Itinerary set: Madrid to Burgos to Bilbao to SS to Madrid - questions about bus and train travel

To compare train schedules more accurately, see the Deutsche Bahn link at Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online. All legs of the trip are easy by train except Bilbao-San Sebastian, which is faster by bus (or the local train line is a separate company). Use Madrid Chamartin as your starting station. If a connection is needed, the schedule results will tell you where, especially through DB. Direct trains from Madrid to Burgos take either 2.5 or 4.5 hours, depending on departure time.

Sometimes www.renfe.com or doesn't show results as well for connecting trains, so if buying online and not finding what you expected, then try booking the pieces separately. These train tickets may cheaper if reserved in advance, even by a few days, whether online or at a ticket office.

Forget it. I would hate all the time spent on buses.
I would Fly direct to San Sebastian
from Madrid and work my way back or vice versa
Laura is right it is easier to go to Bilbao by bus from San Sebastian. I learned the hard way last summer.
You should probably cut something. Just do Bilbao as a day trip that is enough after seeing the Guggenheim
Although it is touristy a bit you may regret just staying 2 nights in San Sebastian

Fly into Madrid. Connect on to Bilbao (2 nights)
Bus to San Sebastián (2 nights)
Train to Burgos (2 nights)
Train to Madrid (4 nights)

Examples of train timings ...

IC 283
Dep 09:33 SAN SEBASTIAN/DONOSTIA (Spain)
Arr 12:33 BURGOS ROSA DE LIMA (Spain)

ALV 4086
Dep 11:56 BURGOS ROSA DE LIMA (Spain)
Arr 14:28 MADRID-CHAMARTIN (Spain)

Thank you djp and Jazz+Travels - also Laura. Well our itinerary is already set - as we have non-refundable reservations at the various hotels for the exact dates we already planned to travel. Also I believe in some instances traveling by bus takes less time than by train (Madrid to Burgos, for example, and Burgos to Bilbao, Bilbao to SS). Unless the bus system is awful and the routes twisty-turny and hellish for those prone to car sickness, my research told me that the bus might be the best option for some of these legs. Have I researched the wrong resources?

Buy those bus tickets I'm pretty sure the price goes up with capacity the longer you wait

You're dead right about Bilbao to San Sebastian: The bus is much, much faster than the (very scenic) train. I have no reason to doubt your other comparisons, but the running times do vary by departure for both bus and train, so be sure you're checking the precise day and approximate time you expect to travel.

I found the Spanish buses quite comfortable. I bought my tickets either on the day of travel or the day before, but I did see some price variation. I wasn't sure whether it worked like the express trains (bargain tickets initially available, but when they're gone you pay full price) or some buses (during commuting hours, for example) were always more expensive. ALSA has some premium buses that definitely are more expensive. There's not a lot of difference between those and regular buses: You get some sort of simple food, maybe a soda, and I think there's always supposed to be Wi-Fi, which is available on just some of the regular buses. But the extra cost is, to me, out of proportion to the marginal extra benefits unless you really need to depart at a specific time and that turns out to be one of the premium buses.

Very occasionally I've seen a bus marked as sold out on the ALSA website, which is another argument for buying the tickets ahead of time if you are absolutely sure of your travel times. There can also be a bit of a delay at the ticket window, and they cut off sales a few minutes before the bus is due to depart. I preferred to use the ticket machines (you can set the language to English), but on one occasion the entire system was down.

Many ticket agents do not speak English, so if you need to use a staffed counter, it's a good idea to write down what you want: the destination, the date (remember that in Europe the day comes before the month), and whether you want a one-way (ida) or round-trip (ida y vuelta) ticket.

acraven - thanks very much for your response. It's always a toss-up - between wanting to be spontaneous when you travel (in terms of when to leave one destination for the next on your list) and wanting to be prepared (so you don't miss out on tix for one bus/train and have to wait for the next). We've never been to these places so not sure how soon we'd want to get out of town and head for the next one. Still I think buying even one hour in advance would be a good rule of thumb. My husband is a native Spanish speaker (though not a Spaniard) so I plan to rely on him for the whole length of the trip - speaking to people at ticket counters and arguing on my behalf!