Train travel in Spain

Refre is the Spanish train...you can purchase your tickets about 45/6- or more days in advance (some one else may give you a more definite time period) and save a good bit on your fees. It can be difficult to make the purchase on line...be sure to 'register; your credit card at the first prompting to do so. The tickets will have the car and seat number on them. No need to purchase a first class ticket as the tourista is more than adequate. From Madrid to Barcelona is about 2 1/2 hours. Madrid to Toledo 1/2 hour. Sevilla - Madrid is also 2 1//2 hours. The longer trains have a snack car on them. Look for it as you board so you will know which direction it is in. Luggage is carried by you and stored on the train as you enter. Restrooms are in each car as well.

The trains you will be on leave from the Atocha Station. Suggest you take an aeropuerto van from the airport to you hotel when you arrive. You can most likely take the subway to the train station from there. Go to the Atocha RAILWAY stop, exit and walk forward along the long passage way.

In Barcelona you will exit at the Sants Station. Lots of public and private transportation there. Toledo is at the end of the line (one stop only). Take a public bus (at the street entrance, not at the door of the station) to the Plaza Zodocover, or take a taxi and walk from there. Exciting taxi ride for sure! Sevilla station is larger than Toledo, but easy to navigate and lots of transportation is there as well.

Have not been to Granada -- might be there this summer though!!

This web site (seat61.com) has info on rail travel in Spain.

I have a similar trip planned starting in about 1.5 weeks. I look forward reading advice you receive.
I used air miles, unfortunately not using open jaw, also flying in and out of Madrid.

The Renfe rail pass seems to have these advantages -
- one purchase rather than several (although reservations still need to be made)
- flexible travel, not locked into a ticket with fixed date and time
- probably cheaper for long trips (~$46/trip 2nd class, $64 first class, reservation costs are included says the seat61 site)
- may be cheaper for even short trips if you have to pay full fare rather than a promo fare
One Renfe railpass disadvantage is that a new ticket is needed for each train, so if you have to change trains to reach your destination you would need to use more than one ticket. Other railpasses are probably by the day (instead of by the train), but are more expensive.

You can use the Renfe.com site to get train schedules and prices. The promotional prices are much cheaper than full fare, but don't know how much they change over time, say if you bought the day of your trip.

My itinerary looks like this now:
Madrid - 3 nights
Barcelona - 7 nights
Andalusia (Seville, Granada, Cordoba) & Toledo ~ 8 nights
Madrid ~ 3 nights (more or less days depending on experience)

David,

The Seat61 website has a great and thorough explanation. Also see my posting (link below) regarding using the RENFE website to purchase the deep-discount Promo fares. Seats at those fares are limited and can go on sale three months or more in advance.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/my-experience-purchasing-spanish-train-tickets-online-using-renfe-vs-petrabax

A EuroRail Pass of any kind will not be of any value to you in Spain. Purchase tickets in advance directly from RENFE to get steep discounts. The website is notorious for not being very user friendly but with some persistence and knowing a little Spanish, you can do just fine. There are two types of discounted tickets (as well as senior discounts) - one allows changes and one does not. If you buy the cheaper no-change ticket, it literally means no changes and no excuses. Because weird things can happen, I usually buy the changeable tickets. Discounted tickets are limited, so try and buy now for March as they may have started disappearing.

To actually buy the tickets, use the Paypal option. People have reported that it works well. Trying to use your credit card direct is hit or miss no matter what you do.

For short trips like Madrid-Toledo, just buy the tickets day-of or a day before. Lines at Atocha are long so be prepared to wait up to an hour or more. There are two lines: day-of tickets and advance-sale tickets - be sure to get in the right line.

You also may want to seriously consider going straight to Barcelona (your flight is probably already booked but you would have been better off getting a multi-city ticket into Barcelona and out of Madrid). You can catch a regional flight from the Madrid airport or take the train that evening. Then back to Madrid. Or start in Madrid/Toledo, then to Barcelona. You can fly cheap from Barcelona to Granada and save considerable time too. Granada to Sevilla is actually better done by bus; more frequent, cheaper and the same travel time.

I am concerned about you going through Madrid three times, which is not very efficient. Can you fly into Barcelona? Can you stay in Madrid at the end of the trip instead of in the middle? I would feel more comfortable to sleep in the city from which I fly home, rather than planning to take a 2.5-hour train that morning, before connecting to the airport.

The best train ticket prices are for sale now, 2 months in advance. Barcelona-Madrid is the most expensive ticket, and therefore offers the most advance savings. But don't buy tickets until you are sure of your plans.

Most of your trains will be direct, not needing connections, so counting them isn't necessarily hard. Another oddity of the Renfe Spain pass (a set of online e-tickets sold on the Renfe site), in addition to counting train segments instead of calendar days, is that you must reserve each leg in chronological order, nothing out of order!

If you choose the Eurail Spain pass (a physical pass sold here and mailed to you at home), then you are counting calendar days, such as 4 travel days for $258 per person, and pay about $20 for each seat reservation on top of that, and the number of seats for pass holders is limited.

With heavy heart (I'm a born and bred Barcelonian!) I have to advice to skip Barcelona all together for this trip. You won't see almost anything if you just have two days, taking into account you'll loose nearly half a day travelling to Barcelona, and another half a day travelling back to Madrid. In reality it's not "half a day" per se, but a good 4 hours at the very least (2:30 train + from/to hotel, unpacking, etc). And you'll save a bundle too...

hey y'all, we appreciate all the pointers! lots to think about and consider....

our itinerary is based on Rick's 10 day suggestion found here: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/spain/itinerary

of course, his arrival is barcelona instead of madrid. plane tickets were well priced into madrid for us, albeit we were not fully informed on train travel costs

is there really little to see in barcelona in mid-march, as Enric suggests? as this is our first trip to spain, our idea was to get a taste of each of these cities/provinces (a kind of flyover, so to speak). we are open to itinerary suggestions that will improve efficiency for maximum enjoyment. we do plan to sleep in madrid the first night and the night before departure.

madrid/toledo first then barcelona sounds interesting. depends on how much more we're adding with another flight from barcelona to granada. can anyone give a ballpark figure on that? we will certainly take the bus from granada to sevilla if time is the same

other thoughts and advice are welcome

thx again!

While Barcelona is certainly worth a visit (I have been there twice and plan to return in the spring) I would leave it off your journey and go the Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada route; This will let you have more time in each place to absorb more of these cities. Barcelona will be good for the next visit.....

Oh no DavidR, it's not that there's "little to see", on the contrary, there's too much to see all year long so if you only have two days you'll hardly see anything. To scratch the surface of Barcelona (and it's region, as there are plenty of small towns and other cities worth visiting too), you ought to be investing at least 4-5 full days (for Barcelona), which you don't seem to have this time, so that's why I'm suggesting to skip it and leave it for another trip.

questions first... What advantage is there in waiting to buy train tickets to Toledo? Why not buy all tickets ahead of time rather than standing in lines? We were also planning to buy bus and museum tickets online. We want to maximize enjoyment

we decided it would indeed be wise to leave Barcelona for our 2nd trip and add Cordoba to this one

itinerary:
Madrid - 4 days including a day trip to Toledo via AVE train
Granada - 2 days via AVE train
Cordoba - 2 days via ALSA bus (or maybe just 1 day and 3 in Sevilla)
Sevilla - 2 days via ALSA bus (is it better to spend 3 days here instead of 2 days each with Cordoba)
Madrid - overnight via AVE train

so, AVE trips are reduced from 6 to 3. Is ALSA the best (only?) economic choice for traveling Granada>Cordoba>Sevilla? (we searched Google maps for directions)

@Enric Sorry! your first post was misread. thx for the advice!

thx everyone!

The advantage to buying your Toledo tickets while there is flexibility. But if you know exactly when you want to go and return, there is no reason not to buy them ahead of time. I don't think there is any advance purchase discounts, or at least they are marginal.

I think it's a good idea to skip Barcelona this time. It really is a geographic outlier on such a short trip.

I suggest rearranging your new schedule as follows:
Madrid>Granada>Sevilla>Cordoba

You can take a regular RENFE train to Granada (there is no highspeed AVE train). To Sevilla I think it is better to take the bus but there are regular trains too (again, no highspeed AVE). Cordoba is along the highspeed AVE line between Sevilla and Madrid so that makes sense to do last.

I would consider just one night in Cordoba. It is a smaller city and while I love it, you might find yourself stretched to find things to do. Many people see it as a daytrip or as a few-hour stop on their way to Sevilla from Madrid. Sevilla has much more to offer and worth at least 3 nights. Some prefer Granada and might suggest 3 nights there (not my personal choice).

Be sure to get your Alhambra tickets in advance too. You choose either a morning or afternoon ticket and make a specific entry time reservation for the Nasrid Palace portion of the site. I prefer a morning ticket as you can see everything and then have lunch (Spanish eat lunch about 2:00) and can still wander around the site and shop in the afternoon (you just can't enter ticketed areas).

Hey Douglas thanks for all that, especially the info about the high-speed trains and Córdoba. thanks!

revised itinerary:
Madrid - 4 days including a day trip to Toledo via AVE train
Granada - 2 days via AVE train
Cordoba - 2 days via ALSA bus (or maybe just 1 day and 3 in Sevilla)
Sevilla - 2 days via ALSA bus (is it better to spend 3 days here instead of 2 days each with Cordoba)
Madrid - overnight via AVE train

If your flight lands in the morning or early afternoon, I'd reverse the order. After clearing customs, it's about 1/2 to 1 hour to the Madrid station (Atocha), depending on wait times, then a 2-hour ride to Cordoba. Either way, it might be better to go to Cordoba between Seville and Madrid, since that's the train route.

Airport > Cordoba > Seville > Granada > Madrid > airport saves one hotel change.

here's what we finalized today, prices paid for 2 people:

fly into Madrid morning March 7

Madrid - 4 days with day trip to Toledo (we didn't want to do more traveling after a long-ass flight)
Madrid>Toledo>Madrid via AVANT $47.77 USD

Sevilla - 3 days
Madrid>Sevilla via AVE $75.25 USD

Granada - 3 days
Sevilla>Granada via ALSA $25

Cordoba - 1 day
Granada>Cordoba via ALSA $25

sleep in Madrid the last night
Cordoba>Madrid via AVE $73.39 USD

fly out of Madrid morning March 18

i think we did well, no small thanks to a strong USD

How did it go?

Hey Allan, it was the best vacation of our lives! We got lucky in that we arrived at the start of a warm spell, so the weather was beautiful. all the train and bus rides were smooth and uneventful. what's more, the euro was as close to par as I can ever remember. We can't wait to go back!

you have been taken...just like the potato chip add, "One trip is not enough!" That is what I found several years ago after my first trip to Spain with a group...then back on my own again and again....participate in the program Vaughantown...an English immersion program...check out the site groupovaughan.com....excellent way to see not just the country but become friends with the Spanish people!!!

thx HJ. we grew up speaking Spanish so we want spaniards to always speak Spanish around us, esp since it can be different from our carribean take (lol)

we look fwd to returning again and again, maybe even living somewhere in Andalucia