New Europe travelers looking for advice on how best to navigate making reservations with a select rail pass for an itinerary that includes Munich/Paris/Prague. We are arriving in Munich and competing in the IM in Regensburg on the 7th of Aug, then need to be in Paris for our VRBO reservation by Aug 9th, wanted to take a day in Regensburg to relax after the race before trying to travel. After our one week stay in Paris we are moving on to Prague. We obviously do not have a lot of flexibility in our itinerary as we have made some reservations, have a race etc. I'm also completely confused as to whether I should be paying reservation fees (and would rather save the $ for other stuff) since we are traveling in the high season. I did a search without ICE and high speed connections and notice that I can find more options, is this the best way to go? We are traveling with a fidgety four year old and I do not know how well a 2nd class night train will work for her...
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19109 posts
As long as they are not reservations for night trains, you should be able to make them when you get to Europe. On the other hand, night trains are a case where you need reservations in advance. You might even consider a night train just to know you have a reservation. You can book night train reservations (for example 3 persons in an economy 3 berth cabin for €135 pass holder fee) online from the German Rail website, all the way to Paris or back. When you get the table of fares for the night train, chose "Book only extra charge" for the pass holder reservation fees. And yes, RailEurope charges more for everything.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19109 posts
Too bad you couldn't have planned the trip as Prague to Munich (Bavaria) to Paris (or Bavaria to Prague to Paris) and avoided all of the backtracking in the current schedule. As far as trains in Germany, if you have a railpass, it costs no more to ride ICEs than ICs. Reservations cost the same (€5,50 in 1st class). ICs usually take longer for the same trip than ICEs. Look up the schedule on the German Rail website, first with "All" checked for "Means of transport". That should show you the best connections, including ICs and ECs if they are good connections. Then if you want more options, try "without ICE", but this choice is usually used by people buying full fare tickets and wanting to save money by not taking ICEs. Travel in Bavaria is short. I don't think you need reservations for that. I would, however reserve the longer trains (to/from Paris, if you go by day. Night trains have mandatory reservations.) I don't think you can reserve the trains in France from the Bahn website. You might get reservations to Karlsruhe (or the last stop in Germany, depending on the train) online. If you can't get reservations online from French Rail, you can get them in Munich. The fastest way to Prague is probably the Bahn bus from Nuernberg. It has mandatory reservations. They come with the passholder surcharge (2nd cl €10, 1st cl €15). There are also 4 direct regional trains via Furth im Wald. Regional trains do not require or have reservations.
Posted by
OP
Coeur d Alene, Idaho, United States
2 posts
Thanks so much! From what you are saying it sounds like we will be able to make the reservations when we arrive in Europe, even though it is during the 'high season'. Biggest concern I have is that we will be stuck without a way to get to our next accommodation reservation (some of which we've already paid for). From reading around on this forum I think I know the answer to this question (should still be able to make the reservation for the 9th on the 4th), but just being extra careful since we are already bungling travelers, want to eliminate as many catastrophes as we can :) Finally, the only place I can find to reserve the Paris terminating french TGV or ICE trains is on RailEurope.com, and they are charging way more than 5 euro for these reservations.
Posted by
Stuttgart, Germany
3049 posts
Please keep in mind if you want to take a TGV train a reservation is mandatory. No need to pay the ridiculous Rail Europe prices, though. Just go to any customer center at a train station (even if you're in Germany - they can make you seat reservations for France as well) and have them book your seat reservations.