AndieNarwhal

We'll be traveling to Spain (Madrid to Malaga to Valencia to Barcelona) and are likely going to travel by train between each city instead of renting a car. Hoping to get high-speed AVE trains each time. Which is the best website to book train tickets on in terms of cost, convenience and reliability? The Renfe website seems complex and buggy and is partially in Spanish even though I have it set to English.

LupineChemist

www.renfe.com is the site of the main train operator in Spain.

If that is the order you're going in, then that is the only operator you will use. There is competition on Madrid - Barcelona and Madrid - Valencia but looks like you won't be on those routes.

For Málaga to Valencia, I would recommend flying. Ryanair flies it year round and Iberia flies in summer season. (might be a good way to spend some avios if you have any)

From Valencia to Barcelona it's the Euromed which isn't true high speed but it's nice and fast enough.

Koby

Iryo now also has a few daily trains between Madrid and Málaga.
https://iryo.eu/en/home

Palal

Probably best to move this to the Train forum. Will ask the mods.

AndieNarwhal

Yeah, but I've seen some recommendations of other sites to use to buy Renfe tickets since the Renfe site is hard to use. Any recommendations?

Why not take the train for this route?

LupineChemist

1. No idea. The site has never given me problems as such, just that the interface could be much more intuitive.

2. Malaga to Valencia route on high speed takes you through Madrid so you're probably looking at 6-7 hours of train travel with a change in Atocha. I don't believe there even is a route on regular speed. So the difference in time and convenience is basically gone.

AndieNarwhal

Cool, thanks for this info! Looking at a flight on Iberia/Air Nostrum since they can carry our luggage. I tend to want to stay away from airports as much as possible, but agreed that a 1 hour flight is much better than a 6 hour train ride.

AndieNarwhal

Do you know if Iryo provides better service than Renfe or are they all pretty much the same?

BahrainLad

From various reports on YouTube it seems that Iryo offers a good service for a competitive price. They also use brand-new Italian high speed trains which are regarded as some of the best in Europe.

I have used RailEurope (formerly Loco2) to book AVE tickets before and haven't had a problem, as it's easier to use than the RENFE site.

LupineChemist

I've never ridden it, personally but I hear it's fine. One thing to check out is make sure they don't have luggage limits or things like that. I've heard of people getting burned on Ouigo for it but can't attest personally. Also very doubtful it applies to you but as of now, Renfe is the only operator that allows pets so if you need to move a dog or cat, that's going to be the only option.

Koby

Ouigo is a “low-cost” operator, so you need indeed to be careful with things like luggage (exactly like on low-cost airlines).

But Iryo is competing directly with Renfe’s (full-servcie) AVE trains. And as long as you can carry the lugage and you are not obviously overdoing it, there should be no problem.
I have travelled a few times with them now, and they are not worse nor better than Renfe. (To me, train travel with reserved seats is like the lottery. If you have bad luck with who’s sitting close to you, the trip can be hell. There is not a lot the train company can do about that…)

But I do like the idea of having some competitors, so I choose Iryo now whenever else is equal. And I have had a very good experience already when I had to move a (very) cheap reservation forward because of unforeseen circumstances at the last minute.

boybi

I booked Renfe for San Sebastian to Madrid Chamartin.

what does Combinado Cercanias mean? Is it a free onward subway/tram ride to the city?

tom tulpe

Yes, it means that you can get any RENFE local train to San Sebastian and from Madrid Chamartin (https://www.thetrainline.com/en/trai...nado-cercanias)

NB this does not include the San Sebastian Metro, run by the Basque government and not RENFE.

LupineChemist

Just to add what was said, the Cercanías are the suburban rail systems in Spain (in Catalonia they are called Rodalies). With any long distance RENFE ticket, you can get a free connection to anywhere on those networks at both the origin and destination.