Bus travel from France to Spain isn't the quickest way around (Lyon to Barcelona, which should take six hours by car, takes 11 hours by bus!), but the bus reaches far more destinations than the train from France to Spain.
To buy bus tickets from France to Spain, you must visit the French Eurolines site, eurolines.fr. Unfortunately (though unsurprisingly if you have ever visited France), the site is only in French. However, I speak no French and had no problems using the site.
How to Book Your Bus from France to Spain with Eurolines
- Visit eurolines.fr
- Choose between one-way ('Aller simple') or round trip ('Aller/Retour')
- Choose 'Espagne' (Spain) as your 'Pays d'arrivée' (Country of Arrival)
- Choose Your Desired Destination in Spain by selecting from the drop-down menu 'Ville d'arrivée'.
- Choose Your Departure Point in France by selecting from the drop-down menu 'Ville d'depart'. Unfortunately you can't do the search the logical way round - it doesn't let you say where you're starting from and then see where you are able to go!
To help you work out where you can and can't go, I've done a list of Bus Routes from France to Spain.
- Choose 'reservez' to reserve your ticket on the pop-up window (if this doesn't appear, check to see if your pop-up blocker is stopping it). If it says "Il n'y a pas de départ planifié pour la date de départ souhaitée" at the top of the page, then there was no bus on your selected day. The site will give you some alternative dates.
- Input your personal details, accept the conditions and choose if you want your tickets sent by post or if you want to print your tickets. The latter is better (and your only option if traveling within 14 days). Printing your tickets ("J'accepte les Conditions générales de ventes") is the default option.
- Pay for your tickets
- Print the email confirmation and take it to the window when you 'check in'
