Seeking Advice for Train Travel in Spain
 

Hi, my family (a couple in 40s with a teenage daughter) will spend this Christmas and New Year in Spain. However, we will fly to Paris first and spend 2 days there because both of my husband and daughter would like to revisit the city, especially art museums. Because of that, we are planning to take an overnight train from Paris to Madrid. We are also planning to visit Seville and Barcelona by train, then back to Paris from Barcelona by train, too. You can see we will use train extensively. My family has used single country rail passes in our previous European travels. However, we have not taken any overnight train travel, not to mention traveling between two countries by train. I wouldn't mind to buy the France/Spain Flex railpass for my family (about $240 per person for any 4 days in two months). I do understand that we should pay additional fee for accommodations on overnight train. However, what I read at the Eurorail website is confusing me. It seems that we still have to pay significant amount of money for overnight train even with the pass, regardless accommodations. More over, some high-speed train seems not to honor the pass, such as the AVE train between Madrid and Seville. If the above conditions are true, isn't wasting money to buy the railpass? Wouldn't be better to buy the rail tickets on site? However, my family really enjoyed the convenience of the railpass in our previous travels. So, I am not sure what I should do right now. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks!

Hi

Yes the rail pass v point to point tickets issue is raised quite often. Try this link to help you decide - http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/rail_menu.htm. See point 3 in particular. Also these days air travel is very cheap so the cost of flying from Paris to Madrid may not be alot different to train or bus travel.

Good luck

I'll take that you have about three weeks to do this, right? (Christmas + New Year's timeframe). Otherwise, if less than three weeks I would just flight from Barcelona back to the States. Be that as it may, train travel between Paris and Madrid is a total waste of time and money when you can fly Iberia, Aerolineas Argentinas, Air France, etc, etc... for about $100/RT. Also try to find out from Iberia prices Madrid-Barcelona (Puente Aereo fares). If budget is a consideration, I have taken the bus from Madrid to Seville for $16/pp and was very comfortable. Train would be faster, but bare in mind that you and thousands of Spaniards are going to be on the move for the holidays, whatever you choose to do, you are already running a little late, so be open to fly/train/bus/.

Railpasses are always a debatable benefit in Spain, because long-distance trains must always be booked: you cannot just have a ticket to go from A to B and hop on the next train like you can in most European countries; tickets for long-distance trains in Spain are sold only for a specific train on a specific date, so - even if you have a rail pass - you have to book for each journey. Many long distance trains involve a supplementary fare (which in Spain varies with the type of train) so the rail pass may not save as much as you think.
There are few high-speed lines in Spain, so most train journeys are slow which is why overnight journeys are such a good idea. There are some very good overnight trains which are a good way of getting around the country.
Fans of air travel should bear (not "bare" which involves removing clothes) in mind that an overnight train journey is often quicker than flying because you will will waste no valuable daylight hours: that is something very important in December when daylight is limited and a morning or afternoon spent travelling to and from airports is time wasted.

Hi,
Thank every one of you for the wonderful suggestions. Because of the information that you provided, I have decided not to buy the France/Spain Flexipass. I am going to use the combination of air & train travel and have booked both train and flight tickets for respective travel segments. Thanks again for the advice!

www.vueling.com has great one way trips between paris/madrid.