Traveling by train in Europe

You will thoroughly enjoy riding the rails in Europe ! First, read and absorb seat61.com. This is an invaluable tool to understanding the train systems, and it's complete with photos.

1. Buy your tickets online 90 days before for the best price selections. But note that those are nonrefundable. So determine those segments that you know you wish to take. Otherwise, buying at the station is just fine.
2. Buy 2nd class.
3. There is no security !
4. We stop in the grocery store before every train trip and buy wine, bread, and cheese and enjoy a train lunch !

Thanks, Carla. I will definitely check out that website!

Be sure to remember to validate your tickets before getting on the train in Italy unless your ticket is for a specific train with the date and time of your travel printed on the ticket. Your train ticket to the Cinque Terre will be a regional train and the ticket will need to be validated.

If you've got a 4 hour or more ride, and it's not a budget buster, go first class. More room, bags are often closer to you so you can more easily keep an eye on them. Only time we ran into security was in Spain-they put your bags through a screener. And by all means bring food. We have not found dining car fare to be inspiring, but it's OK for a beer.

We've always traveled 2nd class on "fast" Italian trains and been just fine: perfectly comfortable.

The only times I wouldn't buy Italian train tickets in advance are:

• For arrival day, if going onward to another city from the city your plane is coming into. Delays could cause you to miss a train you've purchased in advance and could make those tickets worthless.

• If a journey is going to involve a cheap regionale train. There's no benefit to purchasing those in advance.

Specifically for the CT: you don't say how long you intend to spend there or where you're staying but if you intend to use the trains quite a bit to travel between the 5 villages, you might want to purchase a Cinque Terre MS Treno Card when you arrive? They come in 1, 2 and 3-day values, and only need to be validated the first time you use them. They also allow you to hike the 2 open segments of the "Blue Trail" without an additional fee, and include use of park buses: useful for reaching the village of Corniglia from its train station far below.

A one-day adult pass costs € 16.00 so you'll break even on it in 4 journeys

A 2-day adult pass costs € 29.00 so you'd need about 7 journeys to break even.

See the link below for price of 3-day, youth and Senior cards. Do check the prices again before your trip in case they change a little by next spring.

If you're coming from Florence, you may likely change trains in La Spezia: if so, that's where I'd buy the Card. It'll cover your journey onward to whichever of the 5 villages is your final destination.

http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/page.php?id=158

Thanks for all the advice. I was concerned about traveling by rail, but this advice helps immensely. If you think of anything else, please post.

There is a lot of information on this website about riding the rails in Europe:

Rick's Choo Choo Lessons

Rail is the only way to go unless the trip is over six hours. Then you might consider a discount airline but I stress - might. The comfort level of second class to close to business class on an airline. We rarely find any advantage to first class. Seats are a little wider but leg room between seats doesn't improve.

I highly recommend the Trainline app or the website Trainline.eu. No fees and very easy to use. You can buy them in advance or at the last moment. We used it exclusively when we were in Italy in June

I'll give you our train itinerary from February/March 2015, hope it will help. These routes were all booked about 75 days in advance using Deutsche Bahn (www.bahn.com) or Trenitalia (for the internal Italy routes):

After flying Chicago into Paris and enjoying the City of Lights for 3 nights, we took the train Paris Gare du Lyon station to Lucerne, Switzerland, changing at Basel, just over the French/Swiss border. Two nights at a hotel right across from the Lucerne station, then over the Alps to Florence, but there were changes--an unexpected one at Chiasso on the Swiss/Italo border, then a scheduled one in Milan. After a week in Florence, we took a direct train to Salerno for another few days, and we flew out of Naples to Chicago, with a change in Munich.

I would say by booking early--all second-class by the way-- we paid on the average about 40% of the full base fare, saving around 60%, which is a lot. The trains were very comfortable, more on time north rather than south, but we had built time in on the scheduled changes so we weren't running for the next train. I would also recommend to pack lightly, as anything over 25 lbs or so will become tiresome to repeatedly heave up to the overhead rack. And we use 4-wheel 'spinners'--not for everybody but certainly made our lives easier.

One more thing--purely from a comfort/enjoyability standpoint. When we booked from home, we chose late morning departure times so we could have breakfast, freshen up then check out of our hotel or B&B. And we had decided even when planning our stops from the beginning that we didn't want to be on the train more than 4 hours at a stretch, which worked perfectly. We'd arrive at our destination late afternoon, still relatively fresh-minded, ready to check into our new abode and enjoy a nice dinner.

I would conclude that the train travel aspect was a very efficient, value-driven and enjoyable highlight of our trip. Enjoy your planning!