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Train travel -- questions about ticket purchase

Posted by on

Hi all

For our trip to Spain, I am interested in buying tickets on the following routes:

Madrid - Toledo - Madrid (using Renfe)
Madrid - Granada (using Renfe)
Sevilla - Barcelona (Using Iryo).
To get from Granada to Sevilla we plan to take the Alsa bus, which is already available for purchase.

I have read a lot about the purchase of the tickets, and seen many informative videos and read a lot of reviews. In them, I have seen that Renfe usually posts itineraries for purchase 90 days in advance, but Iryo is up to a year. Which means I should be able to purchase the train Sevilla - Barcelona for early January already. But, when I go to both the Iryo website, or trainline, it only allows to select up to December 13. Is this typical for this time of year? Is the one ticket that has me the most worried.

Although I am new to Spain, I have previously purchased tickets directly with Trenitalia, SCNF, Thalys, SBB and UK National Rail. So it's not like I am a newbie for train travel. I want to secure train tickets before making reservations for the places we want to see, and wondered if anyone has come up with a situation like this and how close to the date would Iryo open up the sales for tickets in the new year.

Thanks in advance,

Posted by
1322 posts

Spain's national rail timetable changes on the second Sunday of December (this year, Sunday 14th December). I'd guess tickets aren't being sold until the new timetable is confirmed.
In practise, you can be fairly confident that the new timetable will not be much different to the current one.

PS just to clarify that whilst the new timetable comes into effect on 14 December. It is meant to be announced well in advance (in waves). So you should start seeing tickets for sale any day/week now.

Posted by
14 posts

8/21
I have start my planning for my trip to Spain for next year.

I am interested in purchasing a Spain Rail Flex pass similar to
what Switzerland offers(Outstanding!).
How do I purchase a 6 day pass and do I have to be specific
on all dates of travel?
I intend to fly into Madrid and fly out of Santiago back to a
non-stop or 1-stop airline back to Seattle.
My itinerary starts in Madrid with a round trip to Barcelona.
Then a side trip to Toledo and Gurnica on local busses.
Next is working my way to San Sebastion to explore that
region including Bilbao and Pamploma with other options.
Then travel my way to Santiago.
I will either use local trains or busses to explore the areas.
The Renfe site is difficult and I cannot find a way to book
the Flex Pass.
If we like an area we will stay longer and specific travel
dates can become an issue.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions.
Gracias.
JM
p.s.-Are 'paradores' a good location for lodging?

Posted by
48 posts

Tmalave - I bought tickets from Barcelona to Seville using Iryo, which is super easy for my upcoming trip, however Renfe tickets were a nightmare to get using overseas credit card, or even PayPal and after trying alot of times and even calling Renfe,I gave up (for Seville to Madrid) so i bought Iryo instead. I am thinking to just buy train tickets from Madrid - Segovia and Madrid - Toledo while I am there, I need to get senior railcards for my parents anyways. (If you flip back several pages you can see my rant there on the annoyance with Renfe).

Also - my Barcelona - Seville train tickets were bought in July for September trip just to give you some timelines :)

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