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Timing question about travel through MAD….to Seville

Posted by on

Hi all,

Finally getting to Spain! Our r/t airline tickets are between IAD and MAD. However, on the day of our arrival (Sep 25) we need to get to Seville. Our international flight is scheduled to land at 8:05am on 9/25. We have carry on baggage only. I believe my two best options are to fly to Seville or take the train. Given that we’ll already be at the airport, I’d like your opinion on trying to make an 11:25am flight on Iberia Express to Seville. I believe we’d need to check our roller bag on the Iberia Express flight. (On a side note, I am also curious if we’d go through immigration/customs in MAD or not until SVQ.)

I believe we could also catch a high speed train, but it seems it’s about 30 mins to the train station from MAD and then 2.5 hours on the train to Seville.

I’d appreciate your input!
Deb

Posted by
5976 posts

When it comes down to being in an airport for a few hours or going straight to a fast train where I can nap, the answer for me is always the train. (I would want at least three hours between separately booked flights because your first flight could be late, MAD is massive, and the lines can be too). Unless you can change your initial booking and do a flight to Sevilla on one ticket, train would be more pleasant in my opinion. A plus for the train is that you'll come out in the city and won't have to transit in from the airport. Though if you have Cordoba in your plans, I'd stop there as the train trip is shorter.

This recent thread on the subject has some good tips about train tickets; https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/booking-connecting-flight-separately

Posted by
7840 posts

To me, the wildcards are whether you depart Dulles on time and how long it takes to clear immigration in Madrid. Immigration can take twenty minutes or 1.5 hours as happened to me a couple years ago. Madrid’s airport is large so the arrival and departure terminals might influence your decision.

Posted by
12705 posts

Immigration (passport control) will happen at MAD.

Being as Sept is hurricane season for the South and East coast, weather delays are not to be dismissed.

IF all goes to schedule, and there are no schedule changes, the flight option is doable. For me I would not want to consume that much Tums, between now and Sept 25

Posted by
8478 posts

If you buy the flight either make sure it is at a price that you can afford to lose or fully refundable or changeable in case you missed it.

Posted by
996 posts

Iberia sells this route, but everything with them is arrival 4S, departure to SVQ in T4, 1 hr 15 minute layover only, it may be doable.

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