Need Help w/ the Trains Please

Starting from your last question and working back:

City to city tickets could be cheaper. Go to www.bahn.de and test the fares for the segments of your trip to see. Those prices will include reservation fees.

I'm guessing that your Paris to Amsterdam segments will be cheaper point-to-point. Others can advise you on purchasing from the States (or go to the expert at www.seat61.com). But you otherwise buy your tickets at the train station as you go. They take Visa.

If you buy a railpass, you will have to pay extra charges for many trains for seat reservations. These, also, you buy at the train station.

JB, I'm not sure what kind of railpass you are considering. If it's a Eurail pass of some type, they don't sell them in Europe. This is a product sold to non-Europeans. If its a specific country pass such as France and Germany, you can buy these at the train stations in those countries.

If your pass is a Select-type, you might find journeys that are a lot less expensive to buy city-to-city as opposed to checking off a valuable day on your pass.

There are nothing but regional trains from Munich to Füssen, and they can't be reserved. Plus, 2 people (up to 5 actually) can travel that route for €27, total, with a Bayern-Ticket (www.bayern-takt.de). That's less than with a railpass. The Bayern-Ticket isn't valid on weekdays before 9 AM, but who wants to get up that early, anyway. But you can leave a few minutes earlier for a little more if you know the trick.

If you book online far enough ahead with German Rail (Bahn.de), you can get fares from Amsterdam to Munich or Fuessen to Vienna for as low as €39 per person.

Thanks for the tips

the issue that i've had thus far is being able to find these train tickets, city to city, online. Some say they are not available for advance purchase, and some routes say you can within 89 days of travel.

We expect to take the local trains to Versailles from Paris, as well as to Epernay from Paris. The routes that i've seen have been Epernay to Brugge, with a stop in Paris, then again in Lille. However, I cannot get a price on these routes which is what is currently stopping me from buying a pass.

We already know that we'll for sure have to purchase a city to city ticket from Vienna to Budapest and i've been told its not a very expensive ticket at all.

Is that Bahn website the best way to look up the cheapest city to city tickets?

EDIT: I've looked on Bahn for most of the routes and the earliest you can order any of them is as early as 89 days. We're traveling from August 11th to September 2nd, so I guess i'll have to wait?

Any suggestions? I'd love to be able to have an idea so that if we have to talk with a travel agent I can have my stuff together so I know what i'm talking about.

JB - if you want just a general idea look at RS books. In each of the books he usually has a roughly drawn map with the prices of point-to-point ticket prices. He may even have it here on the website, but I'm not sure. Otherwise, you may have to wait.

Are you students? If so the student rail pass may be a cheaper option for you. I was one year over the age limit last year so it was better for me to buy point-to-point tickets vs. the rail pass. The point-to-point tickets were only slightly less costly than the rail pass.

If you look in the Railpasses section of this website (look at the top of the page) you will find a lot of information about train travel, maps, figuring out whether you need a railpass, which one to buy, etc. RS also sells the passes; the service is excellent.

"Is that Bahn website the best way to look up the cheapest city to city tickets?"

The Bahn website is the best source for schedules all over Europe, but they only sell tickets, and thus have fares, for trains that start and/or end in Germany. Hence, you can get fares for Amsterdam-Munich, Munich-Füssen, and Füssen-Vienna, but not for the other routes.

Try:
French Rail, www.sncf.fr

Belgian Rail, www.b-rail.be, and

Dutch Rail, www.ns.nl

On German Rail, www.bahn.de, you can find and buy a lot of special, discount fares. I am not so sure about the other lines.

Thanks for the tips again!

Yes I am a student, but I wasn't aware they offered student discounts, I thought it was only Youth Passes. I'll look into student discounts.

I'll check out each countries website and see if I can get some more information - i'll most likely end up buying the book here pretty soon. Is the book only for sale on RS' website?

When you go to the french rail site, make sure you don't put USA as your country as you will be kicked to the Rail Europe site. Just put in France as your country and then you will be able to get prices for your trips in France.

I was reading another post regarding reservation...is there anyway to know what line does not require a reservation? If most of the routes that we're taking do not require a reservation, then the rail pass is the best choice for us because we can just jump on the train and all is well, however if we have to pay a reservation fee on top of the ticket we'll be better getting p2p.

paris>epernay
epernay>brugge (this is the one i'm having trouble with)
brugge>brussels
brussels>amsterdam
amsterdam>munich (most likely will be an all day adventure)
munich>fussn (bus options also?)
fussen>vienna
vienna>budapest

then we're flying to our new home in Florence.

Again, check with the bahn.de site. Although you can only book tickets on runs that somehow touch Germany, they do offer a massive database of schedules for European railways. Input your trip data, and if a small "R" in a red circle comes up, then a reservation is necessary for that trip. Any overnight trips requiring sleeping accommodations will, of course, require reservations and extra $$$ for couchettes, etc.

General rule: Local trains that travel short distances do not require a reservation. High speed trains require reservations. Paris-Epernay is served by the TER, a local train. Epernay-(Paris)-Bruges is served by the TER and and Thalys high speed train. (The train changes in Paris.) You will need to pay reservation fees on the Paris-Bruges segment of the trip. Bruges-Brussels is local - no fees. Brussels-Amsterdam is served by Thalys - reservations are mandatory. Amsterdam-Munich is served by ICE - reservations are not needed. Munich-Fussen and Fussen-Vienna don't need reservations either. Vienna-Budapest usually does not require reservations , as long as you don't take the IC (InterCity) train.

Final Count:
Routes requiring reservations - 2

Thalys reservation fees: 15 Euros/$23 USD per train in 2nd class.

Info taken from Die Bahn

Reservation Fee Chart (PDF)

Brussels-Amsterdam is also served by IC trains. Just as fast as Thalys and no reservation fee because no reservations are possible.

wow wow wow thank you so much for those tips.

So after reading that info and making the needed changes to the route it seems like I should get a rail pass and pay the extra fee, only twice. It seems worth it. We won't be doing AMS to Munich, we're going to fly to vienna, then go to Budapest and take a night train to Munich from budapest.

So a rail pass seems to be the answer, with the understanding that i'll have to save $75ish for reservation fees.