Has anyone taken the train from Barcelona Sants to Figueres-Vilafant train station and if you did, were your train tickets bought online in advance or when you arrived at the station the day of your visit?
Once leaving the Figueres-Vilafant station, is it easy to find a bus that take you to the Dali Museum and is it easy to find a bus to take you back to the train station?
In Italy and France, I just buy tickets at the train station, trains were never sold-out.
I've just checked today's (Thursday's) schedule for the trains to Figueres Vilafant, and most of them are either sold out or have only handicapped places available; I believe those don't have comfortable seats. There are a few AVANTS that aren't sold out, and their fare is under 18 euros one way, which isn't too bad. There are three other trains that have seats available, but only if you are willing to pay at least 55.75 euros one way. (I hope you really, really like Dali.) So i'd say waiting until the day you need to make the trip seems quite risky.
You might save considerable money by buying fast-train tickets ahead of time. Of course, you may have very good reasons for not wanting to do that.
There are also slower trains going to a second station in Figueres, called simply "Figueres". Fares on those trains are fixed; you will not pay more for those tickets if you buy them on the day of travel, and the amount will probably be quite different from the cost of fast-train tickets purchased on your travel day. There are no seat assignments on the slowe trains, so they never sell out.
Tickets for those trains aren't sold online, so I can't tell you exactly what they cost.
Use the Renfe website to explore schedules. You'll need to search separately for the fast trains (Figueres Vilafant) and the slow trains (Figueres) since the destination stations are different. https://www.renfe.com/es/en
The Figueres station is a bit closer to the Dali Theatre-Museum than the Figuere-Vilafant Station. As I recall, it's not all that much closer, but you can check the distance on Google Maps to see whether the difference would be significant to you.
There's a bus that runs between the two train stations and passes within a few blocks of the Dali Theatre-Museum. It seemed to be timed to meet the fast trains; you should have no trouble finding that bus, because it stops right in front of the Figueres Vilafant Station. However, if the train you take happens to run late (as mine did), the bus doesn't hang around to wait for the train, at least not very long (in my experience). In that case, you'll need to walk or try to get a taxi. There might well be a taxi waiting at the station. In any case, it's important to go right out the front of the train station when your train arrives if you hope to take either the bus or a taxi. If you're not okay with walking to the museum, I recommend Googling for phone numbers for Figueres taxis so you'll be prepared.
To return to the station you'll need to walk a few blocks from the museum to the bus stop. I'm sure the folks at the museum will be able to tell you where to stand. i believe there's a bus shelter, and it probably has some sort of information posted nearby that indicates what buses stop there. There's a good chance this information is online; you may be able to find it if you poke around a bit.
SLOWER TRAINS IN CATALONIA ("Rodalíes")
Prices in slower trains, as mentioned, are fixed and they're not sold online. You purchase the ticket at the station, there's no assigned seat and if one train happens to be too full, just take the next one. If you board the train and it's too full, you'll have to do your journey standing up. There are so many places on a carriage, most are seated though.
For Figueres, the travel time from Barcelona is between 2h (MD) and 2h15' (R) and the price is either 16€ (MD) or 12€ (R). MD and R indicate the number of stops, MD being less than R. Twice a day there's a train that takes 2h45' -because part of the journey is thru a different line, which has far more stops.
For info, slower trains are 'slower' than fast trains (duh!), for a journey say Barcelona-Figueres we're talking about 50% slower, that is ~2h vs 1h. Fast trains run thru a dedicated track and with very few stops. Slower trains, aside from running at less than half of the speed of the fast trains (+300km/h or 185 mph) do stop in the towns along the way. Yet slower trains are still a valid option to travel as well as they're clean, fairly comfortable and cheaper (and safe too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A31awK5ZRYc Note, however, they might suffer delays (##)
Fast trains to Figueres go to the "Figueres-Vilafant" station, located over 2 km (+1 mile) out of the centre -where the Dalí Museum is located-, while slower trains go to the "Figueres" station, located in the centre, at a 10' walk from the museum.
(##) Rodalies trains are run by RENFE, from Madrid, and for political quarrels between Spain and Catalonia, they're (and historically have been) heavily under-funded. This translates into a pretty bad service in their regional rail service in Catalonia, the Rodalies service (=regional, which englobes the 'slower' trains), especially for those commuting daily
Thanks for correcting me on the distance between Figueres Station and the Dali Theatre-Museum. I thought they were farther apart than that.
Thanks for your helpful replies.
LOL!.... maybe I was too generous, I'd updated it to 10' ;)
