I've already purchased a Eurostar Pass for the Chunnel from London & France, but I'm now wondering if I should get a pass because I'll be doing Venice, Florence, Rome. Is there something that would have combined the two?
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
7543 posts
Simple answer is "No", or not at least economically. The Eurostar would still require a hefty fee with the pass and hops between Italian cities are much less than a railpass day. Good to buy the Eurostar well ahead, the Italian tickets can wait until you get there.
Posted by
OP
Toronto, ON, Canada
30 posts
Thank you, I've already purchased the Eurorail pass from London to France, and I'll wait till I'm in Italy to purchased the rail pass from point to point.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
For the travel you mentioned above, you don't need a railpass in Italy. P2P will be cheaper. You can easily buy the tickets 1-2 days in advance once you get there. By the way, if you do have a Eurail pass for Italy, the seat reservation fee on the Eurostar is 15Euro. The P2P ticket (36Euro Rome/Florence and 32.30Euro for Florence/Venice) will include the seat reservation fee. So why pay a large fee for a railpass and then pay almost half the train fare on a seat reservation.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19092 posts
It would be good to clarify that there are two "EuroStars".
The train that goes through the Chunnel is call EuroStar. I'm sure what Kathy means here is that she's already purchased a Eurostar ticket, not a Eurostar pass.
Some express trains in Italy are also called EuroStar, Italian EuroStar. Those are the trains that require a large "Passholder supplement" or reservation fee, which can often be a significant portion of the price of a ticket without a pass.
Posted by
OP
Toronto, ON, Canada
30 posts
Yes, that's right I have a Eurostar ticket for the Chunnel England to Paris.
So, if I understand correctly, it's cheaper to travel P2P. I will be going to Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence,& Rome in this order. Does anybody know how long the travel time would be from place to place? I'd like to reserve a couchette if the train time is long.
I'm also going from Rome to Malta. Should I take a train or ferry?
Thanks all for your advice!
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
You didn't say how you plan to get from Paris to Venice. There is a direct Paris-Venice night train and you'll want at least a bunk in a six-person couchette, but I'd recommend spending a little more for the extra space and comfort afforded by a four-person couchette. The standard fare for a bunk in a six-person couchette is €100. However, if you book as far in advance as possible (up to three months allowed) at www.voyages-sncf.com, you can get Prem's fares of €35 for a bunk in a six-person couchette or €55 for a bunk in a four-person couchette.
If you don't read French, here's how to get to a booking page in English on the SNCF site. Click on the "Train" tab (between the "Accueil" and "Hotel" tabs) at the top of the page. On the new page go to the very top of the screen and find the browser field. Click anywhere in the long URL in that field. Find LANG=FR and change it to LANG=UK. Do not change anything else. Hit the Enter key and you'll be taken to a booking page in English.
The best site for train timetables for nearly all of Europe is www.bahn.de. Click on the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner for English. After you get summary timetables for a route, click on "Details for all" to see the connecting points, if any.
For information on how to get to Malta, go here.