As a country to Interrail in, Spain is a pain to go to. I took one for the team and did a trip to Pineda de Mar (roughly halfway between Girona and Barcelona), fully by train. In 2023 I did a similar trip but without Interrail, and I flew back that time.
2023
I will start with my (one way) trip last year booked with separate tickets. Below is the route plus prices per route, and here my trip can be seen on Trainlog.
| Trip | Price | Where did I buy? | Class of travel? |
| Zwolle – Schiphol Airport | €13.68 (€22.80 without discount) | With OV Chipkaart (With student travel) | Second class |
| Schiphol Airport – Paris Gare du Nord | €47 | SNCF-Connect, as a through ticket to Latour de Carol | Standard |
| Paris Austerlitz – Latour-de-Carol – Enveitg | €37 | SNCF-Connect, as a through ticket from Schiphol Airport | Second class berth |
| Latour-de-Carol – Enveitg – Barcelona Sants | €12 | With the conductor in the train | Second class (first class not available on this train) |
| Barcelona Sants – Pineda de Mar | €0 (€10 before deposit refund) | Booked via the Renfe Cercanias app and picked up from a ticket machine. Deposit was refunded because I travelled more than 16 times on it. Valid for all regional trains within zone 1-6 of Barcelona’s suburban rail network for 4 calendar months. | Second class (first class not available on this train) |
| Total | €109.68 |
The tickets from Schiphol to Latour were booked in advance via SNCF-Connect. The tickets from Zwolle to Schiphol and from Latour to Barcelona were paid for in the train for the Spanish section or at the check in/check out poles for the Dutch section.
The first bit was a “boring” double deck train from NS (the Dutch national railway operator) to Schiphol, where I had 40 minutes which I used to stock up on some snacks. The Albert Heijn is quite decently priced for being at an airport, much cheaper than an Albert Heijn to go, and accepts Visa and MasterCard. After this I went to the correct platform to catch my (then Thalys, now rebranded to Eurostar) train to Paris. In Paris I had dinner and then went to the correct train station where I did some exploring in the neighborhood.
I got a message from the SNCF-Connect app that my train was ready for boarding at platform 20 at Paris Austerlitz. After this I boarded and made my bed and unpacked the amenity kit. Not long after this it was time to go to sleep, which i did just after Orleans.
Waking up with the views of the Pyrenees is definitely an experience, and I was very glad I chose the train to travel to Spain. I woke up shortly around Toulouse while we were being shunted at around 5am. My (6 person) couchette was fully booked and I had the bottom bunk bed.
After having breakfast in a nearby cafe (note that they only accept cash for smaller payments!) it was time for the train to Barcelona. This was a regional train operated by Renfe. Some of the views were quite nice, but I spent most of my time chatting with some people sharing my compartment and also heading for Barcelona.
After the train it was a quick peek around Barcelona Sants, meeting up with my family who flew to Barcelona, collecting the train tickets and heading for the hotel in Pineda de Mar!
2024
For 2024, I have a continuous first class Interrail pass bought during the Black Friday sale that I had to activate by 1 June. This is what I am using to travel for this trip. Now, as this is France and Spain I also required some reservations. For most of these reservations I made them in advance at Raileurope (by using this link you will help support the wiki as we will get a small percentage of your booking price when booked via this link, at no extra cost to you) for the French part. I did not take the cheapest or most efficient route as I wanted to try something I have not experienced last year. The Trainlog link is available here.
| Trip | Price | Where did I buy? | Class of travel? |
| Interrail | €677 | Interrail, 3 months continuous pass | First |
| Zwolle – Schiphol Airport | €0 (€22.80 without discount) | With OV Chipkaart (With student travel) | Second class |
| Schiphol Airport – Paris Gare du Nord | €37 | Raileurope (by using this link you will help support the wiki as we will get a small percentage of your booking price when booked via this link, at no extra cost to you), booked with first class Interrail | Comfort |
| Paris Austerlitz – Toulouse-Matabiau | €20 (€80 for a solo cabin) | Raileurope (by using this link you will help support the wiki as we will get a small percentage of your booking price when booked via this link, at no extra cost to you), booked with first class Interrail | First class berth |
| Toulouse-Matbiau – Narbonne | €10 | Raileurope (by using this link you will help support the wiki as we will get a small percentage of your booking price when booked via this link, at no extra cost to you), booked with first class Interrail Note: there are reservation free trains on this route (TER) but I wanted to try the Corail IC coaches before they disappear | First class |
| Narbonne – Girona | €13.70 | Booked via a friend that visited Spain a while ago. They went to a ticket office with my passport/id card number, my Interrail pass and my money 🙂 It is also possible to book this with Raileurope (by using this link you will help support the wiki as we will get a small percentage of your booking price when booked via this link, at no extra cost to you), but only for the SNCF TGV’s, which are much more expensive than the AVE International from Renfe | First class |
| Girona – Maçanet Massanes | €0 | With Interrail | Second class (no first class available) |
| Maçanet Massanes – Pineda de Mar | €0 | With Interrail | Second class (no first class available) |
| Total one way | €140.70 | €817.70 with the pass |
So, arriving into Paris was fairly easy. Just get the Thalys from Schiphol to Paris, and arrive. Personally I like the ICE seats more, especially in first class. There is a bar on this Thalys, but because of the price and the fact that I used it before I did not use this. After arriving into Paris it was fairly easy to just walk to the metro station and tap in with my Navigo. As of a couple of weeks you can now have your Navigo in your Apple wallet as well! Saves much time finding the right ticket machine that sells a Navigo pass.
After making my way from Gare du Nord to Gare d’Austerlitz via metro line 5 I had some small snack at McDo opposite the station after i made my way through the maze that is Austerlitz at the moment due to all the engineering works happening there.
After the quick snack I got to the station proper where my train just had its platform announced. After the ticket check on the platform it was time to board, and I indeed had the compartment just for me, like I booked. Amazing! The window was openable so while it was stiill safe to do so I quickly snapped the picture below. As it was already getting late and I had an early start tomorrow I went to sleep almost instantly and slept throughout the night.
I did wake up just before Bordeaux, but slept again almost straight after. I set my alarm at 6am to have time to go to the toilet and change clothes. After arrival I went to the showers in the station building of Toulouse (in Hall 1), where with a first class ticket you can shower for free, and get towels. As i had a little over 2 hours I took my time and around 7:45am I was fully ready to tackle the day.
Only to find out my train was 10 minutes late… In the end did I manage to schedule 30 minutes of change time in Narbonne, but this is eating into that time. The route between Toulouse and Narbonne is quite nice, even though there is a bright sun here, something I haven’t seen the past couple of days ;). The seats are very large, with a very large tray table and a power plug. The trolley comes by every now and then and serves the worst coffee I’ve ever had the displeasure of taking, but otherwise it was a decent ride.
Arriving into Girona I spent the day with my family exploring, it really is a nice city! Definitely recommend to come here. The high speed services to and from this station depart from a deep basement, whereas the local trains (Rodalies) and the Media Distance trains departed from a viaduct next door. The departure board inside the high speed building showed both departures, in the local train station it showed only the local services.
After this it was just a Rodalies train to Pineda de Mar, on weekdays direct, on weekends with a change via Maçanet-Massanes, which shouldn’t be that much of a hassle right? Right??
On the way back I first brought my sister to Girona so she can go to the airport :(. This, thanks to our amazing trust into R1, which when we used it was standard 10-15 minutes late and amazing schedules requiring a 7 minute connection or a 1 hour 7 minute connection means we spent an hour in Maçanet-Massanes. Especially on a Sunday there isn’t a whole lot to do around here…
After this I went back, packed the last couple of pieces and went up to Maçanet-Massanes again, to go to Cerbère. Because of frequent delays I assumed I had 44 minutes in Maçanet-Massanes, but this ended up making an earlier train towards Girona and Portbou, which is good as I was trying to get a seat reservation for a friend that you can only get inside Spain, which didn’t work at the Rodalies ticket office at Pineda de Mar.
After I got the ticket I went on this regional train all the way from Girona to Cerbère, where I then waited for 40 minutes outside my train as there is nothing even slightly close to the station.
After these 40 minutes the doors opened and I was able to get to my compartment. As I have solo occupancy again, I have decided to make the bed that in case of sudden brakes would dump me into the wall, and not the floor ;).
Not too long after I walked to the attendant to buy some snacks I fell asleep as it has been a long day for me. I slept wonderful and didn’t wake up once during the night! In the morning I woke up around 6:30am and started to get ready to go. In the end we got into Paris 2 minutes late, so basically on time!
After that it was time for a shower, which was very busy so I had to wait quite some time. In the end I got my turn and still had time to spare for the Thalys Eurostar Red, so I went and grabbed some breakfast at Gare du Nord and headed to the Eurostar lounge which my status (Advantage) gives me access to.
Annoyingly this lounge is outside the station building so I didn’t have long. When I saw my train was boarding I headed back towards the station, but not without making a picture of the water point for @Koploper77’s thread about free tap water points around the world and the impressive front of Paris Gare du Nord.
After this it was just, change at Schiphol to take the NS IC back home. I had a really fun weekend and hope to do this again some time! Thank you all for reading this long blogpost about my trip(s) to Spain!
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