches, green mountains, and lively nightlife of the Basque Country; the fresh wines and wild, undiscovered scenery of the Miño Valley.... A study in contrast of Europe’s best and least known.

***Southern Cross***
2008 Dates	Baggage Services Offered* (optional)	Trip Price
June 7 - June 29	Daily Half Lite	$4,975 US or C 3,195€ Prices in $ and € do not include precisely the same things. Click here for details, and for prices of optional extras (private single rooms, baggage services, “Access Packages”).
Aug. 30 - Sept. 21	Daily Half Lite
* At least 4 riders must subscribe to a given baggage service for it to operate (except for Lite, which always operates on this trip). Services already confirmed to be operating appear in bold. If the “Daily” service is confirmed, the “Half” service may no longer be offered to future sign-ups, though it will be provided to those who have previously selected it. See here for a discussion of our baggage services.

**Thumbnail view of the trip’s itinerary.**
For details within each region, click on the name under “Region Visited”...
Days	Days of the Week	Region Visited	Details
1 - 7		The Loire Valley	See Access Package for options to reach Blois
	Sa & Su		Blois, Chambord
	Mo & Tu		Châteaux & Trogs
	We - Fr		Tours, Chinon & the Villandry Gardens
8	Sa	Train to the Spanish border
8 - 15		Basque Country
	Sa - Mo		The French Basque Country, Biarritz
	Mo - We		The Pyrenees, San Sebastian
	Th - Sa		Costa Vasca, Gernika
	Sa		Bilbao
16	Su	Train to Galicia, with a lunchtime stop on the plains of Castille
16 - 23		Galicia
	Su, Mo		Monforte, the Rio Sil
	Mo - Th		The Rio Miño
	Fr & Sa		The Atlantic Coast
	Sa & Su		Santiago Trip disbands on Sunday. Sunday night included in the Access Package (in one place or another) to get you to a Monday flight or ongoing project.
24	Mo	Travel Date