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Sonar Festival
www.sonar.esSonar Festival takes place between the 19th and 21st June 2008. If you called this event cutting edge, then you'd probably be shunned for trying too hard in your display of coolness. You'll find beautiful people, beautiful weather, and sublime beats. You don't even have to know what avant-garde means to enjoy this festival, because simply by being there you'll be helping to redefine it.
Getting the train to Barcelona is straightforward and fun. There's a few ways to do it, some involving a change in Spain, but we've detailed the most obvious route that involves a night-train ('Trenhotel') direct from Paris.
The coach is cheaper at £75, but they don't run every day so you need to be more flexible. The price includes crossing the channel in a ferry, and is more comfortable that you'd think.
Taking the 'Trenhotel' directly from Paris means that you can travel directly to Barcelona, leaving Paris in the evening, and arriving at Barcelona the next morning fresh-faced and fancy-free.
- Step 1: Depart June 18th at 15.30. Arrive Paris at 18.56
- Step 2: Depart Paris on a night-train at 20.32. Arrive Barcelona at 08.24 on June 19th
- Step 3: 19th-21st June: Sonar Festival!
- Step 4: Depart Barcelona 22nd June at 21.05. Arrvie Paris at 09.00 on 23rd June
- Step 5: Get the 10.13 Eurostar back to London, arriving at 11.28
Once you've arrived in Paris, you need to take the Metro from Paris Nord to Paris Austerlitz. You can of course choose to make your trip to Sonar part of an extended break to France or different parts of Spain, and in this case you should buy an Inter-rail pass rather than a straight point-to-point return ticket.
Buying tickets:
The price of the ticket will depend on whether or not there are special 'Premfares' available, and if the cheapest Eurostar tickets are still available. If there are, you can do the whole trip for less than £160 (£60 for the Eurostar, £49.50 each way for the Paris-Barcelona night train).
- Check availability and book point-to-point tickets (including Eurostar) at Rail Europe
If there aren't cheap point-to-point tickets left, then your best option is to pick a slightly different route and buy a rail-pass. The cheapest way to do it is to get a reclining seat rather than a full couchette on the night-train.
- Check alternative options using the Deutshce Bahn European rail timetable.
- Buy a 5-in-10 day Global rail-pass (you need a global one to get through France) using the button below. It's £125 if you're under 26. This lets you travel for any five days within ten from the start date.
- Once you've bought your rail-pass, contact Rail Europe
to make night-train reservations (these are compulsory and cost around £30 per night train).
- Buy Eurostar tickets. Your Inter-rail pass gets you a discount on Eurostar tickets, and on tickets from any UK station to London St. Pancras.
Things to note
If you choose the Inter-rail pass option, the main factor affecting the overall price of the journey is the Eurostar ticket. It doesn't matter where you buy your ticket, it will be the same price everywhere, but each train has a certain number of cheap tickets and once they're gone, that's it. The cheapest you'll get a return to Paris for is £60 minus the discount that you're eligible for with an Inter-rail pass.
Most night-train reservations are compolsory, but the cost differs, with the most direct trains (i.e. straight from Paris to Barcelona) having the highest fees. To save money, enquire about the possibility of not getting a couchette, and just spending a night in a seat.
If you start your journey without purchasing night-train reservations, you should be able to get them on the way in Paris (or in Madrid on the way back), but there is a small chance that the trains in question will be full. If you choose to spend nights in the cities and take trains in the day instead, then there will be fewer, if any, compulsory reservation fees (though obviously you'll have to pay for accomodation in the cities).
Note that for night-train journeys that begin after 7pm, you only use up one day of your inter-rail pass (as long as you haven't already made a journey using the pass on that day.
The coach is the cheapest option at £78 for a return (at the time of writing) that takes you all the way from London to Barcelona. However, the coaches don't run every day, and so you need to depart from London a few days before the festival starts, and then stay on in Barcelona after it finishes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing of course, but it means that accomodation costs could mount up. You could try a site like Couchsurfing - a great way to get know a city and its people, just make sure you return the favour!.
- Step 1: Depart June 16th at 15.30 from Victoria Coach station in London.
- Step 2: Change at Lyon and arrive Barcelona at 20.15 on June 17th
- Step 3: Spend a few days in Barcelona either side of Sonar Festival (19th-21st June)
- Step 4: Depart Barcelona at 09.00 on June 25th
- Step 5: Change at Lyon again and arrvie back in London at 10.45 on 26th June
Buying tickets:
You can get tickets through Eurolines. The earlier you book, the cheaper it is.