Spain-buy train and bus tix in advance?
 

Hi-
I leave for 10 days in Spain on Friday! I'll be traveling with my mother and we'll be taking just about all forms of transport (train, bus, car).
I'm wondering if I need to try buying tickets in advance, online, for the train and bus before we go. Honestly, the RENFE site is way harder to use than the French SNCF site.

So, here's what we'll need:
AVE train Madrid-Sevilla on a Monday morning
Bus Sevilla-Granada on a Wednesday morning
AVE train Cordoba-Madrid on a Sunday morning.

So, is it worth registering on RENFE and buying the tickets before we go?
Has anyone bought bus tickets in advance? As far as I can tell, there are only a few that go in the morning from Sevilla to Granada, but they arrive well before the train.

Thanks!

We traveled in Spain in October 2002 and had no problem getting tickets after we were there. In El Cortes Ingles department stores, there is a travel agency. We just went in with a list of our trips and got all our tickets at once. The fee for this service was very small, well worth the trouble it would have been to do it at the station. We had to get a couple of our bus tickets in Algeciras (but that was easy too), so it's possible you'll have to do your Seville to Granada bus separately.

Good luck.

W. A. Robison (www.warobison.com)

You can wait until you arrive in Madrid, but don't wait until the day you want to travel. You're arriving on Friday, so stop by the train station before Monday to buy the tickets. If you want until the last minute, you may find that the seats are already booked for the time you want to leave, forcing you to wait for a later train. (This happened to me.) Ticket lines can be very long.

Hi Kristina,

the Renfe website is not exactly user-friendly, you´re right. Having to buy the tickets during spanish working hours is quite strange ;) And, if you buy online, as it will be your first time, you will have nevertheless to go to a Renfe ticket office to show the credit card you used and get the tickets.

The only problem I can see is that if you are planning to travel on one of the first trains in the morning, there might not be cheaper seats.

If I am not wrong, you are arriving Saturday noon. There is a Renfe office in Barajas off the arrivals area, so I would get the tickets there before arriving into town. I would also get the tickets for the Cordoba-Madrid trip. The bus could be left for the day you arrive to Sevilla, although sometimes is easier to buy them in advance (I do it quite often during the summer). You can get the bus tickets at www.movelia.es

Kind regards,
Cova

Cova, thanks.

Is the Renfe office easy to find in Barajas and are we likely to find someone there who speaks English?
If we are too tired to deal with it on arrival, will we have a problem buying them somewhere on Sunday in Madrid?

Hi Kristina,
I have mentioned the Renfe office in Barajas because it has been recommended several times by Maribel and Robert, and I have seen many Fodorites saying that they bought their tickets there without queuing.

Barajas website mentions an El Corte Ingles travel agency located in the Terminal 1 ( 1st floor, that´s departures) and a Renfe office in T1, floor 0 (arrivals). It doesn´t look difficult to find. If you need help, there should be people dressed with red jackets (Iberia information people) and they usually are very helpful.

Another option would be to get to a Corte Ingles on Saturday afternoon (there are several in Callao) and buy your tickets there. For Sunday, your only option would be one of the train stations ( Atocha would be better ). Anything else will be closed.

To check Barajas map : http://www.aena.es

Rgds, Cova

Cova, once again, thanks for the excellent advice. It's always nice when someone actually lives in area. Let me know if you ever need info about Los Angeles! :-)
So, I think we will try to buy our train tickets before we leave the airport and I might try and buy the bus ticket online before we leave since I want a specific departure time.

Kristina, you are welcome.

Just to let you know, the latest hurricane, Vince, has decided to move in direction to Europe instead of America. It should arrive tomorrow to Portugal and Central Spain, although it won´t be anything too bad (at least that´s the forecast). We are having plenty of rain at the moment, so pack your umbrellas.

If you need help booking the bus tickets, drop me a line.

Rgds, Cova

I took will be in Madrid in 12 days for honeymoon and appreciate your question re: buying tickets in advance. My question is if you buy tickets, are they set for a specific date or you can travel on any day with train tickets or does it have to be for a specific date?

Hi ypd,

when you buy in advance, you buy tickets for an specific date and hour (both for trains and buses).

Kind regards, Cova

Cova-
It looks like we're going to have rain most of the time we're there! :-(
Is that what your local reports are saying?

you should defintely buy your tickets at airport or any travel agency. the renfe stations are usually painfully slow for these purchases and it can be a waste of time.
you can also call them on phone (34) 902 240 202 to reserve on phone and give them credit card. then you pick up your tickets in customer service and show the credit card you used to make reservation.

you should have no problem with english on phone, or have your concierge do it.

Cova-
One more question...I have to buy a SIM card for a cell phone on arrival.
Any idea where the best place for me to do this is in central Madrid? Also, are the cell phone SIM cards call anything else en espanol? I just want to buy a pre-paid card for use while we are there.
Thanks!

About the bus...I've been trying for two days to buy the tickets online and all I get is an error message each time!

sim cards ( tarjeta sim pre-pagado) are sold everywhee. you just need to decide on provider.. you have movistar, amena and vodafone basically. however, you may find that you can get a free phone practically with some offer for same price, so check it out.

sometime s a phone is 100 euros with 120 euros minutes. or 60 euros with 50 euros of minutes.. so.. not always best deal to just buy sims card.

or ask for any "ofertas". ( special offers)

Hi Kristina,

where are you getting the error message? I have managed to get to the point where it asks for the details of the credit card I will be using to pay the tickets (but I won´t be going further ... just in case I end up with two tickets ;) ).

Regarding the weather, yes, the forecast is being bad. The only place where weather has been slightly decent is the north (my family spent yesterday morning at the beach), but even there the wind and the rain has arrived. It´s not really cold, but it is mostly sudden rain showers (and rain is very badly needed). A couple of helpful sites :

http://www.inm.es/cgi-bin/locali.cgi?ig=28001
http://www.inm.es/cgi-bin/locali.cgi?ig=41001
http://www.inm.es/cgi-bin/locali.cgi?ig=18001

( www.inm.es , then "Informacion Metereologica", then "Localidades", then select the province and inside the province, the town or village you are looking for).

For the SIM card, I think that maybe the FNAC at Callao will be a good place. If your phone is unlocked, any mobile phone shop will work, but the FNAC has all the companies, and they are usually very helpful. If you enter through the main door at Callao, turn to your left and climb a couple of stairs to the photography, phone and digital music dept. The mobile phones companies are located at the very entrance. I have seen that some of the people working there speak english, so you might be lucky and get one of them.

Kind regards, Cova

Cova and Lin-Thanks for the advice on the SIM cards, I'll definitely take it with me. I'm hoping to find something like a 30 euro card that will give me a phone number and 30 min. That way, we can make local calls if we need to, and I can give the number to my husband and have him call me on it from the US.

Bummer about the weather. As far as I can tell, it's going to be HOT and raining in Sevilla. Oh joy. ;-)

As for the bus, I've been getting the error right after I put in my request for Sevilla to Granada on the 18th. It says "waiting time depleted on the server".
Maybe we can buy the tickets somewhere in Madrid?

Thanks!

good news about sims cards here.. you never pay for INcoming calls while you are in spain.. so.. that is a real help.

the minutes do fly off the card though when calling, so it is better to put a euro in a public phone to call a restaurant or hotel than use the mobile.

emergency number in europe is 112. always a free call.

Hi

In Madrid right now.

No problems buying the train tickets from the RENFE office in the airport. The girl behind the glass did not speak English, but my Spanish was enough.

Could not get a card for my phone, turns out it is locked. Oh well.

Having a fabulous time, will report when I get back....

´probably too late but you will see signs for unlocking phones " desbloqueo de moviles".
usually costs 15-20 euros.

(this will be in type of calling center where you can also purchase phone cards for the states from 6-12 euros to use from booths. good deal.

or just call from the center and pay as you call.