AandED

Our much anticipated Andalucia trip is coming up in a few weeks and I'm wondering if I should buy train tickets in advance, or what until we get there. Is there a price advantage one way or the other? I can be a stress case at times so tend to take care of these things in advance (therefore one less thing to worry about) unless it makes no sense to do so.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Ifnotnow_when

We spent time in Spain in Sept last year and found the train schedules very hard to navigate from here. We started our trip in Barcelona and went to the department store, Corte Ingles (sp??), to their travel department and they made all our train reservations for us. We were able to purchase the tickets and all. I have no idea what the price difference was, if any, but the convenience was well worth it.

Man_in_seat_61

If you mean short distance within Andalusia, just buy when you're there.

If you mean long distance to/from Andalusia, eg Madrid-Seville, you can save up to 60% by buying a cheap 'web' fare in advance at www.renfe.com

WomBatt

Probably, as immediately above. Publish the journeys in Spain/Andalucia (and dates if organised).

AandED

AS requested, here's our travel itinerary (I've left out the finer details that have no consequence on inter-country travel) - thanks again for recommendations on how/when we should buy transportation tickets:

Monday, 20 June: travel from Malaga to Sevilla (in the a.m., hopefully)

Friday, 24 June: travel from Sevilla to Granada, stopping in Cordoba to see the Mezquita for a few hours (thinking of taking the AVE to Cordoba, then bus from Cordoba to Granada if these are better views... will my motion sickness be an issue on the bus?). We have done the research & weight our options & do not want to spend the night in Cordoba - we'd rather spend more time in Granada.

Monday, 27 June: travel from Granada to Malaga (in time for an 8pm flight to Mallorca)

Looking forward to your thoughts on how I should approach train/bus tickets, etc. Thanks again!

panda2ac

I basically had the same question. I went to renfe.com site and looked at the train that we wanted to take from Sevilla to Madrid and according to the prices listed, the internet and station prices were basically the same (less than 1 euro difference), so we will probably just buy our tickets when we get there.

AandED

the trains I wanted to take on Renfe were cheaper but after numerous attempts and phone calls to Renfe I couldn't get my credit card(s) to work on their site. I tried Rumbo.es as well - same problem. Apparently it's luck of the draw to get success online with foreign issued credit cards.

So in the end for peace of mind I used the US-based travel agent that the Renfe customer service agent recommended (1.800.634.1188 - ask for Joao - I'm sure I've slaughtered the spelling of his, I think he's Brazilian) and bought tickets for the 2 key legs (Malaga-Seville and Sevilla-Cordoba). Cost an extra $5-10/ticket but again, worth it to me for the peace of mind.

WomBatt

AandED,

Sorry I have been absent.

Monday, 20 June: travel from Malaga to Seville - almost certainly not necessary to purchase in advance for this journey.

Friday, 24 June: travel from Sevilla to Cordoba - almost certainly not necessary to purchase in advance for this journey.

Friday, 24 June: travel from Cordoba to Granada - Your choice train or bus, but only two train journeys. Almost certainly not necessary to purchase in advance for this train journey. The bus station is adjacent the train station in Cordoba, but further out of the centre in Granada.

Monday, 27 June: travel from Granada to Malaga - strongly suggest bus as train journey is time consuming and convoluted (requires a change).

Save money by taking media distance/regional trains, but longer journey times. Suggest arrive at the station in all instances a half hour before travel to get your bearings. If you want peace of mind, purchase and print your train tickets at home.

For bus understand coach, but I do not know how this will affect you.

Train website - http://www.renfe.com/
Bus website - www.alsa.es

If you need anymore, ask. Best wishes.

kimhe

AVE train Sevilla-Córdoba from 16€ on the 24th of June if booked in advance on renfe.com.

panda2ac,
AVE train from Sevilla to Madrid from some 33€ if booked in advance at renfe.com.

AandED

thanks, everyone. I couldn't get any of my credit cards to work on Renfe - or Rumbo.es, for that matter - so the customer care person at Renfe referred me to a US-based travel agency, www.petrabax.com, which was able to get the train tickets for me (with more fees of course - unfortunately I did all this before hearing back from those of you that said buying ahead wasn't necessary. Oh well - at least I have peace of mind on this matter). The Alsa site worked fine, though, FYI... even accepted PayPal!