Hi, A friend is joing me in Paris this June, but wants to pop over to Amsterdam for 2-3 days. I will not be going with her, and I haven't taken the train between the two cities in decades.
Which site should she book on, and any advice or tips re the whole trip( better routing or pricing etc)
thanks
tgv-europe.com, the French national rail website, will sell the tickets for the Thalys run between the two cities. You can book up to 90 days in advance, and tickets can be had for as low as 35 Euro each way. However, read the conditions...these "Smoove" fares are non changeable and non refundable. More flexible tickets are also available. Travel time is about 3 1/3 hours.
The direct site for French train tickets is voyages-sncf.com. If you read some French, it's best to use that site. If you go to tgv-europe.com, it will ask for your country of residence. If you want the site in English, tell it you live in Great Britain. If you tell it USA, it will redirect you to the Rail Europe USA site, with prices in Dollars instead of Euros, which will usually be higher.
I know you can self-print some tickets on the voyages-sncf.com site. This is the most convenient. Don't know if you can do this on the Great Britain site.
The TGV-Europe.com site IS SNCF, but in English. They will offer you exactly the same fares as the SNCF site. As Tyler said, select Great Britain and you will have no problems.
..or you could just use http://www.thalys.com
As long as you select "eng" at the upper left, it will always be in English even if you're originating from France.
