Raileurope vs Renfe
 

I am travelling in Spain in June (family of 4) and plan to take the train to 3 cities, buying point-to-point tickets which is cheaper than a country pass. I found that the price quoted by Raileurope is not much more than that of Renfe, when taking into account the 3% foreign exchange fee that Visa charges. I like to have my tickets in advance rather than line up at the train station and risk not getting seats, and I also don't like the fact that Renfe requires you to collect the first ticket before you can buy more tickets. So to me it seems to makes sense to buy the tickets from Raileurope. Would appreciate it if experienced train travellers can let me know their opinion. I'm worried that I'm missing something and that I should really be buying from Renfe instead.

Here are some comments:

You might post just how much time you have between your arrival in Spain to the first trip as well as where you are traveling and when you are traveling.

Seats are harder to find during key holidays and business route on business days. Madrid-Sevilla, for example is a heavily traveled business route - you will have difficulty finding seats on a morning train on the day of travel on a business day.

I had 3 days between the time I bought tickets to the first trip so I waited until I got there to buy tickets.

Second item has to do with your credit card. Visa does not charge 3% exchange fee. It charges 1%. The remainder, 2%, is charged by your bank. Not all the banks do this. I certainly do not use cards that charges any fees above what Visa charges. My old MBNA (now B of A) charges 2%, AAA and my credit union Visas do not. I use the latter in Europe.

If you don't have a problem spending the extra money, then buy from RailEurope. It's usually about 25% more than buying from the national railways. Experienced train travelers don't worry so much about buying tickets in advance unless you absolutely have to be on one particular train or possibly a berth on a night train. The cheapest, easiest option would be to buy all your tickets from Renfe when you arrive in Spain.

Keep in mind that buses often are a better option than trains between some cities in Spain.

If going thru RE i heartily recommend using BETS (800-441-2387), one of their agents - their staff are all experts in my experience and they often don't charge RE's $15-18 mailing fee - but best they know what they're talking about. Same prices as RE but better service IMO. For a family of 4 you may want to buy ahead if price is same to get 4 seats together - ask for that when buying.

I agree with you as long as you are sure about the rates. It will be much more convenient and save time. Raileurope doesn't always charge 25 pct more, either, I've seen some fares where they weren't that different, and I think they can be better on longer distance trips. I don't know their current pricing strategy, but they used to have a rate system that applied some flat fee per ticket, as well as whatever pct markup they wanted, so that added on a lot more to a cheap ticket than an expensive one proportionately. So, sometimes it wasn't that big a markup for a long distance trip.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong buying from them if it works out financially. I have spent hours of my time getting train tickets from various stations in Europe when ordering online (waiting in lines, as well as just the trip to/from the station), so it is not something I would prefer to do without a good reason.

Simple advice - never buy anything via raileurope unless you know what the "local" price is. And check how much you are being charged for seat reservations

This is especially true in the UK where raileurope seem to take great delight in charging for free seat reservations or for seat reservations on trains where you can'
t have seat reservations.