Recommendations for traveling city to city in Spain

We were just in Spain and took the train from city to city. There is no one to help you, unless there is a kind passenger. But at both ends of each car there are areas for your baggage which is not overhead. When your make your train reservations, unless money is a problem splurge for 1st class, you can reserve seats next to the baggage rack. We did hire a driver from Cordoba to Toledo because of logistics. We used zonetranfers.com. They were very professional, and helped with the luggage.

Unfortunately you are pretty much on your own when it comes to handling luggage especially on trains. There are no regular porters to assist you. You may find a friendly passengers who might assist with luggage on trains. There is a small scam around helping seniors. I have never seen it but it has been reported that young, somewhat official looking men will grab your luggage and assist you getting on and luggage stored but then demand a huge tip for his assistance. That is less likely on Spanish trains since access to platforms is limited to ticket holders and you have to go through a light security screening prior to the platform. You really need to be able to handle your own luggage.

You do have three or four steep steps to enter most train cars and it is a bit of a pushing match getting on and off. Having light weight carry-on luggage is a big benefit. Obviously, depending on the level of the hotel and appropriate tip you would have some assistance with luggage in and out of the hotel.

Another good possibility in Spain is the bus system. The Spanish train system is not as extensive as in other parts of Europe so good and cheap bus system has developed. We tend to use the buses more than trains when we are in Spain. The bus driver will assist in loading the luggage under the bus. Buses are very nice but you don't the room to move around as you would on a train. Buses less than three hours is a good option. Longer -- look for a train.

Barbara is right. But if you can do it by train I think it would be easier. Flying will take a little longer than the train since you have to be there 2 hours ahead of schedule and you have to travel from the airport to the city center. Once you get to the train stations there are cab drivers that will help with your luggage. Would you have problems climbing up the 3-4 steps into the train car with your luggage?

Not sure if this can be helpful in your particular situation but there are a few "baggage services" offered by some of the major carriers in Spain. Some people use it to travel light since you can ship your baggage when departing one city and receive it at the destination city -sometimes even within the same day.

These are some examples:
- https://www.seur.com/es/particulares/enviar/enviar-maletas/
- https://www.packlink.es/envios/enviar-sus-maletas-para-viajar-ligero/
- https://www.genei.es/enviar-maletas

They're not expensive and their reliability is quite good (nearly all of the time).

Enjoy!

We (59 with mobility issues and 72) travel on a mix of trains and buses. My husband (72 year old luggage wrangler) has started to prefer buses to trains as on buses the luggage just goes underneath the bus and most times the driver helps you get it in and out. I find climbing into a bus a bit challenging as my knees are bad.

My husband's luggage rule is that he has to be able to easily lift our bags over his head for ease of getting into train luggage racks.

We will be in Spain in a month's time for 60 days. In Andalusia we are catching mostly trains as they are significantly faster, but we are getting a bus from Malaga to Seville.

Thank you all for your quick replies and information. Sounds like we will be doing train or bus or combo and packing VERY lightly!

My wife and I had to catch an early morning train at Sants station in Barcelona. When we got off the metro with a bunch of other people, there was a lady pulling a large 29" bag yelling at people to help her. She was really being rude and nasty and most of us ignored her. She finally guilted a young man to help her. We went upstairs to grab breakfast before our train. The cafe was right beside a customer service office. It turns out the lady has a husband. I saw him at the metro platform. He was dealing with his own bag and had pushed past her back at the metro while she was yelling at everybody. At the time, I assumed they were not related. He was waiting at the train station customer service office. The lady caught up with him at customer service and they yelled at each other some more. Anyways, the customer service had a shuttle cart and the employee drove the man, lady and their bags to presumably the train platform. I assumed the employee helped them with the bags on the train.

Long story short, you may be able to call ahead to each train station, especially the bigger ones, to arrange for assistance from customer service:

https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/transport/stations/estacio-sants/disabled-facilities-barcelona-sants.html

It is an excellent idea to have a small, light bag if you aren't strong/tall enough to manage something larger. You cannot be sure there will space in the luggage-storage area at floor level on the train; others may have gotten there first, leaving empty spaces only higher up. If your bag is small, you may be able to slip it into the space between the back of a seat and a partition, or between back-to-back seats. Larger suitcases are likely to be deep enough that they won't fit in unofficial spots like that. From the luggage-handling standpoint, I agree with the earlier comment that buses are great, but for a lot of the travel legs between key Spanish cities, trains are much faster than buses (or cars).

There are other reasons to minimize your luggage: Inexpensive European hotel rooms (the only kind I have experience with) are likely to have little closet space and very few hangers, so excess clothes may have to remain in your bag, wrinkling. Even if you can hang them, it's an annoying process to unpack a bunch of garments, hang them up (maybe spritz them to reduce the wrinkles) and then later repack them. If you take a lot of clothes, you probably will not wear all of them anyway. Some rooms are tight enough that larger suitcases present a tripping hazard. Seriously: I travel for an entire summer with 3 bottoms and 5 tops, including what I wear on the plane. (That doesn't include extra layers for warmth.)