Thoughts on my itinerary for our first trip to Spain

The whole itinerary seems a bit crammed to me. Two full days in Madrid is certainly cursory, at best.

Edit to add: Maybe compare your itinerary the RS Best of Spain tour—it’s well though out and in a logical geographical order. Looks like you have a couple extra days, but you have the time penalty of managing all of your own travel/tours/logistics.

Madrid needs much more time. And you can visit Cordoba by train when you are traveling from Seville to Madrid.

Fantastic itinerary. I think you will do better for train tickets buying them enter code hereseparately online as there may still be deeply discounted fares for AVE trains from Madrid to Barcelona ( you need to return to Madrid from Toledo to get to Barcelona) and Seville to Madrid. You can check prices at www.TheTrainline,com and buy them there or on the Renfe website. The non- refundable fares can be as low as €24. Your only other train rides are the Barcelona to Montserrat ( about 1 hour in each direction) Granada to Seville ( about 3 hours) and Madrid to Toledo (35 minutes) and Madrid to Segovia (1-2 hours) rides which are inexpensive. There is also an AVE train from Madrid to Segovia which you could pre-buy your online.ticket.
www.Seat61.com has in-depth details on buying Spanish train tickets.
Have a great Trip!

I would fly to Barcelona the day you arrive and then work your way back to Madrid.
Fly to Barcelona, fly to Granada, Train to Sevilla (daytrip to Cordoba?), train to Toledo, train to Madrid, fly home.
Have fun.

It was cost prohibitive to fly into Barcelona and out of Madrid. You've made me think that maybe I should train directly to Barcelona on arrival in Madrid and then move Toledo in the itinerary between Seville and Madrid

CJ - What I meant was that after you land in Madrid hop on a flight to Barcelona without leaving the airport. Depending on day and time some flights start at $20 one way non-stop for 1 hour 20 minutes. That will save you time to doing it by train which is almost 5 hours and if I saw correctly it does not go every day from Toledo. Something to think about.

N - Great idea. I had never even thought of flying from Madrid to Barcelona. Airfare is certainly very affordable! Also the convenience of not having to find the train station after such a long flight from the US!

I do have a question about how long it will take to get through customs in Madrid coming from the US. Since I will have to buy a separate ticket from Madrid to Barcelona, I want to make sure I plan enough time between flights.

Carol - Customs is as fast as walking through a door. Immigration, however, can be a crap shoot. I've spent 30 minutes in line (with far more line behind me than when I entered) and I've walked right up to an agent.

General advice is to always book a very generous buffer when traveling on separate tickets.

Also note that Terminals 1-2-3 and 4/4S are far from eachother. There's a free bus if you have to change terminals.

First, it is awkward, to say the least, that you've posted twice about this trip with different bits of information. In the other one, you seem to have decided on travel in November, and despite the advice of several posters (myself included), you are keeping Barcelona in the itinerary.

Using rome2rio, I put in the arbitrary date of Nov. 2. There are multiple flights that day, some on Vueling, some on Iberia. Vuelling appears to sell (and operate) them all. You can buy tickets now for a 2 pm flight for about $65 pp, with or without a checked bag. If you miss that flight, the price tomorrow for the next available flight (that's nearly 24 hrs in advance), is $116 pp (with only carry-on) or $158 pp with a checked bag and that flight is at 7 pm. So, if you miss the flight, you will end up paying more and losing more time hanging around the airport. Vueling does sell cancellation insurance for $6.50 pp, but you need to read the fine print of the insurance company. It may or may not cover you if you don't actually cancel the flight in advance. And all this when you're jetlagged and probably sleep-deprived.

It could end up being very smooth, with very little wasted time at the airport, or it could be very time-consuming and costly.

Just sayin'

So now I think that Toledo is going to be at the end of our trip just before we head to Madrid. I am exploring options to get from Madrid to Barcelona (gotta keep it on the trip!). If we opt for the AVE, is taxi the best option to get to the train station?

Are you asking about getting to Madrid-Atocha from the airport on the day you fly into Spain? If you're planing to go on to Barcelona by train on your arrival day, I think it makes sense to take the train from the airport to Atocha, though there are other options (bus, Metro, taxi). The path to the airport train station is well marked, and you can buy your ticket to Barcelona there, as well. You definitely should not plan to buy the Madrid-Barcelona ticket at the staffed counters at Atocha. They are unbelievably slow; it will take hours. The ticket-vending machines, which have an English option, are not hard to use, but there was a time when some US credit cards seemed not to work in them.

Acraven mentioned the easy, direct train from the airport to Atocha, and it is easy from T4, home to the OneWorld/IAG carriers. But other airlines will arrive into 1-2-3, and the train is a hassle from there.

Yes, we are planning to go on to Barcelona on our arrival day. I was not aware that there was a train from the airport to Atocha. That makes it easy. We are planning to buy a Spain Eurail pass since we will be traveling mostly by train. If we decide to take the train instead of flying, I will include that as a travel day on our pass. That should help with not having to buy a ticket and can just validate our pass on that first day.

You will have to pay extra for seat reservations on the fast trains on top of what you pay for the rail pass. When you buy individual tickets, any mandatory seat-reservation fees are already included in the fares. You don't get an accurate price comparison by simply adding up the cost of individual tickets to see how that total compares to the cost of a rail pass.

Also be aware that trains on the Barcelona-Madrid-Cordoba-Seville line sell out with considerable frequency (though probably not way in advance of the travel date). I've seen lots of full trains when I've gone to the Renfe website to answer questions posted on this forum. I would not buy a rail pass for Spain with the expectation that I could wake up in the morning and have my choice of all the trains departing that day. This definitely could be an issue on your arrival day--though ability to simply buy a ticket on the train you want isn't guaranteed, either.

Trains between Madrid and Toledo also sell out frequently enough that Rick warns about it in his guide book, recommending that daytrippers purchase return tickets from Toledo at the same time as their outbound tickets. Note that this is a relatively cheap ticket, so it probably doesn't make sense to burn a rail pass day for a one-way trip vetween Madrid and Toledo.

I don't know whether there are capacity issues on the trains between Granada and Cordoba/Seville. I do know there aren't that many departures, and some folks have found it more convenient to take a bus, which would not be covered by the rail pass.

I don't know the process for buying a seat reservation in Spain when you already have a Eurail pass. It may be very easy (or not). Does Spain have a quota limiting the number of seat reservations available to pass holders? France does, and it is not uncommon for travelers there to discover no seats available to them on trains for which they could easily buy tickets (with seat reservations included). Victims of this situation tend to be Not Happy.

This web page has a link for Spain, where you can find the costs of seat reservations on all types of Spanish trains:

https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/about-reservations/reservation-fees/domestic-train-reservation-fees

Below the list of fees for seat reservations is a statement alluding to buying those reservations only at certain stations (those served by trains requiring reservations, apparently]. That in itself shouldn't be an issue for you. But it appears to mean you cannot get the seat reservations online. If you can't get them online, I'm afraid you also cannot use the ticket-vending machines. Having to depend on staffed counters (a nightmare at Madrid-Atocha, at least) or a customer service office would make the rail pass a lot less convenient than buying tickets.

I would proceed with extreme caution on the rail pass issue.

It sounds to me like the issue is having to make eurail reservations ahead of time. I feel like if I can get reserved seats from Madrid to Barcelona before we arrive in Spain, we can handle advance reservations to other destinations once we are in the country. Is there any way to get them prior to our departure from the US? Also, is there any general boarding on these trains?

An authority on train travel is
https://www.seat61.com

We've had at least two complaints here about the inability of pass holders to obtain seat reservations even after they got to Spain. I think, however, they might have been using passes issued directly by Renfe rather than by RailEurope. I'm just not sure. You might have luck with the Search function here. Or a broader Google search would probably turn up posts on TripAvisor.

The inability to purchase seat reservations from outside of Spain also applies to Eurail. Do not use Eurail in Spain. See here for details: https://community.eurail.com/eurail-interrail-passes-41/seat-reservations-in-spain-2731

Having read through all of your welcome information. I have come to the conclusion that a rail pass for Spain is not for us. I am looking at train schedules from Madrid to Barcelona on the day of our arrival. How much time should I realistically expect from the time we land, get through immigration and get to terminal 4 to catch a train? 2 hours, 3 or more?

A couple questions: What date are you arriving in Spain? On what airline? Are you connecting through any airports before arriving in Madrid? Are you checking in luggage or just taking carryons? All these variables will impact your timing. The reason it’s pertinent is that airline strikes at Easyjet and Ryanair are scheduled to hit Spain in August, with Vueling Airline cabin crews also threatening to strike.

What time do you arrive on Day 1 ?
Do you fly out on Day 18 ?
What time for departure ?

We arrive in Madrid at 8 a.m. on a flight from JFK in the US the end October. We will not be checking luggage, only have carryon.

I’m not a fan of trying to co-ordinate another plane or train after a long haul flight. Stay put in Madrid for a few days.
I love Toledo, but only for an intense, well planned day trip from Madrid.
AVE high speed train routing Granada >> Córdoba >> Sevilla >> Madrid is the most efficient use of your time.

Day 1 - Fly in to Madrid (5)
Day 2/3 - Madrid 

Day 4 - Day trip to Toledo
Day 5 - Day trip to Segovia

Day 6 - Train to Barcelona (5)
Day 7/8/9 - Barcelona
Day 10 - Day trip to Montserrat 

Day 11 - Fly to Granada (2)

Day 12 - Alhambra 

Day 13 - Late train to Cordoba (1)
Day 14 - Mezquita, then late train to Sevilla (3)
Day 15/16 - Sevilla 

Day 17 - Late train to Madrid (1) 

Day 18 - Fly out of Madrid

Good- that should minimize the variables! If you’re planning on leaving for Barcelona on day 1. when you’re through with the Immigration/customs formalities, getting euros at an ATM, you will catch a train from Terminal 4 to Madrid Atocha station. That trip takes 35 minutes but you need time to get to Terminal 4 and buy your tix. For about €35 a taxi takes about 25 minutes. AVE ( fast) trains leave Madrid Atocha station for Barcelona Sants at 10:05 am, 10:30am, 11:30 am and hourly thereafter. Assuming you’ll be buying a non-refundable train ticket from Madrid Atocha to Barcelona Sants train station, I would allow a safe time cushion of 90-120 minutes for the airport and plan on the 11:30 am train departing Madrid Atocha for Barcelona Sants.
If you have any extra time, you can catch lunch at Atocha before boarding the train. www.TheTrainline.com has schedules and prices.
Have a great Trip!

If for some reason you are unable to use the ticket-vending machines at Atocha or Renfe's app or website, you'll end up in a nightmarish line at the staffed counters and 90-120 minutes will mot remotely be long enough. Four hours might do it, but not necessarily. A very good reason to take the train from the airport to Atocha is that you can buy your Barcrlona ticket at the airport train station.

I plan to buy my train ticket to Barcelona online from Renfe. Since we are over 60, I want to buy the tickets with the senior discount and then buy the actual discount card when we get to the Madrid airport. Is it a hassle to buy the cards at the airport? And I understand that the train from the airport to Atocha is free if you have Renfe tickets already purchased. Can I buy the train tickets without having already purchased the Tarjeta Dorada discount card?
Right now I'm thinking that 4 hours between arrival in Madrid and then catching the train to Barcelona is my best option. I'd rather have extra time plus we can grab lunch somewhere in that time frame.

I am looking at prices for train tickets from Madrid to Barcelona on the AVE trains. There is such a difference in prices at different times. Why is that? Is it due to the times that most trains are likely to be full? I'm assuming that all AVE trains themselves are pretty much the same.

Hey, Carol, my wife and I have just started planning trip to Spain for November so I've been reading all the relevant threads.

I couldn't figure out why you were flying in and out of Madrid with a lot of backtracking and extra expense to fit Barcelona in your itinerary. I finally read your earlier post where you said you were using air miles and need to fly in and out of same city.

I think you could really free up a lot of time and save money if you could fly into BCN and out of MAD or vice versa. I just plugged in some open jaw flights from JFK and I think the total cost was only about USD$550. People who live on the east coast can save so much money and time compared to us on the left coast.

Have you considered paying for your flight with cash to get sn open jaw ticket and using the air miles for accommodations or attractions?

Good luck.

funpig, I did look into open jaw flights and for the extra cost, we opted for a more comfortable seats on our long flights. We are usually jet-lagged after long flights so not a lot is done that first day. So, we chose to fly in & out of Madrid. Our flight arrives early in morning and the train gets us to Barcelona in the afternoon. So we will use the first day on the train to acclimate to the new time and enjoy some of the Spanish countryside on the way. Hope that clarifies our reasons for train travel.

Cordoba needs to be added. One of the world’s most important sites is there, Ka Mezquita.

Suki, we decided to stay overnight in Cordoba after having originally thought to make it a day trip from Sevilla. Do you have any suggestions for a moderately priced hotel there?
The 2 things that made us decide to stay here was, of course, Mezquita and the royal stables. I thought that would be a fun thing to do. Andalusian horses and flamenco!