Train
 

I am finding it very, very frustrating to buy tickets on renfe.com despite having travelled quite a bit in Europe before (and having done all tickets online). Even the English site is in Spanish !!!

Can I just land up in Spain and buy the tickets ? We need tickets from Barcelona to Figeures, Girona to BCN, Seville to Cordoba and back, Seville to Madrid and maybe more. Is it possible that the tickets may be sold out ?

Is there an easier way to do this ?

What dates are you trying to buy tickets for? More than 90 days from now?

No, we are travelling from 1st May to 14th May 2014

Yet another who is short of a guide -

http://www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.h..._www.renfe.com

or the comprehensive -

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g1...ts.Online.html

We need tickets from Barcelona to Figeures, Girona to BCN, Seville to Cordoba and back, Seville to Madrid and maybe more. Is it possible that the tickets may be sold out ?>

IME of many years of Spanish train travel you can always get on trains, especially if you buy a day or two ahead of time - but yes you can be sure, since there are so so many trains too, of doing that - but you'll pay full fare vs discounted fares (but also have flexibility to chose which train to take once there rather than book in stone weeks in advance.

You actually are travelling so much that a Spain Eurail Pass may be cost-effective and allow you to take any train anytime once there - just make the mandatory seat reservation for about several euros - never a problem IME of getting them.

Anyway check pass prices vs discounted prices and full-fare and see what is best - a pass lets you just forget about the flummoxing renfe.com site and just make seat reservations once in Spain, which you can do all at once at any Spanish station.

You also can take regional trains to Figueras and Girone that do not even take reservations vs the TGV or AVE trains - high-speed that demand seat reservations - of course a bit quicker.

Check out these fantastic sites for lots on Spanish trains - www.sedat61.com as mentioned above; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

And consider going first class as a first-class pass is especially a good deal compared to regular full fare tickets - and IME you can always find empty seats and make seat reservations in 1st class on any train - at times 2nd class may be chock full (or not) - first-class seats are much biggerm more room to stow luggage, etc.

Spain also has an extensive bus route with comfy modern buses - now for longish trips like BCN to Seville the train will be more comfy buses are a viably cheap option for trips like to Figueras or Girona and they never sell out but IME put more buses on if need be. Just show up and buy those always cheap tickets.