Madrid to Barcelona?

[Shopinpat]

Can anyone tell me if it would be better to fly from Madrid to Barcelona or take the fast train.

It appears I am having difficulty trying to find out prices and times that the trains go also what train station would I have to get on in Madrid and where to get off in Barcelona. I have also read that the prices very on the trains so much I was not sure when was the best time to buy tickets. It seems a bit confusing to me can someone help.

Air fare seemed reasonable too.

Does anyone have a must see things to do in Madrid?

Any help appreciated

Thanks

[Hlitner]

WOW! Fly? You cannot be serious. Consider that the train takes less than 3 hours and there are fares for around 50€ or less (if you snag a discount). The train will take you from downtown to downtown. Now think about flying. You have to pay your way out to Madrid's airport and be there at least 2 hours in advance. If the flight is on time you will quickly be in Barcelona.....after dealing with airfares, luggage restrictions, etc. Once in Barcelona you will have to buy some kind of transport into town. That short air flight may well take you over 5 hours downtown to downtown. The only time we would consider flying was if we were flying into Madrid and simply wanted to continue directly to Barcelona. But then most folks would simply book a flight from their starting point to Barcelona.

 

We will not even begin to address what there is to see and do in Madrid since there must be hundreds of web sites that can give you that info. Try to Google "Madrid Tourism" and you will have enough to keep you reading for days.

 

Hank

Edited December 29, 2015 by Hlitner

[MADflyer]

The air route between Madrid and Barcelona is still the busiest single air route in Europe, but did see a reduction of 34% with the arrival of the high speed rail connection to Barcelona in 2008.

 

While I have nothing against the trains, they sell out more frequently than the air routes and are often quite a bit more expensive. Do not think you avoid crowds by taking the trains and Spanish train station do have security similar to the airports.

 

Another fact is that passengers on the 'Puente Areo' or 'Air Bridge' between Madrid and Barcelona can access a separate security and with the fact that airports in Spain are fully staffed the wait time is relatively much less than in some other countries. The airport also has more to do after one has cleared security.

 

On popular train routes they will add trains up until the day before, meaning that inventory is constantly increasing and you can have 3 trains operating on the same track for one departure time. This can lead to incredibly long walks to your seat if you depart at such a peak time. This is only a problem at the origin train station.

 

Another factor that has influenced me greatly has been the addition a couple of years ago of the 30 Euro set fare to Barajas Madrid Airport from any location in the city center, which means I do not need to make my way to the Atocha train station by rail or subway or taxi and can just leave directly from where I am to the airport. There is also a light rail connection from Atocha, Sol or Recoletos to Terminal 4 and the metro is quick from Nuevos Ministerios to Terminal 2, 3 and 4.

 

I probably fly on this route 90% of the time still myself, while others prefer the city to city connection. Trains arrive at Sants Train station in Barcelona and I just prefer to take the 5.90 Aerobus directly to the city in Barcelona. The busses leave every 5 minutes to the city.

 

So, air or train is still a personal preference. The airport does have baggage storage with a per day fee as well and I often leave bags at Madrid airport and then pick them up prior to my flights.

 

The best website for Madrid is esmadrid.com that will include all tourist sites along with event schedules for just your dates.

 

The Art Triangle of museums would be my personal favorite recommendation, but you have an incredible amount to see in Madrid at any time of the year.

Edited December 29, 2015 by MADflyer

[Shopinpat]

The air route between Madrid and Barcelona is still the busiest single air route in Europe, but did see a reduction of 34% with the arrival of the high speed rail connection to Barcelona in 2008.

 

While I have nothing against the trains, they sell out more frequently than the air routes and are often quite a bit more expensive. Do not think you avoid crowds by taking the trains and Spanish train station do have security similar to the airports.

 

Another fact is that passengers on the 'Puente Areo' or 'Air Bridge' between Madrid and Barcelona can access a separate security and with the fact that airports in Spain are fully staffed the wait time is relatively much less than in some other countries. The airport also has more to do after one has cleared security.

 

On popular train routes they will add trains up until the day before, meaning that inventory is constantly increasing and you can have 3 trains operating on the same track for one departure time. This can lead to incredibly long walks to your seat if you depart at such a peak time. This is only a problem at the origin train station.

 

Another factor that has influenced me greatly has been the addition a couple of years ago of the 30 Euro set fare to Barajas Madrid Airport from any location in the city center, which means I do not need to make my way to the Atocha train station by rail or subway or taxi and can just leave directly from where I am to the airport. There is also a light rail connection from Atocha, Sol or Recoletos to Terminal 4 and the metro is quick from Nuevos Ministerios to Terminal 2, 3 and 4.

 

I probably fly on this route 90% of the time still myself, while others prefer the city to city connection. Trains arrive at Sants Train station in Barcelona and I just prefer to take the 5.90 Aerobus directly to the city in Barcelona. The busses leave every 5 minutes to the city.

 

So, air or train is still a personal preference. The airport does have baggage storage with a per day fee as well and I often leave bags at Madrid airport and then pick them up prior to my flights.

 

The best website for Madrid is esmadrid.com that will include all tourist sites along with event schedules for just your dates.

 

The Art Triangle of museums would be my personal favorite recommendation, but you have an incredible amount to see in Madrid at any time of the year.

 

Thanks Madflyer. I guess it just seemed a bit confusing with the trains however we may just try and figure it out when we get to Madrid. It did seem like it could be more expensive to take the train then fly. Our final destination is Barcelona. I will check out the web site.

Will put the Art Triangle of museums on my list.

[ColoradoCruiser88]

In Sept 2013, we spent almost 2 weeks visiting Barcelona and Madrid (and Granada) - travelling between cities via high speed (Barcelona - Madrid) and Altaria (Madrid - Granada) trains. There were 8 of us (4 couples) travelling together and tickets were fairly easy to purchase online. One of us bought all 8 tickets and printed out the e-tickets from home.

 

Everything we needed to know about buying Renfe tickets we learned from reading the helpful articles posted to the Trip Advisor Barcelona and Madrid forums. (Right hand side of the forums). There is also another helpful train travel website maintained by Man in seat 61 dot com. (All one word) Complete with pictures of the different classes of trains in Spain. As suggested, we kept checking the Renfe train site online to check prices and ticket availability.

 

Security check in at the train stations was super easy and quick - much faster than at the airport. We put our luggage on the conveyor belt to go through the X-Ray machine, they scanned the bar code on our e-tickets - and that was it.

 

The Atocha train station in Madrid is right near the "museum triangle" and we in fact walked to our hotel Paseo Del Arte from the train station. We also walked to The Prado and Sofia Reina museums from the hotel.

 

The Sants train station in Barcelona was a very short taxi ride from our rental apt near Las Ramblas.

 

Hope this helps.

[jim_in_nyc]

We flew last year, it was actually cheaper than the train (obviously faster too.) When you arrive in Barcelona, there is a great bus service that takes you directly into the city.

[jim_in_nyc]

Suggestion: pick up the Rick Steves "Spain 2015" book (hardcopy or Kindle), it's worth its weight in gold and will answer all your questions on Spain.

Edited December 31, 2015 by jim_in_nyc

[Shopinpat]

thanks All. It is my understanding that the train tickets change prices all the time. Based on how many tickets have been sold also popular days.

Colorado cruiser was the train ride worth it? I know I have read you do not see much. Just wondering

Thanks Again

[ColoradoCruiser88]

We had booked 7:25 am tickets from Barcelona to Madrid - I think all 8 of us spent most of the ride napping! No idea if there was nice scenery or not!

 

But I forgot to mention that 2 of the couples meeting up in Barcelona had just disembarked from a week long cruise, so they had extra check-in sized suitcases - not just carry - on suitcases. If we had opted for one of the discount airlines, we would have had to pay extra for check in luggage. On the train, there were luggage racks over your seats plus racks at the ends of each train compartment. I don't recall that there were limits on the size or number of your luggage.

 

So by the time we factored in the extra costs for luggage and the extra time needed for security check ins plus waiting for luggage and the extra distance (and cost) to the airports at both cities, for us it was a no-brainer to take the train. Trains almost always run on schedule - the same cannot be said of airplanes - they are more likely to be late than on time.

 

 

Just from personal experience, I also find that train travel is more comfortable than flying or even taking first class buses. Especially in Europe. No restraining seatbelts, way more leg room, and much more freedom to move around.

 

Just MHO and experience.