Hello all,
I am planning a trip for Aug/Sept to Italy, France, Germany, and Switzerland. I am traveling with one other person, and we plan on buying Eurail select youth passes for these 4 countries. Only one day train that I plan on taking (Paris-Mannheim) requires reservations, and I think (?) I can just make those in Paris once I get there 5 days earlier.
Night train: We want to take the Artesia at night from Venice to Paris, and I want to make reservations as soon as possible since we are sure of our travel dates. I have heard 90 and 120 days out are possible times that reservations can start to be made, is this right? Also, I know I can't order from the Trenitalia website with my US credit card, and Rail Europe marks up the prices, but is there another way to get these reservations? I want to make sure we get in the same compartment without any surprises.
Going along with that, can we pay for the 2-berth sleeper cabins even though we only have 2nd-class youth passes? I have searched everywhere and can't find the answer to this. We want to have one of these cabins but are not totally opposed to a couchette since we can stay in one together.
Thanks for any help, hopefully I can repay the knowledge when I get back from my trip!