Portugal to the South of Spain

When we head to Europe in May, our first destination is Lisbon, Portugal. We'll be there for several days and will then spend some time in the south of Spain - Granada, Ronda (white villages), and Cordoba - before heading to Oviedo where we'll be living for most of the summer. We have places to stay in all these locations, but travel between the places is still in process. Today I'll discuss the transfer from Lisbon to Granada.

From Lisbon to Granada

First, some geography. Lisbon is in Portugal on the coast at the west of continental Europe. Granada is in the south of Spain, pretty much due south of Madrid, and southeast of Lisbon (see the map). So, one might imagine a nice straight shot on a train or a pretty easy flight. Well, not so much. Flying requires ridiculous connections and prices to get to any airport near Granada. Then a car rental is likely needed, maybe a train connection could work, but this would be a really stupid option.


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The other major option is to somehow connect through Madrid, incorporating the use of trains. I've said this before. My bias is to use trains, and the train connections from Madrid to Granada are pretty inexpensive and painless. Based on this, we'll be taking a train from Madrid to Granada. Won't be able to buy those tickets until about 60 days in advance, so that's coming up but is not here yet.

The remaining question, then, is how to get from Lisbon to Madrid. Cheap flights abound. Let's say around $50 on EasyJet. But then add a bunch of $$ for luggage since we'll be carrying three months worth of stuff with us and we're probably looking at a total bill of around $250. The plane is fast. A little over an hour gate to gate plus whatever time it takes to get to and from the airport. Not bad.

The train option is an overnight journey. That could be cool. Or it could be a disaster with the Little Lady along. We're going to find out, because this is the option we're going with. Why? Well, there's my bias toward trains. Then there is the fact that we'll be able to depart around 9 at night, have some food and drinks on the train included with the tickets, bunk down in a sleeper compartment, and arrive in Madrid at around 8 after eating breakfast on the train. Guess how much this is going to cost. $240. Total. All in. In the highest level of service possible (see the video below). And, don't forget that this is really saving us a night in a hotel as well. So, you can see the cost advantage goes to the train here. Plus, it will be an experience.

I understand if you want to get from point A to point B quickly on a plane. But here the train is cheaper. We'd be sleeping somewhere anyway, so why not the train? We don't have to arrive to the train station nearly as early to clear security and all that. Train stations are in the middle of the city so less transfer travel time. We will have to change train stations in Madrid before heading to Granada, but it's a short ride and we'll be able to stow a good amount of luggage before making the transfer. Also, hard to say how the Little Lady will sleep on a train, but, hey, it's part of the adventure.

RENFE is Brutal

Now for the bad. RENFE is the Spanish train company. You can go to their site to learn about the train services they offer, and you can ostensibly buy tickets there as well. When I tried to purchase our Lisbon-Madrid tickets, no dice. Do a search for "RENFE tickets with credit card" and you'll see I'm not the first person to have an issue with this. This is an issue I'm going to return to as I try to make purchases of some of the shorter legs of the trip within Spain (like Madrid-Granada mentioned above), but on this first attempt I had zero luck with this purchase using a variety of cards and calling the issuer ahead of time to let them know. In this case it worked out great because there are several agencies that provide access to RENFE fares (sometimes not the most heavily discounted ones) while working well with non-Spain issued credit cards.

Some of the options: petrabax.com, raileurope.com, and rumbo.es. Typically, you can get somewhat discounted fares on these sites, but not the deepest discounts. And then they charge a commission on top. Many say it's worth the convenience of not having to deal with RENFE. For me, that was the case this time around. I utilized petrabax.com, and I actually got a fare from them that was 40% less than the cheapest fare I could locate on the RENFE site. So that was a win all the way around. Ordered the tickets, paid with my usual card, and they emailed me the tickets the next day. Perfect.