Buy point-to-point rail now or when I'm in Europe??

April...first suggestion....if you purchase P2P, avoid RailEurope. It will cost you significantly more thru them, and they don't show all the trips that are available. For Amsterdam-Bruges, purchase it in Amsterdam....no discounts available. For the rest of your journey, use DB Bahn. You will be able to get significant savings by booking up to 90 days in advance. A check of mid-November, for example, shows Bruges-Cologne from 19 Euro second class, 29 Euro first! They should be able to mail your tickets to you for the Bruges-Cologne run. But your all-Germany tickets will be self-print. Don't forget, though...the cheaper the ticket, the more restrictions there are on refunds and changes, so you've got to be pretty sure of your travel dates and times.

Holy cow Norm! Thanks for that great reply! Your recommendations are truly appreciated. I feel so much less nervous already.

April...another bit of reassurance....there are so many trains a day to so many destinations across Europe that, even if you "wing it," you shouldn't have a major problem, especially in November. There are 4 trains/hour between Bruges and Brussels (like a giant commuter service, takes about an hour)....at least a dozen trains/day Brussels-Koln....30+ trains/day Koln-Weimar....20+/day Weimar-Berlin. Trains in Europe are like men....there's always another one coming along ;) Just make sure you make your connection in Brussels at the right train station....there are three main ones.

I completely agree with Norm. There is no need to buy regular rail tickets before going over there. The only reason to buy tickets online would be to take advantage of some of the discount offers, particularly from German Rail.

The last resort, absolutely the last resort, would be to buy them from a stateside agent like RailEurope. RailEurope is fine for something like rail passes, but for point-point tickets, they only sell for the most expensive trains (express mostly), and then for only a limited selection of them. And RailEurope usually charges significantly more than over there or than full fare tickets from someone like Bahn.de.

Just to give you an example, in November I'm going to German for 13 days, from FRA to Cochem to the Harz to Karlsruhe to Mainz. I have four long days of travel. I already have ticket for 2 legs (Dauer Spezial tickets at €29 + reserv) for $46.50 each. I will use Länder-Tickets for the other two long days. The total for what I could have gotten from RailEurope for $476-$528 (and not for the trains I wanted) will cost me $152! Buying tickets over there from the Bahn would have cost $305-$341.

Raileurope is obviously a ripoff!

Thanks a million, guys!

We just returned from Austria and Italy (and ~10 train trips). We purchased all of our tickets (all P2P) there. When we arrived in one town, since we were already at the train station, we purchased our tickets for the next leg of our journey. That saved us waiting in line right before trips (worrying how long the line would take, how long it would take to translate, if the ticket window would be open, if the self-service machine would work, etc.).

I wouldn't say RailEurope is a rip-off. They have fair prices, just as RickSteves does on Railpasses. It is just cheaper to buy point-to-point tickets IN Europe. Railpasses are best bought here in the States, while PTP tickets are not. Facts of travel, I assumed...per Rick Steve's advice, of course...

Amber, for tickets within Germany, or for connection that start or end in Germany, you can purchase tickets from German Rail for the same price you would pay in Germany. Often, because of advance purchase requirements on discount tickets, or because these tickets sell out well in advance, you can even get discount tickets for less online from German Rail than you will find them in Europe.

I believe that if you call German Rail in Germany you can buy tickets for anywhere in Europe, by credit card, and they will mail them anywhere in the world.

The thing that annoys me about RailEurope is that they are essentially a branch of French Rail, and yet they don't sell tickets online at the same price as you could buy them online from French Rail. You can buy ticket online from French Rail for the same prices as over there, and they will ship them anywhere in the world except to North America The French Rail website is not in English; if you try to get English they divert you to the Rail Europe website where prices are higher. For that, I think they are a ripoff.

Lee, I was aware of the pricing one can get when buying directly online through international rail sites as opposed to RailEurope. I just think for such a short trip, (and during off-season) April would be fine to buy in Europe.

I was not aware of that little RailEurope glitch that you told about. How shoddy!

Personally, I'm having to buy a Eurail pass for my 55 day trip, plus factor in bus tickets, a Prague excursion pass, and a flight from Barcelona to Rome. And I'm buying my pass through Rick Steve's.

In 12 weeks of travel in Germany in the last eight years, I have never purchased tickets in advance, and I never had any trouble getting on a train. Once, on Dec 26, a holiday, I was on an ICE where every seat was taken, but few were reserved. I could have purchased a reservation at the time of ticketing (less than an hour before) and had a seat.

However, for my next trip to Germany, next month, I have already purchase €29 Dauer-Spezial fares for two trips (€58 total). Full fare would have cost me €163.

Yes, she could buy full fare tickets anytime in Europe, but I find that most of the Savings Fares sell out long before most people get to Europe to buy them. If it is only a question of train availability, if cost is no objective, I agree, buy them over there. But if cost matters, she should buy them online from DB now.

Full fare tickets, purchased over there at the time of travel, for three legs of her trip: Bruges to Köln to Weimar to Berlin, would cost her €170 to €205. She could get them for as low as €77 online now from over here.