Madrid day trip train tickets

The prices of those trains do not rise as the departure date approaches, so there is no rush to buy the tickets. You'll definitely want to buy round-trip tickets, because they are much cheaper.

There are ticket machines at Puerta de Atocha station. If you want to buy from a human being, be aware that the ticket lines can be long. Atocha is large and somewhat confusing, with separate sales areas for longer and shorter trips. The long-distance area is so busy that it uses a take-a-number system and sometimes stops giving out numbers well before closing time. I think there are separate machines as well. There is often a uniformed employee in the ticket lobby who will direct you to the correct place for your desired destination. I took the bus to Toledo and do not know whether that qualifies as a long trip or a local one.

Because of the confusion factor, I recommend not waiting to buy your tickets till just before departure. Also, I do sometimes see trains for the current day marked full on the Renfe website, and Rick warns especially about buying the return ticket from Toledo ahead of time since those trains are very popular. Unless you're traveling around the time of a holiday, I don't know that you need to buy your tickets for those two trips more than 12 hours in advance. Perhaps someome else here has had some experience and can give an informed opinion.

Note that the above advice does not apply to Cuenca. That lovely town is a viable day-trip only via AVE, and it will be affordable only if the tickets are purchased well in advance.

Thank you. Very helpful!

Bought my round trip tickets ahead of time from Renfe for Segovia and Toledo. This enables one to select times when traines are not solde out. Change to earlier train is easy if seats are available in Segovia or Toledo and their ticket office is less busy.