Public transportation is not my strong suit - I admit it. I need some assistance. II will be traveling at the end of May and want to from Paris to Avignon. I also am considering using the train from Avignon to Marseille. The ticket for the round trip Paris/Avignon is a bit more expensive than the 3 day Eurail but will be additional fees. Is there a clear cut advantage with either one?
Posted by
Florida (previously California)
3990 posts
You will need to pay for a reservation for the train from Paris to Avignon if you have a pass and seats for pass holders are limited. The lowest price tickets for May from Paris and Avignon are pretty much all gone at this point. I picked a random day late in May and the lowest price I see is 72€ going to Avignon though I do see 41€ tickets available from Avignon to Paris. The fare Avignon to Marseille is around 21€ on a TER train. If you buy point to point tickets today, you will spend around 155€ for second class tickets. The 3-day Eurail pass is US$145 so that seems cheaper but the issue will be if there are no seat reservations available for your travel dates for Paris/Avignon trip.....If that happens, and it could because seat reservations for pass holders are limited, you will have to buy a seat or try to find a train with available reservations. I don't know how often that happens but it happened to us once and it was a painful lesson as we sat on almost empty train having had to buy full price tickets because no seats were "available" for pass holders. That was the year that I stopped buying passes.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
If you're willing to commit to dates and times now for the TGV legs, then you can book the seat reservations together with the pass, to be sure that you get them. Try this at https://ricksteves.raileurope.com/us/rail/point_to_point/triprequest.htm and then it will go into the same shopping cart with a pass ordered through our link. FYI, I saw pass holder reservations sold out for some May dates on the Paris-Barcelona route, but that only has two direct trains per day, versus Paris-Avignon has many more departure choices. Between Avignon Centre station and Marseille, there are direct, regional trains every couple of hours that don't require reservations.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
If the trips from Paris to Avignon and Avignon to Marseille are your only planned rail trips, then paying for them individually will be much less expensive than a rail pass, especially given the very high passholder supplements on TGV trains in France. Try and book tickets now, see Seat 61 for which sites to try.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4088 posts
The best source for train info anywhere is www.seat61.com
A previous post gives a fair (and fare) indication of the costs self-booking from Paris to Avignon on the TGV and the local TER price on to Marseille, where the fare is not so variable. This is a good demonstration that in the short term, point-to-point tickets are usually more economical than passes.