Train Reservations HELP HELP HELP

Posted by Katelyn (Wisconsin) on 05/17/15 10:21 PM

Hello,

So we leave for Spain/Italy in a week and have just found out that we're to late reserve train tickets to use our Eurail pass and get the printed tickets before we leave (we unaware that they needed to be sent to us via mail...)

How should we proceed??? Is it feasible to reserve them in country? I believe we can book our Italy trains online, but the trenitalia website is very confusing on how to do that.

I know we are doing this last minute, but we though with the pass we had more freedom for it to be flexible, please help us save our trip!

Posted by Ken

Vernon, Canada

05/17/15 10:33 PM

32198 posts

Katelyn,

Don't panic! It's very easy to buy reservations at local stations, either at a staffed ticket office or at a Kiosk. I'm more familiar with Italy, but in the same situation I'd simply go to the station a day or two prior to travel and buy the reservations then. Have a look at the "Railpasses for Italy" section on this website.....

http://seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm#Railpasses_for_Italy

If any rail segments are on Regionale trains, your Railpass will cover those (no reservations possible). I'm assuming the situation will be the same in Spain, but hopefully one of the others can confirm that.

Posted by Tim

Knoxville, TN, USA

05/18/15 03:54 PM

7209 posts

And this is another reason to scrap the Eurail Passes and just buy point to point. Italian Train Tix are dirt cheap especially if purchased early. And if you had purchased directly from www.trenitalia.com your required reservations would have been included. I'm sorry for your troubles and know how frustrating things like that can be.

Posted by Laura

Rick Steves' Europe

05/20/15 08:37 PM

16893 posts

Since reservations are required for most medium-speed and faster trains in both countries, the pass doesn't offer as much hop-on flexibility as in countries that don't require reservations (such as Britain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc.) There's no deadline to reserve in either country. For any set plans, you can buy several reservations at one train station or some travel agencies.