Train Hotel from Madrid to Sarria

[capun]

Hello

I was at the RENFE site and according to their site you only have a choice of beds.

Regarding the bed accomodations I read that the only way for my wife and I to stay together is to get the Double Family room upgrade, otherwise we need to split or have 4 people in one compartment. Is that correct?

What about the Preferred Reclining seats? Are they confortable enough for the long trip?

We are trying to decide what is best since we are taking the train after we arrive in Madrid in the morning, with the long trip and jet lag.

 

[peregrina2000]

The 4-bunk cars are sex-segregated unless you want to book your own room (e.g., parents and two kids). I personally could not sleep in the reclining chairs, but many people can. The sex-segregated cars are very nice, so you and your wife could split up.

But if you arrive in Madrid early in the morning after a long flight, it seems like the last thing you will want to do is hang around Madrid until you can get on the trenhotel at night. I would either spend a few days getting over jet lag in Madrid and enjoying that wonderful city, or get out of Madrid ASAP rather than prolong the agony of being in a city jet-lagged with no place to crash.

You might think about getting a train from Madrid to Leon, then changing to a train to Sarria. Or take a train to Santiago, then bus to Sarria. Or something like that. Buen camino, Laurie

 

[capun]

My wife's college roommate lives in Madrid, she is picking us up at the airport and taking us to Chamartin to take the train.

We'll leave the suitcases at her apartment and we are staying there for a couple of days after the Camino.

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, capun,

Lucky you to have a place to stay in Madrid. Since you are having the same frustrations with the RENFE site as many of us, one thing that occurred to me is that you could ask your friend in Madrid to buy the tickets for you and then you could just reimburse her. For Spaniards/people with Spanish credit cards, it's a snap.

Good luck with this, it's really frustrating, I know.

 

[capun]

That may be the solution, I finally got hold of someone knowledgable and he told me that unless you have a Spanish Credit Card your chances to book a reservation are almost nill. And that includes trying to book it via the phone, which is not what someone else said. ARGHH!!

The problem is that my wife's friend does not have a computer and is not computer savvy. We may have to bite the bullet and buy it from another site but no discount

 

[eslinda]

Try different credit cards. We had the same exact problem, but then asked our son to try his credit card which is Visa Verified and he was able to make the purchase with no problem. We had a similar problem when we went to buy Air Asia tickets for another trip -- our Capital One card didn't work, but a friend's card (MC, not Visa, but same bank card) did work. I would continue to try with various cards from people you know in the U. S. and if your card can be enrolled in a Visa Verify program, try it and see if that works. It's not a Spanish credit card that is needed, it's just one that has an advanced level of security. Good luck!

 

[peregrina2000]

hi, Eslinda,
I think you are right. In fact, I know you must be right because one year I was able to buy a ticket on the RENFE website. Unfortunately, using the same credit card the next year, I was unable to do it. And the card was Visa Verified. I think RENFE has a little evil elf in its computer system who randomly rejects 95% of all US cards and lets a few through.

I have essentially given up on RENFE just because it's so frustrating. Now I do one of two things -- either buy on petrabax.com, or wait till I get there and buy in person (which gives me a 40% discount for being over 60).

Hope lots of you are luckier than I've been! Laurie

 

[capun]

My card is Visa Verified, I talked to my bank about it and they asked me to change the password, still no luck.

I have used that card before and have gone through the Visa Verified system many times without any problems. I tried another Visa card that I have without any luck.

Petrabax total cost was higher than RailEurope, there was an authorized RENFE agent in the UK but they only do it via phone. I ended up purchasing the tickets via RailEurope.