So we decided we will do all our travel by train for a 14 day trip starting May 26. We have 3 major travel days: Rome - Sorrento; Sorrento - Siena; Florence - Venice. The 3-day 1st class rail pass price is 234 euros on trenitalia. On raileurope the same pass is quoted at $273 including reservation fees for 'comfort' level. Is 'comfort' level 1st class? If so this is much cheaper than on trenitalia, which seems odd. That seems to compare favorably with the best price available for 1st class on high speed trains between rome-Naples, Naples-Florence, Florence-Venice. Am I missing anything here? 2nd question, looking at the train times on trenitalia.com I see some departures are already sold out in 1st class. Do I need to go ahead and reserve specific trains now? What if I need to make a change? Our accommodation is all set, so our travel days are fixed, but committing to a specific train makes me nervous. If I do make reservations now is the best place to buy the pass and make the reservations raileurope.com?
Thanks, Julia
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
Rail passes almost never make sense within Italy. Check out prices on trenitalia.com for point-to-point (p2p).
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23290 posts
What are your dates? You are doing some wrong. First class never sells outs and second class almost never. My guess you are looking to far in the future and the schedules are not posted. You really need to do your homework as I guess for three trips that a rail pass will be more expensive. With a three day pass you are looking at $80/day plus reservation fees. Most of the fares will be less than 80. You do realize that RailEurope is a travel agency that sells markup tickets to North Americans. They offer a lot of convenience and service but they get a good fee for doing so. Have you checked fares on trenitalia.com? That is where you should start.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
I agree with Frank. 1st class never sells out. And, if it did, it wouldn't show on Trenitalia. They don't show sold out anything. As for your ticket comparisons, there are some great mini-fares for some of your runs. Many as low as 19E on a 56E ticket. Here's a link to a picture of what I see on 5/26 from Rome to Naples. These are runs from 7:00am - 9:00am. There are many more runs during the day. http://gyazo.com/8a6ae5efc589fb7d47c66a64fe5a81df If you provide more of your travel details (date, time, starting point, destination, we can be much more helpful. You really don't need a pass. Should you go with a Eurail pass, you still need to pay the 10E supplemental fees on the high-speeds and you still must get the seat reservations. This does in fact lock you into a specific train and departure time but you do have flexibility until you pay for your supplemental fees. Also, the Eurail pass is not good on the Circumvesuviana train from Naples to Sorrento. But, it's not a biggee as the fare is only about 4E.
Posted by
OP
Evergreen, Colorado, United States
14 posts
Thanks. Realized what I was doing wrong, Trenitalia was showing me the price for both tickets, not the individual ticket price. Some of the MINI prices are great, but I assume I'll still have to buy those ahead of time to get those prices versus the standard price? As to specifics, here is what we're planning:
May 29 Rome to Naples then on to Sorrento on the Circum-thingy train. June 1 to Siena by taking trains to Florence then bus, June 6 Florence to Venice. Julia