International Relations Office
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Spain
| Leisure |
| Getting Around |
By air: Iberia and its subsidiary, Iberia Regional-Air Nostrum, have an extensive network covering all of Spain. Competing with Iberia are Spanair, Air Europa and Vueling. They both rival Iberia on the busy Madrid–Barcelona run and fly to a host of other Spanish destinations. In late 2006, UK and Irish low-cost airlines EasyJet and Ryanair won concessions to start operating on a handful of domestic Spanish routes. Increasingly, customers are booking their domestic flights in Spain on the airlines’ websites. It is worth shopping around, and for return flights there is nothing to stop you booking each leg with a different airline. Typical cheaper return fares between Madrid and Barcelona hover around €80 to €120, but it can range up to €250. Cheaper tickets are generally nonrefundable, must be booked up to two weeks in advance and allow no changes. All applicable airport taxes are factored into the price of your ticket. By rail: Renfe (902 24 02 02; www.renfe.es) is the national state train system that runs most of the services in Spain. Spain has several types of trains. For short hops, bigger cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Málaga and Valencia have a local network known as cercanías. Long-distance (aka largo recorrido or Grandes Líneas) trains come in all sorts of different flavours. They range from all-stops regionales operating within one region to the high-speed AVE trains that link Madrid with Seville, Tarragona and Barcelona. Similar trains used on conventional Spanish tracks (which differs from the standard European gauge) connect Barcelona with Valencia in the Euromed service. A whole host of modern intermediate speed services (Intercity, Talgo, Talgo 200, Alaris, Altaria and Arco) offer an increasingly speedy and comfortable service around the country. You’ll find consignas (left-luggage facilities) at all main train stations. They are usually open from about 6am to midnight and charge from €3 to €4.50 per day per piece of luggage. By bus: A plethora of companies provide bus links, from local routes between villages to fast intercity connections. It is often cheaper to travel by bus than by train, particularly on long-haul runs, but also less comfortable. Local services can get you just about anywhere, but most buses connecting villages and provincial towns are not geared to tourist needs. Frequent weekday services drop off to a trickle on Saturday and Sunday. Often just one bus runs daily between smaller places during the week and none operate on Sunday. It’s usually unnecessary to make reservations; just arrive early enough to get a seat. Bus travel within Spain is not overly costly. The trip from Madrid to Barcelona costs around €25 one way. From Barcelona to Seville, one of the longest trips you could do (15 to 17 hours) you pay up to €82 one way for the faster services. Car-hire: To rent a car in Spain you have to have a licence, be aged 21 or over and, for the major companies at least, have a credit or debit card. Smaller firms in areas where car hire is particularly common (such as the Balearic Islands) can sometimes live without this requirement. Although those with a non-EU licence should also have an IDP, you will find that national licences from countries like Australia, Canada, NZ and the USA are often accepted Public Transport: Madrid has the country’s most extensive metro network. Barcelona follows in second place with a reasonable system. Valencia and Bilbao also have limited metros, and Seville is building one. Tickets must be bought in metro stations (from counters or vending machines). Single tickets cost the same as for buses (ie, up to €1.20). The best value for most visitors wanting to move around the major cities over a few days are the 10-trip tickets, known in Madrid as Metrobús (€6.15) and in Barcelona as T-10 (€6.65). Monthly and season passes are also available Cities and provincial capitals all have reasonable bus networks. You can buy single tickets (up to €1.20, depending on the city) on the buses or at tobacconists, but, in the case of cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, you are better off buying combined 10-trip tickets that allow the use of a combination of bus and metro, and which work out cheaper per ride. These can be purchased in any metro station. |
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