My husband and I will be in Spain for almost three weeks in October and we plan to do all our traveling by train. The luggage dimensions on the Avlo and Ouigo trains are VERY small. I wanted to carry a basic backpack (one like a high school student would carry to/from school) and a 20.5 inch small spinner. The spinner is about one centimeter too large, but the backpack is considerably larger than the dimensions listed for a "purse or rucksack." Does anyone have suggestions regarding this? (oh for the days you didn't need to bother with luggage dimensions!)
Posted by
San Francisco, CA (USA)
557 posts
You should have no problems.
I've seen people dragging on 25' rollers and varying sizes of rolling duffels. The idea is you're not bringing something outrageous or, ridiculous.
The big (or small depending on you) hurdle is getting your bags on/off the train, work out a routine when one of you is handing down/up the bags and the other on the train itself, makes life easier.
Posted by
SE Pennsylvania
2662 posts
I don't know about those two companies, but a budget rail company I used in France a few years ago charged an extra €5 for bags out of their skimpy measurements as long as you paid ahead.
I just paid and didn't have to worry.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10623 posts
I’d avoid OUIGO. This is a vacation, so you shouldn’t have to worry about such stuff. Furthermore, I see OUIGO tickets that are the same price as regular TGV tickets all the time. Unless you get those super special 10€ fares the day the specials begin, OUIGO doesn’t save you much but it does give you a headache.
Posted by
Australia
1072 posts
We spent two months in Spain last year and caught Avlo and Ouigo trains. We had one 28" wheeled bag and one 22" backpack. We had no problems with our bags as we used the larger luggage racks at the end of the carriage. No one weighed or measured our bags at any point (even when we had to go through the X-ray machines at several stations). We also had one small daypack with us.
The smaller luggage size is what fits in the overhead racks above the seats. So if you want to keep your luggage close to you it needs to fit in the overhead rack. We don't keep anything of value in our main bags so we were happy to use the luggage racks that were further away from us. Our small backpack was in the overhead rack.
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
3071 posts
Money talks. Forget the supercheap tickets -cheap for a reason- and be prepared to pay for regular tickets, then you can carry as much as you want (well, you know what I mean, of course). Pretty similar to aeroplanes.