We will be arriving in Madrid from Barcelona via the AVE fast train on October 7th. I was finally able to purchase the tickets on Trainline.com yesterday! We will be taking side trips to Toledo, Salamanca and Segovia. We haven’t set those dates yet. My question is: Should I purchase these tickets in advance or can we wait until the day we decide to travel? Do we need to reserve seats?
Posted by
13 posts
I am looking at the roundtrip train tickets between Madrid to Toledo:
- For tomorrow, nothing comes up on the website. I think you need to buy at the train station.
- For the day after tomorrow, for 2 persons, $25.50 each way
- For a day in October, for 2 persons, $25.50 each way
So, it doesn't look like there is any advantage buying the ticket now. The AVE between Madrid and Barcelona is different. I think there is a very limited number of tickets that's heavily discounted. If you can snatch those (like 60 some days in advance), it's a substantial saving. Once those are gone, the price on regular 2nd/1st class tickets may go up somewhat towards the actual travel day. That's just my perception. I've read that some people try to get the discounted ticket by going to the website everyday, (or couple times a day) from 65 days before the travel time. They make the purchase as soon as the schedule is loaded onto the system.
Posted by
Washington DC
27062 posts
Yes, the Madrid-Toledo fare does not vary. However, trains on that route do occasionally sell out. Rick specifically suggests buying the return ticket at the same time as the outbound ticket to be sure you don't end up marooned in Toledo when you have a paid-for hotel room in Madrid. I believe there's a slight savings when you buy a round-trip ticket as well.
For Segovia you can save some money by buying the ticket in advance. For Salamanca I have never priced next-day tickets vs. next-month tickets, but I think advance purchase will yield some savings there as well. Whether the savings are enough to give up scheduling flexibility is a decision each traveler has to make for himself.
Edited to add: I believe the trip to Salamanca is 2 hr. 20 min. each way, to which you have to add the time needed to get to and from the train stations. I know folks do day-trip to Salamanca, but to me that is a bridge too far given the size of the city's historic area. I would consider Cuenca instead, which is just over an hour away by AVE. However, this is a ticket that's only available [that was a mental hiccup; I mesnt to ssy "affordable"] if you can buy early at the promo price, and you may need a taxi from the AVE station into town if the timing of the bus doesn't work for you.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15576 posts
I just looked at renfe.com for today (Monday) at 8 am local time - there is availability for all trains to/from Toledo. You should buy tickets a day or two in advance. There are often long lines for tickets at the Madrid train station and returning trains do sell out during the day.