Train or Bus?

So many people recommend that you take the train in Spain. 

However, it is not the convenient and cheap "hop-on-hop-off" version that many Americans associate with public transportation in Spain. You must purchase reservations ahead of time, and the regional website (Renfe) will not take american bank cards. Therefore, if I want to buy my tickets in advance, it looks like I will be booking through RailEurope. I don't mind this website, and it seems less confusing than the Renfe site. 

However, I found that it is not always the best option to take the train. I think on my trip to Santiago de Compostela, I will take the bus. This is because it takes about the same amount of time to get there (about an hour difference), and the Alsa ticket will be about 30 Euros, and the RailEurope ticket 50. For the return ticket, it will be even cheaper on Alsa (24 Euros) and more expensive on the train (57 Euros)!

I also considered buying a rail pass for Spain. But since I have my trip pretty much all mapped out, I find it would be more expensive to buy the pass, that limits you to the amount of "travel days" you take (every day that you take a train ride). And its limited to a certain time frame, for instance, within one month. Taking into consideration that I will not even be using the train for some trips, I find it would be really stupid to buy the pass.

All in all, I'm pretty pumped to get my tickets! I just don't know when I should buy them, in case I change my mind for some reason (like what happened with my flight).

~Side Note~

Speaking of my flight... I called the agency to see if I could extend my trip to the 5th (from the 2nd). It will end up costing another $116. I'm not sure if it will be really be worth it? I wanted to extend it to do a trip to Granada, but maybe I can fit that into one of the weekends, or maybe just not go. Granada seems really cool, with the Alhalmbra and all, but that's really the only thing I want to go for. It would save me money to just leave on Monday the 2nd. I will have had plenty of time to explore Toledo over the span of those few last days. Plus, it will get me back home in time to get my head back into the game before I have to start that class with Dr. Rebertus on the 6th (Friday). I don't think that 3 extra days will really give me that much. And plus I don't know if by then I will just want to go home. Maybe I will just be sick of being away from home, and away from Joe. This is going to be a long month for us.