Transportation in Spain
 

We are planning an October trip to Spain and will visit several cities; Madrid, Grenada and Barcelona for certain. What is the best way to travel between the main cities? Train, car or domestic airline? I'm sure each has its advantages and disadvantages. I'd love to hear from people who can share their personal experiences.Thanks.

Depends on what you want. If the small towns, churches, castles, natural atractions, along the way between cities are important, then the car is best, althought the downside is that driving and parking in the cities is difficult, and travel time between, say, Madrid and Barcelona, is long. I prefer to start in the bigger cities, then rent a car for the countryside.<BR><BR>If what you want is to focus on the cities with a minimum of travel time in between, I would go with airlines. Madrid and Barcelona have hourly flights, for example. <BR><BR>trains are good if you pick the right places to travel to/from. Madrid to Cordoba/Sevilla, for example, is served by the AVE bullet train, which is great. Otherwise, though, it is a big country by European standards and train travel times can be long.<BR><BR>

Good advice in the above post. I couldn't even imagine driving in the major cities in Spain!<BR><BR>When I was there 2 years ago, I went from Madrid-Cordoba by AVE. Cordoba-Seville by regional train. Seville-Rhonda by bus. Rhonda-Granada by train. <BR>I wanted to fly from Granada to Barcelona but there were no flights available (big convention in town at the time) so I ended up having to take the overnight train. My advice is to avoid an overnight train if you can. At least for me it was very uncomfortable and tiring. Trust me, those bunks don't work for someone who's 6'3".<BR><BR>Overall I found the transportation system in Spain to work very well. <BR><BR>Spain is an absolutley amazing country and I'm sure you will have a great time regardless of your chosen method of transport. I was there in October and the weather was perfect. Warm days and cool nights (great for sleeping).

I did basically the same thing as RJ. Madrid to Cordoba by AVE but only stayed in Cordoba for the afternoon(wonderful city though) and then got back on the Ave to Seville. From Seville to Granada by regional train. Flew from Granada to Barcelona.

Don't write off the train between Madrid and Barcelona. It's not as spiffy as the AVE, but you do get to see something of the country that way and the approach into Barcelona is very pretty.

I didn't mean to sound too anti-car. I have driven in Madrid, San Sebastian and Santander, and, frankly, found it no worse than, say, Boston. In Madrid in particular , though, I've limited my driving to picking up a rental car and getting out of the city. I would definitely get the smallest car possible and try for a diesel if you are going to be putting a lot of miles on it. The main problem with driving in the cities is that parking is either very, very scarce or very expensive (underground garages) and that it is easy to get lost. There is a good amount of theft from cars as well, which makes them less than ideal places to store luggage.