HI, we are traveling in September from LAX to Madrid. The cities we want to visit are Madrid, San-sebastian, barcelona. From Barcelona. we plan to take a Easy Jet flight to Paris to visit family and then return to Madrid. What is the easiest pathway that you would recommend to get around in Spain from Madrid? And how? train vs flying? Madrid-barcelona-san sebastian?
madrid-san sebastian-barcelona?
Posted by
San Diego, CA
133 posts
We recently traveled that route in reverse order by train: Barcelona to San Sebastian, took the one-hour bus from SS to Bilbao, and the train from Bilbao to Madrid. It was comfortable and we got to see a lot of the open countryside. Each leg took 4-5 hours. A nice thing about the trains is that the stations are conveniently IN the cities (as opposed to traveling up to 45 minutes to/from airport) and you typically need to arrive only 15-30 minutes before train departure. Also the only limitation regarding luggage on the train is your ability to lift it up a couple of steps. We found long-distance train travel in Spain smooth, quiet, and relaxing, not terms I use for air travel. For scenic and relaxed I suggest the reverse of my itinerary, and on the return from Barcelona to Madrid take the AVE. The AVE train between Barcelona and Madrid takes about 3 hours. You could fly into Bilbao (closest airport to San Seb) from either BCN or MAD if you don't want to spend several hours on the rails but the view out your train window in the Basque region (esp. San Seb going towards Barcelona) is spectacular mountains, green meadows, and lush forests. (a sight you'll appreciate in Sept being from SoCal lol) You'll need to research fares for both modes of transport to see what is more economical. I think it used to be that airfare could be cheaper than train (if you don't get fees for large/heavy luggage), don't know if that is still the case.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17439 posts
The Spanish trains are wonderful. We rode them several times in May and found them comfortable, fast and well-priced. If you research prices, be sure to use the
Spanish train website, renfe.com, not RailEurope. Use a date 60 days from now and you should see some discount prices. For example, if you fly into Madrid and head to San Sebastian, a journey of 5.25 hours, the full fare is 53,80 euros but you should see a Web fare of 21,50. From San Sebastian to Barcelona, a journey of 5.5 hours, the full fare is 62,90, but I see an Estrella fare of 37,70. These are Alvia trains, not the super fast AVe that runs between Barcelona and Madrid, but still nice trains.