Budget Travel - What cheap ways are there to travel from Marseilles to Barcelona?

We found a train ticket online at http://www.raileurope.ca and the train would cost 146CAD, with one stop at Montpellier.

Is there other more economical way to travel, or a more economical way of booking such trains?

Train Train # Depart Station Depart Time Arrival Station Arrival Time Date Price
Corail TEOZ 4758 Marseille St Char 12:42 MONTPELLIER 14:09 May 22, 2009 CAD146
Corail 70 MONTPELLIER 15:09 BARCELONA FRANCA 19:59 May 22, 2009

Okay I think I found two possible answers for you:

First method:

Go to tgveurope.com

click uk/english

enter date--may 22? and route marseilles to bar

click search (leaving Great Britan as country for collecting tickets)

73Euro fare should pop up. But it is the same amount of time as your original itinerary--7hr travel time with one stop at Montpellier. It is cheaper than raileurope since 73euro is $121 CAD.

Next method:

Go to ryanair--look for one way flight on 5/22 for Marseilles to Madrid. There is only one flight. Currently, it cost 0,99euro but with taxes it gets bumped to 28euro. Time is 11:30 to 13:20

Catch metro T2 from airport to station Atocha. This takes 44minutes and costs 1 euro.

Go to renfe.es Note: You must use IE to view prices. Click english in selectione du idioma. Enter Mad and Barcelona and date of travel. Click search or buscar.

Schedules and prices appear on the next screen. There is one direct ave high speed train from 15:00 to 17:38. It cost 78euro. Total cost comes to 178 CAD

Honestly, I think the first method is cheaper but takes longer.

We found a train ticket online at http://www.raileurope.ca and the train would cost 146CAD, with one stop at Montpellier.

Is there other more economical way to travel, or a more economical way of booking such trains?

Train Train # Depart Station Depart Time Arrival Station Arrival Time Date Price
Corail TEOZ 4758 Marseille St Char 12:42 MONTPELLIER 14:09 May 22, 2009 CAD146
Corail 70 MONTPELLIER 15:09 BARCELONA FRANCA 19:59 May 22, 2009

Consider the bus in 6 1/2 hrs for €39 one way:
http://www.eurolines.fr/?lang=ENG

We found a train ticket online at http://www.raileurope.ca and the train would cost 146CAD, with one stop at Montpellier.



It's not a stop at Montpellier; it's a change of train.

I think we better but this into budget travel forum :)

regards,

chrissxb
moderator
european rail travel

Yep, I also got that 73 Euro fare and it's really easy to buy them with any card and pick them at the station (or even print them yourself for free).

If the problem is that you don't want to miss half a day, I can give you 5 hours more:

17h29 MARSEILLE ST CHARLES 19h55 NICE VILLE TGV - 23.60 EURO

VY5189 (VUELING) 23:15 DEPART NICE (NCE) 00:25 Arrive BARCELONA (BCN) - 40 EURO

The train station is very close from the airport, there is a bus (23) that connects them but you can even walk and will take 15 to 20 minutes.

But in that case, I would consider the eurolines nightbus for 39 euro:
Départ le Vendredi 22/05/2009 à 20:45 - Arrivée le Samedi 23/05/2009 à 05:15
Or the early bus:
Départ le Vendredi 22/05/2009 à 06:30 - Arrivée le Vendredi 22/05/2009 à 12:45

The rest of the schedules suck