Thanks for your imput in my other threads.
Have any of you taken the bus from Seville to Granada? (Or from Granada to Seville)? Did the driver stop at a cafe and let you go inside to use the bathroom? 3 hours seems too long to go without emptying myself.
I know the train would probably be a more rational choice. The train ticket is €43.90. It takes about 2 hours and 39 minutes. The ALSA bus is just under €12. It takes about 3 hours.
We took the ALSA bus from Cordoba to Granada, and from Granada to Malaga. I think the first ride was 2.5 hours, and the other ride was 1 or 1.5 hours. The driver did not make any stops. Does their website state they don't make bathroom stops for drives that are 3 hours long?
I've taken the bus from Seville to Granada - no bathroom stops to my remembrance. Some buses have bathrooms onboard, but it sounds like not all, at least for Alsa - their website says "over 50%" of comfort class buses have bathrooms, which I think is what runs that route.
We took the bus from Seville to Granada a few years ago when there was no train. I don’t remember whether it stopped or not but I am sure there was a bathroom on board.
We were very impressed with the bus.. it was very nice and had wifi. It was our first time taking the bus in Spain
I've been on Spanish buses that had toilets, but they were kept locked. I'm not suggesting that all are, but the one on your bus might turn out to be. And not all buses have toilets.
I was on chartered bus trips in Lithuania. The bus physically had a bathroom but we weren't supposed to use it. I remember overhearing and somebody wanting to use it and somebody else trying to ask the driver to open the locked bathroom door. I took long distance buses in Greece. On at least one bus route in Greece, the driver stopped at a cafe and let us go inside. The cafe had a working men's room. In Europe the buses physically have a bathroom. But the drivers and/or the bus companies do what they can to inhibit riders from using the bathrooms on the buses. I guess their worst nightmare would be having to figure out how to clean out the tank where the body waste goes. Not that reasons should matter. I read somewhere that bus drivers in Europe are "supposed to" be "required" to take a break every 2 hours. I know that the train would be more rational. Maybe I wouldn't even need a bathroom for the bus route. Now I wonder if even the train has a bathroom.
Do any of you remember being on any long distance bus in Spain that the driver stopped somewhere to let riders use a bathroom during?
Yes, certainly comfort breaks are made on long bus rides. There are smokers on the buses, and they want a break, too. It's just that I had that one bus trip...
Virtually every regular European train I've been on has had toilets. I say "regular" because I don't think the little Yellow Train in the (French) Pyrenees had them, and I can't guarantee that commuter-rail cars are so equipped, because trips on them would be rather short; some are a bit like subways that run above ground. Occasionally one of the toilets on a regular train is out of commission and locked, but generally you can just walk into the next car to find a working toilet.
Back to the bus situation: It's not uncommon for a bus to be stopped at a town of some size for about five minutes as people retrieve luggage from the hold and new passengers put their luggage in the hold and show their tickets. If you're ready to hop off the bus the moment the driver opens the door, you might have time. Just say "toilet" in the local language as you hop off the bus. No promises on this; I can't 100% guarantee the bus won't abandon you. But it's what I did on the Granada-Valencia bus ride.
I am seeing train fares from Euro 23.50
where are you looking?
I have used a bus several times in southern Spain, there are bathrooms on the bus. The trouble is finding them. They are located in the next to the exit door, mid bus. A little door that you must bend down to enter. I would have never found it except a local used it. J
renfe .com shows one train ticket for 43.90 of 50.15 euros. It won't let me purchase it. I got the message "No se ha podido reservar la plaza con la tarifa seleccionada. Disculpe las molestias" with no other reason. Whether the trip from Seville to Granada is sold out is not identified. When trying to buy the ticket from Renfe, I guess the bus is my best choice after all.
kmkwoo: I didn't see anything on ALSA's website yet about whether the bus stops somewhere with a bathroom.
23.50 Euros is the price of the ALSA bus ticket from Seville to Granada.
There are train trips displayed on raileurope and trainline, which cost 62 to 96 Euros and are not the trip listed on RENFE. The trips on rail Europe and Trainline take over 3 hours, leave at various times of the day and involve over an hour of layover in Cordoba.
Just so you don't get an unpleasant surprise later: Although they don't vary as much as tickets for express trains, I have seen varying ticket prices for the same bus trip on different days and at different times. In some cases it seemed that fares were rising as the travel date approached.
