DebbieToronto

I am travelling in Spain for 2 weeks in June with my husband and 2 children aged 21 and 23. We plan to travel between cities by train and I am in the process of booking the various train tickets through the Rail Europe website. I have a question regarding the amount of time that is recommended between 2 train trips. We will be travelling from Cordova to Toledo. However, there is no direct train between these 2 cities; you have to go through Madrid. So, the first train is Cordova to Madrid and the 2nd is Madrid to Toledo. The train from Cordova arrives in Madrid at 7:15 p.m. We want to go immediately to Toledo i.e. on the same day. If we take the 7:50 train from Madrid to Toledo is that sufficient time between the 2 trains (i.e.35 minutes)? Or, is it recommended that we leave more of a buffer? Both trains leave from the same train station and we will have pre-purchased the tickets. Thanks in advance for any advice.

PalenQ

Try to see what the prices are on www.renfe.com - Spanish Railways official site that may have lower prices for the exact same trains - RailEurope also doe not list all the trains but only the ones they sell tickets on -renfe.com will list them all and in theory you can book on renfe.com but so so many folks have found this impossible recently that that is problematic.

If paying full fare you can always buy those tickets IME once in Spain, at any train station - so the only reason IMO to book ahead is if you save money - so so many trains on both those routes.

Scour these sites for possible help - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - call Byron at the latter if really wanting to do any RailEurope product as I have used him for years to buy various railpasses and he will answer any questions, even if not buying anything but if wanting a RE product he is a RE agent that you can actually talk to. Even though you can nearly always make those reservations once in Spain some folks want to have it all buttoned down beforehand and I understand that - but you may pay more for that and to some that is priceless to others a waste of money.

Man_in_seat_61

REnfe.com (Spanish Railway's own site) and (if you have any payment problems) www.petrabax.com/renfe show the full true fare range, which for (say) Madrid-Cordoba is something like €25 to €70.

Raileurope-world.com has a connection to renfe's tiucketing system, so also offers that full complete fare range, but if you're American and using Raileurope.com, I don't think they have yet, so can only sell the €70 full-flex fare (as RailEurope.com use the FRENCH ticketing & reservation system, and this is the only fare the Spanish let the French sell).

You'd be daft paying €70 every trip when €28 tickets were available from the right source, surely? So do check you're gettin g the right deal.

danon

Train in Spain run on time...if you have both tickets, 35min is enough.
I had no problem booking on RENFE with Canadian MC.

DebbieToronto

Thanks so much for the information. I really appreciate that you all took the time to respond. I have one other question - With tickets booked through the Rail Europe website they mail the train tickets to my home address in Canada. When ordering their train tickets online from Canada, it is not possible to print an e-ticket or select the option to print the ticket at the train station. Do any of you know if this is the same with tickets purchased online from the Renfe website? Kind regards, DebbieToronto

danon

Debbie,
I have purchased tickets from RENFE many times, last was a moth ago, and always printed them.
If you don't speak Spanish, at the top of RENFE home
page you will see WELCOME.....click and the info is in English.
I have a BOM Master Card and had no trouble like many Americans seem to have.

PalenQ

Some RailEurope USA tickets can be printed at home or in Europe but not many - still have to send out printed version at a mailing fee cost - exceptions are Eurostar (Chunnel terain) tickets and some French tickets I believe. Seems like in the dark ages to me!