What is the best way to get from Madrid airport to Toledo, mid-day. Flight arrives at 1:10pm.
Metro to downtown Madrid and then train to Toledo? Are there better options? ... bus? (But does the bus leave from the airport?)
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
The fastest way is to take a taxi to Atocha station, then the AVE fast train out. However, that's also the most expensive, at about 30 Euro for the taxi ride. The Metro is 2 Euro per person from the airport to the train statio, requires 2 changes, and takes about 45 minutes.....a bus-metro combination about the same.
The AVE high speed train takes half an hour to make the run and costs just under 9 Euro. You can purchase in advance at www.renfe.es....there are no discounts on this run, but if you want seats on a certain train, this is the best way to go. If you want maximum flexibility, just wait until you get to Atocha station to purchase. There are 5 trains to Toledo from 3 pm onwards during the week, 4 on Saturdays and Sundays.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
We did exactly what you are doing, however it was ten years ago and things may have changed.
At the time there was a local bus from the airport to the bus station for the Toledo bus (frequent, pleasant).
There seems to be some information here:
http://www.mat.ucm.es/~ln06/imtoledo/travel.html
We found Toledo a brilliant place to de-jetlag and regroup.
Posted by
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
345 posts
We did the reverse of this trip a couple of years ago. AVE between Toledo and Madrid, then metro from the train station to the airport. It wasn't a problem at all, just be sure you can handle your luggage up and down stairs in the metro.
Be aware that there is a surcharge on metro tickets for trips starting and ending at the airport. I think it was automatically included for tickets purchased at the airport.
Posted by
OP
Honolulu, HI, USA
408 posts
Thanks for sharing these experiences/tips. We've changed our plans a bit to (hopefully) make things a bit easier. We're now coming in to Madrid and staying for a few days. We've put Toledo on the back end of that (and thereby avoided an 'early checkout' fee at the Madrid apartment).
The remaining complication is that we now have an extra early departure from Toledo to connect in Madrid for a schedule that we can only guess will follow the typical pattern of 8am departure out of Madrid (because Renfe isn't yet publishing June timetables).