A few months ago Justin and I finished a bucket list trip - hiking 124 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago with our baby and toddler! The Camino de Santiago is a famous pilgrimage trail with origins in the 9th century that has various routes, all of which end in the ancient city of Santiago de Compostela at the cathedral said to be the burial place of the disciple James. Our flight home post Camino involved a 6:00 am flight from Santiago de Compostela, so naturally, I looked into how to get to the airport in Santiago de Compostela prior to our trip as we’ve found that budget carriers in Europe (like Ryan Air) often fly out of little airports way outside the city center. Everything I read said that there is a bus to the airport that takes about 30 minutes with a stop very close to the cathedral. Simple enough. Well, when we actually reached Santiago de Compostela and looked up the bus schedule, we discovered that the bust doesn’t start running until 6:00 am, making our 4:00 am departure impossible. Furthermore, Santiago de Compostela doesn’t have other forms of public transit like a metro or train. Our only option left was to take a taxi. There is a taxi stand right beside the cathedral, so we asked a driver about catching a taxi the next morning at 4:00 am and he said that we’d have to call and make a reservation as the taxis don’t start waiting there until around 6:00 am. Our Spanish is fairly rudimentary so I was a little worried about calling a taxi company to make a reservation and wondered if someone at the visitor center near the cathedral would help us make a reservation. However, when we talked to the staff at the visitor center they simply provided us with a number for the taxi company and were not willing to help us make the reservation, stating that they were sure the staff at the taxi call center spoke English as Santiago de Compostela is a pretty big tourist destination. As such, I went ahead and called the 24 hour reservation line for Radio Taxi and promptly ended up in a conversation with a reservation agent who didn’t speak a word of English. Thankfully, growing up in a house with a Spanish speaking parent plus a couple of years of Duolingo paid off and I was able to make a reservation, including carseats for our 4 month old and 2 year old. The next morning at 4:05 am our taxi showed up! Here’s what you need to know if you too find yourself trying to catch an early morning flight in Santiago to Compostela before the bus starts running.
Tips for Reserving a Taxi in Santiago de Compostela
There are a couple of official taxi services in Santiago de Compostela. We used Radio Taxi. Their 24 hour reservation line can be reached at 981 56 92 92.
We got their number from the visitor center, so it wasn’t until later that we realized there is a “Book Online” option on Radio Taxi’s website. This would have been the much easier option for us and definitely a better option if you don’t speak Spanish as Google can translate the page for you. However, if you need an urgent reservation their website states you should call the reservation line.
If you call to make a reservation, be prepared to make the reservation in Spanish and know what your pickup address is. They also asked for a pick up name and phone number, how many passengers, and the ages of our children.
Radio Taxi will provide carseats free of charge if you let them know you have children and what their ages are. The carseats in our taxi looked appropriate for the ages of our kiddos (4 months and 2 years) and were installed and ready to go when the driver pulled up. I sat in the middle seat between the two carseats.
If you need a bigger vehicle Radio Taxi also has vans that can be reserved for up to 7 passengers.
The official taxis have a fixed rate for a trip to the airport. For Radio Taxi the rate was 23 euros for our one way trip, but it ended up being a total of 29 euros (so definitely take the public bus for just 1 euro per person if you can!) with taxes. You can pay with either cash or credit card.
At 4:00 am it only took 12 minutes to get to the airport from our lodging located right beside the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
The taxi stand where we discussed making a reservation with a taxi driver
If you’ve also taken a taxi on Santiago de Compostela, let us know what your experience was and if you have any other tips for our readers!