Trains in Spain

Goeuro.com is the site I was using.

Those are short train rides so buy the cheapest at the time you want.

For Madrid day trips that's true. But for Sevilla-Cordoba, the fast trains take about 45 minutes, the regional trains about 70-85 minutes. You can get the fast trains at about 1/2 price if you buy well in advance.

I don't understand your question: Is the AVE the way to go and just buy destination to destination tickets? do you mean in advance? or on the spot?

The best site is the official Renfe site - renfe.com

The bus is also a good option for short trips such as Segovia and Toledo from Madrid. Very cheap and get up close to the towns. Since the train in Spain is not as extensive as the trains in the rest of Europe, the bus system is well developed.

You can buy your tickets direct from the train operator - Renfe http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/index.html. However, you will need this tutorial from Tripadvisor: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187514-c80518/Madrid:Spain:Buying.Renfe.Tickets.Online.html.

US credit cards almost never work on Renfe's site - just use Paypal from the start, and save yourself a lot of time and headache.

For most of your trips, AVE is the way to go. From Seville to Cordoba, you can take the Avant - about as fast and much cheaper. For daytrips to Segovia and Toledo, if you have any trouble getting the trains you want, buses work fine as well.

I meant in advance or on the spot. Sounds like in advance for a number of reasons.

Madrid-Seville: AVE, and you'll save money by buying a non-refundable/non-changeable ticket in advance.

Seville-Corodba: AVE, ditto. Also, check to see whether the roundtrip is much less expensive than two one-way tickets. That's often true in Spain. Harold's right about the AVANT. Any time it shows up on a schedule, it's a good option.

Madrid-Toledo: Tickets are always the same price, so there's no hurry. However, a train can sell out, and Rick especially warns about the later trains heading back to Madrid. Best not to wait until a few minutes before you depart. Roundtrip is the way to go; it will save you money. Bus is an option if you wait too late and find several trains are sold out. However, the bus does take a bit longer, and it doesn't depart from Atocha Station. You'll need to hop on the Metro to get the correct bus depot. In Toledo both the bus station and the train station are a healthy walk from the historic district, which is up on a hill. There escalators so you don't actually need to do much climbing, but it isn't a 5-minute walk.

Madrid-Segovia: There is some variation in the rail fares, so buying early will probably save money if you want to take a fast train. You can look at today's/tomorrow's prices on Renfe and compare them to the May prices; that will show you the possible savings. Again, roundtrip may be a lot cheaper than two one-way tickets. There are buses taking about 1 hour (fast trains are about 30 minutes; slow trains, about 1-1/2 hours. There is no reserved seating on the slow trains, so they cannot sell out. The bus fare seems to be roughly the same as the fare on the slow trains. Buses depart from Moncloa Station, which you can reach by Metro. If your guidebook is a few years old, it may send you to the wrong bus station.

Edited to add: Atocha Station is a bit of a zoo. It is indisputably large. I also found it confusing. As I recall, there are different ticket machines for different types of trains, and the staffed counters are located in different places, too. It's not a quick matter to figure out where you need to go to get your ticket and how to get to your platform. Allow plenty of time there. The office selling long-distance tickets is so busy it operates on a take-a-number system, and it's common for them to stop giving out numbers 30 minutes or more before closing time. I don't think you use that office for Toledo and Segovia.

Buy AVE well in advance for best fares ...
Madrid to Toledo
Madrid to Sevilla
Sevilla to Cordoba

Buy on the day for a local train ...
Madrid to Segovia

David, I've never seen any price variation between Madrid and Toledo, and I've looked pretty frequently.

Madrid-Toledo is a set fare, the only reason to buy in advance is to avoid long lines at Atocha. I stood in line 90 minutes once.

Completely agree about the potential for lines at Atocha.

As you say it’s the queues at Atocha in that case (Madrid-Toledo) that necessitates pre purchase. I know from experience, as I had to forego my planned day to Toledo in 2011 because of them.

Very helpful input. Thanks to all. Jim

JE, as many here already know, the trains in Spain are mainly on the plains. But not exclusively so.

By George, Larry, you’ve got it.

I've just finished booking a number of train tickets in Spain. The Renfe site is pretty challenging for a bunch of reasons, but mainly because the English version is a hit and miss.

I have been using http://www.trainline.eu site for all my bookings - it's great. Easy to use and there is no additional booking fee. If you set up an account/profile it will hold all of your pending trips in one place. They also have a phone app so you can carry your tickets with you on your phone. Or print them off from a PDF file. Highly recommended.

One thing I learned along the way is that Renfe doesn't update its schedule until about 60 days prior to the actual travel date, 90 days in the case of AVE trains. So if you are trying to book too far in advance, you won't see many available trains.

I'm with you Bruce! Trainline has been awesome for me, too. I could not get through the language barrier.....even with my iPhone language translator app. Renfe just did not work for me. With Trainline....I am a happy consumer riding on the rails of Spain.

I was able to purchase tix on Renfe for Madrid to Seville round trip. It won’t allow me to do the shorter trips, Madrid to Segovia and Toledo and Seville to Cordoba. I get the same error message each time after putting in the same payment info as the trip that went through. It’s unable to process my request at this time. Any thoughts?

Looks like I can do it on rail Europe. It’s just a little more expensive.

If you haven't already clicked on the "buy" key, check out https://loco2.com. Usually cheaper than Rail Europe and very user friendly.