Point-to-Point tickets

Tiramisu,

In order to determine whether a Rail Pass or P-P tickets are a better value, you need to look at each of the rail trips you'll be taking and the cost for these. There's a small Map in the front of all Rick's Guidebooks that provides a quick "ballpark" method to calculate the cost of rail journeys.

One thing to mention about Rail Passes is that these don't include reservation fees, which are compulsory on virtually all of the "fast" trains such as the TGV in France. You'd have to pay these separately.

I never book seats or reservations in advance, as it's so easy to buy them in Europe (and often less expensive too!). Although there are enormous queues at ticket offices at times, I've never found that to be a problem. Most rail networks offer ticket machines now so that it's not necessary to stand in line. They're very easy to use.

The method I often use is to buy the tickets for my outgoing journey when I arrive in a city (since I'm at the station anyway). I research each of my rail trips on the net and have these listed on my Itinerary. That way I know the departure time and whether or not reservations will be required.

There are other options as well. In France you can visit an SNCF Boutique and buy your tickets there (for travel in France). They're located in different areas of Paris. In Italy I've also purchased tickets and reservations at local travel agents. I doubt that you'll have any trouble in Switzerland.

One point to note is that the automated ticket machines at Paris / CDG will only operate with the newer "chip" credit cards. Those that I saw in Italy recently would accept the older magnetic strip cards.

I'm sure one of the rail experts here will have some further comments.

Happy travels!

Buying tix there is easy,cheaper and much less stressful. Machines which only accept chip cc's will almost always accept CASH. Another alternative for times when machines arent available is to use local (European) travel agents in the cities from which you seek to travel by train. Many stations in large cities have national rail company outlets, which can help you with planning train travel and, often, with buying tickets.

It can be a good idea to use a local travel agent shop to buy your train tickets. Non of the pressure that comes with a line forming behind you while you sort yourself out!

Just be sure that the agent has a Trenitalia sticker in the window because that means that tickets are sold at face value ie commission free.

I'd say it depends on where you are going within the country. In Italy, it's easy to get tickets at the station even for travelling between major cities, and usually cheaper than Eurail. The only reason you'd want to reserve online is for the lower "Amica" rates, which come and go and hard to time. You print out the price, and when you get there, show it to the cashier and they will honor it. Trenitalia's site is known to be a pain. We travelled in July, and waiting in line did not pose a problem, just study your routes before going.

In France, if staying within Paris, you can purchase the Mobilis card or a cache of 10 tickets at the station.

I don't know about Switzerland.

But you'd probably need to get Eurail tickets online for your inter-country routes.

As frequent travelers, we never book our train tickets in advance. There is just no need to unless you will be on a night train. You would book those in advance. We wouldn't be caught dead with a Eurail pass. It's more expensive and its not as convenient as you might think if you want to ride the high-speed premium trains in the different countries. (See Ken's post above). We do buy Swiss passes or cards in Switzerland. That works well there.

BTW, with recent changes, the AMICA fare is only found on the IC and ICPlus trains. It's no longer available on the high-speeds.

Thanks everyone for your helpful tips. Sound like Europass is just for Americans. Originally I imgagined Europass should be like Japan pass, where you can just show them the ticket and they let you go on all the trains without paying any reservation fees, which is more international tourists friendly...

Take Larry's advice about buying either Swiss cards or passes. In Italy just buy tickets as you go. In France you can save money on TGV tickets if you book well in advance (up to three months allowed) at www.tgv-europe.com. However, the lowest discount fares are non-exchangeable and non-refundable so you have to be able to commit to a specific departure date and time. Regional train tickets in France cost the same no matter when you buy them.

We're in Italy now. I looked on the Trenitalia site before I left home and printed out the information about possible train schedules. I had that in front of me when I bought tickets at the machines. Your very first screen is a choice of language. After that, just follow the prompts. With my schedule in front of me, it was easy. I saw many people doing the same thing. And American credit cards are accepted -- in Italy anyway. WARNING. If you are changing trains anywhere, you will get a SEPARATE ticket for each train. Don't walk off and leave the second ticket. We almost did that. We bought all our tickets at once in Rome. It's easy. Just carefully follow the prompts. And when you are ready to board the train, don't forget to validate in the yellow machine.