We are scheduled to arrive in Milan MXP at 8:35am and will need to take a train to Marseille, France.
There are two trains going to Marseille:
Train information are from Loco2.com and Rome2Rio.com.
1) 11:10am, around $210/4p, Thello + Train Express Regional
2) 3:10pm, around $140/4p, Thello
Should I buy/reserve this long distance train ride in advance ?
Can we risk buying once we arrive in Milan... will seating be available for four ....price increasing in May ?
My advice is to never buy train tickets for the day of arrival because you never know if there will be flight delays or cancellations. That being said, this advice is for those buying super economy or economy tickets for use in Italy. You will need to read what the purchase rules are for the tickets you wish to buy and see what happens if you miss the train. If you can easily switch your ticket then I would say to buy it. If you will lose the money then I'd say to wait until getting to Italy. It really just depends on the purchase rules as to what I'd do.
Donna
I agree with Donna. There is a train with no changes of train, but it will get you into Marseilles after 10pm. Could you spend that first day/ night in Milano and then take an early train to Marseilles the following day? That would enable you to buy the super-economy fare and not worry about flight-to-train connections. The train from MXP to Milano Centrale takes almost an hour and runs every 30-35 minutes. The 11:10 morning train departure to Marseilles will be tight.
If the overall concern is the availability of tickets - that is not a problem. Train ticket rarely sell out. Time is a bigger issue. Remember MXP is about an hour from Centrale plus immigration if coming from the US so I think the 11.10 is too tight. You should make the 3.10 easily unless there is a major delay with your flight.
Is there a reason why you are flying to MXP if your intended destination upon landing is actually MRS? Marseille is a long way from Milan.
It's as if someone who wants to go to Miami from Europe, decided to fly to Atlanta and take the Amtrak train from there. Why not fly to Miami directly?
Anyhow, whatever the reason. Before buying any Thello tickets, which aren't that cheap anyway, since you will be already at the Malpensa airport, you might as well inquire into flying from MXP to MRS. I think Hop! (AirFrance affiliate) and for sure TwinJet cover that route, probably for not much more than the train.
"Is there a reason why you are flying to MXP if your intended destination upon landing is actually MRS? Marseille is a long way from Milan. "
Flying into Milan MXP saves my family (4 people) more than $2000 compare to flying into Marseille. The price for a train ride is $150-250 for 4 people from Milan to Marseille.
"I think Hop! (AirFrance affiliate) and for sure TwinJet cover that route, probably for not much more than the train"
We looked into taking Vueling/RyanAir/EasyJet/TwinJet/etc. Flights costs close to $1000 for all four of us compare to $140 for all four by train. Flights from Milan MXP to Marseille on May 19th is not a popular route, not too many flight options. We don't mind the train ride, we are trying to keep costs low as we are sure we will have to spend on much more on other things on this trip.
We are flying from Marseille to Rome on Vueling for only $180 for 4 people. Cost and availability of cheap flights depends on the day and route...I guess..
When I read all of your information together, I cannot help but wonder why you are not going from Milan to Rome and then Rome to Marseille. Why start in Italy, only to fly immediately to France and then come right back to Italy?
You haven't said where you're flying home from and you haven't given full city details and length of your trip, but would it possibly be of benefit to take a look at your overall routing?
"...I cannot help but wonder why you are not going from Milan to Rome and then Rome to Marseille. Why start in Italy, only to fly immediately to France and then come right back to Italy? "
Its saves us around $2000 for four people to fly into Milan rather than Marseille, which is a side trip to visit family there.
Flights from Marseille to Rome only around $180 for four people.
"You haven't said where you're flying home from and you haven't given full city details and length of your trip, but would it possibly be of benefit to take a look at your overall routing?"
Flying home from Venice....2.5 weeks later
My concern is should I wait to buy train tickets...do I need to make reservation ? Will prices increase if I wait until travel date ?
I've learned to never buy train tickets in advance. You just never know if you will be delayed or lost. There are always tickets available and always the next train. Even though we almost always caught our desired train, we found it fun after running for a occasional train that we missed, to just sit down, get out the wine and salame and happily wait for the next one :)
Espe,
As the others have indicated, it's not recommended to buy advance train tickets to connect with an inbound flight. Some of the trains you'll be using will have compulsory seat reservations which are specific to train, date and departure time, so can ONLY be used on the one train listed on the ticket. If you miss that train for any reason, your tickets are worthless and you'll have to buy more.
While you could leave a cushion of several hours between flight arrival and train departure, that may mean sitting around a train station in a jet-lagged state which is often a miserable experience, especially if you see trains departing that you could have been on if you had bought tickets on arrival. Add to that the miserable experience of being stuck on a train in a jet-lagged state for 8 hours or more to reach your destination. Keep in mind that the train from MXP to Milano Centrale takes about an hour, so that has to be included as well.
I wouldn't suggest using Rome2Rio for definitive information on train schedules. It's good for a general idea, but I wouldn't rely on it for specific information. I have no information on Loco2. Your best source for rail schedules is Bahn.de (German Rail website) but you won't be able to buy tickets there for Italy and France. A good place to buy tickets for both Italy and France is www.captaintrain.com.
While you can save money with advance purchase tickets, as mentioned above that's not the best idea when connecting with a flight. The ticket prices likely won't increase, as the schedules won't be updated until mid-June.
Here's a summary of the tickets you'll need.....
The trip described above is one of the shortest trips from Milan to Marseilles at 8H:20M. The Trenitalia website currently shows tickets on the Milan-Nice segment at €45 PP for adults and €22.50 PP for children (but I don't know what ages apply to the child fares). I didn't check prices on the Nice-Marseilles segment.
While I can appreciate the desire to save money for a group of four, I suspect this will be a dreadful and tiring travel day for all of you.
Good luck!
Ken wrote: Milan to Nice Ville - it's possible that you may be able to connect with the 11:10 Thello departure, and you should be able to buy your ticket at the MXP rail station for the segment from Milan to Nice. The tickets will include the seat reservations.
I was there last February. The MXP station is NOT a Trenitalia station, it is a Malpensa Express station and they do not sell Trenitalia tickets. There are Trenitalia ticket machines there, that do not take cash. My US credit card didn't work - maybe because it didn't have a chip, maybe because I didn't have a PIN. I have no experience with Thello . . .
Chani,
Thanks for the clarification on that. It should still be possible to purchase the Thello tickets from a Trenitalia Kiosk at Malpensa, at least for the Milan to Nice segment. Otherwise it should be easy to buy them after arrival at Milano Centrale, preferably at a Kiosk as the queue at the ticket office is often LONG! I normally use a credit card for purchases at Kiosks, and that's always worked well (my cards are all EMV / Chip).
Espe
As I view it, your flight to Milan is or will be booked. Only question is whether you should pre-book your train to take advantage of the early online discount and which time to book. When i compare your two May ticket prices compared to this week's two corresponding ticket prices (which presumably are the regular prices), the difference between the corresponding tickets is only about $20 per ticket. So if you wait until the day of arrival, the price should be higher, but maybe only about $20 per ticket.
General opinion seems to be that the train will not sell out. I see that i can still buy four tickets for tomorrow's trains if i wanted. So chances are tickets should be available in May.
Personally, I would prefer to forgoe the $80 savings and buy my tickets at the train station on the day of arrival instead of pre-buying online, in order to keep my options open. If i were able to clear immigration, grab luggage and cab over to the train station to make the early train, I would gladly spend the extra money for the early train to save the 4 hours sitting around Milan. On the other hand, if there is a delay and I were late, i could then take the later afternoon train and console myself that the later train is just a bit cheaper than the early one.
Thank you everyone for your valuable input. You all have put my mind at ease.
I will wait to buy train tickets once we arrive in Milan MXP/Centrale. Go with the flow......If we are ontime, then we attempt the 11:10am train. However, if we don't make the 11:10am we go for the 3:10pm train. Now I don't have to worry about these trains being full or too expensive buying at that time.
