Hi, I never travelled with interrail. I live in Angers in France. I would like to visit Spain. I wonder if I can use the interrail pass to travel from Angers to Barcelone, means leaving Angers at around 6am to reach Barcelona at 9pm after 2 or 3 connections in France. Can you help me? Thanks
Connection
Best answer by thibcabe
Interrail will surely be good value for 2 reasons :
- children travel for free (only need to pay seat reservations)
- the Paris - Barcelona TGV is extremely expensive otherwise
Iād tweak the itinerary a bit : Angers - Barcelona - Sevilla/Granada - Madrid and back via San Sebastian and the Basque country ā itād make a nice loop in my opinion. Unfortunately connections from Bordeaux to Angers are quite bad : there are a few slow IntercitĆ©s to Nantes but no TGVs.
A 5 day pass should be good yes and you can always buy separate tickets for Sevilla - Granada for example. Reservations are available through interrail.eu (2ā¬ fee per person per train so it quickly adds up) or through railway companies whenever possible. Have a look at https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm
SNCF and RENFE removed the option to book directly from their website as too many people misused the tool and travelled without a pass. RENFE doesnāt allow online seat reservations for all their trains eitherā¦ (for no reason) This shouldnāt be an issue for your trip as high-speed trains (AVE) and the morning ALVIA to San Sebastian (if you were to take that route) are all available. The most annoying one is the AVE International from Lyon to Barcelona.
There is no passholder quota so as long as there are regular tickets youāre good. (Eurostar and TGVs from Belgium are the exception). The TGV from Paris to Barcelona is really popular so you should book it well in advance : 35ā¬ per person, the most expensive 2nd class reservation possibleā¦
More concrete advice now :
For the fastest route it would be via Paris as shown above :
- TGV to Paris for free at SNCF ticket counters (or 10-20ā¬ online)
- Interrail not valid on mƩtros or RERs
- 35ā¬ reservation for the direct TGV to Barcelona
It would be possible to save money by taking a TGV as far as Montpellier or Perpignan and then continue on regional trains across the border. Itād take longer though. Feel free to ask for suggestions.
Barcelona - Sevilla : Iād take one of the convenient direct AVEs ā 08:35 - 14:33 or 15:15 - 21:25. 10ā¬
Sevilla - Madrid : plenty of AVEs (10ā¬), less trains from Granada but also possible.
Btw Interrail is only valid on trains run by RENFE, not on Ouigo, Avlo or Iryo.
Madrid - San Sebastian : easy direct train at 08:43 in the morning (6.30ā¬ seat reservation). There are Euskotren services every 30 min to Hendaye (3-4ā¬ ticket, Interrail not valid). Feel free to decide whether you wish to spend a night or two in Spain or France !
Hendaye - Angers : there are a few possible routes, all taking quite some time... Either :
- TGV Hendaye - Bordeaux 07:12 - 09:40 (free)
- IntercitƩs Bordeaux - Nantes 09:51 - 14:05 (free)
- TER Nantes - Angers 14:13 - 15:11
Or a later option with a change in Tours :
- TER Hendaye - Bordeaux 10:06 - 12:42
- TGV Bordeaux - St-Pierre-des-Corps 12:58 - 14:52 (free)
- TER St-Pierre-des-Corps - Tours 15:00 - 15:06 on weekends (on weekdays bus to Tours ?)
- TER Tours - Angers 15:59 - 16:59
There are probably other options too !
Questions welcome. I hope you have a good trip !
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