Spain Flexipass

Posted by: Amy25

Spain Flexipass - 01/10/01 02:21 PM

I was wondering if anyone has used the Spainflexi pass? How does it work? Can I take any train I would like or are there restrictions? I was also kind of looking into the rail and drive pass that is available. Can anyone give me some feedback.
Thanks in advance.
Posted by: Wendy E

Re: Spain Flexipass - 01/10/01 11:06 PM

I might have outdated info, but i used it a few years ago while i was studying abroad. You get 3 days within 2 months, and you write the date you're riding in a little space. Since I was there for 4 months, I had two passes. You only have to pay a supplement if you take a fast train, like the AVE, or you want an overnight bed. I think the supplements were $13 and $10 respectively, but it's probably different now with the exchange rate. You can take any train you want, but sometimes it's a good idea to have a reservation. You can gauge that for yourself, if you see a city is full of tourists, make a reservation on the train when you leave.

The biggest benefit, I thought, was that conductors seldom wanted to see the pass and weren't very interested in stamping it. A few of the conductors, when checking my ticket, told me not to bother writing the date in. So with six valid rail dates, I probably rode 15 times, and used the last date to take the AVE to Madrid for a day trip, just to finish up the pass. If it weren't for the free days, I don't think the pass would have been very cost-effective, because trains and busses (buses?) have pretty cheap point-to-point tickets.

Check out Rick Steves' page on this: http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/spainport.htm His little map will help you figure out if the pass is a good value.
Posted by: juniperchick

Re: Spain Flexipass - 01/13/01 05:08 AM

I bought the Iberic Rail Pass to go to Spain and Portugal on my recent trip a couple of weeks ago.

All you need to do is to reserve your seats at the train station. You'll need to pay a supplement if you're taking the AVE or the overnight train. I paid 3500pts for Preference class return to Sevilla on the AVE.

The booking counter will validate your pass the first time you use it. All you need to do is to enter the date of your travels. I didn't enter the 1st one so I could have had an extra ride if I wanted to.