Hi,

Any one have an idea of how much it costs to take the AVE from Sevilla to Madrid? And also, is it realistic to leave Seville in the morning, stop in Cordoba to see the town a little and have lunch, then continue to take the train to Madrid and still get there around 5pm? (I have reservations at Hotel Lopez...thanks to this site...and don't want to lose my room by arriving too late!)

Thanks!

you can go to the www.renfe.es site and you can get prices there. It's a personal preference if you just want to stay in cordoba for a few hours, but i don't know if you can hop and off on the AVE, that you might have to ask. cordoba has alot to see so making it to madrid by 5:00, you won't see much of cordoba.

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The AVE ticket price depends on where you sit. If you sit in "Turista" (like the "coach" section of a plane) then it is a little over 14.000 ptas round trip from Sevilla to Madrid and back again. And the next class up is Preferente, and the 1st class, most expensive is Club. Club is AWESOME but really expensive. Yes it is possible to leave Sevilla maybe on the first AVE, stop in Cordoba (the trip is about 45 mins) to do morning sightseeing and have lunch, and leave around 15'30 and get to Madrid by 17h (barely, you might have to eat an early lunch).

I forgot to say that a one-way ticket might be around 7.000 ptas.

We took an 09:00 AVE Sevilla-Madrid, Monday (11 Sep). Turista /Llano cost 9.900 pesetas each person (one way). The 10:00 and 12:00 trains are 'Valle' (i.e., lowest time-of-day based fare). They would have cost about 10% less, but when we bought our reservations & tickets on Sunday, the 10:00 departure for Monday was already fully booked.
After I bought our tickets, I remembered one thing I should have done: Last year I had the same problem buying tickets for an Alfa (Porto-Lisboa); 'Non Smoking' was full, but there were seats available in the smoking car, so I endured a smoke-filled atmosphere for 3-hours (the Alfa's don't run as often as the AVE's).
P.S.
We bought our tickets at Sevilla's Estacion Santa Justa, so ours was not a price that included any commissions or anything like that. Before leaving, I checked with the Renfe site and it listed the price as 9.000 pesetas. Apparently there's been a 10% price increase that's not reflected on the Renfe site prices yet.

As for making a stop in Cordoba: That might require 2-tickets/reservations (Sevilla- Cordoba and then Cordoba-Madrid) because AVE are 'all-reserved' trains. A young couple got on at Ciudad Real and they didn't have any seat reservations (I don't know if they even had tickets). They couldn't find any seats but apparently they 'camped out' in the Cafeteria car and got to Madrid without incident.

[This message has been edited by Eddie (edited 09-21-2000).]

Thanks everyone! I guess we'll have to see if the stop in Cordoba is doable, but I really appreciate the pricing and other info.

taking the ave from madrid to cordoba then continuing to sevilla is definetly possible. when i was there i did just this. you can take the ave and get off at cordoba then continue onto sevilla. i personally didn't do this in one day journey as i stayed over in cordoba. however, i do remember distinctly two british girls i was talking to on the way to sevilla that took the ave from madrid got off at cordoba for a few hours then went onto sevilla. there wasn't any problem in doing so. if you want to stop in cordoba for any length of time you need an additional ticket to continue on. my old ticket says it was 4200 pts from atocha train station to cordoba, then another 1600 pts for the trip to sevilla. i'm not sure if there's an alternate charge for single day travel.