Traveling by train is one of my favorite things about living in Spain. I feel like I must have done it 100 times by now. But on my most recent trip between Alicante and Madrid, I had a brand new experience: Rather than traveling with Renfe, Spain’s national rail operator, I tried a competitor called Ouigo.
Ouigo is a French rail company, and it entered the Spanish market in March 2021. Up until that point, Renfe had a complete monopoly on the high-speed rail market in Spain. So considering that I moved back to the U.S. in 2020, it makes sense that I didn’t have a chance to try Ouigo until recently. In fact, I had never even heard of it — and I’d also never heard of the other new Renfe competitor, Iryo.
So, here’s my Ouigo train review of what it was like to travel round-trip between Madrid and Alicante.
Logistics
I booked my ticket about three weeks before my trip, which was in July, and I was pretty happy with the prices. Round trip, it cost me €39. You can book either using Ouigo’s website or with your favorite travel booking website such as RailEurope. At the time of booking, you can choose to purchase upgrades like seat selection, a flexible ticket, or additional baggage. Each passenger gets a small personal item (like a backpack) and a carry-on.
After completing my purchase, I got an email that contained a PDF, which was my ticket. There was no need to print it out — just having the QR code on your phone is enough.
My train from Alicante departed at 7:53 a.m. and arrived in Madrid on time exactly two and a half hours later at 10:23 a.m. Unfortunately, we had a few delays on the way back to Alicante and arrived about 20 minutes late.
Convenience
When booking your tickets, keep in mind that Ouigo doesn’t have nearly as many trains available as Renfe does. From Alicante to Madrid on a given day, for example, there were three departure times for Ouigo: about 8 a.m., 2 p.m., and about 6 p.m. On the same day, with Renfe, there were 15 different trains/departure times. Which means Ouigo might not be the best choice if you need to travel at very specific times.
As far as the convenience of the trains and stations themselves, I had a pretty good experience because of how easy it was to get from the train station to my destinations in both Alicante and Madrid.
Trains between Madrid and Alicante depart/arrive from Estación de Madrid Chamartín-Clara Campoamor in Madrid, which is the smaller of the city’s two train stations. It’s also a complete mess because of construction right now, but it wasn’t a problem getting to or from the train. (It just takes longer than it used to.)
However, Ouigo also has trains arriving/departing from Estación de Atocha. Both train stations are easily accessible with the Madrid Metro. And Alicante’s train station is walking distance from the old city.
Security
At both Chamartín in Madrid and the Alicante-Terminal train station, there is a small security checkpoint. I believe this is the case for all long-distance trains in Spain. It’s not like going through airport security, as you don’t have to walk through a body scanner or anything. But you do have to put your bags through a scanner, as well as any loose items in your hands or pockets.
It usually goes pretty quick, but be sure to leave enough time for any delays or long lines as you make your way to the train — especially at Atocha which is often much busier.
Experience
Boarding began up to 30 minutes in advance, and I noticed that in both the Alicante train station and in Chamartín in Madrid, the Ouigo train platform was listed on the departures board with plenty of time to spare. Most of the time, when I travel on Renfe, the platform number pops up about 5 minutes before the train’s scheduled departure — which is stressful because train tickets always say the doors are going to close 2 minutes before departure.
Through train trips in other countries, including Germany, the UK, and Thailand, something about the Ouigo trains stood out as I made my way to the platform — they are double decker trains!
I was excited to see that my seats, for both trips, were on the upper level. The two levels are called “Earth” (tierra) and “Sky” (cielo) decks, and seat numbers 1-10 are on the Earth deck while those in 21-35 are on the Sky deck. I guess there are no seats numbered 11-20.
I didn’t get a good look at the lower deck, and maybe those are the premium seats because there are fewer seats? Hard to say. Since I didn’t pay for seat selection, I just had to deal with what I was assigned on the Sky deck.
And what I was assigned: one of two sets of seats that face each other. Renfe trains have just a couple of these in each car, and I hate it when I’m assigned one of these seats because it’s awkward if you’re not traveling with a group of four. I don’t want to stare at a stranger for hours while they also stare right back at me. It turns out that on Ouigo, the chances are much higher you’ll get one of these seats because the majority of the Sky deck was made up of seats in this arrangement.
On the way back home from Madrid, I ended up visiting the snack car — which actually had stools to sit at — and then finding an empty front-facing seat in a different car so I could devour my peanut M&M’s in peace, without being under the watchful gaze of a stranger.
Like the stools in the snack car, there were a few other things about Ouigo that I liked. The bright color scheme and cute branding made the whole experience feel a little bit more cheerful than your typical train trip. I noticed some thoughtful design in the fact that there was a grab handle on the top of the aisle seats so that passengers could hold on to the handles when passing through — instead of grabbing somebody’s headrest. In the hallway between train cars, there were also benches, and on the way to Madrid a mother took her crying baby there, which helped keep the train car quiet.
See the purple grab-handle on the aisle seat?
As I mentioned, we ended up being delayed on the way back to Alicante at the end of the day. We stopped in a tunnel just outside Madrid for more than 10 minutes which made me feel a little bit claustrophobic. Then, we stopped in Cuenca — which may have been to allow the train headed for Valencia to disconnect, though if this was scheduled it seems like it shouldn’t have added to the delay (which it did). And finally, just outside Alicante, we came to another complete stop for a few minutes with no reason given.
Besides the delays and the awkward seat arrangement, there were a couple of other negatives: First, the Wi-Fi didn’t work. It refused to connect at all on the way to Madrid, and on the way back it said it was connected but wouldn’t load anything, which was actually more infuriating. Second, the closest bathroom had no water so I could wash my hands, and the next closest bathroom was out of service all together, and I’m not sure how many train cars I would have had to walk to the next bathroom.
Finally, two outlets had to be shared between a group of four, whereas I believe on Renfe trains every passenger has their own.
Value
I’m sure that sounds like a lot of complaining, but honestly I think it was worth the money. I’m more used to traveling with Renfe so I’m obviously comparing everything to them, but they’re not without their fair share of problems, too. Sometimes their Wi-Fi doesn’t work, sometimes I’m stuck in a stare-off with a stranger across from me, and very frequently their trains don’t run on time… like at all.
Last time I went to and from Madrid in the same day, with Renfe, I paid about €10-15 more than I did for this trip. And our train was stuck on the tracks with no air conditioning for 2+ hours as they loaded another train full of poor unfortunate souls onto ours. So that time, I paid more for a worse experience. (I did get a refund, but I would have rather paid the money and had my train arrive on time.)
Next time I need to travel between Alicante and Madrid, I’ll certainly consider booking with Ouigo again, as long as the departure/arrival times are agreeable to my trip. Though I might pay a couple euros extra to choose my seat.
So, there you have it — my Ouigo train review. Have you ever traveled by train in Spain, or traveled with Ouigo? Let me know in the comments!
-Cathy
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