How Far in Advance to Buy Train Tickets?

For London to Paris the tickets rise in price as the date approaches. The best prices are months in advance and already gone for May, but you might want to buy those now.

Sleep compartments are the one element of train travel that sell outs so it i best to book compartments as early as you can. For regular day travel it is very rare for a train to sell out except for some holiday travel.

If you don't mind paying more, you can get tickets for day trains at the station. Get reservations too, if you want, but I have never been on train with every seat reserved. However, you will get a better price with advance reservations, and night trains often do sell out far in advance. I remember years ago a young lady who was trying to book accommodations for the night train from Munich to Venice a month in advance, and there were only seats remaining.

The London/Paris Eurostar can fill up and can be a bit pricey if you wait until the last minute. On this run, I would buy as early as I could. You'll save some money. For the sleeper run, night trains often sell out. They are popular. On the other runs, you are fine to wait until 3-4 days out but you will pay to normal base fare.

I would fly from Paris to Berlin, personally. Your night train options are pretty grim - 10 1/2 hours leaving you in Berlin at 4:30 a.m., or over 12 hours getting you there at 7:20 a.m. Both trips have connections. Day trains are over 8 hours. Flying will probably save you several hours and a good night's sleep which you aren't likely to get on the train, realistically. You should have bought the train tickets already for the best prices, unless money is no object. Early fares are often several times cheaper than the normal price.

Thanks, all. Lots of good advice. Looks like I better get cracking!