It's hard to get an exact price quote, since we're still working on our itineary, but I think we will minimully travel 6 days.
We are defintely going Madrid to Seville (1) and Seville to Barcelona (2). If we do at least one day trip from Lisbon (3), Madrid (4), Seville (5), and Barcelona (6), we have 6 travel days. I assume we are traveling together at all times, so we can get a Portugal-Spain Saver travel pass (two people always traveling together) for $822. I don't think that is each. I think that's total. It's also for 1st Class. 2nd Class didn't appear to be an option.
If price is an issue, we can try combining a side trip with a travel day. For example, see Toledo on the way to Seville. See Cordova on the way to Barcelona.
We can also look at only doing a Spain pass and just paying the fare for our Lisbon side trip. Looks like we can do 5 travel days in Spain with a Saver Pass, 2nd Class for $616. First class is $740.
It also looks like we will be required to have seat reservations to travel in Spain. I need to do a little more research there.
I'm not sure there is a huge difference between 1st and 2nd class. 1st Class is a little more spacious. You don't get truly pampered unless you go Premier Class.
I found this little gem on Trip Advisor. Confirms my research this morning. I think we go with Turista Plus class P+ which means we can select our seats and you'll have more space. The price change is about 2 Euros from Turista to Turista Plus.
ReplyDeleteClasses of Service:
a. Tourist class (Turista) – This is the least expensive with two seats on each side of the aisle. There is no meal. Most people should choose Tourist Class. The seats are very wide and comfortable. If you need food, you can go to the cafeteria car and buy something there. It is useless to choose Preferente Class if you want to save money.
Full price: 106.70€ (Indicated with the F symbol)
Mesa (Indicated with the M symbol) - The last row has backward facing seats with a table between a row facing forward. These seats are not recommended because of small leg room and some people may get dizzy if they face backward. Choose these seats as a last resort. The Mesa price is the selling of four seats in pairs together with a 60% discount on the general fare. With this fare, four people can travel for the price of two. Two people traveling by themselves will have the two pairs of seats, at the end of the car for themselves, but they must pay the price for four persons. Three people may want to choose this. The total price will be for 4 people.
Promo (Indicated with the P symbol) – Up to a 70% discount, but you cannot choose your seat. This is the biggest discount.
Promo Plus (Indicated with the P+ symbol) – Up to a 65% discount and you are allowed to choose your seat.
Full fare (Indicated with an F in a box) – No discount.
If there is no "P" or ¨”P+star” symbol beside the fare, that means that all the discount tickets have already been taken for that date. You may then want to look for a different date.
b. Turista Plus is tourist class, but with only 3 seats per row, compared to 4 seats per row on tourist class. The seats have 20% more space.
c. Preferente Class (Business Class) - Meal at your seat, newspapers, audio/video, parking discounts, access to VIP lounges, electric outlets for PCs. The Preferente seat is slightly wider than the Turista seat because there are only 3 seats in each row. However many people who have gone on Preferente were dissatisfied with the quality of the meal. Preferente is not the Orient Express! Save your money and travel Turista. Get your snacks in the cafeteria car.
If we go with Tursita Plus P+ the total cost in USD for both train trips is $336 - quick analysis on my part.
ReplyDeleteGood find honey!
ReplyDeleteDo we get a meal with Turista Plus? Not that it's a big deal. Rail Europe said we got meals with our First Class passes. I'm not sure if First Class = Turista Plus or Preferente.
$336 for both of us for the two trips? That was the price of one of us with Rail Europe, right?
How much is the 4 trip pass on Renfe? Does that include seat reservations?
Madrid to Toledo is 20 Euro round trip, per person
Madrid to Segovia is 13 Euro round trip, per person (even though it's a much longer trip. Must be cause it's a regional train, not AVE)
Seville to Cordova is 30-35 Euro round trip, per person, depends what train we take.
Barcelona to Sitges is 8 Euro round trip. I don't know what day trip we want to do from Barcelona. I'm just picking one I've read about.
I believe these all include reserved seats.
I'm getting way to sucked into this one, but I find all of the information to be fascinating.
ReplyDeleteFirst - no meal with the Turista Plus. Only get a meal and some other overrated perks (eg outlets for PC) with Preferente which I would consider First Class. There is a Club Class as well but not available on our trip. That's a step higher than Preferente. I would hate to think that Rail Europe would sell us tickets for Club Class when it doesn't exist on our journeys. Feedback on the meal is that it isn't that tasty anyway. Suggestion is to buy food from the snack car. We can always take something on like we've done on our other train travels.
P (Promo) and P+ (Promo Plus) are only on the Renfe site which implies that Rail Europe has to purchase F (Full Fare) which explains why the cost is higher. Promo and Promo Plus are basically first come first serve discount seats. Promo is 70% discount with no seat selection and Promo Plus is 65% discount with seat selection.
For the times we want to travel from Madrid to Seville and from Seville to Barcelona, the cheapest fare is 99 euro per person and the most expensive is 123 euro per person. These are in the Turista and Turista Plus with Promo and Promo+.
Turista - 4 seats in a row
Turista Plus - 3 seats in a row (more space)
The Spain Pass is 163 euro per person and good on all AVE long distance and medium distance trains.
I think it will be advantageous for us to buy each ticket separately as some of the side trips are commuter trains. If we were taking one more long journey I would suggest the Spain Pass.
Estoy bien con su evaluación
DeleteEn ingles: I'm cool with your analysis
So we should do the Turista Plus. I'm thinking we leave Madrid at noonish on Saturday the 26th, and leave Seville on the morning train on the 29th. Do you feel comfortable booking through Renfe so we get the promo rate and have seats reserved? Do they mail us tickets or can we use their app? I wonder if the mailed tix would get here in time.
The PC plug in would be nice, but we're on the train for 2.5 or 5.5 hours, I think we can survive that long without charging our Apple devices. We can also bring snacks on the train. Maybe wine in a coke bottle.
I'm thinking that we'll be more comfortable with the Turista Plus, not that the Turista isn't good enough. It's more space and my husband is tall.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about Promo or Promo Plus. I'm sure the randomly assigned seats with Promo is fine. With Promo Plus we can cancel with a refund and with Promo we can not. Any cause for concern if I chance it on Promo?
I doubt we will cancel, especially if we know it will cost us money.
ReplyDeleteDoes it cost that much more for the Promo Plus? Might be worth it to select our seats.
It will be $32 more for both of us if we book Promo Plus versus Promo.
ReplyDeleteI would pay $32 for piece of mind about seat selection, but we don't have to if you don't want to
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. I need passport info to book so I'll do so tonight.
ReplyDeleteRenfe site is being a butt plug and won't let me use any card. I found a site in the US that charges about a $15 fee per ticket but I can buy there. It's like a Rail Europe that has access to the Promo Plus and other discounts. Rail Europe only offers a flexible rate which is the most expensive.
ReplyDeleteSo you can buy the tickets at that other site for the $15 surcharge?
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with that.
Have you tried eurorail.com
Eurorail seems to only sell passes.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to book with ACPRail. I can get 2 tickets for each segment in Turista Plus selecting our seats for $364. The same tickets on Renfe are $333. I'm fine with paying $31 extra to have the tickets.
Sounds good honey. Thanks for finding that.
DeleteAfter all that, I can't get the payment to work on that site either. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pain in the ass.
DeleteLet's just buy them at the airport in Madrid when we get there.
I was told by the site that the payment failed and now I have 3 pending charges with 2 different cards. Yeah!
ReplyDeleteCalled APCRail. No reservation on hand. Pending posts don't mean anything. I moved forward with the one on my card and we'll see what happens.
ReplyDeleteI checked the seating for the train reservation and we are window and aisle on the Madrid to Seville sitting next to each other. On the Seville to Barcelona we are both isolated window meaning the only seat on that side of the aisle. I can kick the back of yours for 5 hours.
ReplyDeleteLuckily I'll have my wine in a Coke bottle.
ReplyDeletehttp://euro2012trip.blogspot.com/2012/05/drinking-wine-from-coke-bottle.html
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic.
ReplyDeleteHouse to Rent in Sitges & Accommodation in sitges