Route advise San Sebastian or Biarrtiz from the north
 

Planning a trip from the UK (via La Rochelle) to either Biarritz or San Sebastian. Seen a few posts from awhile back but after some up to date info. There's plenty of Restricted airspace along the coast line. The route to the east of Bordeaux also has a few low flying routes cutting across it.

What is the routing people have used? This will be weekday so expecting the military to be active.

I've done San Sebastian heading North to Poitier not all that long ago.

The CAS / DAs on the face of it are very intimidating. In practice I found that they are not on all the time, so a "night before" check on NOTAMs created a reasonably straightforward route through - I pretty much just did 2 straight lines - defined by a dog-leg inland to avoid the military airspace around Cazaux. The local controllers were also very helpful.

So my advice would be - plan a reasonably straightforward route, check NOTAMs, talk to ATC, and things should go fine.

Incidentally - I've not been to Biarritz, but San Sebastian was a lovely little town, friendly and helpful airport - lots of nice places to stay, eat and drink there. It being Spain, don't forget you'll need your flight plan, licence and passport every time you want to return airside.

G