My boyfriend and I have purchased Germany-France Eurail passes for our upcoming trip to Frankfurt, Munich, Strasbourg, and Paris. Do we need to make a reservation for Monday morning train travel in early September from Munich to Strasbourg? We have already reserved the necessary TGV trains we will be using to and from our other destinations in France. When we try to make a reservation from Munich to Strasbourg on the rail pass website, however, it says there are no schedules or tickets for that trip. Please offer any help/suggestions you have.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
You've already sunk your money into the railpass, so I won't go into all the better options, but for now, ignore Eurail and RailEurope. Get all your information on trains from the Deutsche Bahn website. From what I see on Deutsche Bahn, there are at lest two direct trains between Munich and Strasbourg each day, one TGV run by SNCF, the national rail operator of France, and one ICE by Deutsche Bahn. All of your other options involve at least one or two transfers, some of which are on regional trains that don't offer reservations. I don't know how reservations work on SNCF, but on Deutsche Bahn, you can purchase one for about €4 at a ticket automat at one of the stations. Reservations on an ICE are not necessary, but I always get one. That way, I can proceed directly to my waiting seat and not fumble around looking for a vacancy. The caveat here is that I don't know the rules for rail pass use on an ICE. It may also require some kind of supplement, but I am not certain.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19158 posts
What "rail pass website". Hope it's not RailEurope, as they don't have complete schedules, don't sell tickets or reservations for all trains, and charge more for those they do sell. The German Rail (Bahn) website would certainly have discount tickets for Munich to Strasbourg, but not "reservations" that you would need with a railpass. However, for any specific Munich to Strasbourg train, you could get reservations from the Bahn to the last station in Germany (Karlsruhe, Offenburg, ?).
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
If you're planning to take the direct TGV that departs at 06:26 and that train doesn't appear on the Rail Europe site, then you will need to buy your seat reservations at a station in Germany. Since SNCF (French National Rail) limits the number of seats on TGVs that it allocates to passholders, don't wait until you get to Munich to buy them. Do it in Frankfurt. If you take a later ICE train from Munich to Stuttgart and a TGV from there to Strasbourg, buy your Stuttgart-Strasbourg seat reservations in Frankfurt.