I'm one of those that likes to have everthing reserved in advance while traveling. I'm a little worried about not being able to get on the trains I want, at the times I want. How can I book the train reservations before we leave the US? We are traveling by train from Nice to Santa Margherita. Later to Rome via Florence. It's our first trip to Europe.
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
Do you want reservations (as in seat reservations to go along with a Eurail pass) or do you want to purchase tickets in advance?
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
You can't reserve in advance. What you do is buy tickets in advance. The reservations and any supplements come with the ticket. Next, many trains to and from Santa Margherita are local regional trains and seat reservations are not permitted on this category of trains. Many of the train runs from Nice to S.M. are R trains.
Next, trains running through the CT are quite full during the summer. In fact, they are jammed. Not to worry, however. These are all local trains going from Livorno to Genoa and vis-a-versa with the CT in the middle. You just get on and stand if necessary. It's like the NY subway or British tube. It's only a few minutes travel time between towns. It's part of the local flavor during the summer. You'll love it.
If you MUST have ticket in hand from Nice to S.M., RailEurope will sell you tickets for the two runs a day that require reservations. RailEurope does not list the several R train runs that go between the two cities that don't require reservations.
Posted by
OP
Sammamish, WA, USA
39 posts
I would like to buy tickets in advance to be assured we get on to the trains at the time we want (morning).Just the ones from Nice to Santa M and Santa M to Rome. We need to be on an early early train going thru Florence on our way to Rome.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Debbie, if you want to leave early in the morning, there are 4 local R trains that will take you to S.M. before the 10:05am train that RailEurope will sell you. It's first come, first on. Nobody can out-reserve you because you can't possibly reserve any time or seat on an R train.
CLICK HERE to see a current schedule for morning runs.
For the S.M. to Rome journey, you can easily buy these tickets as soon as you arrive in S.M. 1-2 days in advance is just fine. But, if your nerves won't let you do it, you can buy the 37Euro ticket for 67Euro on RailEurope but I'm seeing runs for the same day on RailEurope that I don't see on Trenitalia-the official Italian website. Note that some runs don't go through Florence to get to Rome.
Try a little adventure in your travels. In all of my Europe travels, I never buy tickets before leaving the U.S.