We will be travelling from Venice to Basel, Switzerland in mid-July. Tickets cannot be purchased through the Cisalpino website, and we would like to purchase ours in advance (as soon as possible).
Any advice on the best website to use for purchasing Cisalpino tickets?
Larry - Thanks for all the helpful information. It's interesting that the Trenitalia website provides more information than the Cisalpino site.
It looks like we'll have to decide between going on the cool "tilting" train, which saves time, but it leaves at a very (for us!) early hour. I suspect that we'll opt for the 11:51 EC Cisalpino train. It takes 9 hours, but it leaves at a more civilized time and it requires no changes.
I guess we can say that it gives us that much more time to enjoy the amazing ride through the Alps!
As for just buying the tickets when we're in Italy, if we can get them in advance, we will. It sounds like I just have to wait a few weeks to do so.
Thanks again!
Trenitalia should have the tickets avilable for purchase now.
Trenitalia just says "NO" next to the schedule. You can't purchase directly through Cisalpino. And, RailEurope.com says you can only purchase 90 days in advance (only a few weeks away).
But, I'm wondering which site is the best for making the purchase.
Has anyone out there purchased Cisalpino tickets in advance?
Thanks
Leslie, Cisalpino is an entirely separate train system that runs between Northern Italy, Trieste and most of Switzerland. Some Cisalpino trains are EuroCity trains and some are the faster "tilting" trains (leans into the turns). Which one do you want? Both will get you there but the tilting train is more fun (and a bit more expensive).
Next, July is too far out to book most anything on Trenitalia. Just for practice, I did a lookup for a journey to Basel SBB from Venice. I looked at July 16 and I see three trains. I looked at April 16 and I see eight trains. I see the shopping cart on almost all of these runs as well. Trenitalia updates every 90 days. We on the site look at current schedules. Now, I'm looking at RailEurope and they don't even show the Cisalpino runs for April 16 that I see on Trenitalia.
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Below, I have placed a link to see the Trenitalia train schedule to Basel SBB from Venice for April 16. Please notice two things. First, the "Train No." column. As you look down, you will see Cisalpino trains listed. Second, look in the "Train Category" column. For most Cisalpino trains, you will see "EC" or EuroCity. These are very nice fast trains with food carts on board. Then notice the one train run that shows "cis". This is the tilting train. Very few tilting trains run from Venice and even then, only from the Venezia Mestre station. A few more run daily out of Milan into Switzerland. The EC trains run all day long.
Next, you can purchase the tickets while you are there. Don't freak out about advance tickets. As soon as you get comfortable in Italy, go to the train station and buy your tickets to Switzerland. Be sure to have the date, time, class and train number written down on a piece of paper to hand to the ticket agent. It works every time.
FINALLY, CLICK HERE to see the train schedule I discussed above.
Hi Leslie, I booked a Venice to Zurich Cisalpino train when I arrived in Italy. The purchase was about 10 days in advance and I had no problem getting a ticket. By the way, the train ride is beautiful. It was a long trip, but it went fast.
We ended up purchasing our tickets 3 months in advance through RailEurope.com. We returned home from our trip a few days ago, so I thought that I would report back on the Cisalpino trip.
Well, the trip was absolutely beautiful. However, despite the fact that we were told to expect both a dining car and food service in the cabins, we got neither. The dining car was locked for the entire 9 hour ride (yet there were passengers in there), and the food service cart only came through our (First Class) cabin. The reason the cart didn't come by more frequently is that they had run out of food! During the 9 hour ride, we were only able to scrounge up 2 sandwiches for our family of 5.
I asked someone who worked on the train, and they told me that they no longer use the dining car, except for "special excursions" (e.g., the people I saw seated there), and that he had no idea why there was so little food for the trip.
All in all, it was still a great trip. But, we were disappointed that we hadn't come on board with food. But, given how the dining car was touted, we had decided to splurge on a nice meal on the train.
Thanks for the follow up. I just booked my ticket in the opposite direction (Zurich to Venice). I'll be sure to pack some snacks for the trip now that I know it may not be available on the trian. Perfect timing Leslie!!
Michelle - They'll probably have a free 9-course meal for you! ;^) Enjoy, and, if you get a chance, please report back on how your trip went.
is there any benefit on taking the CIS vs. a IC train from Florence to Milan. There is only one CIS (tilting train) at 3 PM---we were going to take it, but if the dining car is no longer in use--what's the point? Also, CIS is cheaper than the IC--why would this be?
Elaine, actually, the IC train is usually much cheaper than the CIS and Eurostar trains. However, for this run, I see 27Euro for the IC train, 30.40Euro for the CIS train and 36.10Euro for the Eurostar. For a 3.4Euro difference, I'd suggest jumping on the CIS train. It's only slightly faster, however.
sorry--I meant the Eurostar or the "A' train, whatever that is. The Amica fare for travel on sept 24 on Eurostar and A was 28.9 Euors 2nd class, but CIS was 24.3 euros--am I missing something?
