Cerbere to Barcelona

Thanks Steve. It's good to know that i can pay up for the spanish portion while still in nice. I thought about flying too. There's a $93 flight from nice to barcelona, but it leaves at midnight and arrives at 1AM and I do not feel comfortable being in a new city at that hour. Flights at more reasonable hour are very much out of my price range. I just wish that the train leaving nice leaves earlier and gets to cerbere and hence barcelona earlier.

If anyone knows of a place I can stay at in Cerbere for one evening (may 28th), that would be ideal. then I can get walk around cerbere in the morning before catching an early afternoon train to barcelona on may 29th. This way, I won't have to feel like I'm in a train all day on May 28th!

You can travel all the way with only one connection in Montpellier. Leave Nice at 09:55 and arrive in Montpellier at 14:09. Leave Montpellier at 15:09 and arrrive at Barcelona Franca at 19:59.

You'll need to buy a seat reservation for the Nice-Montpellier leg. You'll need to buy a seat reservation as far as Cerbere on the Montpellier-Barcelona leg plus a ticket to cover the portion from Cerbere to Barcelona.

For detailed timetables, go to the German Rail site. After you get summary timetables for Nice Ville-Barcelona Estacion de Franca, click on the arrow to the left of the departure time(s) of your choice to see the connecting points.

Thanks Tim. Do you know if I should buy the reservation before I get to Europe? Is it too late if I buy the reservation when I get to Europe? I get to Amsterdam on May 13th and I get to Nice on May 25th. Should I make reservations on all my trains as soon as I get to Amsterdam? or can I make reservations as I go? For example, can I reserve the nice-to-barcelona trip on May 28th when I get to nice on May 25th?

I really appreciate your help!

Since you need to make reservations for day trains, not for night trains which often sell out weeks in advance, you might be OK waiting until you get to Amsterdam to make those reservations. However, since rail companies limit the number of seats they allocate to passholders, you might discover that those seats are gone, even though you could buy standard fare tickets on the same trains at the last minute if you chose to do so.

You could buy your reservations on the Rail Europe site and pay their inflated prices plus a shipping fee. Or you might be able to get them by calling German Rail, in Germany, at (49) 1805 996633. They will charge you European counter prices plus a more modest shipping fee.

Oh no! I just checked on Rail Europe and it looks like the only train that's running from nice to barcelona on may 28th is out of reservations! What should I do?

I already booked a night on may 28th @ a hostal in Barcelona. :(

This reservation thing is extremely frustrating and I do wish they could be ticketless reservations. At this time, I do not even know if I can get my reservations on time if I order them now since I'm leaving on May 12th.

I thought the railpass was supposed to be easy...now I'm worried about not even being able to make it from one city to another in time for the hotels/hostals I booked!

H

Helen...don't panic....there are several different train routes that may still get you from Nice to Barcelona on May 28th. As has already been noted, RailEurope does not list all trains available. Review Tim's last response...he lists the telephone number for the German rail website (DB). You can try calling them to make reservations. target="_blank">Click here to go to their website and familiarize yourself with the various options available (many will require several transfers, and some require a bus connection, so start with the simplest and those that don't require buses) then give DB a call. They are 9 hours ahead of you, so you may have to call at an odd hour to get the best service.