Hello all,

I plan to take an overnight train from Madrid -> Barcelona. I don't know the differences from the Trenhotel and the Costa Brava. A "first double" on costa brava is 55.5E, while a "first double" is E70 on a Trenhotel. Tourist bed is 60E, but is that a bed? Or sleeping sitting up? THe times are almost equivalent, so not really sure. I'm a single female traveling alone, so whichever one is safer I'm also interested in learning about.

Gracias!

~chortles and grins

You can probably fly for about $35.00. It is a better way to go than the train unless you really want to spend the time watching the countryside. At night, you won't see anything!!
Check with Iberia!!

I agree with sel, get a plane ticket. I have found great deals on travelocity and they have a shuttle (Puente a Barcelona). I have taken the trenhotel twice from Paris-Madrid and Lisbon-Madrid and they were uniformly AWFUL!

Aside from several trips on the AVE, I have never had a good experience on RENFE. This goes back 20+ years. The term "trenhotel" is a euphemism for several "luxuries"(like a sink or an extra place to hang a jacket) at the expense of space.

A frequent practice of the conductors is, in spite of where you were assigned to sleep in couchettes, they will push everyone into the center compartments. So if you had two or three people assigned to each compartment throughout the whole car, they will put everyone together in the middle, with the other part empty. You never know whether they will accept a credit card. They book through international tickets at their own whim.

While I am a huge fan of Spain and it's people, I think RENFE is the worst! I once had a conductor carrying a lit cigarette check my ticket while I was in non-smoking car!

chortlesandgrins writes: I don't know what a 'Tourist bed' is but I would guess that it's a couchette in Tourist Class. The others are First Class. If you want a single occupancy compartment you'll have to pay twice what you're looking at. So air travel looks better and better ...

I disagree with almost everything Mongo has said about RENFE.

I've never had a truly bad experience with the system in my 4 trips over the last 18 months throughout much of the country. No missed connections because of late trains, no issues with conductors, and no problem on the one time I took an overnight train.

Took an overnight train from Burgos to Barcelona last Sept (it was not one of the Trenhotels) and had to sleep in a litera with 5 other women. I was a little concerned about security but the minute we got on the train in Burgos, an official checked our tickets and made sure we were in the correct sleepiing cabin. They had an official in each car throughout the night. The litera was stuffy and not too comfortable, but I didn't book in time to get my individual sleeper (which is much more expensive).

However, between Madrid and Barcelona, I do agree that if you can get an inexpensive fare the best bet would be to fly. It's much quicker and not usually expensive.