Hello, coming to Spain with husband and four kids (ages 15-10) from the US. Trying to plan in advance. Searching for AVE train tix from Madrid Atocha to Sevilla on June 6, 2019 and looked on both renfe.com and petrabax.com. Coming up with next to nothing. Thinking I am too late in planning, or too early? Also, looking for advice on train schedule from Granada back to Madrid on the 16th. Since there is no high speed train, seems like it would be prudent to just take the 5+ hour bus back to Madrid. One other thought... since we are renting a car in Sevilla and dropping in Granada, would it make more sense to just rent the car in Madrid as we leave the city and drop it back in Madrid on the way back? Seems like train-car-train is more expensive than if we rent the car for the whole time (althoughI don't want to deal with parking the rental car in Sevilla or Granada). Advice welcome! Emily
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Found this... maybe that is the problem.
When do reservations open? In theory, bookings should open 60 days ahead for all trains other than AVE trains which should open 90 days ahead. However, this isn't exact - Renfe loads dates in large blocks as and when it feels like it, often significantly less than 60 days and often loading some trains before others. If you go online and don't see the complete train service which you're expecting to see, and it's more than a month to go before departure, the chances are that all trains are not yet loaded. Renfe is particularly lax in opening bookings for dates after the timetable changes at midnight on the 2nd Saturday in June and 2nd Saturday in December when the booking horizon can shrink to as little as 30 days.
Posted by
Paris
7304 posts
Yes that's what's happening right now. Annoying, they are especially late this time it seems. Look at schedules for say, next week, to make plans.
Posted by
2 posts
Apparently no trains are available after June 2nd:
https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2019/05/06/rail-fail-travellers-fuming-as-costa-del-sol-and-spain-left-without-summer-trains-due-to-website-errors/
Posted by
stevens point, wi, usa
1194 posts
Hello from Wisconsin,
There are other posts regarding acquiring train tickets for Spain. I have two recommendations and you only need to do the first.
Go to the website, loco2. You can arrange for them to send you an email assoon as tickets become available for your dates. They also sell those same tickets at the same price as offered directly by Renfe, the Spanish rail system.
Go to, the man in seat 61. On the left hand column scroll down to Spain and read what the man has to say, then go back to my first suggestion and do that.
Buying directly from Renfe is clunky at best, really really difficult and likely to be refused by your credit card company.
You will find many Spanish websites for tickets clunky and likely to being declind by your card.
Wayne iNWI