Train from Barcelona to Madrid

Buy from the official site https://www.renfe.com/es/en

This is a route where there is in fact more than one service provider, because in addition to Renfe (the state railway operator), Ouigo (a French low-cost company with a Spanish subsidiary) also operates a small number of trains, which tend to be cheaper than Renfe's trains.

That said, unless you are extremely cost sensitive, I would book with Renfe -- Ouigo's low-cost fares also come with the low-cost business model, i.e. lots more additional fees than on Renfe's trains.

I will note that the Renfe website is not the world's best designed (if you read Spanish, this satirical article from El Mundo Today, which is basically the Spanish version of The Onion, says it all) and has a tendency to switch inconsistently back and forth between English and Spanish, but it's the official site.

Renfe introduced a lower cost high speed train option called AVLO, just in the past year. They make trips from Barcelona to Madrid. Here is where you can get official tickets - https://avlorenfe.com/vlc/home.do?c=_As7n

FYI when in doubt you can always just buy the tickets directly at the train station, this is what I've always done with no issues.

Book in advance and the train will be reasonably priced. And in my opinion you'd be mad to consider flying when the train takes 2,5 hours city centre to city centre. And if you are going to Toledo, buy a ticket from Barcelona to Toledo and the connection in Madrid will be protected.

Thank you everyone for this great information!!! I really appreciate all of your tips! After reading how easy it is, we will definitely be taking a train!

Thanks again!

Linnet