How to Get to León

The city of León is located in a fluvial terrace caused by the confluence of the Bernesga and Torio rivers, with a height of 840 meters above the sea’s level. It is situated in the approximate centre of the province and it is in a strategical place of the Peninsula’s North-east, since you have to pass León if you are travelling to Galicia or Asturias.

In order to get to León, great transportation infrastructures have been created such as railways or roads. In this way, the communication between nearby autonomous communities and the rest of the cities forming the Peninsula is facilitated.

It is worth to mention that León also has an airport, being its flights mostly domestic.

By Car

If you are planning to visit León by car, you may be interested in the diverse alternatives available that are explained in this section. Getting to León by car from any spot of Spain is really easy, since it has national roads, motorways, and highways connecting León with the most important Spanish cities.

Regarding this, León has four viable possibilities depending on the place of departure:

  • From the South, through the motorway A-6 (Madrid-Coruña), reaching Benavente (Zamora), take the diversion to the motorway A-66 and, once you are approaching León, there are two routes: the ring-road LE-20 or taking the detour 149 in Onzonilla (León).
  • From the North of Spain, it can be through the AP-66 Huerna’s turnpike and taking the  N-120 national road. There is also the possibility of taking the CL-623 road.
  • From the West of Spain, through the A-6 motorway until reaching to Astorga (León) and continuing through the  AP-71 turnpike. The other option is continuing to the detour of the N-120 national road.
  • From the East of Spain, the best access is the Burgos’ A-231 highway, continuing through the national road N-601 and taking the ring-road of León.

By Bus

If you are considering taking the bus to get to León, it is a good alternative since it is a convenient and economical choice. There are several buses that arrive to León from the most important cities of Spain.

Its bus station is situated in a central location of the city, close to the Gúzman el Bueno square.

The company that operates in this station is ALSA and its destinations are: Badajoz, Logroño, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Albacete, Alicante, Benidorm, Denia, Bilbao, Victoria, San Sebastián, Vigo, Pontevedra, Orense, Cáceres, Coruña, Lugo, Santander, Valladolid, Oviedo, Gijón, and Madrid (including Madrid’s airport).

Through ALSA’s website iyou can check schedules, routes, and book tickets (a discount is offered when the booking is 15 days before).

By Train

There are two options to get to the city of León by train:

  1. FEVE’s Station, known by León’s people as “Matallana’s Station”. It is located in Padre Isla’s Avenue. It has a narrow-gauge trains service, making commuter routes and making several stops in León’s villages such as Matallana, Cistierna, or Boñar, with last stop in Guardo (Palencia). There is also available a regional line with the same route as that of the commuter trains, but reaching to Bilbao. You can check schedules and prices in FEVE.

  1. Renfe’s Train Station. It is the most important in the city and the arriving point of the most part of the tourists that have León as destination. It has connections with Madrid, Barcelona, Vigo, La Coruña, Alicante, and Gijón. You can check the schedules and prices in RENFE’s website.

By Airplane

León’s Airport is situated in the municipality of Valverde de la Virgen, which is 6 km from León’s downtown. It is an airport of medium size and it counts with renovated installations.

Rome and Paris are the international destinations available in this airport; the national destinations are: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Ibiza, Tenerife Norte, Palma de Mallorca, Menorca, and Málaga.

If you wish to find flights more quickly, we provide you a search engine for flights.