The topic of how to get the 63 day discount RENFE tickets seems well beaten and handled; I have my instructions all set. Has anyone recently bought tickets or seen fares that could help us plan our budget and decide on how to get around Spain. I'm particularly interested in Madrid to Seville and Barcelona to Madrid. (We are also doing a Granada to Barcelona leg but that looks very cheap to fly.)
THANKS VERY MUCH
Posted by
Overland Park, KS
48 posts
I traveled Madrid to Seville and Madrid to Barcelona in the last 10 days. The fare to Seville was 32.25 each way Euros and the Barcelona was 45.54 Euros one way. I don't have have the tickets in front of me but I believe those are accurate.
I would pay a premium not to deal with the airport hassle. The AVE trains are very nice.
Jim
Posted by
Tempe
12 posts
I booked a ticket this week from Barcelona to Madrid less than 3 weeks in advance and got the First Class (Preferente) section for about 68 Euros. The cheap tickets in Tickets in the 2nd Class (Turistic) were already taken for the times that I needed but they cost about 45 Euros. It costs a little more than flying but I prefer the trains and there is a lot less hassle.
Posted by
Midwest, U.S.
189 posts
if you want to get the 60% off rate, I'd suggest looking 4 months ahead of the date of travel. here is what happened to me. I had the 62 days counted out for our Barcelona to Madrid train travel. then I read somewhere (either here or Fodor's forum) that people had seen fares on the renfe site as much as 90 days ahead. so, TWO days before my 62 days ahead I went out there (shortly after I read this bit about 90 days ahead) and sure enough, the 60% discounts were selling out!! in fact, the time it took me to get through all the fields to key in, the 60% club (first class because hubby insists...) fare had sold out!! I was able to get the 40% discount however so at least we didn't pay full fare!
It appears to me that the Barcelona to Madrid AVE is very popular so, if I were you, I would start checking 90 days ahead and avoid what happened to me! now...for our trip from Madrid to Sevilla, very different story. I started looking about 70 days ahead of that trip and it appeared the discounted fares were all sold out. NOT!! they just had not loaded them yet. and I checked every day for this one, checking the days before and it wasn't until the 62 days ahead(6 p.m. the night before for me since I am in central time zone) that this one appeared! and I was able to get the 40% discount for the preferente class (72.65 Euros). and I just looked and that one is now sold out. this was the 11:00 train by the way. if you take the earlier (Alvia train and not AVE) train, it is 58.80 Euros for preferente and 38.00 for turista. There is one AVE at 1:00 p.m. that has the 60% discount and that fare is 29.10 Euros.
I hope this was helpful!
Posted by
OP
Bellevue, WA
106 posts
Wow. They do say that timing is everything!
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
You will find SOME trains on RENFE routes that will come up before the 62-day period with the cheaper web fares. But the MAJORITY will appear at the 62-day limit. If the few earlier trains displayed fit your schedule, try them. If not, the rest of them, will come out for that 62-day period.