travel from Madrid to Seville

See what you can get now for a discount price. I had to use Raileurope.com (which charges a fee for each ticket) because the sight is very hard to figure out. If you can't get a cheap ticket, you can always get a bus at less than the cheapest train ticket. There are multiple bus companies and the busses are the new charter type busses, comfortable and much more popular with locals than the train. You won't need a reservation, stop in the night before and buy your ticket to be safe. I think a short stop in Cordoba, to see the Mesquita and surrounding area is time well spent.

I just checked on Renfe and there are lots of Web fares available on Oct. 24, not much on the 25th but there are Estrella fares. Full fare is 101 euro; Web fare is around 42 and the Estrella fare is 59 so it is well worth buying now if you can get them. Go to the Renfe website and go straight to Purchase ( the shopping cart) to check the fares for your day of travel. Make sure you call your bank to advise of the foreign purchase AND register your card with Verified by Visa as Renfe will connect and contact them to verify your card. I had no trouble purchasing on Renfe. But if you cannot get it to work for you, check the various agencies (Petrabax, rumba.es, or RailEurope). All will offer the discount fares but at a higher price than Renfe, and also add a handling fee. So it is well worth trying Renfe first. See the instructions on the Madrid forum page on Tripadvisor if you want more details on Renfe, but note that they make it sound more difficult than it actually is.