How To Get Out Of Madrid

[joanagain]

In november we will be disembarking HAL in lisbon...we have planned to take the lisbon xpress to madrid spain for a few days of sight seeing...we would then like to board a train, for berlin germany...using our eurail passes,

 

without rerouting ourselves to paris and traveling from there to berlin, (france would not be listed on our europass)...so far our only option is to skip the train and take the plane...

 

anyone else, knows another train solution, madrid to berlin ...?

 

"wishing i were in Paris..."

[FeegleGirl]

Have you had a look at a map of Europe recently? Spain borders with Portugal in the West and with Andorra and France in the North East. The only way you can go by road or rail from Spain into any other European country apart from Portugal or Andorra is going through France. If you want to go to Berlin and don't want to go through France or catch a plane your only other option would be catching a ferry from Barcelona to Genoa (Italy), but this may not be included in your europass.

 

By the way, according to the information I found on the Web, the Europass is no longer sold, but if you purchased it prior to January 1st 2003, your Europass will still be honoured in the five Europass countries (France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain). If you bought it recently what you have is a Eurail Selectpass. This offers unlimited travel on the national rail networks of any 3, 4 or 5 bordering countries out of 18 European countries that are connected by train or ship. Note that it says BORDERING countries, which means that in theory you should NOT be able to buy a Eurail pass for Spain that does not include France on it. If you buy a 3 country pass that includes Portugal the other 2 countries would be Spain and France. I've tried the online booking tool and if you start selecting Portugal your only second option is Spain. After this your only option is to select France, but after France you can choose between Benelux, Italy, Germany, Switzerland or Ireland.

 

You'd better check the rail pass you have and take a look at this website:

http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/passes/eurail_selectpass.htm

[joanagain]

thanks for the heads up...yes, we are planning on buying the euroselectsaverpass (i shortened it to europass) and our five countries are germany france italy spain and portugal...we will buy a separate ticket for our passage through switerland but we do not want to take the sud express from madrid to paris in order to take a train to berlin...if that makes any sense...

 

so, my original question should have just stated, is there a train leaving madrid headed for berlin?

[swiftm001]

Joanagain: I think we are in the same boat and trip plan. My HAL cruise is Westerdam 9/13-9/25 to Lisbon; I planned to stay in Lisbon for two days then riding the hotel train to Madrid. I arrange the rail ticket with http://www.raileurope.com/us/, they can only give you comfirm reservation 60 days before departure date, I sugg to book ahead; Euro rail pass won't serve you well if you wanted first class sleeper, I won't recommended for the 8 hrs overnight trip. I rode the French overnight train from/to Madrid to Paris a few times; again, railpass doesn't include sleeper class, reservation is highly recommended. I arranged a private car from Rome airport to the HAL on 9/13 9 am p/u; anyone would like to share the ride please let me know. swiftm

swiftm001@yahoo.com

[joanagain]

everything is in the planning stages now, so lots of info gets thrown out...but, i think that when you refer to the "hotel train" ...it is the same train that i call the "sud express" which runs daily from lisbon to paris or madrid...and we will need sleeping car reservations...i understood that the europasses are 1st class, but are you saying that they are not valid for use on the train to madrid...but you did buy your passes through eurorail...i do not think that portugal is offered as a bordering country...so i would need a separate ticket...xxx

 

after extensive research (asking cc members) i was told that we could make our reservations for the sleepers at the same time that we buy the euroselectsaverpasses (as you said, not until september in our case, we will be on the last "boat" out, noordam)...we also may not use the pass on this train, but i believe that there is a supplement europass sold which includes portugal, or we hope to be able to buy tickets at the lisbon train station...everything is influx...but that is what these boards are for to bring order out of chaos...in my case, slowly .

will be glad to read about your experiences when you get back...

thanks for your comments.