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Barcelona to Madrid by Train Pre-book or go old school and just look for the next one leaving

Posted by (Hoboken, NJ, USA) on

We are coming off a cruise at the port in Barcelona on July 12th and headed to Madrid for a few days before flying home

Party of 4 wife and I and our 2 young teen kids ( that are well traveled and can handle their luggage )

So with the window of time you might get off the ship a little squishy , unknown customs line and taxi stand line I am not to keen to lock in a train reservation and either miss it or have to much time to kill .....

Looking at the " rome to rio site " it looks one of the 3 high speed trains are going every 30mins ...

So my question Can i just arrive at the station and pick the next train and still get our seats together since normal fast trains have seating assignments and its looks like a lot trains are scheduled ?

am i paying a stupid high premium by not locking in a seat and time in advance ?

thanks in advance

Posted by
6974 posts

If you want to buy the ticket the same day there is always the risk of the trains being sold out. And I would not count on you being able to sit together.

am i paying a stupid high premium by not locking in a seat and time in
advance ?

It depends on how you define stupid high but looking at Iryo, you can buy a ticket from them for €18 if you buy it in advance. Looking at what a ticket for a trip today would cost, the cheapest is around €50.

Posted by
28082 posts

I don't know what sort of internet service you'll have while you're on the ship, but the very least I'd want to do would be monitor ticket availability for the key day really frequently to be sure there were going to be tickets available if I waited to make the purchase after disembarking. The risk of sold-out trains is, sadly, real.

Although Rome2Rio may have provided accurate information in this instance, that website is howlingly unreliable and should not be used once you know which companies provide service on the travel leg you are planning. Go to the websites of the train operators instead:

https://www.renfe.com/es/en

https://iryo.eu/en/home

https://www.ouigo.com/es/en

Cancellation/change policies may differ; that's something to research ahead of time if you think you might end up buying the ticket in advance.

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