Train travel with EURAIL passes Germany, France, Italy do I really need reservations??

Maybe post where you are trying to go from point to point then someone can tell you if buying a Eurail is the best approach or not.

Also this site explains a lot on rail travel in Europe
https://www.seat61.com/

Why are you using the Eurail/Rail Europe website? That is a travel agency, not a rail company.

Hi,

Seat reservations on the TGV are mandatory. Forget the Eurail website. Use bahn.com instead (Bahn.de if you want it in German).

Italy:
If you have a railpass you must pay for every leg of non-regional trains in Italy. €10 per leg of high speed, €3 per leg of InterCity. Only Regionale and Regionale-Veloce can be used by passholders with no extra charge. These charges are for a specific seat in a specific car on a specific train at a specific time on an exact day. If you change your mind at all you need to buy again. Do not get on a train requiring reservation charges without or for a different train or you will face high on-the-spot fines. These fees have been relatively recent, and may not have been there when you rode them last.

France:
If you have a railpass you must pay for every leg of of non-regional trains in France. The amount varies and can be quite low to very high depending on route, whether you are traveling on a white or blue day on the calendar, and time of day and day of the week. TGV trains are particularly difficult with railpasses because the reservations are rationed for those travelers. That means that even though the train has empty seats which you could have bought a ticket for you can't go on that train because the passholder reservations are all gone.

TER and RER trains neither require nor offer reservations and you can jump on and off them to your heart's content - but they are regional and slow.

Germany:

Reservation are not required, except for a few ICE commuter trains in specific corridors unlikely to be used by a tourist, and a passholder can hop on and off at will.

So you can see how much of a pain in the whatsit a railpass can be in Italy and France. Especially in Italy tickets are so cheap a pass almost never pays for itself and is more trouble than it is worth.

In France the long distance trains can be expensive at the last minute if you just walk up and buy a ticket - kind of like walking up to an airline counter and buying a ticket for the next flight somewhere - but they can be very very cheap if planned well in advance. Again like a plane ticket.

The problem is that railpasses used to be marketed as hop on hop off, go where you want to when you want to. That used to be the case, certainly when I used to use them a few years ago and maybe when you did. In France and Italy that is simply not the case any longer.

if you are going to plan ahead anyway why not just buy advance priced point A to point B tickets and skip all the extra hassle. Any non-pass ticket which requires a reservation will have it included in whatever you pay - nothing extra to pay.

When you ask about risking it, are you asking if it is risky to get on without the reservation. If that is the question, then it is very risky because the fine is high, payable on the spot to the conductor, and you get tossed off at the next station. Yes, it is very risky.

www.seat61.com -- the answer to everything (or nearly) about riding the rails. Use his advice to check point-to-point fares and then compare to various passes. Nothing beats DIY, doing it yourself, to get smarter and have a better vacation. As has been indicated, you are simply not getting on many of the major trains without a seat reservation so it is not a question of risking it. And you should also see that the sooner you make the reservations, the cheaper the whole ticket will be. Do it now to save lots of money.

Seat reservations don't normally cost that much per person. But on the direct France-Italy TGV trains, a 1st-class reservation is currently $62 and 2nd class is $43. If you saw a train route with a connection in Switzerland, then it would be higher. Direct France-Switzerland TGV reservations go as high as $93 in 1st and $48 in 2nd; plus you'd have a small fee for the connecting train. It's pretty hard to feel good about using a pass on these international TGVs, but without it you would want to buy the tickets early, since full fare tickets cost about $120 2nd class from Paris to Milan on the direct train and much more via Switzerland. A Paris-Italy flight will usually be cheaper, again if booked ahead; see www.skyscanner.com.

See our France rail page but note that some of these rules are changing (probably without much effect on your itinerary). Domestic TGV reservations within France are cheaper and also not artificially limited, nor are the required reservations within Italy. Trains that require seat reservations don't allow you to board without them.

Reservations are not necessary on any domestic trains within Germany (including ICE) nor on slower, regional trains in any country.

If crossing from Germany to Italy, you'll usually pass through Austria, or occasionally Switzerland, and you'd need to cover all parts of the train route. It's getting harder to buy an add-on ticket if you're crossing borders on reserved, high-speed trains.

What Nigel said. Especially in Italy, the requirement for reservations on the express trains is usually strictly enforced. These usually start at €100 per person but are reduced to €50 if paid on the spot (plus the cost of the reservation).

Pass holder reservations in France are restricted, so once the quota for a particular train is sold out, you're out of luck even if there are still empty seats.

It's very easy to buy discounted advance tickets for trains in Italy or France. Have a look at www.trainline.eu for one example. Note that the discounted tickets are usually non-refundable and non-changeable once purchased.

Thank you for all your comments. They helped a lot and I am making the reservations by phone. Some people are adamant about us taking the Eurail pass, it works for us because we are 2 adults and 2 children, the kids don't pay with the pass and they love trains, otherwise it is not worth it like many people pointed out. I am trying to get everything worked out before we depart so we don't have to waist time in line, with kids is tricky, the more they wait the more annoying they become.

True that the kids ride free, you don't waste time waiting until your number is called. With the Pass there are other discounts.

Depending the age of the kids, they don't pay in Germany anyway. In Italy, there are Bimbi Gratis tickets where kids ride free when parents buy full fare tickets on high speed trains, otherwise, they pay half fare. "Some people are adamant" are inexperienced amateurs who know not where of they speak. The pros hang out on this website.
Again, post where you are going and let the "pros" take a look at it. Maybe a Eurail Pass does work. But right now, you're just guessing.

"...the Eurail pass, it works for us because we are 2 adults and 2 children, the kids don't pay with the pass and they love trains..."

Kids are free with point-to-point rail tickets in Germany too (perhaps elsewhere as well.) Read the Man in Seat 61:

Children go free! On DB trains, children under 6 go free, no ticket
needed. Children over 6 but aged under 15 also go free if they travel
accompanied by a fare-paying adult, a great offer. Book your tickets
at www.bahn.de and it will work all this out for you.

https://www.seat61.com/Germany-trains.htm

Kids are also free on day passes in Germany. Read about the Bavaria Ticket (good for one day around all of Bavaria.)

For families: 1 person of the adult group (parent or grandparent) can
be accompanied by an unlimited number of own children/grandchildren
aged under 15 for free.

http://www.munich-touristinfo.de/Bavaria-Ticket.htm

Every state in Germany has its own day ticket where a family can travel for peanuts:

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/regional/regional-day-tickets.shtml

If you are crossing German state boundaries, there are cheap day passes for that as well:

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/regional/day-ticket-for-germany.shtml?dbkanal_007=L04_S02_D002_KIN0060_NAVIGATION-LINKS-QDL_LZ01

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/regional/weekend-ticket-for-germany.shtml?dbkanal_007=L04_S02_D002_KIN0060_NAVIGATION-LINKS-SWT_LZ01

Day passes can be bought as you go at the station. Or you can buy them in advance online for convenience.

As the authoritative former resident of Germany, you must now accept your new assignment - to re-educate all the rail pass lovers.

Feel free to share your itinerary more clearly if you want specific help.

I just remain in disbelief that people are "adamant" to purchase Eurail tickets because (insert dubious reasons here). How does this misinformation perpetuate??

And yes, the Italian Bimbi Gratis is a great deal. Up to 4 kids travel absolutely free with a paying companion.

Keep in mind that Americans are not the only ones buying Eurail Passes, they are sold in Asia, South America. Tourists from those countries have the Eurail booklet in their own languages...Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (?)...not sure about that, but Spanish and Japanese to be sure. Eurail Passes will. be sold and bought, regardless.