Help with train planning

1) July 6 - Amsterdam to Bruges

You can take IC trains, taking about an hour longer than using the Thalys. If you use the Thalys, railpass reservations are expensive

2) July 8 - Bruges to Pontorson

You will have to got through Paris, so you will have to use the Thalys and TGV, both requiring reservations. Station change in Paris so maybe a taxi or 2 is in order.

3) July 9 - Pontorson to Bayeux

This is a TER train. No reservations needed.

4) July 11 - Bayeux to Freiburg

Assuming Freiburg am Breisgau, Germany. You'll need to take a TGV to either Strasbourg or Basel. Reservations required. Ditto changing stations in Paris.

The rest, no reservations. Where did you get pricing information? I hope not Rail Europe or the RS price map. They only show walk up prices, and since they are in USD, can hardly be accurate.

You do realize that Brugge to Pontorson is 7 1/2 hours with many train changes including that cross-town Paris transfer. Likewise Bayeux to Freiburg is 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 hours with 3 or 4 transfers, one of them another Paris cross-town job.

"Eurail passes weren't that much more expensive..."

You need to make the right comparisons. The Rick Steves time/travel map doesn't offer up all the options for p2p travel. France is above my pay grade. The Man in Seat 61 provides the most valuable one-stop advice on the internet for calculating individual fares. Below are some tips to point you in the right direction And as far as the strike goes... there is probably no way to know what to do at this point - but a car (or cars) really isn't a bad idea. You probably need one anyway for Brittany and Normandy. Pick one up when you arrive, drop it off at the German border.

"...and afford flexibility in case of a missed train."

If you have only 5-6 trains to make, you can do it. You plan on a departure time that works for everyone, you book near the station, and then you just arrive at the station in plenty of time so you don't miss your first train in whatever sequence of trains you are taking that day. If you later miss a subsequent train because Susie wandered off to get ice cream, then you're in trouble. IF YOU MISS A SUBSEQUENT TRAIN in your sequence because your train is LATE, then it's not your fault - and train personnel are there to help you use your existing tickets to get where you are going.

1) https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/amsterdam-to-bruges-by-train.htm

2) https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Bruges.htm

3) Direct regional train, less than 2 hours. https://www.seat61.com/France-trains.htm#French%20train%20schedules%20&%20fares

4) Try trainline.eu or peruse seat61 for instructions. Long trip with lots of changes. I saw fares on your date of about €50-60 per person at www.trainline.eu but I don't have much to offer as concerns French train travel.

5) Try DB (German Railways) where you should find fares of about €20 each.

6) Lucerne to Zurich: Read about Swiss Railways (SBB) Supersaver fares. Normal tickets bought at the station for this route are €26 each. Maybe you can find cheaper but that won't break the bank. You can find prices yourself at the www.sbb.ch site.

Thanks Sam. Yes, we are aware of the durations. I'm not aware of better options given our destinations and timeline.

I was looking at the rail sites for pricing.

Any thoughts on booking now versus waiting re: strike?

Thank you, Russ. I have been looking at seat61, but find it information overload at times. Haha.

How does a Eurail Pass afford more flexibility for you if you miss a train? I have missed exactly 1 train in my 20 years of travel in Europe.

Strikes, I have no clue about I went over this quickly and best price today it is indeed close for the pricing for the first 4 trips with a 2-country pass, with the pass about $200 cheaper. Then the reservation fees kick in and it goes the other way.

You also need seat reservations for the IC train between Bayeux/Caen and Paris, but they are not too much.

"How does a Eurail Pass afford more flexibility for you if you miss a train? I have missed exactly 1 train in my 20 years of travel in Europe."

I was under the impression that if you had a reservation and missed the train no matter the reason, you were out of luck. It appears that's not correct if it's a train delay issue, which makes a lot more sense.

Plus, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that we run late and miss one for a host of reasons. Delays in transferring in Paris is an example. Not likely, but for not much more money, a pass would take the concern completely off the table. It's just something we are considering, no decisions yet.

I do appreciate all the input and advice from everyone.

Rail passes in France: Haven't used one there myself in many years, but my understanding is that even with a rail pass, you must typically reserve your train - and if you miss your reserved train, you can indeed travel later, on a different schedule, if that works for your destination... but you don't just hop on the next one - need to re-reserve the trains you do take. ALSO, reserving isn't quite so simple... SNCF allows only a certain number of reservations for rail pass users on a given train (the others are for purchasers of normal tickets.) The Man in Seat 61 explains:

https://www.seat61.com/France-trains.htm#Railpasses

Strikes: They are extremely disruptive. If the French strikes are anything like the strikes in Germany a few years ago, it could be very messy and unpredictable. They'll put out a strike "schedule" a few days in advance and usually keep it - but then they will sometimes have spontaneous outages as well, announced a nigh or two prior. I had to watch the news every day to figure out what I would do... In Germany, the local and regional trains were impacted to a lesser degree (perhaps striking workers had to use the trains to reach their demonstration sites??) and it was the long-distance high-speed trains that were most severely impacted. If one of my pre-scheduled long-distance trains had been impacted, I probably would have been able to cobble together a trip using local/regional trains, perhaps on a different routing. Hard to say how it might work in France, where the rail system is less extensive.

In Germany, the local and regional trains were impacted to a lesser degree (perhaps striking workers had to use the trains to reach their demonstration sites??)

Wel,l DB and other companies operating local trains do so for a fixed sum per annum, so a strike won't hurt them but the commuters, which would not promote public support for the unions. Very different with long distance trains, which are operated at DB's own risk.

Given the distance you're covering, I think you'll get a good value out of the Eurail Select pass. The 3-country version now allows both adults and youths to choose second class, in which case a pass for 6 travel days in Benelux-France-Switzerland would cost $381 per adult on the group rate and $365 per youth. This would also give you some discounts on lake boats or mountain lifts in Switzerland (without counting as a travel day). Or compare to 4 travel days on the 2-country pass for Benelux-France at $281 per adult and $269 per youth.

Sam has already indicated which legs on your route need reservations, but for further confirmation and detail, the Deutsche Bahn train schedule link at Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online is the best resource. When you expand the schedule results to "View Details," you'd be looking for the phrase, "Subject to compulsory reservation."

Next step would be to only request reservations for those specific portions of the route, which you can do at the same time that you buy the pass. You can also book them later, but some might require delivery rather than print at home or pick up in station options..

Domestic TGV reservations cost $12-27 per person, depending how full the train gets, and this is also the price range to Strasbourg; these trains no longer place artificial limits on pass travelers but they can fill up. Thalys reservations are about $25 in 2nd class and do limit the number of pass holders. Reservations directly from Paris to Basel can be more expensive and limited; see https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/france-rail-passes.

If the strike were to be continued in July following the same pattern that it has been, then July 11 could be a strike day, with some portion of French trains cancelled. A pass would allow you to get on any train still running in any direction (but with no guarantee of seats). The best new schedule might be earlier or later than your original plan.

If buying regular tickets, the reservation is automatically included when required, but you may still need to break down a multi-connection route into parts (e.g., just one or two connections per ticket) to be able to buy them. During a strike, a point-to-point ticket would be good for any train on the planned route.

Hi all,

For the Bayeux to Freiburg leg, none of the sites are showing availability for some of the trains - seems to involve the TGV trains. Are they not available 90 days out?

Thanks!

This site from SNCF (they run the trains) has several available for purchase on July 11 for your group.
https://en.oui.sncf/en/tgv

Are you talking about buying tickets or getting Eurail pass reservations? If for pass reservations, could already have reached quota limits on one of the legs.

Thanks Sam - I hadn't looked there, but even it isn't showing some of the options. In any event, the TGV options, while easier connection-wise are significantly more expensive. Our only hesitation with the cheaper choices is they involve a 55 min connection from Paris St Lazare to Paris de l'Est. How risky is that knowing we have 3 seniors with us?

Also, are there many stairs involved if we used the Metro for the station change?

There really is not a good Metro connection between St Lazare and Est, without changing stations along the way, or taking a fairly long walk from St Lazare to Opera, either above ground or by a rather tortuous underground passageway. Best might be to take a taxi or two. Shouldn't be to much more than 10 EUR per taxi. Metro or city bus at 1.90 EUR pp is going to cost you about 14 EUR anyway, so spend a little more and make it easy on your selves.