I am booking a trip from Barcelona to Madrid on AVE in May. The Renfe site seems very difficult to use. Rail Europe seems to be easy to use. Apart from the mark up on the fees (I'm happy with the price I'm finding), does anyone have experience using Rail Europe? I have seen some reviews online suggesting they are not recognized by Renfe as a partner and that it can cause problems. Thanks!
Posted by
white plains, ny, usa
4161 posts
You will have much better results here - https://www.trainline.eu/search
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Rail Europe is a Renfe partner with direct connection to seat availability. If reviews are more than a year old, then whatever issue they reported has probably changed.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
If you do want to try to book on Renfe, be sure to use Paypal, and follow all the steps in this detailed tutorial: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187514-c80518/Madrid:Spain:Buying.Renfe.Tickets.Online.html
Posted by
Minneapolis
1261 posts
Hi Steve. I would second steven's suggestion - try trainline. Rail Europe is notorious for not showing all trains and all discounts, in addition to adding fees. Enjoy your trip!
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32351 posts
Steve,
I'd also suggest trying Trainline as it's very user friendly and easy to use. Once you're registered on the webiste, you can buy tickets for trains in France, Italy (both main rail networks), Germany, Spain and a few other countries. One stop shopping!
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4088 posts
General advice, always, about rail travel: www.seat61.com
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
2790 posts
My suggestion is to check ALL the sites and go with the best deal.
That said. Renfe was the easiest for me when I bought for this March. TrainEU kept "timing out" and LocoTrain seemed to be just as poorly connected to Renfe.
I have now purchased three tickets on Renfe for this trip and all of them were easy and cheaper then the other options so don't be afraid of the site!
Posted by
California 🦋
5293 posts
Steve,
I booked our train tickets on the Renfe site without any issues. I paid with PayPal not with my credit card.
Here are a couple of helpful sites:
Have a wonderful trip!
Posted by
white plains, ny, usa
4161 posts
Hello Priscilla , I had mixed results last fall - two of my bookings ( paypal ) went through Renfe without a hitch . On subsequent ones , neither the credit card nor paypal would work , so trainline was next . I think a lot of this tends to be hit or miss .
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
2790 posts
I purchased all of mine using a credit card. Not sure why is was so easy but I had no issues
Posted by
8 posts
I purchased tickets through Rick's link to Rail Europe. I didn't compare the prices to those quoted directly on the Renfe website, but it seemed reasonable to me:
https://ricksteves.raileurope.com/us/rail/point_to_point/triprequest.htm