Iryo versus AVE?

My recommendation is Iryo since their website is much easier to use. Renfe's site could use som improvements.

About the same, both in comfort and time performance.

The on-time performance won’t be different between Renfe and Iryo. Overall, I don’t think you’re going to notice a tremendous difference.

I would pick Iryo is the prices are similar. You get slightly nicer, newer trains and they really hype their onboard food service.

The sleek, Italian Frecciarosa trains IRYO uses are more modern and just put into operation three years ago. I also prefer IRYO’s customer-friendly website.

Another thumbs up for IRYO.

I like the fact that, if you book the Infinita Class, you can change your departure time for no fee. This may be true with Renfe but I've not checked, as I've been using IRYO on the last few visits to Spain. The food/wine offer is a nice option and the food is not at all bad, but I would not let that be a deciding factor. But you do get a choice of dishes and, if I remember correctly, more than one glass of wine.

The IRYO website is a pleasure after all those failed attempts in past years to book tix on Renfe.

Is there not another train option that is more affordable than those two?...
OIGUO???

Thanks everyone - I do see that one plus for Iryo is the ease of use. And their food does look better, and trains do seem to be newer which has me leaning more towards Iryo. But I read some conflicting reports that AVE is more comfortable which made me a bit confused again.

@ ekscrunchy I don’t think there is a direct train to Sevilla from Barcelona bookable on Ouigi. It stops in Madrid :( maybe it would require something like a self-transfer like a plane? I will definitely check out Ouigo from Seville to Madrid leg of the trip though since Madrid is my last stop before flying back to Canada.

@Nick - I did check for the date Sept 26 (a day after my cruise) as I planned to stay in Barcelona a day to visit some sites I wasn’t able to do last time. And the flights at normal human hours all seem to be at least 113€, with the 22:00 and later flights at 75€ :( I don’t know why it was so expensive. I did read though Europe banned cabin baggage fee so maybe the price was raised as a result?

To be frank, I believe you're reading too much into it... both are top-class train services, which will take you from A to B, for a similar price, on similar trains on a similar time schedule... and that's for one trip.

If the wine served on the IRYO trains that ekscrunchy mentioned is a Spanish Rioja— that would tip the scale for me…

Don't overthink it is my opinion. Both are nice once you get onboard, no matter what kind of ticket you have. Feel free to buy a first class ticket if you want, but even if you're travelling second class, you will have a nice trip. A second class train seat is not like an economy seat when flying.

I recommend Iryo since their website is better designed, but there is nothing wrong with Renfe once you've managed to buy a ticket.

An update, I went with Iryo for my Barcelona to Seville ticket and it costed similar to their second class ticket so I went with first class. I tried to book Seville to Madrid ticket last night with Renfe AVE first class since I thought I could try both Iryo and AVE.

Horrible experience, I used PayPal because I read about issues with foreign credit cards and it said issue with transaction, I tried a second time and same issue, since I had my credit card email notifications on for online purchases, my bank sent me two emails about the transactions. Even though I received no email confirmation from RENFE nor could I find it in my PayPal Activities. I called RENFE customer service and they said they cannot find my reservation since I did not have PayPal transaction ID and when I gave my passport number the agent also couldn't find it. Agent suggested I just input my credit card as normal, which I thought was confusing since the website has interest free loan payment in four option. She said I could however just choose credit card and it will allow me to pick just pay in one option.

I did not book last night as I wanted to be sure I will not be triple charged as I can see the seats I chose in my two failed PayPal purchases shown as being reserved. Well today came and prices went up perhaps because the system thought my failed PayPal purchases went through and raised the price due to increased demand. In a fit of anger I just went with Iryo Singular with six euro add on for luggage and changing seats. This after I took the trouble to register for RENFE. Can they not update their system to work with foreign cards either with PayPal or credit card itself?

Hi Seininya, Your personal story of snowballing online snafus and disastrous customer service is, unfortunately, par for the course for Renfe. There are Renfe jokes among Spanish train travelers whose experience with the national train company has made many cynical about the prospects for things ever improving.

Like so many other national train companies in Europe, Renfe has held a lucrative monopoly on the national train system in Spain.

No longer.

The EU has made it possible for Iryo and Ouigo Espana—a subsidiary of France’s SNCF—to compete with Renfe in the high-speed train market. For the past four years, Renfe has had to deal with competition in the popular Madrid to Barcelona route which is a very profitable line. Ticket prices of €150 for that route were common just a dozen years ago. Time will tell if being forced to share the Spanish marketplace will also force Renfe to make improvements to its website and customer service.

Thanks Kenko, I did read about the jokes about RENFE. And I thought Canada’s passenger rail website was bad…

I guess we should not even venture to comment on the US AMTRAK service!!!
Scandal!

Amtrak? OMG! Don’t get me started..

Can they not update their system to work with foreign cards either with PayPal or credit card itself?

@Seininya.. RENFE served between 6 and 8 million foreign passengers in 2024—and that’s just counting high-speed trains. Do you really think their system doesn’t work with foreign cards or PayPal?

Let’s be clear: their system is terrible—clunky, confusing, and yes, it crashes now and then. But in 2024, RENFE hit an all-time record: over 537 million passengers across all services. And guess what? They charged every single one of them, both locals and foreigners. You see where I’m going with this, right? LOL! :)