Some Logistical Stuff, Part One: Transportation

A word about Renfe, the Spanish train system. The trains are great. The website…not so great.

My research on Rome2Rio and elsewhere indicated that I needed a bus between Bilbao and San Sebastian/Donostia (faster than the train) and that was easy enough. With buses leaving both cities every hour, no need to purchase tickets ahead of time. And the buses are nice - think tour bus, not city bus.

For Bilbao to Segovia, there were two trains, a 4-hour ride. One at 7 am (ouch) and one at 5:30 pm (ugh), but not a lot of alternatives. The bus option was over 6 hours. Flying was just as long as the train (fly into Madrid, then train to Segovia). So I went to the Renfe site to buy train tickets for the 7 am train for May 1st.

Sold out.

That can’t be right, I thought to myself. Tried a few more times. Still sold out. Tried alternative websites, got “not available.”

So I asked a question on the Rick Steves travel forum, and immediately got answers to the effect of “Eh, typical Renfe.” They load tickets 90 days out, except when they decide maybe 60 days out, and sometimes maybe they’ll post them 30 days ahead. You know, whatever. I was reassured that there would be tickets - these trains rarely sell out, they just add another car - but as to when there would be tickets, it was anyone’s guess.

On March 19, I was able to book tickets for May 1. But could I do it on Renfe’s website? Of course not. In addition to some indifferent English translations, and some pages not translated at all, and random error messages - I was tripped up, by all things, the US country code for my required phone number. Filled it all on on one page, using the country code drop down menu. Next page asked for the same information (?), and didn’t have the US country code listed (??), and I could not manually add it (???).

Trainline is a website that is infinitely easier to use, although they still have to wait for Renfe to load the schedules before they can sell the tickets. I may have paid a few euros more, but the site actually worked and their app is very good.

Once I got on Trainline, booking everything else was easy. Train from Segovia to Toledo involved arriving at Madrid Charmartin train station, and departing from Madrid Atocha train station, and we allowed plenty of time to get between the two. We had no issues with any of our transportation.

We also took quite a few taxis, from train stations to hotel, although there were some public transit options that would have been fine. Walking was not really an option in Segovia (station is outside of town) or Toledo (uphill climb with suitcase? no thanks.). Taxis are just…easier, let’s all admit it.