Rail Europe price less than trenitalia

You must add a 10 euro reservation fee to every train trip if you book through raileurope. They do not include seat reservations while the trenitalia site shows the final price. A rail pass usually never pays off in Italy.

donna

Also don't forget to include RE's shipping and handling charges.

Another way to save through trenitalia is to buy your tickets at least 7 days in advance. If any of your travel dates are 7 days or more after you get to Italy you will qualify for the discount. Buy all your tickets the first day to ensure you get the discount if you qualify.

Donna

Thank you for the advice! I will purchase upon arrival in Roma. I need to take the train that very day, so I probably won't get a discount but I can try and get one for my return to Roma.

Grazie!

KB

Donna---when you say "you must add a 10 euro reservation fee to every train trip if you book through raileurope", I believe you are talking about passes bought from RailEurope, not actual tickets.

The website clearly states that the reservation fee is included in the price of an actual ticket.

You do still have to add the $18 shipping fee.

Actually the biggest problem with using RailEurope for train tickets in Italy right now is that they can't actually book them yet; Trenitalia hasn't loaded the summer schedule (after mid-June) into the system yet, so RailEurope can't make you a reservation and send you a ticket. A friend of mine booked a deal she saw for late June (less than the Trenitaila price) and paid for the tickets, but then got an e-mail from RailEurope saying the tickets would be sent later. . . with no specific date. Now she's wondering if the tickets will show up before they leave for Europe.

Most of the new schedule is already posted on the trenitalia website so you can easily search for schedule and pricing.

Yes, I was talking about a rail pass and not the individual tickets.

Your friend should be getting her actual tickets soon as trenitalia has started releasing them. Will keep my fingers crossed for her to get them soon so she doesn't have to worry ;-)

Donna

Karen, according to the Trenitalia site, the price of your journeys, second class, would total 173 Euro ($216) if purchased as point to point tickets...and reservations are included. That, of course, doesn't count any advance purchase discounts you may be able to get while in Italy. According to Rick's site a 4-day saver pass for Italy would cost you $190...you'll find the $26 difference will be largely eaten up by the reservation fees. So, in your case, it's really a saw-off.

With your rail pass you will pay an extra 10 euros per seat per trip, that's 80 euros. The point to point tickets you by from trenitalia have the seat reservation in the price, there is no additional fee. This is why we say it is less to buy p-t-p than a pass.

Donna

For some reason everyone says its cheaper to buy point-point tickets in Italy, but my husband and I bought the 4-day "saver pass" (on the advice of one of RS's travel consultants,)and it saved us about $100 US per person, compared to the cost of getting our 4 days of train travel on a point-point basis; (We're traveling Rome-CT, CT-Florence, Florence-Venice and Venice-Rome)We still have to pay for our reserved seat on each trip, but that would have been the case had we purchased point-point also, for the fast trains. I guess this only applies to someone who has 4 different train days planned, but it ends up saving money in that case. We got 2nd class tickets.

So much for the travel advice I paid for! Somehow I thought I saved more than that. Oh, well, live and learn-thanks for the advice, next time I'll remember that!

I've been doing some similar comparison between Rail Europe and Trenitalia and learned that the summer schedule comes out around June 12. It seems from what people are saying that even if a ticket is purchased through RE for travel after June 12 it is "subject to changes"?

I'm having trouble finding schedules and rates to smaller stops and was wondering if I should buy my tickets when I get to Italy. Is that a pretty good way to go?

I hope it's ok that I've tacked a question on to Kristen's question, but it seems a good place to do it.

Grazie.

Bobbi,

The new timetables will go into effect on 13 June. Trenitalia has uploaded some of them, but not all of them. To see current timetables and fares on the Trenitalia site, enter a date no later than 12 June. The new timetables should be virtually identical to the current ones.

Buy your tickets when you get to Italy. The station ticket machines have an English option and they accept US credit cards.

If you are traveling by the slower train they only post the schedule a week in advance. It doesn't change much so you can check trenitalia to get a really good idea of what they will be.

Donna

I have been debating this same thing. Here's my thinking--even though everyone says to just wait til you get there to buy your tickets, I know that tickets are cheaper ahead of time, so even if Rail Europe is charging me a little more right now the tickets will go up in price from Trenitalia since I am not buying them more than 7 days in advance. Also, part of me wants to just buy them now so I know they are paid for and I don't have to search while on my vacation for a travel office to buy them or take time out of my vacation to go to the train station to buy them. I will be arriving in Italy on the 23rd, and am getting antsy. Don't want to wait til the 13th when the schedules come out, either.

Most of the schedules are posted. You can check them on the trenitalia site. The thing to consider buying tickets from raileurope is the shipping fee, and if you buy a pass you must add 10 euros for each seat reservation you make. This can add up to a lot. With trenitalia all the fees are included in the price listed. You don't pay extra for the seat reservation. it is included. There are many places in Italy to buy train tickets. You can get them at the airport, train station or any travel agency displaying the trenitalia logo. It won't take you out of your way if you just keep an eye open while you are wandering the city and stop into a travel agency if you come across one.

You can buy them from raileurope if you don't mind paying the fee, but there really is no need. The few euros you'll save with advance purchase will be eaten by the additional fees but if you'll feel better having tickets in hand that is what you should do.

Donna

If you are buying tickets from RailEurope, the reservation fee is included. If the price is comparable to the Trenitalia price, you will pay an additional shipping fee ($18) but that is all. On the other hand, you pay in $$$ so don't have a 3% foreign transaction fee as you would on buying the tickets in Italy.

If you'd like the peace of mind of having the reservation, and don't mind the $18, then it makes sense. RailEurope is starting to ship tickets for post June 13 travel now, so the schedules must be mostly "loaded iinto the system".

You actually can skip paying the shipping fee if you select print at station. Then you can just pull up your reservation when you are there and not pay the $18 shipping charge. You also have the option of printing out your tickets at home.

After reading all that I still have no clue what to do.

My friend who lives in Italy suggested we wait and buy them when we are in Italy and she would do it all for us.

Hopefully that will work out for me and I don;t end up paying a bunch more.

Just to add to the mix, this topic is very fresh for me because I'm paying way more for tickets now (by getting a rail pass via RS website,which I thought was saving me money but didn't, and now having to pay for seat reservations for each leg of our trip on TOP of that)I called RailEurope today to get 2 seat reservations (2nd class) for the first leg only, the day we arrive going from Rome to Riomaggiore, the total price they quoted me is $75, ($16 per seat, $18 shipping, $10 fee because I didn't get my railpass from them and $15 call-center fee.) I feel like all that is a rip-off and I haven't decided if I should do it or just wait and get the seat reservations the day we arrive in Rome, approx 4 hours before the train departs. I'm a little nervous that the train might be full, and then we'd have to wait another 4 hours for the next train. Is the reservation fee at the station only 10E per ticket??

Karen, what schedule are you using for those trains? They are much more frequent than every four hours. There are derict trains from Rome to La Spezia every 2 hours, and frequent trains from there to Riomaggiore. In between the direct trains to La Spezia, there are many more that go by way of Firenze.

Instead of paying the exorbitant RE reservation fee, just wait until you arrive and make your reservation for the next possible train. Print out a list of schedules in advance so you know what your choices are (use any of the European train websites, like Trenitalia or bahn.de or sbb.ch. (I like the Swiss one myself). You will probably be able to get a train soon after your flight lands, without waiting four hours.