Overwhelmed need help

Toby,

If you're travelling by rail from Pamplona to Paris, at least part or your journey will likely be via TGV. However, for the trip from Paris to Amsterdam, you'll probably be travelling from Gare du Nord to Amsterdam Centraal via Thalys high speed trains.

It appears that you have only three rail trips, so I wouldn't bother with a Railpass. Just buy P-P tickets in Europe, preferably a few days before you'll be travelling.

Toby,

Norm from Ottawa is very knowledgeable about train and bus service in Spain. I sent him a PM yesterday asking him to post a note on this thread. He usually answers right away so perhaps he is away from home. In the meantime I'll make some suggestions with which I think he will agree.

First of all, don't buy a railpass. Here's why. Bus service from Barcelona to Pamplona is not all that much slower than train service and it is a lot cheaper. Taking the train from Pamplona to Paris means a long ride with several connections. And it won't be cheap. You'd be better off taking a morning bus back to Barcelona and flying from there to Paris on Vueling, a budget airline. It will be cheaper as well as faster. Book the Vueling flight ASAP to get the best fare.

For Paris-Amsterdam you will take a Thalys high-speed train, not a TGV. The standard fare is pricey so book NOW to get a discount fare. Go to www.thalys.com and choose France and English. Click on Paper Ticket and choose France as the country in which you will retrieve it. If you get a discount fare, you can print the ticket yourself. For other fares you can pick up the ticket at Gare du Nord in Paris.

Here's some more information you need to know.

Train: From Barcelona Sants train station there's a train to Pamplona (approx 6 hrs). Trains always sell out, you are no chance if you don't pre-book.

Bus: Local bus services from Barcelona to Pamplona's main bus station also take around 6 hours. Pre-bookings are essential and buses always sell out during San Fermin.

Thanks everyone for your help. I will wait to book these tickets until this weekend in case someone else has a tip.

Again, thank you.

Toby

I think RailEurope.com has a way to plug in your trip and it will help you figure out if a pass or point-to-point might work for you.

Toby,

The quote I gave you in my previous post which I found by doing a Google search is inaccurate. The fastest train from Barcelona to Pamplona makes the trip in less than four hours, not six hours. However, I expect the warning that both trains and buses sell out around the time of the San Fermin Festival is true.

Molly,

Rail Europe is not the best site to check because it only shows timetables for routes for which it sells tickets. Routes requiring multiple connections, like Pamplona-Paris, don't appear at all.