My husband and I will be in Paris in June and after a three day stay there we want to go to Bruges by train. I need some help/advice on what website to use to purchase tickets and what would be the best route.
Also-
After Bruges we would like to go to Cochem, then on to Rothenburg then Munich all by train if possible.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I can make all kinds of plans for travel but train travel seems confusing to me :(
Mary
You can look at the train schedules at https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml
You can also buy tickets for Bruges to Cochem to Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Munich on that site as well.
Paris to Bruges can be bought at https://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/tgv
If travel will take place after June 10, you will have to wait a while because the European railways change their schedules at that time. Schedules should start being available in April. Also, you cannot actually buy tickets until 90 days (generally) before your intended travel date.
In the meantime, you can look at the schedules as they are now. They usually don't change a whole lot.
Edit: I am seeing tickets for sale on the Bahn site for late June for Bruges to Cochem.
We travelled from Amsterdam to Bruges and then Bruges to Paris and just bought our tickets as we went with no problem. You can either use a kiosk or there are always English speaking ticket agents who are very helpful. We like the flexibility of not purchasing ahead of time even though it may cost a little more. Another option is to stop by the train station the day before departure and make your purchases at the point figuring our your schedule and logistics at that point.
Looking at day of departure prices, 2 people from Paris to Bruges would run 230 EUR, while buying them 3 months out would be 76 Euro. 154 EUR is not pocket change, at least not for me.
"I can make all kinds of plans for travel but train travel seems confusing to me :("
Start by looking for schedules at the Bahn (German Rail) website http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en, following Rick's tutorial: http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/online-schedules
This site only has prices and booking capability for trains that start or end in Germany. For other routes, you usually want to go to the train website of the country where the train starts (there are exceptions of course). Here's a handy list, from The Man in Seat 61: http://tinyurl.com/bo8x6o6
If you aren't sure if advance purchase tickets will save you money, a quick way to find out is to price tickets for tomorrow and tickets for 2-3 months out. You can then see if there's a difference and how much it will be, and then decide accordingly.
Note that for some routes, there are different options with different price structures. For instance, from Amsterdam to Brussels, you can take local trains (prices don't go up, but it takes longer) or Thalys trains (faster, but prices skyrocket closer to travel, or if you can't work with non-refundable tickets). However, if you buy a Thalys on that route when it goes on sale (so you can snag the lowest price), it's actually cheaper than the local trains.
The Man In Seat 61 has all kinds of detailed train information; if you ever have questions about a specific route, he's a great place to start.
I'd use Thalys 3 mos out. You take the fast train to Brussels and connect to the local train to Bruges there and it is quite cheap bought early.
thanks SO much for the ideas and advice !
