I reserved a non-refundable hotel in Seville thinking I could just catch a train after my flight lands in Madrid, but looking at the schedule the trains are all booked for that day except first class which is $180pp one way. Any suggestions for how we can get from Madrid to Seville for around $100 pp? Seville is a new city to us and I prefer not to arrive too late at night.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23268 posts
First, you did not indicate your travel dates. Second, I find it hard to believe that the train is completely booked. Third, what schedule are you looking at that tells you the trains are all booked? Fourth, a regional train will be available and at a much reduced rate. And finally, even if you had to arrive late, the taxis are great and reasonable.
Posted by
OP
Atlanta, GA, USA
4 posts
Our travel dates are May 6th Madrid to Seville, May 8 Seville to Granada, May 10th Granada to Madrid. Only first class is available. I was hoping for high speed train, AVE, but two out of three are slower regional trains. The train from Granada takes four hours and 44 minutes. Looking at RailEurope. Thanks for telling me we can safely get a taxi in Seville at 9 PM.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23268 posts
That is what I thought might be happening. You first BIG mistake is looking at RailEurope as source of information. RailEurope is a travel agency specializing in selling rail travel to North Americans at high prices. RE does not list all the trains and will push people into first class. Unless there is some hot holiday on May 6th in Spain that I am not aware of, there plenty of tickets available for that run. Personally I would wait until I arrived and use the Renfe ticket office in the airport to buy your tickets. Use bahn.de to check schedules.
We were traveling in that areas of this past New Years and bought all of our tickets the day before we traveled with no problems. New Years is a popular time for the locals.
Posted by
OP
Atlanta, GA, USA
4 posts
Thank you so much Frank. The tickets are high at $486 for three cites, two people, second class. We would prefer to wait for our flight to arrive and get to the train station anyway as long as something is available before it gets too late at night.
Posted by
Hendersonvlle, NC
486 posts
RailEurope (a division of SNCF, the French railroad) is a great site for estimating train costs and overall schedules but is a bad site to use for purchases. They don't tell you about specials or other deals. My experience is that the national railroads in the local country will always automatically offer you the best possible deal as they have no reason to sucker you into paying higher costs. In France, they immediately gave me the senior price w/o having to ask for it.
Posted by
OP
Atlanta, GA, USA
4 posts
Thanks John. I will let you all know the price difference after we return home.
Thanks so much for your help.