Night Train In Spain
 

My friend and I want to take the overnight train from Granada to Barcelona. We are a little weary and have a couple of questions.
1. Is sharing a berth with two other complete strangers scary?
2. Is there a place we can lock our luggage in our compartment?
3. Can we request a "girls only" compartment/berth?

thanks so much for your help.

1. No. Travelers are normally law abiding citizens.
2. No. But you can lock the door of the compartment. Do not leave any valuables in your luggage.
3. Yes. I think that in Spain they are obliged to give you a same-sex compartment if you request it. My reservation from Madrid to Barcelona specified "caball" which is short for caballero = gentleman.

The site http://tinyurl.com/y57vft gives a good introduction to using night trains in Europe. Have fun.

BTW, when are you traveling?

Other website on Spanish rail:
http://www.spanish-rail.co.uk/trains/trenhotel.html

You probably know that there are now several ultra low cost airlines which are much cheaper than the train on that route.

Check Clickair and others on whichbudget.com

Train rides can be fun and exotic, but they can also be expensive and if you get stuck with a snorer etc, you will arrive dead tired and crabby.

We flew from Sevilla to Barcelona on clickair in July for 25 Euros each, all taxes included. Brand new plane, excellent. Consider both alternatives.
Rouss

You will not be asked to share a berth with a stranger. A berth is a bed.
Sleeping accommodation on trains is of two types: couchettes ("literas" in Spanish) have four or six bunks in a compartment; sleepers ("camas") have one, two, three or four bunks in a compartment and are more comfortable. If you share a sleeper compartment with a stranger, it will be with somebody of the same sex; couchettes often have mixed gender, but some countries have male and female compartments.
Both couchette and sleeper compartments can be locked from the inside.

Roussillon: Will be in Barcelona arriving on Good Friday, March 08. Might be interested in those cheap airfares you mention. Since this is a holiday time, how far in advance should be buy tickets and do you have other suggestions for traveling in Spain that time of year. Also, do these flights go anywhere in southern France? Thanks in advance.

The best way to see all the options you have is to go to the site I mentioned,
whichbudget.com and you can click which country you want to leave from= Spain.

They then show you ALL the places you can fly to with the budget airlines sorted by departure city. You would put in Barcelona.

Below is what you get when you ask where you can go in Spain leaving from Barcelona:

# Arrecife - Lanzarote (ACE) ... with : Air Europa
# Bilbao (BIO) ... with : VuelingVueling
# Fuerteventura (FUE) ... with : Air Europa
# Granada (GRX) ... with : VuelingVueling - Air Europa - clickair
# Ibiza (IBZ) ... with : VuelingVueling - clickair - Air Europa
# Jerez - Costa de la Luz (XRY) ... with : VuelingVueling - clickair
# La Coruna (LCG) ... with : clickair
# Las Palmas - Gran Canaria (LPA) ... with : Air Europa
# Madrid Barajas (MAD) ... with : Air Europa - VuelingVueling
# Malaga (AGP) ... with : clickair - VuelingVueling - Air Europa
# Menorca (MAH) ... with : clickair - Air Europa - VuelingVueling
# Palma de Mallorca (PMI) ... with : VuelingVueling - Air Europa - Air Berlin/dba/NIKIAir Berlin + Niki
# Séville (SVQ) ... with : clickair - VuelingVueling - Air Europa
# Santiago de Compostela (SCQ) ... with : clickair - VuelingVueling
# Tenerife North (TFN) ... with : Air Europa
# Tenerife South (TFS) ... with : Air Europa
# Valencia (VLC) ... with : Air Europa - clickair
# Vigo (VGO) ... with : Air Europa - clickair

As you can see there are a ton of choices. You can also fly to many other countries from there as well, just look at the list they give after you put in Barcelona.

Another tip: Ryanair (maybe the cheapest list prices) flies out of Girona Spain to at least 15 countries).. There are buses to the Girona airport from the bus terminal in Barcelona, or you can take a train from the airport to Girona and then a taxi about 15km to the airport.

You have an incredible choice or where you can go from Barcelona....each airline has its own website, and you can start looking now for good fares on that date.

Just remember that on some of these, you have restrictions on kg of luggage and if you are carrying too much, you have to pay up to 5 Euros /kilo extra..

All these carriers sell one way tickets at good prices (ie you are not forced to buy a round trip to get a cheap fare) so you can do an "open jaw" on your trip to Europe, ie arrive BCN and leave from a different airport in a different country for about the same price as flying out of BCN home...

so you choices are immense. Decide what you are after and then start watching the sites. When you see a good fare , Grab it. We flew from Girona to Venice last year for about 30 Euros round trip! Just depends on the deals they decide to offer.

Bon voyage, Rouss

thanks hopscotch we are traveling in two weeks.