CrossroadsGirl

I will be flying into Madrid, arriving on a Monday morning around 09:00 and need to go directly to Salamanca. I would love advice on how to do that; where to find the bus station, etc. While I've traveled by myself quite a bit, for some reason, this let intimidates me. Probably because I don't speak Spanish and have never been to Spain.

Thanks in advance for advice!

thursdaysd

Sounds like you need a good guidebook.

Failing that, use rome2rio.com, which will give you a link to the bus timetables.

http://www.avanzabus.com/web/default.aspx?lang=en

The airport website also has info on transport, including where to find the buses (coaches):

http://www.aena.es/en/madrid-barajas...transport.html

http://www.aena.es/en/madrid-barajas...e-coaches.html

CrossroadsGirl

@Thursdaysd, Thank you! The airport website was helpful as was the rome2rio!
When I get to the bus website, it is all in Spanish. I knew I should have taken Spanish instead of French! Hopefully airport employees are used to lame Americans.

Thanks!

thursdaysd

The bus link I gave you is in English - there's an option at the top of the page. But the booking page is probably not.

Someone on another thread booked her bus tickets for Spain here:

https://www.busbud.com/

However, for a bus from the airport I wouldn't book in advance.

Robert2016

The Avanza bus can be crowded, seats are reserved. You'll need your passport if making reservations online, and cash in hand if you're thinking of purchasing a ticket from the driver (should there be any seats available).

neckervd

Take the bus that leaves Barajas at 11am and arrive at Salamanca at 13.45
or
go by train in 11 minutes from the airport to Chamartin railway station, board there either the (slow) 11.08 or the (fast) 12.45 train and arrive at Salamanca at 14.01 resp. 14.21.

isabel

Since there are buses directly from the airport I wouldn't bother going into Madrid and taking a train unless the times were terrible. This summer my husband took the bus from the airport to Burgos. We originally were not going to book a ticket in advance as thursdaysd said cause you never know if the flight will be late, etc. But then (I had been in Spain taking buses for two weeks at that point) I got nervous cause some of the buses I took were full and I was glad I had a reservation. For my husband there was a bus 45 minutes after his scheduled arrival time and another 3 hours later. To be safe we booked the later one but his flight was on time and he was able to change his reservation to the earlier one, they even refunded the 5€ difference in price.

The websites are all in English you just have to change the language with the little flag in the upper corner.