Four of us are planning travel for April, and we want to take a train from Barcelona to Madrid on either April 17 or 18. We enjoy sleepers, but I see on www.raileurope.com that the overnight train is 9 hours and the regular train is 4. Does this mean that the overnight is a milk run, stopping frequently? Frequent stops are not conducive to sleep, in my experience.
Has anyone taken the overnight? Your experience? Is the o'night fun? Comfortable? Also, since these dates are not yet available for purchase, I cannot find a fare. For earlier dates, the 4 hr train is $109US, but I can never find a fare for the 10:20 evening train. Never seems to be listed. Does it still exist or will it be in existence in April?
Edna, first: Welcome to Slow Travel! We hope you will find answers here.
For Spain, I would recommend to use the Spanish Railways website www.renfe.es. If you do not know Spanish, scroll down the home page of the Renfe website to "Selleccione su idioma" which means "Select your language", click on the gray button and select English.
Check your options for travel from that site.
My opinion is that this too short a ride to travel at night.
Also I think you may find the fares different than those of RailEurope.
Key in on Tourist fares.
I used trains in Spain; they are excellent and the second class is just fine for any taste.
One word of caution is beware of your personal belongings in train stations.
Thanks Doru for your prompt reply. I find www.renfe.es. exceedingly difficult to decipher. When I ask for Barcelona to Madrid, only 6 options come up and some of them include ZARAGOZA-DELICIAS and ALACANT-TERMINAL and ELDA-PETRER and ALCAZAR DE SAN JUAN, with connecting trains and travel durations of over 8 hours. www.raileurope.com shows durations of around 4 hours. I must be missing something, or I haven't found the right page which is entirely possible since much of the text does not come up in English. When I look at this map http://www.spanish-rail.co.uk/trains/railmap.html I see Zaragosa and Alcazar de San Juan but it doesn't really help me. I think Alcazaar de San Juan might be the overnight.
Is it possible to get an express train from Barcelona to Madrid? Is there actually a train that only takes about 4 hours? According to 2008 Frommers there are 9 trains a day that take 7 hours and an overnight for 9.5 hours. It also says there is a new highspeed train that takes 5 hours. Then it goes on to say there are 4 Alcaria trains per day that take only 4 hours.
Confusion reigns. I appreciate any light that can be shed. Thanks, Edna
Have you considered flying this route? It takes 1h15 and I am finding flights on Skyscanner from 30E on the day you want to travel. Even with getting to/from airports I think it would be cheaper and faster than catching the train.
I definitely think the overnight is a bit strange - not a sufficiently long journey. The new Ave Train service (High Speed) has been delayed coming into service, but you can still do the journey in 4 hours. Flights are also remarkably cheap and frequent, so I would recommend those if speed is of the utmost importance during day time. That said, city centre, to city centre by train will porbably take the same amount of time compared to citycentre/airport/citycentre.
Here you will find a sample of the trains available on February 17, 2008. For the time being take it as an example of what will be available in April; the April "horarios" are not available yet, but I expect they will be the same.
If you click under "Recorrido Typo Tren" on the name of the train, you will also get the departure, arrival, and intermediate stations. Typically, you will go from Barcelona Sants to Madrid Atocha.
I will keep trying too and will post here if I can add any information.
Thank you very much Doru. I'm usually pretty good with webpages, etc. but I must confess that renfe has gotten the best of me. I had not found this very useful page you've sent. I did find another renfe page that gave a different itinerary for the overnight train, including arriving at Alcazar de San Juan at 4 am and departing on another train at 6 am. Weird.
Originally posted by eek:I did find another renfe page that gave a different itinerary for the overnight train, including arriving at Alcazar de San Juan at 4 am and departing on another train at 6 am. Weird. Thanks again for your assistance, Edna
Edna, I think that is a page of connections for the trains between Barcelona and Madrid. The connecting trains on the left and the Barcelona-Madrid trains on the right.
On the link I gave you it is specifically indicated that this is the "horario" for the period February 11-20, 2008, but is basically the same table of departures which will be in effect the entire yesr.
Anyway, we'll keep trying. That used to be a good site and I just think they may be going through some changes or there was a system problem over the weekend.
From the drop down menu for bed prices, here's what I see...
Tourist:70.30 (this is in addition to the 55.20, right?) :144.00 (does this mean a first class compartment? So that the total is 199.20?) :99.60 (for children??) :194.20 ??? :138.50 ???
Can you shed any light on these fares? If the fare is 134.50 and up, seems rather pricey to me. If we decide to take this trip, I'll post as a separate thread for ease of searching.
Click on "Nuestros Productos", then on the list with the title "Alta Velocidad / Larga Distancia" scroll down to "Trenhotel", click on "Trenhotel" and you will have detailed description of all these classes of tickets.
As to whether the cost is the total of the ticket plus the couchette, I could not find a description but I speculate that you either buy a seat or a bed. Therefore, if I am correct, in the Tourist Class you would pay EUR55.20 for a seat while for a couchette you will pay EUR79.30.
One thing to be mindful of as you read the definition of the various classes is that the Turista has 4 beds in each cabin, therefore you could expect to share it with others. In the other categories you have the option of a cabin for one or a cabin for two. Read carefully the description.
I thought I should report on my findings about our train journey. In the end, we've decided to agree with amazinghotel poster and fly to Madrid.
The Trenhotel to Granada looks quite nice and I did confirm that the fare for one berth in the sleeper compartment is about 79 euros. These are not what is called a couchette but a true sleeper compartment. This site gives good photos. http://www.seat61.com/
the AVE train started between Barcelona and Madrid on 2/20. I think it takes around 3 hours. This thread in Fodors explains the kinds of promotional fares they are offering, very competitive:
New member here. I read the above posts with interest as I am currently planning a trip to Barcelona in mid-May.
Does anyone know whether the overnight train (Costa Brava) has been cancelled? I went to the renfe's site intending to book the overnight train but I can't seem to find it anywhere.
Yes I am. Sorry I thought that was implied in the thread topic.
Currently I am looking to book the overnight train from Barcelona to Madrid on the 23rd of May. I understand that bullet trains are available at around 45 euros for a fraction of the travel time, but I wish to save accommodation costs if possible.
