midland

Even with all the generous help fron this site I am having trouble buying train tickets for Madrid to Seville and Madrid to Toledo.
The NIF request keeps coming up as an invalid answer when I put in my paasport number. I would be happy with just a reservation and then buy the tickets when I arrive at the airport but I can't figure out how to just make a reservation either. Maybe since we are traveling in early November I shouldn't worry about having a sold out Ave train. What do you experts think?

Thanks for all your good advice.

Midland

josele

Spanish NIF number is eight-digit and a letter, such as 12345678A
Try your passport number with enough zeros to fill. And say if it works!

Christina

I don't know if you need to buy ahead, but you can -- I did it and just input my passport number with the number of digits it would allow, starting at the beginning. My passport number is longer than the Spanish NID, not shorter. If that didn't work, I input my driver's license as far as it would allow. I figured if they asked for ID and I showed that, it would be understandable. I had no problems when picking the tickets up.

Robert2533

midland,
You have to register on the "English" language page using your passport number, or some other series of numbers. You can not register on the default page.

The NIF is a Spanish Identification number used only by citizens of Spain.

SBROWNELL

I just bought the exact same tickets today. I used my California drivers license for the number. Didn't seem to matter. The hard part about this is that when you make the reservation on the english page, it pops up with a box in spanish. A bit confusing. After you make the reservation you are not done, you must go to the "booking sales" section and pay. Than, you have to pick up the tickets at the renfe station. We booked for October because we wanted to have our reservations prior to going. Hope that helps.

lynnesm

Is there a special place at the Atocha Station in Madrid that you would pick up the tickets? Or is it at any ticket window.Will we have a problem if we don't speak Spanish? This is also for AVE tickets to Sevilla.

Christina

I did the reverse and picked them up in Seville to go to Madrid. There was no special place, you just get in line with all the other folks trying to buy tickets, and show them your documents.

I speak Spanish a little, but read it "fluently" so had no trouble and bought on the Spanish section online, so can't say, but you will probably do fine. Just leave time to get them at the station.

lynnesm

Thanks Christina. We'll be in Madrid long enough to go over to the ATocha station and pick up the tickets.

mar35ge

I tried to buy train tickets on line from Grenada to Seville. I had to input my credit card #, name, etc. but I couldn't book it because they are only accepting reservations through mid October.

Robert2533

You can only book 60 days ahead of the day you'd like to travel, or until the updated schedule is posted on the Renfe site.

gjkayak

We bought tickets (and reserved seats) at the RENFE office at Madrid's Barajas Airport on arrival in Spain for trips to Toledo(AVE) two days later, and and a trip from Malaga to Madrid about three weeks after that. This was in early May -- there were no problems, and no line at the ticket window. The ticket office opened fairly early; I believe we were there about 8:30 am.