Should we reserve our AVE rail tickets? or can they be purchased a few days earlier - when we arrive in Madrid. I suspect we should pre-purchase but how can we do that on line?

The Spanish rail site 'Renfe' is in Spanish!!

We will be travelling by train from Madrid to Toledo, Toledo to Zaragoza and then to Barcelona. Stopping several nights at each location.

Thanks in anticipation

An english version of the renfe site is here:

There are usually 10 high speed trains that make the journey between Madrid-Atocha railway station and Toledo each day so you should be fine booking a few days in advance when you arrive in Madrid.

There is a RENFE office in the airport (arrival area of Terminal 1 Madrid airport) where you can get info about trains/book tickets.

Atocha station has several sections. The high speed trains to Toledo depart from the 'AVE' section, on the top of the tropical garden.

Hi;
Christine has provided the answer to your inquiries. I'll only add that from Madrid to Toledo, on the 3 occassions we've used the AVE we have arrived at the stations and been able to board the next train.

For the longer runs (Seville) we used the travel services at Cortes Ingles. They have English speakers available and had our choice of times 3 days advance booking. A caveat: we travel off-season so things may be different around holidays and "in season".

Have a fine trip.
Dennis

Thanks for the replies. Looks like we can pre purchase once we are in Spain, we have a few days before using the AVE trains. I was only wondering if I should book before leaving home in case they might be all booked up for our dates !!

Cheers
Mario

The advantage of booking on-line is the discounts that Renfe offers over the internet. Often 40 or even 60 percent off the regular price. I believe only a limited number of seats are available at the discount and they can be booked no sooner than 62 days or so in advance.

The AVE service was excellent during our recent visit to Spain.

Thanks robt, Maybe its me but, the renfe site being in spanish is difficult to negotiate wrt booking.
I get the English first page OK and understand the timetable but the next step to buy (compra) is Spanish and does not allow me to proceed. I also can't clearly see where to register, which I should do before buying.

I will persevere.

http://horarios.renfe.es/hir/ingles.html

Cheers
Mario

Here's a link that gives instructions for buying Renfe tickets on-line that may be helpful.

Renfe Tickets

Robt, you're a champ!
I manage to get a 60% discount on the leg Madrid to Zaragoza. No discount on the AVE Zaragoza to Barcelona but that's fine, I now have reserved my AVE seats on-line & have printed the e-tickets.

Really appreciate the link.
Gracias
Mario

Enjoy your trip Mario.

When we were in Madrid last month they scanned the bar code on our e-tickets before we proceeded to the platform. The procedure was very similar to the way the airlines operate at the boarding gate. We could then walk right to the train. The coaches were well marked and we had no problems finding our reserved seats.

Robert