KY

I am planning to travel to Portugal and Spain in September. Planning to arrive in Lisbon by air and then by train to Seville and up to Madrid and then Barcelona. However, my search in the internet seems to tell me that there is no direct train connection between Lisbon and Seville, and one has to go through Madrid first; in which case the routing doesn't sound logical.
Any advice or comment to the above. My itinerary is actually very flexiblle
Thanks in advance for any suggestion given.

Intrepid

There are alternative routings but you'd have to be very flexible and make a lot of changes. As illogical as it may seem to go all the way to Madrid first it may end up being the shortest journey time.

You could possibly take a train from Lisbon to Faro and from there a bus to Huelva; changing back to a train for Seville. I'm not sure you can necessarily make all these connections.

With flexibility and perhaps armed with something like a Cook European Timetable which provides rail maps it might be a bit easier.
I'm sorry I cannot be more helpful

GermanRail:
http://www.bahn.de/pv/uebersicht/die...l_guests.shtml

Renfe:

www.renfe.es and then click on the English version

jmv

Intrepid's right. For some reason no one wants people to go between Lisbon and Seville. We wound up renting a car for about $500 US to make the trip in two days, stopping at the paradore in Ayamonte on the Spain/Portugal border.

Absurd

There is a bus from Lisbon (dep 7:00) to Seville (arr 15:00) five or six times a week. http://www.eurolines.es/portugal.htm#MalagaLisboa

KY

Thanks for the info. I may have to change my plan. It's really an absurb that no train travels directly from Lisbon to Madrid

Intrepid

Hey, its even more "absurd" that we don't have better train service to almost anywhere in the USA so enjoy what you do get when in Spain and Portugal!

KY

Of course each of us has different expectations. Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and Sevilla is a major tourist city in Spain. I would have thought that it would not be unreasonable to expect there is a direct train connection when train travel is a more frequent mode of transportation in Europe as compared to USA. As such, a comparison that there should be better train connection in USA may not be appropriate.

benderbabe

When in September are you going to be in Lisbon and Seville?

We are going to be in Seville on 25-Sep, In Faro on 26-Sep, Lisbon on 27/28-Sep, Segovia on 29/30-Sep, and Madrid on 1/2/3-Oct.

We're leasing a new car from Peugeot (they have a special deal renting brand new cars to tourists...turns out cheaper than a rental car if you're renting for 17 days or more), and driving everywhere, so we're not bound by train schedules and can throw all our stuff in the car!

KY

We are going early September, arriving Lisbon on 6th. We enjoy train travelling but shall also do a bit of driving from Seville down to the south. Haven't yet arranged for the car rental, being lazy hopefully to arrange that while we are in Seville.