Amsterdam to Paris train

You will have no problem purchasing the day before. Trains rarely sell out. Too many seats, too many trains.

Certain Thalys trains sell out on holidays. Otherwise, you'll have your train of choice up to the time the train leaves the station.

Thanks very much. Do you think the prices at the station are better than buying in advance on raileurope.com? It certainly seems like they should be. The Thalys site listed the fare as approx. $82 USD per person, which I consider reasonable, but raileurope had the tickets for $180 per person! Thanks again! Stephanie

You should be able to book tickets on the Thalys site using a US credit card. You can print them yourself. Be sure to choose "paper ticket." Ticketless booking is only for people with European cell phones. If you wait until you get to Amsterdam to buy your tickets, you will pay full fare (€130 for 2nd class). The cheapest discount fare tickets (€35) are gone for 7 April, but you still might be able to get tickets for €45 or €60.

That's strange. I did try booking the Paper ticket on Thalys but it denied my U.S. credit card saying they do not accept credit cards outside of Europe. When did you successfully book your paper ticket? Maybe they just changed the rules? Does anyone else know?

I haven't personally booked a ticket on the Thalys site, but I've read notes on this Helpline from people living in the US who say they have done so without any problem. As you say, perhaps Thalys has changed its policy.

I just booked my tickets from Amsterdam to Paris a few days ago. I used the TGV website http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/home/ When it request your county just put in Great Britain and proceed with the booking it will let you print your tickets at home. I read about putting Great Britian in from The man in seat 61. I was able to book Thalys tickets Amsterdam to Paris smoove price for 35.00 €. I was also able to book my tickets from Paris to Bayeux prems for 15.00 € I did this this afternoon so it works.

I just check on the TGV web and they have several afternoon train departures for 45.00 € which is a great smoove price.

I have just made an error in booking my ticket- Ams to Paris- on Thaylis.com. I didn't know I should have gotten the paper ticket and I don't have their pass card. They did send me email confirmation and seat assignements but there is no bar code on the document as they said there should be. Do I need to do something about this? I tried calling the pay for help line but they are busy. Is getting a travel card necessary? Can I remedy this easily at the Amsterdam Center station when I arrive from Schipol 3 days before this train trip? Thanks, Rick

Has anybody taken this train? I read it is just over a 3 hour trip from the Amsterdam airport to Paris Nord. Wife and I are planning to take this train in September after we land in Amsterdam. Can't wait to see Paris!! Also, is Comfort 1 (First Class) worth paying extra for over Comfort 2?

"Also, is Comfort 1 (First Class) worth paying extra for over Comfort 2?" Only you can decide if Comfort 1 is what you want. I looked at it this way I could book Comfort 2 for €35.00pp or €70.00 for both of us, Comfort 1 was €79.00pp/€158.00
Both seats are going to the same location and arrive at the same time. I plan on taking a nice picnic lunch and spending the extra money at a nice restaurant.

Thalys, ICE Intl. and other companies have been learning from the airlines: you can reduce the pitch of your seats and crowd out train cars. In practical terms, 1st class has a 1+2 instead of a 2+2 seat row, and a more (way more) generous pitch and spacing. So it all goes down to your expectations of comfort.

I booked Thalys tickets from Amsterdam to Paris in May 2009 using my Visa credit card. If in fact their policy of declining acceptance of credit cards outside Europe is correct it is a fairly recent change. As Tim mentioned, I printed my tickets from home.

Well, I did get the site to finally take my card. But I clicked on UK as my country at the beginning, chose paper tickets, and then chose the Netherlands as my place of pickup. I was prepared to give my Hotel address in AMS if needed, but I got my card to go through and downloaded the paper tickets. Cost savings compared to raileurope (where you get bumped if you say you're from the U.S.): about $120, $60/ticket!

Glad using UK help save some money.

I did that trip last year and had no problem booking it at the station. I had a horrible time trying to do it through their website. Make sure you get 2nd class as is almost the same but much cheaper. Happy Travel

Try buying from the NL-Hispeed site, not Thalys. We used our American debit card and it went through just fine.

On the Thalys.com site, if you choose "The Netherlands" as the country you will be "collecting" your tickets, you get automatically redirected to nshispeed.