My husband and I are taking our 4 children to Europe for the first time this summer. We will be traveling the first two weeks of August. When we have traveled in Europe in Autumn, we just purchased train tickets at the station and never had a problem getting a seat. Because summer is more tourist busy, do we need to purchase our train tickets in advance? We haven't finalized our plans but think we may be traveling from London to Bruges to Munich to Interlacken to Paris. Also, is there any good way to determine ticket prices? I have tried using some of the different website such as the Deutsche Bahn, however it doesn't seem to provide fares when you cross over the border. I would appreciate any advice.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19092 posts
In my experience, DB gives fares for an entire train route, even if it crosses the border, but not for connections after that.
However, I notice that for Brussels to Munich, using Thalys to Köln with a change there, it looks like you have to price the Brussels to Köln and Köln to Munich legs separately.
For Munich to Interlaken, there is probably a change in Zurich. You can get Munich to Zurich fare from DB (maybe Europa-Spezial fare at €29 pP), but the fare from there to Interlaken will probably be on Swiss Rail, www.sbb.ch.
Similarly, for Interlaken to Paris, there will probably be a change of trains in Basel. Get the part to Basel from Swiss Rail and the part from Basel to Paris from French Rail. The stations in Basel, Basel SBB and Basel SNCF are adjacent, with a short walk through customs and down the platform.
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
Certainly for London-Brussels-Bruges on Eurostar, you will need to book in advance....especially if you want to get a good price, and with 4 kids with you, I can imagine that may be a factor :). Check Eurostar.com for schedules and prices. As with airline fares, the cheaper the ticket, the more restrictions there are. Eurostar allows you to book six months out, so do so ASAP. I think you should be able to get one-ways for about $100 per adult to Brussels. From there, of course, it's just a second-class train to Bruges, so purchase your tickets in Brussels. For Interlaken-Paris, you'll have to use either SNCF (France) or SBB (Switzerland). Since that train doesn't begin or end in Germany, Bahn won't have prices.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Tickets on the London-Brussels Eurostar include the ABS (any Belgian station) feature. Use the same ticket within 24 hours of arriving in Brussels to get to any station in Belgium (in your case, Bruges).
Booked far enough in advance (up to 90 days allowed)at www.bahn.de, you can get Dauer-Spezial fares as low as 29€ for Koeln-Muenchen and Europa-Spezial fares as low as 29€ for Muenchen-Zuerich.
Booked in advance, you can get discount fares on the Koeln-Muenchen night train. Or get discount fares on the Bruxelles-Hannover night train and Dauer-Spezial fares for Hannover-Muenchen.
Booked up to 90 days in advance at www.voyages-sncf.com, you can get Piccolo fares as low as 35€ for Basel-Paris.