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Barcelona-Madrid 10 days - Round trip flight or train?

Posted by (Miami, FL) on

Hi everyone!
First, I'd like to say I love this site and the forum participation! It's helped me tremendously plan an 18-day Europe trip earlier this month and now I'm working on Barcelona/Madrid ;-) All the information, knowledge and experience shared is priceless.

Now, I have a question
In February 2018, I have 10 days to spend in Spain (not counting travel days). We don't really suffer from jet-lag at all so I don't take that into account.
We fly in and out of Barcelona so my question is this:

After reading many posts, I settled on splitting our time between Barcelona and Madrid, with a few day trips where possible (Toledo, Segovia, Cuenca - not sure yet)
My plan is to spend the first 4 days in Barcelona, on the morning of the 5th day head to Madrid and spend 4 days heading back to Barcelona for the last 1-2 days.

I know I can't look through the train fares yet since it's so far out but I was looking at other months to get an idea of the itinerary and want to confirm it really takes 7-8 hrs by train and that I wan't looking at the wrong thing - this was on the Renfe website.
I just did a Google trip/directions search and there is the AVE train that says 2.5 hours - not sure how to book that one if we wanted to.

Also is there any opinion against a round trip flight on Iberia? It's about an hour and I'd rather do that than spend half a day on a train. I love trains but we did plenty of them between Paris, Amsterdam and London so don't see the benefit unless someone has an insight I'm not aware of.

I couldn't find anything on Iberia's site regarding whether they nickle-dime you for everything as far as paying for a carry on or to print out your boarding pass, etc. We don't check bags so all we'll have is our carry on. I found round trip fares for $60 each R/T and feel that's a much better option for us and it allows me to book the flights for when we feel comfortable.

Does this plan seem sound or should I consider other options?

Thanks in advance!
Carla

Posted by
362 posts

Definitely go by AVE fast train, stations would be Barcelona Sants & Madrid Atocha, travel time around 2 1/2 hrs, booked on Renfe.com.

Posted by
2768 posts

Madrid to Barcelona is a high speed route - 3 hours or less.
I put it in the Renfe site for a random day next month and there are over 10 trains per day that take 3 hours or less. To buy use renfe or a third party site (I used petrabax once when renfe was being difficult)
Make sure you use the right station, or Madrid (todas) and Barcelona (todas) if you're not sure. And don't look too far in the future right now - schedules shift in June.

The website maninseat61 has amazing train information

The argument against a flight is simply that the train is faster (counting the fact that you need to be at airport early, and transit to/from the airport to center city). If the train were actually 7 hours then it would be different. But on the AVE route, it's faster and easier. Plus trains are rarely cancelled or seriously delayed, unlike flights.

Posted by
27112 posts

The problem is the labeling of the rail stations in Madrid. If you choose Madrid-Atocha Cercanias, you get only local/regional trains. You need to choose Madrid-Puerta de Atocha or Madrid (Todas)--as previously suggested--to see the fast trains.

Posted by
4 posts

Ah yes. I see.
After I posted, I played around with the selections and was able to see more trains and the various schedules.
I'll wait til after June to finalize the itinerary

Question on the flights - why would it take longer than 3 hours? Is it considered a domestic flight? Typically we check in online, go through security and right to the gate. For domestic flights in the states I typically arrive with 30min to spare. Is the process more cumbersome from Barcelona to Madrid? Not sure if there will be passport checks, etc or if it's just like flying from Miami to New York for example.

Thanks again for the helpful feedback
;-)

Posted by
4637 posts

Flight including getting to and from the airport to the city is certainly longer than 3 hours. And to arrive to the airport thirty minutes before flight?? Try it in Seattle and I guarantee you plane would leave without you. First you have to have some reserve. What if you get stuck in traffic. Then what if you need to check your luggage? Even if you don't need that you have to go through security. You don't know what kind of line will be there. Sometime you spend your thirty minutes (or more) just in that line. Then you have to get to your gate - 5 minutes, 10 minutes or more? Depends on the airport. To get to the airport thirty minutes before the departure? Those were good old times. Forget it now. No passport check. Just ID check - in your case probably passport. Not only are Barcelona and Madrid in Schengen area, they are also in the same country - Spain.

Posted by
4 posts

LOLOLOL Come on, why so jaded? :-) Just kidding.
I do it all the time - of course in an airport I know like Miami and Fort Lauderdale (I'm also spoiled cause I live near the airports, thankfully). I do allow myself ample time when it's a first time airport so I do understand the advice. I just didn't think it would be more than 3 hours - sound kinda crazy as even on a bad day with all kinds of delays it's never taken me 3 hours to get on a plane, whether domestic or international.
But I will heed the warning which is much appreciated ;-) Thanks again! And here's to some of the good stuff from the good old days coming back LOL

Edit: That's what I figured about passports and IDs with it being in the same country. Just wanted to double check ;-)

Posted by
266 posts

Don't fly - besides all the info given above, add on the 35 minutes transit from the city to BCN and then again MAD to the city. The train is a no brainer.

Posted by
4 posts

Thanks for the input ;-)
It's been decided - train it is

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