We are planning a short (alas) trip to southern Spain. We arrive in Madrid on Saturday the 18th (November) and plan to take the AVE to Cordoba, rent a car to travel around and then return from Seville on the AVE. Should we make reservations for the train? It looks relatively easy to do on-line, so should we do it now or should we wait till we get to the train station.
Also how long should we allow to get from the Madrid airport to the train station?

Thanks for your help.

Hi Pixie! Welcome to the group!! Congratulations on your upcoming trip to Spain.

If you arrive in Madrid on a Saturday you'll more than likely find lighter traffic. But still, allow yourself at least an hour from airport to the Atocha train station where you'll get the AVE.

Also, if you know you're going on this train trip on these dates you might as well reserve them now and not have to worry about it or the language barrier (if there is one for you, that is) when you arrive.

Anyone else have anything to add/change/contradict? Have a great time! And please tell us here, in your thread, what you decided to do and how the transportation went upon returning. Thanks!

Saludos, MadridMan

What is important to know is that you need a reservation for the specific train in question, otherwise they do not even let you enter the AVE. They check it before you are allowed to proceed to the platform.
I would recommend to make the reservation now. You can reserve your seats directly at the train station as well, but you might be unlucky and the train you want to take is booked out. I took the AVE a couple of days when every seat was in fact booked out. The date you indicated might not be that critical, though.

Pixie you definetly need a reservaation for the Ave. My parents were in Madrid this past week and tried for three days to take the Ave to Cordoba and were not able to do so. RESERVE as soon as you can.

Thanks to everybody who responded. I'll make my reservations tomorrow.

ANOTHER satisfied customer! Pixie, after you make the reservation, please come back here and tell us how easy/difficult it was, okay? Thanks!!

Success! It took 3 tries but I finally got the reservations on Renfe's electronic system.

On my first try, I apparently took too long filling in the customer info. Of course since on the English version they ask for passport number, I had to search mine out. Then I discovered that my 9 digit U.S. passport number was a 1 character too long (it was issued in So. America).

On the second try (I switched to the Spanish version)filled in the customer info, received my user id and got as far as the "Datos de los Billetes Asignados" page when the server went out to lunch ... I waited and waited to no avail.

On the 3rd try I checked to make sure I didn't already have seats assigned and then started over again (I managed to get the user id on the previous pass so I didn't have to repeat that step). This time everything worked as it should.

The only negative was that I couldn't find an "easy" way to do my open jaw trip (madrid-cordoba; sevilla-madrid).

Anyway, thanks to all. We're looking forward to our quick trip; wish I could get my husband to stay longer.

We went over to the Renfe reservations office over on Calle de Alcala 4 days before our trip to Seville and bought tickets. We pointed at the day, time and class of tickets we wanted. Very easy and painless.