My husband and I are going to Italy and Austria the end of May through mid-June by ourselves. We have air and hotels booked and now need to book our train tickets to 7 different cities and are a little overwhelmed at doing this ourselves. I saw Euraide mentioned in one of Ricks articles, which helps with booking train reservations when you have a lot of reservations to make. Has anyone used Euraide before? Please share your experience. Carol
Posted by
Tampa, FL, USA
1054 posts
What are the train runs you will be making? Rome to Florence? Florence to Pisa etc. Tickets are easy to get your self on Trenitalia or Italo. No need to use those other sites or services and pay them an extra fee when you can do it yoursefl. Some train tickets there is no savings to buy in advance and you can buy day of at the station. Knowing what cities you will use the trains between will be best for replies.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Ok, we will be arriving in Munich and going to Salzburg, Innsbruck, Venice, Florence, Monterosso al Mare (Cinque Terra) and Rome in that order. We are going to get a railpass for our travel days and know their are certain trains that require reservations. It would be nice to buy tickets at the stations but I was worried that the train we might want would be sold out if we waited to make reservations and purchase the tickets.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Don't stress about it. There's no deadline to reserve, these trains rarely sell out, and all run frequently, except Innsbruck-Venice. That longest leg is the one that I'd book ahead or book first, whether for a passholder reservation of for tickets with advance-purchase discount (sold through the DB link at How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online).
Italian train reservations or tickets are easy to buy either as you go, or in one train station (including at Euraide's office, ticket window #1, in Munich Hbf station) or at www.Trenitalia.com. Munich-Salzburg-Innsbruck don't require reservations with a rail pass or a ticket purchased in the station.
You don't have enough travel planned for a rail pass to save much money. See regular, 2nd class, walk-up fares on our maps. The cheapest Select pass would be 5 travel days in just Austria and Italy for $253 per person in 2nd class, plus about $36 per person for 3 seat reservation fees.