Buying point-to-point international train tickets (Central/Eastern Europe)

Hi Stacey,

You have some good questions in there. I will not be able to answer all of them, but I will do what I can.

First off, a night train should always be reserved in advance. You do not always need to make that reservation in advance of the trip, though, as you can purchase a reservation from any major rail station in Europe, and the demand can depend on the route and the time of the year. Suffice it to say that your two night trains are ones that you should have reserved at least two weeks in advance, but realistically even further than that if you have a preference for a private sleeper, or even to get preferential placement in the couchette cabin (I prefer the top bunks). I once booked a night train four weeks in advance for a trip from Switzerland to Italy, and I got one of the last bunks on the train.

Have you tried pricing out your individual tickets with rail europe? As you said, they are more expensive, but if rail europe even gives you a cheaper price than the rail pass would, that's a good answer there. I will have to leave it to more experienced individuals to give a more accurate response to this part.

Just as a point of assistance, you mentioned that you have two trips to take where you will have a pass that covers you for half of the distance. I had trouble getting details in advance of how to negotiate this, so I had to wait until I was in Europe to settle it out. You can either just hop on the train and have the conductor calculate out the cost of the duration that you do not have covered by your railpass. The other alternative is that you purchase a ticket at the station window prior to boarding the train, and they will calculate out what the uncovered portion is. I prefer the second method as sometimes the charge is higher to have the train conductor bill you.

Hi Stacey:

International P2P trains can be a pain to sort out, I feel ya!

Here's how I do it:
Use the Deutsche Bahn website (http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml) to find the exact series of trains that make up the itinerary you want, then price/book each individual train separately (on the national rail site corresponding to the city from which that train departs).

For example, Zurich to Ljubljana - searching this on dbahn site shows several itinerary options, the first one on the list has 3 train segments required:
1) Zurich to Salzburg (Eurocity 163)
2) Salzburg to Villach (Eurocity 115)
3) Villach to Ljubljana (Regular Train #315)

I can price or book segment 1 on the Swiss rail site, sbb.ch
I can price or book segment 2 on the Austrian rail site, oebb.at
For segment 3, I'd try oebb.at or the Slovenian rail site (not sure what that is)

Sounds annoying and it is...esp since usually there are so many different routings possible between two points, and no easy way to see them at a high level (searches on dbahn only show results for one day at a time at most).

Hope that helps you sort it out a bit better...

A million thanks to both of you for these detailed and helpful answers. Now I don't feel so pathetic; it really IS that difficult to deal with P2Ps and a pass combo. I'll do a bit more digging, but I think that my inexperience, frustration (and slight anxiety) will cause me to overpay a bit for the convenience of a full rail pass. And I'm OK with that.

I consulted with my travelling partner and the consensus is to just pay for the $850 Global Pass (plus reservation fees for 2 TGV lines we're taking in France), as well as couchette reservations for the 3 night trains (and those fees will be from our "hostel" budget).

Any feedback or further suggestions are very much appreciated.