Traveling to Europe July 12. Family of 5. Going from Milan to Cinque Terra, back to Milan to travel to Venezia. From Venezia to Rome (home base) from Rome day trips to Florencia, Assisi, Naples and Pompeii (separate days). Point to point so far. $2005 or $401.00 per person. Italian Rail Pass 2nd class Saver is $237.00 per person, or $1158.00 for the 5 of us. Difference of $847.00. Are the reservations and the sur-charge fees for Eurostar Italia take me over the difference between Pass and Point to point? I still confused, most people recommend me point to point but when you multiply that by 5 is a lot more than change. I need to move on with this, so, Pass or P2P?
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17612 posts
Javier, did you get your ticket prices from RailEurope, or from Trenitalia?
Are there any children traveling? Someplace here I read about family tickets (for travel in Italy) if you have a child under 9. Maybe someone else can explain.
My thought is that passes are not useful for travel within Italy. We are a family of 4 and will travel on P2P tickets. I hope I'm not wrong!
We always use passes in Switzerland so this will be a different experience.
Posted by
OP
St.Petersburg, Florida, USA
23 posts
Thanks much for your advise. So what you are recommending is for me to by the tickets there, point to point. Correct me if I am wrong. If I buy my tickets there, is the reservation and all charges included in the price? Can I buy all the tickets and reservations that I need at once in the train station? Traveling from Venezia, I do not mind taking the 6+ hours train, My kids like High Velocity,(by kids I mean 13,16,18). Your advise will be as always priceless.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Javier,
If you take high-speed trains whenever possible, even with having to buy seat reservations railpasses will be cheaper than point-to-point tickets for your routes. The reservation fee is 10 EUR on EuroStar Italia trains and 3 EUR on InterCity trains.
The reason for this is that Trenitalia raised its fares for EuroStar Italia and IC trains this past year. It now offers advance purchase discount fares for those trains, but the Trenitalia site doesn't accept US credit cards. If you were to buy tickets as soon as you arrive in Italy for rides at least one week later, then you could get a 15% off discount fare on either IC trains or EuroStar Italia trains; but by then the alloted number of discount fare tickets might be gone.
So unless you take cheap--and slow--regional trains whenever possible and avoid EuroStar Italia trains altogether, for your routes you'll do better with passes.
To get the family special, one person must be under 12.
Posted by
OP
St.Petersburg, Florida, USA
23 posts
Train Itinerary in Italy
Date Ideal Time Line Departing Arriving Price
16/07/2010 07:00 Malpensa, Milan Milano Centrale
16/07/2010 09:00 Milano Centrale Genoa or La Spezia
16/07/2010 as early as possible Genoa or La Spezia Monterrosso
17/07/2010 06:30 Monterrosso Milano Centrale
17/07/2010 as early as possible Milano Centrale Venezia Sta. Lucia
18/07/2010 08:00 Venezia Sta. Lucia Roma Termini
19/07/2010 07:00 Roma Termini Florence
19/07/2010 20:00 Florence Roma Termini
20/07/2010 07:00 Roma Termini Assisi
20/07/2010 20:00 Assisi Roma Termini
22/07/2010 07:00 Roma Termini Pompei
22/07/2010 21:00 Napoli Roma Termini