We're taking two trains during our Italy trip -- one on a Monday morning around 8:30am from Santa Margherita Ligure to Stresa, and the other on a Thursday morning around 9:00 or 10:00am from Stresa to Milan.
Can we book seats on trains the day before those trips (so we could decide to leave later, for example) or should we book in advance?
We don't need anything more than economy seats, if that's a factor.
Thanks in advance.
The only reason to book in advance is to get deep discounts. If you're not interested in the discounts then just buy your tickets on the day of departure. Any of the reduced tickets come with strict change/cancellation policies so flexibility is not an option with them.
Donna
You can save almost 50% if you buy tickets well in advance (up to 4 months) for the Santa Margherita to Stresa. It is not a biggee, 46.40 EUR vs 81.80 EUR total for the both of you. Stresa to Milan can be done with a non-reserved Regionale for 17.60 EUR, or 34 EUR on an EC train that does require reservations. There is no price break on that one for advance purchase.
I checked for tomorrow (about 41 euros per person), next Monday (about 33 euros) and late October (about 24 euros). All for the 8:20 AM departure. [Edit: This was for Santa Margherita to Stresa.]
The flexibility would be worth it to me.
Thanks for all your help! It sounds like there will never be a problem with all seats being sold out, for example.
Related question: it also sounds like day-of tickets will more likely be the regional/slower trains, so maybe that's another reason to book at least a day ahead of time?
Thanks again!
it also sounds like day-of tickets will more likely be the
regional/slower trains, so maybe that's another reason to book at
least a day ahead of time?
You can buy day-of tickets on any train that's available with a departure time, number of changes, length of journey, etc. that suits you; not just regionales. Some towns are only connected by the slower trains so in that case, you don't have a choice.
Cool - thanks again!
These forums are a terrific resource!
Looks like the best way from Santa Magherita to Stresa is a Regionale to Genoa, then an IC train to Milan, then an EC train to Stresa. The Regionale portion of the ticket is always the same price, 3.40 per person in this case, then the IC and EC trains have advance purchase discount fares available.
That's the route I was looking at -- if I remember, it leaves at 8:20 and it's relatively quick.
Yes, that seemed to be better than the other options in the morning and early afternoon.
