Is it worth booking train tickets in advance?

[code_monkey_001]

I'm flying to Madrid arriving March 4 and plan on taking the train to León, then another train from Santiago de Compostela back to Madrid when I'm done two weeks later. Due to the season I'm not too worried about the trains running out of space, but I'm wondering if Renfe prices fluctuate over time or are more-or-less fixed. Assuming I'm not looking for a sleeper berth from SdC to Madrid, is there any advantage to booking early?

 

[ebrandt]

You probably don't need to buy in advance but here are two things to consider:

1. If you are trying to travel around a Spanish holiday the fast trains can easily be "completo!" So check your dates. We were trying to travel from Santiago to France on the weekend of Ascension. There was not a direct, fast train to be found!
2. If you need to buy your ticket with a credit card or claim a ticket you purchased online at a time when the ticket office at the train station will be closed, you will have issues. You will most likely not be able to use your US credit card in a kiosk at the train station to purchase or claim your ticket. You will need to be able to go to a window and either buy the ticket or claim it from a live person.

Note on US credit cards: US credit cards are generally not "chip & PIN" which is the standard for all of Europe. As a rule, we only can get "chip and signature" cards. You may have a PIN for your credit card but chances are great that if you use it at a point-of-sale transaction you will be charged interest from the date of the transaction as if you took a cash advance. There are a few places you can get chip & PIN in the US mostly credit unions whose members must travel internationally (like the UN Credit Union). But mostly they are not available. Don't worry about using your US card, especially if it is chip & signature. It is pretty much OK everywhere except you can't use it in a machine like a train ticket kiosk.

Liz

 

[naplesdon]

Avoiding holidays, including school holidays, and you should be in good shape. I generally travel by bus in Spain and never have any problems, but your trips are on routes that I don't frequent.

 

[rlang290]

That's exactly what my wife and I are doing but we'll be one day earlier!
I've bought our tickets already, except for the train back to Madrid from Santiago. They're not on sale yet.
Maybe we'll run into each other!
Buen Camino

Ron & Michele

 

[crackmrmac]

As far as I recall prices do increase nearer date of departure or single seats at cheaper Turista prices are not available. While the trains may not be full your options may be limited as sometimes the remaining seats are in areas where you must book the four seats. My experience is based on booking on-line.

 

[bernhugo]

Hi Liz, I'm not an expert on Spanish Railways, but I don't think that there is ever a direct train from Santiago to France.
The trains from Santiago run to A Coruna, Madrid and Barcelona as far as I know.
Any experts available to help please?

 

[mspath]

Hi Liz, I'm not an expert on Spanish Railways, but I don't think that there is ever a direct train from Santiago to France.
The trains from Santiago run to A Coruna, Madrid and Barcelona as far as I know.
Any experts available to help please?

There is one train every morning passing through Santiago to Irun/Hendaye; presently it departs SdC 10:06 and arrives Irun/Hendaye 21:15. This is slow taking roughly 11 hours to make the trip. (See http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/horarios.html.) At Hendaye which is the old French border you can catch a SNCF TGV to Paris or elsewhere in France (See http://voyages-sncf.com/)

MM

 

[naplesdon]

An overnight bus from Santiago to San Sebastain is more agreeable.

 

[Jackie Wilkinson]

Do try and navigate through the RENFE site when the time comes. Trenhotel overnight SdC to Madrid was only €25 whereas the same trip on Raileurope site was nearly €75! Can only book 3 months ahead....

 

[ebrandt]

We weren't trying to go direct, we wanted to change at Irun/Hendaye then on to Angers. Luckily we had flexibility so we just waited an extra day in Santiago (big sacrifice!) and then were able to go to Irun/Hendaye and switch trains on the Monday after Ascension. One interesting thing is that we could simply not book the ticket all the way to Angers with the Irun/Hendaye change through Renfe. I don't know to this day whether it was possible and we just couldn't communicate with the Station guy well enough or whether its just not done to book across country lines. We had to buy separate tickets -- one from Renfe to Irun and a second from SCNF, Hendaye to Angers. And when I was trying to figure this out the wonderful and funny Renfe guy at the Leon train station kept saying to me that he could only book a ticket to "the frontier". My Spanish is pretty rudimentary and I had no idea what he was talking about. I kept thinking "where the #$!^ is the frontier." The guy was pretty patient with me and we finally figured it out! Liz

 

[naplesdon]

It would have been impossible. Two countries and two different train operations. Things are a lot smoother getting around country to country once you cross "the frontier" from Spain to France.

 

[Felipe]

I bought a ticket in Leon station, to Toulouse, obviously changing trains in Hendaye, so it is possible.
Maybe it was more complicated because from Hendaye, it implied an additional transfer to Angers.

 

[Castilian]

Assuming I'm not looking for a sleeper berth from SdC to Madrid, is there any advantage to booking early?

Some trains (e.g.: MD, Regional, Cercanías) have fixed prices regardless when you book them. On the other hand, there are other trains (e.g.: Alvia, trenhotel, intercity) that doesn't have fixed prices and therefore, you may find discounted fares on them by booking them online (well) in advance.

One interesting thing is that we could simply not book the ticket all the way to Angers with the Irun/Hendaye change through Renfe. I don't know to this day whether it was possible and we just couldn't communicate with the Station guy well enough or whether its just not done to book across country lines.

Not sure back then but nowadays you should be able to book them online in the web of RENFE. Info about how to make it can be found on this link:

https://ssl.renfe.com/comprabilletes/venta_multitramo.html

However, you would need to know beforehand where you need to change trains and if you need to make any overnight stop along the route (the direct train from Santiago de Compostela to Hendaye arrives to Hendaye at later than 21:00 so an overnight stay in Hendaye is likely). The schedule on the web of the DB could be useful to find info about the changes needed for whatever train route in/between/among most European countries.

http://www.bahn.de/p_en/view/index.sthml

P.S.: Although you might succeed booking that sort of tickets through the web of RENFE, it might be cheaper booking them separately on the web of each train operator (to get full advantage of all the discounted options available... when available).