I have been trying to find a site that allows me to book one way train travel from Rome to Frankfurt. All the sites I found are country specific and I have had no luck finding a link that permits me to book the entire stretch. Any help is much appreciated.
Dagmar from California
Have you considered flying from Rome Airport (FCO) on Alitalia or Lufthansa?
It's almost 800 miles from Rome to Frankfurt, and that's a long, long train ride.
There is not a single train linking Rome and Frankfurt; the easiest way would be taking the single night train between Rome and Munich and changing in Munich for Frankfurt. This ticket, maybe, can be bought from bahn.hafas.de - all other options are a maze of connections between different national railway systems.
In any case it is a very long trip and probably flying would be better. Railways are competitive with flying on short and middle distances, but this is definitely a long range trip.
dagmar,
As the others mentioned, that's going to be a long trip by train. It would be an easy trip if one or two intermediate stops were added, perhaps a night or two in Verona and a night or two in Munich. However, to do it as a single trip is going to be an ordeal. The shortest trip I could find was 10H:53M, with three changes (depart 09:00, arrive 19:53).
You can see all the choices on the bahn.de website.
All national railway web sites do only sell tickets that start or end in their country, not connections within a neighbor country. If you start with the Rome-Munich overnight train, then yes, Deutsche Bahn does sell that ticket, as well as the onward Munich-Frankfurt connection. How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it. To see flights, which will probably be cheaper, try www.skyscanner.com.
If you do want to take the train and book it in advance, first look at the Bahn site and see which separate trains you are taking. Then you can book each one on its website. Here's The Man In Seat 61's guide to where to buy each train, based on where it starts or ends: http://tinyurl.com/bo8x6o6
After reading all of the valuable replies I have received, and considering the complexities of getting train tickets valid in 3 countries, I am now considering a train ride to Florence, an overnight there, and then fly to Frankfurt. - I am also sincerely thankful for all of the feedback I have been able to find on this site and also from fellow travelers which helps me make the best decisions for a fun and memorable trip to Europe.
We were going to take that same train ride but after speaking to a few other travelers on previous train rides they all said to grab a flight. So I got online was able to get a flight on Vueling Air that was the same price as the train ticket. They flight was a little over an hour and was super easy.
For trains in Europe see www.seat61.com
