Nerja to London - interrail or not...

[Ian99]

Currently in Nerja where I believe the closest rail station to be Malaga - I see there's a 1 hour coach journey to there.

The 2 of us need to be back in London for Saturday 28th or Sunday 29th.

Looking to spend a few nights in San Sebastian and open to other overnight stops on the way if it works to reduce the cost....

Any thoughts on the best route and dates to take?

The cheapest Eurostar I can see is Lille to London Sat 28 May 18:36 for £60 but the fares across Spain and France seem high so wondering if an interrail pass would be better even if not all the allowed days get used up. But there's also the issue of how to get the necessary reservations when one is already away and without an address to receive post at....

Any thoughts gratefully received...

 

[30907]

1. Interrail can be done on a smartphone - AFAIK that includes reservations. I
It may be slightly cheaper to do them at stations. You will pay at least €10 per reservation in ES/FR.

2. Have a look at Seat61.com for general advice, especially re the Barcelona-France routes which will be quickest.

3. Bear in mind public holidays! Ascension Day for example is 26 May...

4. Renfe doesn't basically do through ticketing (not entirely true but...). On ordinary tickets you would need to book Malaga-Madrid plus Madrid-San Sebastian/Barcelona (IIRC there is one direct Malaga-Barcelona a day).

 

[rvdborgt]

A month ago, we looked into an Interrail tour in that weekend through France and Northern Spain but gave up because many TGVs are simply fully booked, certainly on the 29th. If you find one with free seats, then the reservation will most likely be 20€ within France. The cross-border ones won't have any quota for Interrail left.

 

[Ian99]

1. Interrail can be done on a smartphone - AFAIK that includes reservations. I
It may be slightly cheaper to do them at stations. You will pay at least €10 per reservation in ES/FR.

Thanks for the general input but fyi, the smartphone app doesn't include reservations - or maybe just not in Spain.

 

[rvdborgt]

Thanks for the general input but fyi, the smartphone app doesn't include reservations - or maybe just not in Spain.

The app doesn't do any reservations, it just forwards to some of the websites (including Interrail's own one) where you can do reservations.
Spanish Interrail reservations cannot be done anymore online. RENFE, with their "we decide what customers have to want" attitude apparently made that quite difficult 2 years ago. DB and SBB are the only ones I know of outside of Spain that can issue RENFE domestic reservations. Only on paper. Eurail BV have been talking with RENFE for months now but they still can't sell RENFE reservations online.

 

[30907]

Thanks for the general input but fyi, the smartphone app doesn't include reservations.

No it doesn't, but AFAIK reservations can be done electronically for a fee.

 

[dutchflyer]

You are now in Spain-so making a REServation should not be over difficult-except you have to reach an estacion. Alternative is booking (advance, hopefully at acceptable price) for RENFE can also do via fone and collect whithin 24 hrs after.
Its indeed the case that ´for the continent´ its a long weekend from THU 26 toll SUN 29, and I guess you Brits follow up with an ohter mayday bank?

 

[rvdborgt]

Alternative is booking (advance, hopefully at acceptable price) for RENFE can also do via fone and collect whithin 24 hrs after.

Within 72 hours.

How do I book my reservations?

Certain trains in Europe require an advance reservation. Find out how to make reservations on European trains during your Interrail trip.

www.interrail.eu

You can book your reservations for trains in Spain the following ways:
[...]

• Pre-reserve seats by calling Renfe phone sales: +34 91 232 03 20
  • Pre-reserving a seat is possible up to 24 hours before a train's departure. You will receive a PNR code which you must use to pick up and pay for your reservation at a local station ticket office, making sure to show your Interrail Pass. You must collect your reservation within 72 hours. After this time the pre-reservation will expire.
  • Please note that a pre-reservation is not the same as a reservation. It only holds a seat for you for 72 hours.

 

[30907]

Its indeed the case that ´for the continent´ its a long weekend from THU 26 toll SUN 29, and I guess you Brits follow up with an ohter mayday bank?

Not this year, just to confuse the rest of Europe. Official reason is something to do with the Queen

 

[peteb]

Route-wise you can do Malaga to San Sebastian in a day, using AVE to Madrid then a 7 hour odyssey from Madrid Principe Pio on a slow but scenic MD train, arriving in time for dinner. Easy to do on inter-rail 4 day global pass, just pay the seat reservation supplement on the AVE €10.

From San Sebastian its a short hop to Irun in the morning from where you'll need to taxi it to Hendaye (France), 15 minutes at most. Then you have the rest of the day to get via Bordeaux to Paris and onto London by TGV/EST, last departure is 1312 arr London 2230 on a Friday for example. Quoting €40 supplement but that's assuming there are any tickets left.

I guess due to the holiday Eurostar won't have any inter-rail tickets left that weekend so your later options involve a two day trek across France via the TER network, stopping somewhere interesting like Nimes, Avignon or Lyon overnight and onwards towards the channel. But getting across the channel as a foot passenger might be tricky so if it were me I'd do the last hop on Ryanair and use the travel home option on inter-rail to get from the UK airport back home. A cop out I know but that weekend is simply very busy.

 

[rvdborgt]

Route-wise you can do Malaga to San Sebastian in a day, using AVE to Madrid then a 7 hour odyssey from Madrid Principe Pio on a slow but scenic MD train, arriving in time for dinner. Easy to do on inter-rail 4 day global pass, just pay the seat reservation supplement on the AVE €10.

The MD also has mandatory reservations (€4). By the way, RENFE recently sent timetables again to the European Timetable Centre (up until some time in June), so you can now use DB again for planning in Spain.

From San Sebastian its a short hop to Irun in the morning from where you'll need to taxi it to Hendaye (France), 15 minutes at most.

Euskotren run every 30 minutes to Hendaye. Also from San Sebastian, for very little money.

 

[Ian99]

Thanks to everyone for their comments and advice. I'd missed the bit about getting RENFE reservations reservations on the phone so didn't go for the Interrail in the end - opting instead to book direct with Renfe, SNCF & Eurostar. I don't know if it will have cost more or less (although I will when I finish typing below....)

Malaga to Bilbao - 91 Euro
Bilbao to San Sebastian - might look at the Euskotren but otherwise coach at a cost I guess of 13 Euros
San Sebastain to Hendaye via Euskotren 3 Euro guess
Hendaye to Amiens - 78 Euro
Amiens to Lille the next day 5 Euro
Lille to London 69 Euro
Total 259 Euros...

If I'd have known about the Renfe, phoning up to reserve a reservation, trick, then I'd have saved a bit on my way down with an Interrail. There was one day where I opted to just pay the advertised price of c.25 euro for the great trip that is Madrid to Vigo rather than go the station to see if they had any reservation..


Thanks again everybody.

 

[rvdborgt]

Bilbao to San Sebastian - might look at the Euskotren but otherwise coach at a cost I guess of 13 Euros
San Sebastain to Hendaye via Euskotren 3 Euro guess

Euskotren Bilbao to San Sebastian/Donostia is €6.50. Bilbao to Hendaye (change in San Sebastian) seems to be the same price. San Sebastian - Hendaye is €2.75.
Hendaye is called Hendaia on the Euskotren website. Can't recall what their ticket machines said.

 

[Ian99]

Thanks rvdborgt. Any thoughts on how we find our closest Euskotren station here in Bilbao for our trip to San Sebastian / Donostia? We are in Ribera - which according to

https://www.enterat.com/_images/servicios/euskotrenmapa02.gif

has a Euskotren station but it doesn't appear on the journey planner at

https://www.euskotren.eus/en/tren

It shows a journey from Matiko - Bilbao but that looks to me as though it's on a different line...

 

[skifans]

Thanks rvdborgt. Any thoughts on how we find our closest Euskotren station here in Bilbao for our trip to San Sebastian / Donostia? We are in Ribera - which according to

https://www.enterat.com/_images/servicios/euskotrenmapa02.gif

has a Euskotren station but it doesn't appear on the journey planner at

https://www.euskotren.eus/en/tren

It shows a journey from Matiko - Bilbao but that looks to me as though it's on a different line...

Ribera is a tram stop so shows on https://www.euskotren.eus/en/tranvia/planos rather then as part of their rail lines. If Ribera is nearby then Zazpikaleak (https://goo.gl/maps/wzAq791R3RvDeoBb9) shouldn't be too far away if your able to walk to there. Otherwise there are more specific maps at: https://www.euskotren.eus/en/tren/planos

I think that map you've linked might also be a little out of date? I think https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Mapa_euskotren.svg better reflects the current services.

 

[Ian99]

Ah, yes, that all makes sense. Thanks for your input!