Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[NAPoulos44]

My bike shop has offered to give me a hard case bike box for the journey, but I will not be heading back to St. Jean after my camino is over, is there a way to have the box shipped to Santiago so it is there waiting for me, or would you suggest sticking with a cardboard box that is easily replaced...do those really protect the bike?
Thanks.

[sillydoll]

You might find answers about boxes here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Santiago_Bicicleta/

or a pilgrim's web page here:

http://interam.com/camino/

If you can read French:

http://interam.com/camino/

Buen Camino,

[ivar]

Hi NAPoulos44,

I know Iberia uses those card board boxes when they ship bikes, so I presume that this is sufficient. I have not had any personal experience with this though. If you fly with RyanAir, I don't think they have boxes (you need to bring your own).

If you are looking for a place in Santiago to get such a box, I would suggest
Tour’ n’ Ride in new town Santiago (5 minute walk from old town). They ship bikes all over Spain (they ship bikes around Spain, you rent it and bike it back). I would assume that they have such boxes or that they would know where to get one.

Find more information on Tour 'n' 'Ride (address as well) here:
http://www.tournride.com/portal/index.php?&idioma=2

Un saludo,
Ivar

[ivar]

Me again... I realized I did not answer your first question about shipping your box to Santiago.

I know pilgrims ship "poste restante" to the Santiago post office (ship it to yourself and pick it up at the post office). but I do not know if this also works for such a big thing as a bike box.

More on "poste restante" here:
viewtopic.php?p=609

...still think the card-board box seems like a better option... any advice from other bikers?

[William Marques]

My bike shop has offered to give me a hard case bike box for the journey, but I will not be heading back to St. Jean after my camino is over, is there a way to have the box shipped to Santiago so it is there waiting for me, or would you suggest sticking with a cardboard box that is easily replaced...do those really protect the bike?

I would suggest going with the cardboard box alternative. Your local bike shop should have plenty of them as they are what bikes are sent to them from the manufacturer in. Although not as strong as a bike box they are pretty good and the manufacturers would not use them if they were useless. Airport baggage handlers can destroy anything but the convenience of the cardboard solution outweighs the risk in my opinion.

Tour 'n' 'Ride in Santiago who Ivar mentions are a reputable shop used to packing bikes for transport.

Buen Camino
William