Train from Paris to Barcelona

Hi Jan. It's a long journey by train. You may want to consider flying; under $100 per person, try easyjet.com. Enjoy your trip!

Take the night train, it's about 13 hours, nonstop (no need to change trains), and you get a compartment where you can sleep. My friend did that with his family in July this year between Paris and Barcelona.

With the new high-speed line between Figueres-Vilafant and Barcelona you can make the trip from Paris to Barcelona in 7 1/2 hours. Leave Paris at either 07:20 or 15:20, change trains in Figueres-Vilafant, and arrive in Barcelona at either 14:46 or 22:45. The Elipsos Trenhotel leaves Paris at 20:41 and arrives in Barcelona at 08:24 (just under 12 hours). Booked well in advance (up to 90 days allowed), you can get a discount fare as low as €68 for the daytime route and €74 for a bed in 4-person sleeper with a washbasin on the Trenhotel. The discount fare for a bed in a 2-person sleeper is €95. The sleepers are same-sex only, unless you book the entire compartment. Your budget airline choices are easyJet (CDG-BCN), Vueling (ORY-BCN), and Ryanair (BVA-BCN). Beauvais is a 90-minute bus ride from Paris.

We just returned from Europe 3 months ago and took the hi speed train from Paris to Barcelona. We chose not to take a flight because we heard horror stories about cancelled flights, lost luggage etc on the budget airlines and since we were taking a cruise from Barcelona, we needed to get there on a certain date. The train ride (actually two trains) was very restful and we are glad we did. It gave us a day in our busy 3 week holiday overseas to just read, snooze (my husband mostly) or enjoy the scenery. The hi speed train gets you to Spain just over the border, in about 5 hours and the other Spanish train gets you into Barcelona in about 1 1/2 hours. Both trains were new, very comfortable and an enjoyable ride. You get to see the speed you are going by a television monitor and it is hard to believe you are really going 250 K/hr

Thanks! Might be something to think about. We thought it would be nice to see the countryside, but I agree it is a long trip and never been on a European train.

Jan, If you are not pressed too much by time, I would suggest taking the TGV speed train from Paris (Gare de Lyon) to Perpignan the direct connection. I did this ride this summer. It's a 5 hour ride, stay the night in Perpignan, on the next take the local train to Barcelona.