Public Transportation in Spain
The trains in Spain are a marvel. They are generally clean, new, well-maintained and on time to the minute. They don’t go everywhere and perhaps are not as extensive as trains in Britain. But they do go to, and stop at, all of the major cities and tourist areas. RENFE is probably the cheapest and best line. Watch out for regional players like TALGO, who will try to soak you for nearly twice the amount for the same distance with the dreaded “tourist rate”.
Bus travel in Spain is cheap, fast and clean and goes pretty much everywhere. The main problem with public transportation in Spain is finding the bus station in town and then figuring out the times of departure and the itinerary that you need to get where you want to go. This is especially true for local bus systems if you want to go outside of a town or city and explore the area beyond the usual tourist haunts. It’s good to know Spanish, Portuguese in Portugal or Catalan in Catalonia so that you can ask for directions. Don’t rely on the kindness of strangers and expect many people to know English, though some will know French up north near the border and people in Catalonia usually also know Spanish (called “Castilian” in Spain).
For local busses, check signs along the street for information. You may have to wait until you get on to find out how much it costs, though it’s usually not much more than a euro or two. And, of course, there are always taxies in town.
Regional busses usually go from a central station, though city, local and regional bus lines all go from a main bus station in Barcelona in the northwest section of the city. Regional busses are not always on time, depending on the distance they travel, traffic and the number of stops on the route. But local busses are usually quite punctual.
The metro systems only exist in the big cities. Expect only aboveground transport in regional cities like Zaragoza, Huesca, Girona or Tarragona. The metro in Barcelona is similar in design to the London Underground and the Paris M�©tro, with lines going in all directions of the city. You can buy single tickets, multipasses and also passes for the day, week or longer. Price depends on how many tickets you buy at once and for how many zones in the city you buy. You can also catch the train inside the metro station at certain points in the city, as in Paris.
There’s also air travel. The major airlines go to larger cities like Barcelona and Madrid, but you can also get the cheap airlines like easyJet and Ryanair. Ryanair, in particular, is a good deal, with frequent specials, sometimes as low as 1 euro cent plus airport fees (about Ã?£10) for large destinations like Paris and Girona. The airline keeps its prices down by flying to smaller airports up to fifty or sixty kilometers away from its destination city. But the airline provides a bus into town included in the price of a ticket. The Girona flight provides two busses-one into
Girona and one down to Barcelona.
Spain is one of those places that are cheapest and best visited off-season. Summers are very hot and dry and prices are high. Try going before May 31 or after September 15. Late August and early September can be a bad time to travel in Catalonia if you don’t like festivals as they have a lot. The most famous is Diada (September 11), which commemorates the Siege of Barcelona on September 11, 1714 when Catalan independence ended permanently (so far). Over 4,000 Barcelonans were killed by invading Castilian troops in house-to-house fighting during a single day.
Also avoid going during Easter week, Christmas week and New Year’s as these will be expensive times. Keep in mind that it rains most of the winter in Spain and many tourist attractions are closed, particularly in the late fall. April and May are probably the best months to visit, since it is still cool, relatively sunny and quiet. Always a plus!
