I see a lot of different options for booking trains on this forum and wondering which is best for me in Canada when looking to book my Spain train tickets (Malaga to Madrid and Madrid to Barcelona) when they finally come available for June?
renfe.com
raileurope.ca
trainline.eu
loco2.com
I know there are challenges with the renfe site but I will give it a try as there are no extra fees from what I understand. If it doesn't work, what should be my next site and why? Thanks in advance!
Canadians do fine on the Renfe website. The website can be frustrating but it accepts Cdn credit cards. There’s a tutorial on tripadvisor that is helpful. You can also use acprail.com based out of Montreal. I believe they charge $2 fee. Avoid raileurope!
I agree about using Renfe.es. there is an English version choice. Also you can't purchase tickets for trains more than a few months in advance(60 or 90 days, I believe). The website is a little buggy sometimes but has the lowest prices.
Thanks...I will give renfe a try when the tickets become available. Even when choosing the English site, some of the questions they ask are in Spanish so I'll need some google translation. :) As a backup, I will try the acprail site suggested. It seemed easy. Thanks for the feedback!
I have compared prices on Renfe and loco2. As far as I can tell, there is no upcharge on loco2. Also, you can set an alert on loco2 for your city pair(s) and date(s) of travel and they will email you when tickets are available to purchase.
For my June trip, no tickets have been released yet, so I am left waiting and checking Renfe daily. I am using loco2 as backup in the event I run into a snag at the Renfe site. And I have set up a loco2 email alert. I should be good between the two of the sites.
Good luck and happy travels!
I'm also in Canada and recently finished booking quite a few train segments in Spain and have used the trainline.eu site for all but one. I recommend it highly. Very easy to use and no extra fees. I did use the Renfe site for one trip and it worked fine, but nowhere near as easy as trainline. Have heard good things about loco2. Trainline also a phone app.
Watch out for hidden service charges. Trainline charges exactly what you would pay thru Renfe.
Here is more info: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/barcelona-to-madrid-fly-or-train
As a spaniard, I buy online at www.renfe.com . If you do a mistake, you can cancel your ticket free of charge up to 2 hours since you buy it. Phewww!
We used Trainline.eu to book all of our Spanish train travels and had no issues at all. The price that I paid was the same as that on the Renfe site.
Here is a direct link to the TripAdvisor tutorial on Renfe: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187514-c80518/Madrid:Spain:Buying.Renfe.Tickets.Online.html
By following the directions in that post, I was able to book on Renfe with no problems; without it, I'd never have made it work. Being in the US, I found that my credit card didn't work at all on Renfe, but Paypal went through quickly with no problems.
I actually just went and did the comparison and it seems that trainline has the same prices as renfe. Raileurope was about $15 more per ticket.
What you have found is consistent with that others have reported.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. So appreciated!
