Have you looked for a cheap flight? That might prove to be cheaper, faster and a whole lot less stressful.

Yes, you should reserve your seat if you’re taking a train that allows reservations — some local and regional trains don’t take reservations at all. Most express trains in Spain REQUIRE reservations.

The "7 PM rule" you refer to may not help in this situtation. If you take a train that leaves after 7 PM and arrives after midnight you only count ARRIVAL day on your railpass. If you’ve already used your rail pass on departure day (say to get from Valencia to Barcelona) then you’ve already marked departure day and you’ll have to mark arrival day for the overnight trip.

You might find the Spanish rail site helpful:
http://horarios.renf…

quote:
Have you looked for a cheap flight? That might prove to be cheaper, faster and a whole lot less stressful.

Yes, you should reserve your seat if you’re taking a train that allows reservations — some local and regional trains don’t take reservations at all. Most express trains in Spain REQUIRE reservations.

The "7 PM rule" you refer to may not help in this situtation. If you take a train that leaves after 7 PM and arrives after midnight you only count ARRIVAL day on your railpass. If you’ve already used your rail pass on departure day (say to get from Valencia to Barcelona) then you’ve already marked departure day and you’ll have to mark arrival day for the overnight trip.

You might find the Spanish rail site helpful:
http://horarios.renf…

Is it possible to take a 9-10 pm train from valencia to barcelona, and arrive after midnight, and then take the train to brussels, so it all counts on the same day ?

if not, why cant i find a convenient route from valencia to brussels?! or even valencia – paris and then do paris-brussels?

wahts the best and quickest way to get to brussels and catch our flight

I dont understand :S why is an overnight train from valencia/madrid/barcelona to even the south of france so freaking long?

if we catch a ryanair flight from anywhere in france or belgium or switzerland, its really cheap. yet for some reason it says the train ride from anywhere in spain to anywhere at all in france/switzerland/belgium takes 24 hours ?

quote: Is it possible to take a 9-10 pm train from valencia to barcelona, and arrive after midnight, and then take the train to brussels, so it all counts on the same day ?

This is possible in a theoretical sense but not when applied to your situation. If there was a direct train from Valencia to Barcelona that arrived after midnight it would work. However, the last train leaving Valencia before midnight arrives in Barcelona before midnight (around 11:00 PM).

quote: if not, why cant i find a convenient route from valencia to brussels?! or even valencia – paris and then do paris-brussels?

Most European trains run during the day. There is very little train service between about 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM. The exception is the overnight trains between MAJOR cities. Overnight trains often take longer than the same trip during the day in order to allow you to leave one city at a reasonable, late-evening time and arrive in the other at the beginning of the business day — after 8 hours of sleep. Your problem is that you’re combining a regional trip that is a "day train" with an overnight trip. You’re also starting in a fairly obscure city (so you’re bound to have connections) and going a huge distance.

quote:for some reason it says the train ride from anywhere in spain to anywhere at all in france/switzerland/belgium takes 24 hours ?

Looked at a map? Madrid to Paris is 1400 kilometers plus another 300 to Brussels. Also, the fastest trains are during the day, not at night. Valencia to Paris is 15 hours in the daytime, 20 hours on overnight trains.

Ryan air flys from Valencia to Charleroi airport which is near Brussels.

yeah i guess that all makes sense. we dont actually have to go to brussels, its just i found a really cheap flight into dublin from there, and we need to get to dublin on the 31st.

I think i worked this out though, tell me if this seems right, and if it’s feasible or not.

I found bacelona sants – bunol
dep 21:30 on august 29th
arr 08:54 On august 30th

then bunol back to barcelona sants on same day after tomato fight
dep 14:08
arr 18:39

so this counta as one day of using the pass, doesnt it ? and that way we can catch maybe even all of the tomato fight

then later

barcelona sants – Paris Austerlitz
dep 20:20 august 30th
arr 8:42 august 31st

this will be the second day of using the pass

at which point we have 5 or so hours in paris until we get to paris beauvais airport for our flight into dublin.

does all of this seem like it could work out? or maybe the stations are really far away and we wont be able to make it in such short time spans?
what do you think

its jus that all the flights we found into dublin from spain seem to be about 100 euros + and this flight only costs 36 euros in total, plus we have an extra train day on our pass which we havent used yet.

Oh and this way we also get to take 2 overnight trains so we can sleep on the train and dont have to pay for hostels

quote: I found bacelona sants – bunol
dep 21:30 on august 29th
arr 08:54 On august 30th

then bunol back to barcelona sants on same day after tomato fight
dep 14:08
arr 18:39

so this counta as one day of using the pass, doesnt it ? and that way we can catch maybe even all of the tomato fight

Yes — provided you haven’t already taken a train on the 29th before you board the overnight to Bunol. Also, you’ve lucked out because the connection on the train from Barcelona to Bunol is at 00:49 — after midnight. If the connection was before midnight it would mean two railpass days.

quote: Oh and this way we also get to take 2 overnight trains so we can sleep on the train and dont have to pay for hostels

Yes, but you will have to pay for reservations on these overnight trains. The EN 475 train you’re taking from Barcelona to Paris is an expensive "hotel train." Reservations for reclining seats (cheapest) cost 39 euros. A bunk in a quad compartment is 59 euros.

how do i reserve the train anyway? this site doesnt seem to let me do that =/

what about the following night trains;

R, HOT , IR, EC

is there a reservation fee for them? which trips should we reserve ahead of time

If you look the trains up on the German website it will show whether a reservation is required if you click on the train — there will be verbage describing the train and telling whether a reservation is required.

R are regional trains and you probably can’t make a reservation on a regional train. IR is probably "interregional" and you may be able to reserve a seat but it’s probably not required. Given when you’re traveling I would make a reservation on any train that had reserved seating available. HOT are hotel trains which require either a reservation or a supplement or both. EC are Eurocity trains which usually require a reservation.

I haven’t done a search yet, but I suspect that you could find a cheap flight to Dublin from places such as Girona (near Barcelona), Perpignan, or Carcassonne in France. These are just a few places that’d be relatively close to Barcelona—- start by looking at Ryan Air. Also look at Aer Lingus. I know that they have flights from Toulouse, for example.
I know that some very long rail trips seem like nothing when they’re pipe dreams, but the reality is that they can be exhausting, and steal time from what you’d really like to be doing. So, unless there’s a better reason for going to Brussels than to catch an inexpensive flight to Dublin, look for easier to reach departure cities, even if you have to spend a bit more money. After all, you’ll want to have more memories from your trip than of vry long train rides and time sitting around airports.