Luxury route
El Transcantábrico
San Sebastián → Santiago de Compostela · Spain
Spain’s first hotel-train (1983): an eight-day, metre-gauge cruise along the green Cantabrian coast from the Basque Country to Galicia.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from 2 OpenStreetMap relations, their own nodes end to end: relation 6634816 (114 km), relation 2063423 (298 km) — 413 km of the route between them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 82.2% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 46 m); the longest stretch away from it is 10.5 km
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: Renfe — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the El Transcantábrico?
The El Transcantábrico runs 1,000 km from San Sebastián to Santiago de Compostela.
How long does the El Transcantábrico take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 8 days for the 1,000 km. The line's top service speed is 60 km/h.
Who runs the El Transcantábrico?
Renfe, with Metre-gauge saloon cars.
How old is the El Transcantábrico?
The line has been in service since 1983. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
More luxury routes
- Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
Belmond’s restored Art Deco sleepers of the 1920s–30s: black tie encouraged as the Alps slide past the champagne bar.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rocky Mountaineer
All-daylight luxury through the Canadian Rockies: glass-domed coaches, an overnight hotel stop and the Kicking Horse Pass.
Wikipedia ↗ - The Blue Train
A five-star hotel on rails: butlers, marble bathrooms and the Karoo semi-desert rolling past for 1,600 km.
Wikipedia ↗ - The Ghan
Named for the Afghan cameleers: 2,979 km straight through the Red Centre, completed to Darwin only in 2004.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in Spain.