We are travelling from paris-Avignon-Annecy-lausanne-bern-dijon-paris.We will travel only by train,and I would love some help about where we connect between places,such as bern to dijon,do we have to change trains,or book ahead.
Would we be better with a eurail pass,combined with individual tickets on short routes Thanks !
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
There are a couple of TGV runs from Bern to Paris-Gare-De-Lyon via Dijon-Ville. About 3hrs from Bern to Dijon-Ville. Only one run departing at 8:29am from Bern has no train changes. It departs Dijon-Ville for Paris at 11:25. There are other Bern/Paris runs but they will route via Basel or Geneva.
Posted by
Ottawa, Ontario,, Canada
521 posts
Hi Sally,
To plan out all of the schedule times and switching of trains, use the Deutsche Bahn trip planner. For any route, click on the arrow at the left-hand side and it will show you all the details of train changes. As well, it will carefully tell you not just every destination, but every train station so you will know if you need to be in Avignon Center or Avignon TGV, for example.
For booking ahead, I would only recommend it for any night trains you might be doing on your route. You will need a reservation for any TGV trains, but you can book all of those from any Paris train station once you have arrived... or you can book them as you go. A reservation for a TGV is not expensive if you have a rail pass - about $3/ticket.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
I agree with Steven about using the DB site to plan your routes. As he says, if you have a railpass, then it's fine to buy seat reservations for any trains that require them after you get to Europe. As he also says, night trains are an exception since they often sell out weeks in advance.
However, point-to-point tickets are often cheaper than a railpass. If you can commit early and book online, you can get discount fares for many routes. For example, the standard 2nd class fare for Paris-Avignon is €102-€105. Booked ahead, you can get a Prem's fare as low as €22. The standard fare for Dijon-Paris is €46. The lowest Prem's fare is €17. If a particular route doesn't offer advance discount fares (on regional trains, for example), then there is no real advantage to booking ahead.
There is a morning direct TGV from Bern to Dijon that makes the run in three hours. There is a late morning IC train from Bern to Lausanne that connects with a TGV to Dijon. That route will take 3hr40min. At other times of the day you will have to make several connections and the trip will take much longer.