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How Much Time to Allow from Madrid Airport Before Train Departure

Posted by (Oregon) on

My husband and I are arriving in Madrid about ten days apart. I'm arriving mid week and planning on taking the train to Segovia where I will spend my first nights. Stephen will arrive on a Sunday and take the train to Toledo. I'll meet him in Toledo.

My question is this: allowing for possible plane delay, boarder control, and transfer to the train station, how early in the day can I safely book train tickets? We are both arriving at 9:30 am.

Also, is there a good place to have lunch or coffee at or near the train station? Leaving us a extra hour of safty will be more palitable to our jet lagged selves that way.

Posted by
56 posts

Chambertin is on the north of the city. Is the place you will take the train to Segovia. It´s on the middle of the week is hard to say how the traffic is. I´m thinking you will arrive, at least at 12:00 pm to the train station.

The Station have a very simple snack places, but I recommend save space for the FANTASTIC FOOD of Segovia.

I was in Meson de Jose Maria, next of the Cathedral. It was a fantastic experience not only for the typical dish, Lechón and Lechazo. Don Jose Maria told me he has another fantastic things on the menú, as a very good colection of wines to taste...

The Trains to Toledo departs from Atocha, the Central Station of Madrid with a very easy comunication with Barajas Airport, and Aditionaly, is Sunday, no trafic in the morning after Saturday Marcha Night in Madrid. Pherphas He will arrive at eleven. Atocha has a lot of places, not very fancy, but is the central station.

To connect Segovia to Toledo, I think you must to arrive from Segovia to Chambertin, take a Train to Atocha and then, a Train to Toledo...

Posted by
650 posts

Rome2Rio shows a regional train every 15 minutes to Charmartin. Any reason I shouldn't take that instead of a taxi?

Also just to be clear, I am not taking a train from Segovia to Toledo. I'm spending 10 nights gallivanting in Spain on my own before Stephen arrives. I'll begin in Segovia but I'll have reached Toledo from Caceres the night before him.

Posted by
27204 posts

I wouldn't want to guess how long it will take you and your husband (separately) to clear Immigration at Barajas and reach Chamartin (for Segovia) and Puerta de Atocha (for Toledo) even if we were sure your planes would land on time. But that's OK, because I don't think you need to buy either of those tickets in advance.

For Toledo the fare will be the same for a day-of-travel purchase as for a ticket purchased far in advance.

To Segovia the ALVIA fares do vary; you may pay an extra 13 euros or so for the ability to buy a ticket for the very next train when you arrive at Chamartin. On the other hand, if the next available train is the equally fast AVANT, you won't pay anything extra for the convenience of making a last-minute purchase.

If you were heading off on longer, more costly journeys, there would be a financial advantage to buying the tickets in advance--perhaps enough to justify trying to figure out what would be a safe departure time. That is not the case here.

I've never set foot in Chamartin Station, but Atocha is large, bustling and potentially confusing. There are often uniformed Renfe employees floating around the ticket lobby who can point you toward the ticket machines or staffed counters where you can buy a ticket to Toledo. I think you will probably be able to use the vending machines, which should save some time. It would be prudent to have small-denomination euro notes in case the machines don't like US credit cards. (You can always try just pressing "Enter" or "OK" if prompted for a PIN; that sometimes works in European vending machines, or entering 0000, or entering your favorite random 4-digit number.)

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