More Train Questions: France/Spain

You can do your own homework by going to bahn.de for excellent schedule information which will answer all your questions about times. The vast majority of times train run on schedule as posted. There can be delays but are infrequent. The stairs to board are very steep, narrow and crowded with people getting on and off, so the easy of boarding is marginal. There is a great advantage to not having much luggage to get on and off. Otherwise trains are very friendly and easy to use.

WE did not travel to San Sebastian, but all the trains we took in spain (seven in all) left exactly on time and arrived on time. The published times on Renfe were correct.

Ok - thanks. I am definitely train-challenged - not having much 'ease' trying to navigate bahn.de OR raileurope.com :-).
Cheers~L

Lyn, for travel in Spain you should learn to use Renfe.com. It is in English if you want and not difficult. I find it easiest to use the "purchase" function (the shopping cart) even if I am just researching schedules and fares. It has a nice little drop-down menu for the stations. It will show you the discounts available. The "fares and schedules" area only shows the full fares.

Thank you SO much!

Rail Europe is not a good source for complete scheduling information or pricing. RE is basically a travel agent or reseller of tickets and only lists schedules for the tickets that they sell. Their may not reflect the discounts that are available from the national rail sites.

Wow - word to the wise - avoid raileurope.com! What a nightmare...online system did not record reservations, over 48 hrs to reply to an email, and then generically, and a 35 min- 2 hr wait on the phone. Disaster.

I'm not as opposed to raileurope as others here. I found them really easy for purchasing a ticket from Cordoba to Madrid. The ticket was cheap, even with their 4 euro service charge per ticket. I probably wouldn't use them for travel in Germany where the DeutschBahn website is easy to use. In Spain, however, the Renfe site isn't easy and has a history of problems for people purchasing from US.

Great - thanks for advising re: Renfre!

Some people report problems buying tickets on Renfe but many of us have done it successfully with no trouble. You do not hear from most of the successful ones, only the people who have trouble. There are detailed instructions on the Madrid forum page on Tripadvisor, but in my experience the single most important thing is to register your credit card with Verified by Visa before attempting the purchase. You must also call your bank to advise that you will be making a purchase from Spain so they don't reject it as fraud.