unable to book train from Granada to Madrid???

When we traveled to Spain we took this route:
Flew to Madrid >> Cordoba >> Granada>> Sevilla>> Madrid (stayed in Toledo)

Hmmm… Is it too late to change your itinerary?

Since there are only 4 trains traveling from Granada to Madrid, you may consider taking the ALSA bus on this journey.

Have you already booked your Alhambra tickets?

Wishing you a wonderful trip!

I took the train from Granada to Madrid and purchased the ticket 1 hour before departure using the Renfe App. I think you maybe trying to purchase too early. The high speed train was quite pleasant and efficient.

I like to plan ahead as well, but in this case I think you are too early.

We took a bus from Madrid to Granada. It was about 3 1/2 hours, and it was a very smooth ride.

I am currently booking my trains for my upcoming trip and the latest date I can book at the moment for one of the routes - Seville to Merida - is 28 February and I want to travel on 9 March. I am just going to keep looking every day.

It's quite annoying as I have been able to book some trains in April. RENFE site all seems a bit random. I have also tried via Trainline.

Strange. I just looked at a few random dates in mid March and they’re coming up fine for me on Renfe’s site—6 trains a day. (But I do see the 8:10 am train listed as sold out on a number of those days. That surely can’t be true, so they must be holding back from actually selling tickets for it.)

Well my date is March 29, which has been unavailable. I looked yesterday. Then after seeing this thread today, I looked again this morning and there it is. Strangely, the 8:10, which has a transfer in Cordoba, has to be booked from the website - the app sends me there. Booking this morning!

And my Seville - Granada trip, which is a few days earlier and also not available yesterday, is still not available. Trainline shows only the Alsa busses. I chose the bus anyway last time I was there because of better scheduling and it was fine.

Edit: Purchased. And I save @ $4 for just this leg (2 people Basic) by choosing to pay in euros instead of dollars.

Sevilla-Merida is a regional service, so likely to be one of the last to be loaded. I can see them only to end February. I'd be surprised if the ever sell out except around Easter and other major Sevilla events.

Thanks Nick for this information. I am not getting too worried about it as we can always catch a bus if needed, but it's good to know that trains on that route are unlikely to be full.

I keep hearing these reports about the Renfe App and they surprise me as I have never had any difficulties at all. I am going to assume that people know how to use an App, so I find myself really wondering what the difference is. Could it have to do with how far in advance people are trying to purchase? Mix up on dates? Credit Card security issues?

I like the Renfe App, but then it has never given me any reason not to.

www.TheTrainline.com has tickets for sale throughout all of March for Granada-Madrid. Your experience is why many view the Renfe website as flawed.
While Renfe sells its fast-train tix just 60 to 90 days in advance ( and often there is not a comprehensive listing of Renfe’s trains on its own website). other sites are selling them up to 9 months in advance. That raises the possibility that Renfe shows some of its own trains as “sold out” because the tickets were sold by other websites months before Renfe even put them up for sale on its own website.
Go figure!

Shari,

Were you able to book your train tickets?

I just checked on Renfe.com for March 15, and there are 5 trains traveling that route at 7:00, 8:10, 15:33, 17:26, 19.18.

Did you book your Alhambra tickets?

Wishing you a wonderful trip!

P.S.
BTW, train tickets for this route are available for booking (on Renfe.com) up to May, 31, 2023.

Carol Now Retired, the app worked just fine for me. But the train schedule only loads when it loads. And the trip that had to be booked via the website? - who knows. The app said so and linked me, though, and I had no trouble purchasing via a browser. Most routes don’t do that - but I saw a few others that did.

I just booked all our train tix last night on Renfe site for dates in April.
2 went smoothly but the third kept giving me an error so I booked on the app without any issues.

Just have to go slow and make sure all blanks are filled in.