Paris to Cinque Terre

You'll hear this a hundred times, but think twice before getting a rail pass. You will save money by getting point to point tickets. They are advance purchase nonrefundable, but air lines have already got us used to doing business this way, and the rails are chiming in.

Montreux, Switzerland, Aix-les-Bains or Chambery, France or even Lyon are about halfway.

Your best bet would be to fly from Paris-Orly to Pisa on EasyJet.com.

You'd take a short train ride to the Pisa rail station, and then catch a regional train north to La Spezia--50 miles.

At La Spezia, you catch another train a short distance to the Cinque Terre.

You'd reverse your trip to get to Florence--through Pisa. It's about 1 hr. from Pisa to Florence.

steph,

As the previous reply mentioned, using a Rail Pass will probably not be the most cost effective method, for a variety of reasons. For example.....

• If your rail trip goes through Switzerland, you'll have to buy a separate ticket to cover that part of the journey.
• Rail Passes DO NOT cover the reservation fees that are compulsory on the "premium" trains such as the high speed TGV in France or Freccia trains in Italy. You'll have to pay separately for those. Passholder reservations may be limited in some cases, so if they happen to be sold-out on the day you'll be travelling, you'll have to buy regular tickets at full price.
• Especially in Italy, you DON'T want to be caught without valid reservations for the train you're riding on (if they're compulsory for that train), as you'll likely be fined on the spot and it won't be cheap! Fines are about €60 PP, and if not paid on the spot they increase. There are also fines for those riding Regionale trains or Buses (which don't require reservations) that don't validate their tickets.

Before deciding on your rail strategy, I'd highly recommend having a look at the excellent Man In Seat 61 website. You can plan your rail trips just about anywhere in Europe using the Bahn.de (German Rail) website.

The trip from Paris to the Cinque Terre will take about 10-12 hours with 1-3 changes, if you decide to do it in one day. Which of the five C.T. towns are you planning to stay in? Splitting up the trip into two segments would make the trip far easier (that's a method I often use). You could for example...

• Travel by train from Paris to Nice and spend a couple of nights there before continuing on to Italy. That trip will be about 5.5 hours via high speed TGV at 300 kmH.
• Travel by train from Nice to (for example) Monterosso. That trip will be about 5.5 to 6.5 hours, depending on which train you choose, with one or two changes.

As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to the trip, as it provides a lot of good information on "how" to travel in Europe. You'll need to be clear on the aspect of "changes" when riding by rail, as it can be a bit confusing for some. After that use the country-specific Guidebooks to plan hotels, restaurants, transportation, sightseeing, etc.

Good luck with your planning!

Why would you buy a railpass when I can see fares of 47Euro from Paris to Milan and 26.30Euro from Milan to Monterosso. Of course, the fares are non-refundable but if you can plan carefully, you won't have any trouble catching your trains. We do this all of the time. You are not doing enough train travel to warrant a rail-pass. Besides, with a railpass, you do not have your seat reservations yet on either the TGV or the Trenitalia Freccia train. You will have to pay a supplemental fee on top of the cost of your railpass. Note that France limits their seats to pass holders. Additionally, if you select a train routing that goes through Switzerland (most do), your 2-country railpass will not cover you there. You will have to pay extra to ride through Switzerland.

Next, the train trip takes 11-13 hours depending on which way you go. The high-speed TGV from Paris to Milan takes 7hrs10min. The Trenitalia trains take 3.5-4.0hrs. A second way is to route via Provence, Nice, Ventimiglia and Genoa. This trip takes a couple of hours longer. Flying, which is an option, will take 4.0-4.5hrs. You fly Paris-Orly to Pisa and then take the train to the CT.

The entire trip can be done in one day. For a stopover, you could take the train to Milan and then on to Vernazza on Lake Como for a couple of days. To do it in one day, just change trains in Milan. If you leave Paris around 8 am you can arrive in Milan mid-afternoon.

Thank you so much for all if the responses! I had no idea how much cheaper it would be to buy point to point train travel instead of the rail pass. I do also think it would give me a better piece if mind to buy my ticket at the station or online and to know that is has been validated. I have read and continue to make notes using Rick Steves Europe Through The Backdoor. I love his travel guides!!
I have decided to either stay in Milan or Nice to break up the trip. Any recommendation on which city to stay in while in the Cinque Terre? Rick Steve's suggest Vernazza so I was planning to stay there so far.
Also I tried putting in Monterosso on rail Europe and nothing would pull up, so I typed in La Spezia and I found the station, is one town better than the other? If not I'm just going for La Spezia.
Thanks again for helping me out!!! I truly truly appreciate it.

La Spezia is a port city, and most certainly not the Cinque Terra. It is the jumping off place for the local regional trains that take you to the 5 towns of the CT proper. And stop looking at Rail Europe. You can see ALL the trains in great detail at www.bahn.com. It is the German rail website, but it has all the other (with a few obscure exceptions) countries' schedules loaded in it's computer. You can buy the Paris-Nice or Paris-Milan legs online from:
http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/?DISTRIBUTED_COUNTRY=GB
Make sure you use France as the "Ticket collection country" and you can print your tickets at home, or if that gets tricky (notify your credit card company before you buy so they won't decline it because of suspected fraud), you can use https://www.capitainetrain.com/ which will get you the same price.
Italian regional trains can be bought at the station or out of a vending machine. Those are the ones you have to validate.

steph,

Just to clarify, your ticket won't normally be "validated" if you buy it online, unless you manage to find a Regionale ticket which is pre-validated. There's no price break for buying those online, so it's best just to buy them in Italy using a Kiosk. The tickets for the premium trains are specific for a particular train, date and departure time, so be sure that you board ONLY the train specified on your ticket or you may be fined on the spot!

"I have decided to either stay in Milan or Nice to break up the trip. Any recommendation on which city to stay in while in the Cinque Terre?"

Of the two, my suggestion would be to stay in Nice. It's a beautiful city with lots to see both there and on day trips (Monaco, Villefranche, etc.), and a relatively easy trip from there to the C.T. See below for C.T. town suggestions.

"Rick Steve's suggest Vernazza so I was planning to stay there so far."

I'd highly recommend looking at ALL the C.T. towns to find the one that fits your criteria the best, rather than relying on a single point-of-view (with all due respect to the travel guru that hosts this website). Everyone here has their own preferences for which of the five is the "best" town to stay in, and I most definitely prefer Monterosso. It's the largest of the five towns, has the best beaches and the greatest number of hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities, as well as a full-service rail station. It has a wonderful atmosphere in the evenings, with travellers wandering back and forth between the new town and old town and street musicians playing in the tunnel. Others have found excellent accommodations and a wonderful travel experience in Manarola. I've also found that Riomaggiore is a great place to stay.

"I tried putting in Monterosso on rail Europe and nothing would pull up"

As someone else mentioned, DON'T use Rail Europe for checking anything. They typically only list routes that they sell tickets for (often at inflated prices), and are certainly not a comprehensive source of travel information or rail schedules. For researching rail journeys anywhere in Europe, the best site is the bahn.de (German Rail) website. You can also use the Trenitalia website for trips in Italy or even the sbb.ch (Swiss Rail) website for some trips (even those outside of Switzerland). There's also the SNCF (French rail) website, but I find it easier to use the others that I mentioned.

"If not I'm just going for La Spezia."

La Spezia is the regional capital for that area, and a large city. While you could stay there, I wouldn't recommend it. Staying in one of the five towns would be the best idea. You could also consider Levanto, which is not "officially" part of the C.T., but it's also a beautiful city with great beaches, and only about a four minute ride from Monterosso.

Cheers!

The IC train down the coast from Genoa ( which you will pass through coming from either Nice or Milan) stops in Montersoos. You get off there and change to the local( regional) train to Vernazza. MIT takes only a few minutes.