How much will I be saving by purchasing tickets at the station for my night train travels? RailEurope seems to be saving me a lot of headache, but I want to know how much more I am paying for the convenience.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Raileurope makes is very easy and convenient to purchase ticket on almost any type of train. Your alternative is to go to specific country train sites (i.e. www.bahn.de, www.trenitalia.com, www.tgv-europe.com, www.sbb.ch, www.oebb.at), register and try to buy tickets from their site online. The major pro to going to the country site is that the tickets will be less expensive and you can often take advantage of special fares that can really save costs. The major cons are 1) you need to tickets for more than one country and, 2) some of these sites are so darn difficult to navigate and make a purchase it's often not worth it. For me, I can easily buy tickets on these sites but I do understand how frustrating it can be for travelers with little or no experience on the sites. However, I mostly wait until I get to Europe before purchasing my tickets. I have never been on a night train.
Next, night trains are a different story. You need to purchase tickets for most of these trains as soon as they become available and they do fill up. You can't wait until you get to Europe. Also, many of the special fares are snapped up right away. Note that I have not seen Raileurope pass on any of these special fares.