European Rail Travel - No easy rail options Munich/Austria to Barcelona?

My wife and I intend to spend a couple of weeks in Austria before heading over to Barcelona to catch a ship to get back home. Looking at bahn.com, there doesn't seem to be any nice way of a rail ride from Austria or Munich to get to Barcelona (seems a minimum of 2 changes of train). Am I missing anything?

Looks like it might be Niki /Air Berlin otherwise.

I think the 2train change minimum sounds about right. Spain uses a different train gauge than western Europe. if I recall correctly, Spain uses broad gauge track while most of western Europe uses standard gauge track. A high speed link to Barcelona (and beyond since the high-speed tracks in Spain are also standard gauge) is under construction and should be completed sometime this year. In France, new junctions are also being built to allow trains coming from Germany and Belgium/Holland to go direct to Spain.
Until then, you'll be able to take a TGV to just beyond the Spanish border and then need to change onto the local train to Barcelona.
In short, I'd recommend flying.

My wife and I intend to spend a couple of weeks in Austria before heading over to Barcelona to catch a ship to get back home. Looking at bahn.com, there doesn't seem to be any nice way of a rail ride from Austria or Munich to get to Barcelona (seems a minimum of 2 changes of train). Am I missing anything?

Looks like it might be Niki /Air Berlin otherwise.

There are at least two ways to do Munich - Barcelona with only one change (as it seems minimizing the number of changes is important to you). In particular:

Via Zurich
EC194 Dep Munich Hbf 12:33, arr Zurich Hbf 16:44
EN274 Dep Zurich Hbf 18:42, arr Barcelona Sants 10:30 (next day)

This option generally runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but sometimes this summer it doesn't run at all due to engineering works.

You should be able to book Munich-Zurich on bahn.de (http://bahn.de) and the Zurich-Barcelona 'TrenHotel' at www.renfe.com (http://www.renfe.com) . Or you may find that www.sbb.ch (http://www.sbb.ch) lets you book tickets in one place, but I haven't checked.

Via Paris
TGV9576 Dep Munich Hbf 06:26, arr Paris Est 12:35
EN477 Dep Paris Austerlitz 20:23, arr Barcelona Sants 08:05

This seems to run every day.
Note that this involves a change of stations in Paris, and also a long stop-over (which could be an advantage, if you want to visit Paris; or a disadvantage if you want to save time).

Again, it should be possible to book Munich-Paris on bahn.de (http://bahn.de) and the Paris-Barcelona 'TrenHotel' at www.renfe.com (http://www.renfe.com) . Or www.voyages-sncf.com might be able to sell both tickets.

There may be other options as well, that I haven't thought of. However, it's too long to do the journey in a day, so you're either looking at a sleeper train (see reviews of the Paris-Barcelona TrenHotel (http://www.seat61.com/Spain.htm#Barcelona), and I assume the Zurich-Barcelona train is pretty similar) or staying overnight in a hotel somewhere.

IMHO no need to fly - taking the train should be perfectly feasible.

http://www.elipsos.com/

http://www.elipsos.com/

Ah yes - that's the dedicated site for the TrenHotels (probably more relevant than www.renfe.com)

Also, if the OP is coming from Austria (you didn't indicate which city) rather than Munich, then the only way to get to Barcelona with just 1 change is probably via Zurich (as sadly there are no longer any direct trains between Austria and Paris (http://www.seat61.com/OrientExpress.htm)).

From Vienna:
RJ162 Dep Wien Westbahnhof 09:14, arr Zurich Hbf 17:20
EN274 Dep Zurich Hbf 18:42, arr Barcelona Sants 10:30 (next day)

The RailJet (RJ) runs daily, but the limitations mentioned above regarding the Zurich-Barcelona TrenHotel obviously still apply.

Thanks for the info. We'll be spending 2 weeks between Vienna and near Salzburg. Dropping off is flexible and we may go as far a Bregenz.

I see the cheapest trenhotel gran premiere fares are EUR 220 each, with a fixed time Salzburg to Zurich going for EUR 29. We'll have to evaluate what we want as it is about 23 hrs on a train. The lowest airfares from eastern Austria are around EUR 110.

Thanks for the info. We'll be spending 2 weeks between Vienna and near Salzburg. Dropping off is flexible and we may go as far a Bregenz.

I see the cheapest trenhotel gran premiere fares are EUR 220 each, with a fixed time Salzburg to Zurich going for EUR 29. We'll have to evaluate what we want as it is about 23 hrs on a train. The lowest airfares from eastern Austria are around EUR 110.

Besides airberlin/Niki from Austria, you could always fly direct on Vueling from Munich to Barcelona.

Doing a bit more research, I see that the Gran Classe tickets can be had for ~€166/189 pp in a shared cabin with the Mini Duo promotion (the €220 fare is the Duo promotion) depending on season (Duo is €189 in pre summer). Not bad price but I do have to wait until end of July to book.

I think the 2train change minimum sounds about right. Spain uses a different train gauge than western Europe. if I recall correctly, Spain uses broad gauge track while most of western Europe uses standard gauge track.

And Talgo trains that change gauge without stopping have been running since the 1960s. Welcome to Earth! ;)

Has anyone travelled Grand Preferente? We normally travel light but maybe less so on this trip as we have to combine Austria in October with Barcelona and Florida in November (not to mention a 13 day TATL voyage by ship). Just wondering if there's any space under the bottom bunk. or does everything have to go into the space over the passageway? My previous experience in similar service has been the Deluxe compartment of a City Night Line ComfortLine sleeper.

Just had a look at this route again. Looks like RENFE has dropped the Milan and Zurich routes. Just Paris now.