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Advance Booking Valladolid to San Sebastian

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Bikenbeer

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20 Oct 2023
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6
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Portsmouth
From reading the Man at Seat 61 website, it is apparent that Spanish Railways are notorious for late uploading of train times.
I am trying to book from Valladolid to San Sebastian on Friday 14th August and it seems that there is a large gap between departures at 0801 and 1517. The timetable up until Friday 24th July shows an additional departure at 1150, which would be the most convenient for me, but this departure disappears the following week.

My question is: How long do I wait hoping for a timetable update before concluding that this train really doesn't exist?
 
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Peterthegreat

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The 11.50 is a regional train and they do not have the same booking characteristics as the other two.
I suspect it's yet to go on sale.
 
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nwales58

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Pedantically, it’s Media Distancia (were it Regional it wouldn’t need booking ahead). However, the 1517 is also MD and is on sale so it’s quite possible the 1150 will not run in August.

You can do it on Alsa around the same times, 1130 change at Burgos arrive San Seb 1700.
 
B

Bikenbeer

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Portsmouth
nwales58 said:
Pedantically, it’s Media Distancia (were it Regional it wouldn’t need booking ahead). However, the 1517 is also MD and is on sale so it’s quite possible the 1150 will not run in August.

You can do it on Alsa around the same times, 1130 change at Burgos arrive San Seb 1700.
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Thanks for the bus suggestion. I might have to do that. I will be on an Interrail pass so having to buy a bus ticket will be slightly annoying.

It still surprises me that there should be such a large gap in services (0801 to 1517) across the middle of the day.
 
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AdamWW

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6 Nov 2012
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Bikenbeer said:
Thanks for the bus suggestion. I might have to do that. I will be on an Interrail pass so having to buy a bus ticket will be slightly annoying.

It still surprises me that there should be such a large gap in services (0801 to 1517) across the middle of the day.
Click to expand...

It's Spain...
 
S

Sir Felix Pole

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Wilmslow
Bikenbeer said:
Thanks for the bus suggestion. I might have to do that. I will be on an Interrail pass so having to buy a bus ticket will be slightly annoying.

It still surprises me that there should be such a large gap in services (0801 to 1517) across the middle of the day.
Click to expand...
I suspect the 1150 has been cancelled for daytime engineering works - it is not shown starting back from Madrid Principe Pio either. There is a lot of stuff going on around Venta de Baños.

Bahn.de is giving me a rather convoluted route via Palencia (which is fine with Interrail):-

Valladolid 1228 Palencia 1248 / 1419 Vitoria 1621 / 1645 San Seb. 1850.

Vitoria to San Seb. looks to be a bus.
 
B

Bikenbeer

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At last! The 1150 exists after all!

The missing train has finally been uploaded to the Valladolid - San Sebastian timetable for the period commencing Monday 27th July. It's only a week to go so RENFE aren't exactly falling over themselves in their haste. I have now been able to make my booking for 14th August.

So anyone else lumbered with an apparently incomplete timetable for Spanish trains - don't give up.

Whilst pleased to have resolved the problem, I have wasted a number of hours looking at other travel options and considering alternative hotel bookings because of potential disruption to my itinerary. This sluggishness on their part is not without its consequences.
 
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valedave

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Fellow eclipse chaser? :)

After researching services in northern/north-central Spain we abandoned all plans due to lack of certainty on what services would be running and when, and just hired a car from San Sebastian (rather than Valladolid as I originally had hoped to do). Prices also didn't exactly help. Children added to booking were also charged at full price at the order summary stage, although I do gather the children's discount/half-fare is applied at the checkout.
 
D

danshrimp

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Last time I booked a trip across Spain (Barcelona-Lisbon, not for the faint-hearted) I ended up privately messaging Renfe on Twitter/X and asked them why some of the journeys I expected weren't listed. They gave me some kind of explanation about needing approval from the infrastructure manager before they could confirm the timetable, but told me they expected my train to run and that it would listed in the coming days. And it did indeed appear a few days later. So it can be worth asking - the reassurance helped!
 
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WolvertonWorks

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Milton Keynes
valedave said:
Fellow eclipse chaser? :)

After researching services in northern/north-central Spain we abandoned all plans due to lack of certainty on what services would be running and when, and just hired a car from San Sebastian (rather than Valladolid as I originally had hoped to do). Prices also didn't exactly help. Children added to booking were also charged at full price at the order summary stage, although I do gather the children's discount/half-fare is applied at the checkout.
Click to expand...

We did a trip round Spain by train last year to try and find a good location to watch the eclipse (will be our 5th) and found somewhere we thought would be OK in Leon. This was in late May/early June 2025. So as soon as we got home I tried to book accommodation in Leon for 10th-13th August 2026 and ended up with a booking in student accommodation (as the Uni is closed in August) as everywhere was already fully booked. First lesson learnt - book very early for an eclipse!

I then started worrying about trains - we would have included some other cities in Spain in our train trip this year. The centre of Spain gets very hot in August so there would be less people around and so I wondered if RENFE had thought about how many eclipse chasers were going to want to use the train - probably a lot more people than use the trains this time of year normally.

Then we saw an Eclipse cruise advertised where the ship should be off of Iceland and Greenland at the appropriate time. Although I have no desire to cruise we decided to go for it.

Then there have been problems with the railways in Spain this year as well so I am glad I am not now fretting about whether our train to Leon will run.

But there is another eclipse early August next year visible from the Gibraltar area and I'm still toying with the idea of trying to get to Spain by train to see it! (and do the other cities we were planning on visiting this year as part of the trip). Am I mad to even think of it 8-)
 
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Bikenbeer

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Location
Portsmouth
valedave said:
Fellow eclipse chaser? :)

After researching services in northern/north-central Spain we abandoned all plans due to lack of certainty on what services would be running and when, and just hired a car from San Sebastian (rather than Valladolid as I originally had hoped to do). Prices also didn't exactly help. Children added to booking were also charged at full price at the order summary stage, although I do gather the children's discount/half-fare is applied at the checkout.
Click to expand...
Yes, I am an eclipse chaser.

I am using a flexi Interrail pass (4 days from 30). 2 days outward, 2 days back.
London - Paris - Dax (hotels are cheaper here than by the seaside), then Dax - Valladolid.
Return is the reverse of outward.

France and Spain are supposedly the two least Interrail friendly countries. Reservation fees add about £100 to the £235 basic cost of the ticket.

I am completely unfamiliar with the railways of Spain and assumed that the trains from the north coast might not be quite so infrequent.
 
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37201xoIM

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Joined
29 Apr 2016
Messages
371
I am a (non-flying) moose chaser and am having exactly the same nonsense trying to plan my journeys outward from Santander to Valladolid, and back from Guilarei to Irun / Hendaye. This happens every year; RENFE just don't give a proverbial, and northern Spain is particularly notorious.
I've heard tell that they are rather better at getting the timetables sorted out on routes where there is competition, e.g. Madrid to Barcelona!
 
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P Binnersley

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Joined
30 Dec 2018
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525
I've been looking to make a similar trip. Bus replacement from Andoain to San Sebation (16km).

The train has a note (Trip with incident).
"Due to infrastructure work, passengers traveling to/from Palencia will travel between Palencia and Venta de Baños by road. Pets and bicycles are not allowed on the road journey. Due to infrastructure work, the journey between Andoain and Irún will also be by road. There is no stop in Hernani."

Por obras en la infraestructura, viajeros con origen/destino Palencia realizan el trayecto entre Palencia y Venta de Baños por carretera. No se admiten mascotas y bicicletas en el trayecto por carretera.

Por obras en la infraestructura, el trayecto entre Andoain e Irún se realizará por carretera. No efectúa parada en Hernani. No se admiten mascotas y bicicletas en el trayecto por carretera.
Click to expand...
 
V

valedave

Member
Joined
12 Nov 2010
Messages
64
Location
Germany
Bikenbeer said:
Yes, I am an eclipse chaser.

I am using a flexi Interrail pass (4 days from 30). 2 days outward, 2 days back.
London - Paris - Dax (hotels are cheaper here than by the seaside), then Dax - Valladolid.
Return is the reverse of outward.

France and Spain are supposedly the two least Interrail friendly countries. Reservation fees add about £100 to the £235 basic cost of the ticket.

I am completely unfamiliar with the railways of Spain and assumed that the trains from the north coast might not be quite so infrequent.
Click to expand...
Nice. We are coming from Thuringia, Germany via Paris, then Paris-Bayonne on the sleeper, over the border to Donostia and car from there. We are there for almost two weeks though so proper summer holiday. Back via Toulouse, also on the sleeper

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

WolvertonWorks said:
We did a trip round Spain by train last year to try and find a good location to watch the eclipse (will be our 5th) and found somewhere we thought would be OK in Leon. This was in late May/early June 2025. So as soon as we got home I tried to book accommodation in Leon for 10th-13th August 2026 and ended up with a booking in student accommodation (as the Uni is closed in August) as everywhere was already fully booked. First lesson learnt - book very early for an eclipse!

I then started worrying about trains - we would have included some other cities in Spain in our train trip this year. The centre of Spain gets very hot in August so there would be less people around and so I wondered if RENFE had thought about how many eclipse chasers were going to want to use the train - probably a lot more people than use the trains this time of year normally.

Then we saw an Eclipse cruise advertised where the ship should be off of Iceland and Greenland at the appropriate time. Although I have no desire to cruise we decided to go for it.

Then there have been problems with the railways in Spain this year as well so I am glad I am not now fretting about whether our train to Leon will run.

But there is another eclipse early August next year visible from the Gibraltar area and I'm still toying with the idea of trying to get to Spain by train to see it! (and do the other cities we were planning on visiting this year as part of the trip). Am I mad to even think of it 8-)
Click to expand...
Leon is a good choice, as the Spanish astronomical society selected it as the official viewing city for this year. I thought that accommodation would get scarce, so we booked our villa in the path of totality in August 2024!
 
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