Train travel in Southern Spain in Feb/2024

We book trains whilst in Spain however we travel outside peak season. We also arrive well in advance of our actual train trips.

I've travelled on all the train trips you've mentioned and mostly they are very busy.

It could be a risky.

Individual trains (and sometimes multiple trains on the same day) do sometimes sell out on the main rail line running Barcelona-Madrid-Cordoba-Seville, so I would be somewhat worried about that first trip from the airport to Cordoba. There's also the potential to save a good bit of money on Madrid-Cordoba tickets by buying early. However, given the uncertainties about flight schedules and actual arrival times, there's substantial risk involved in buying that ticket early, so I really have no advice for you there.

I haven't looked at schedules between Cordoba and Granada often enough to know whether those trains sell out, too, but I know there aren't many of them. You can save some money on AVE tickets on that route by buying quite early, but the equally fast AVANT trains seem always to be (currently) 25.70 euros per person, as long as there are tickets available.

Much of the trip from Jerez to Madrid involves the Seville-Madrid stretch, and that schedule page is often littered with "Full Train" labels if you check the schedule for the next few days. That one's definitely risky. And on some trains you'd have a chance of saving a lot by buying quite early.

You can and should watch renfe.com to see availability on the day of travel and the day before and price movement as you get closer and closer to the travel date.

The trains in Spain can often sell out, so I would book ahead.

The trains in Spain run mainly on the plain.

Nicely done, davebarnes 😄

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