Re: Traveling across Europe

Jennifer--when are you going?

Are you taking the bus---ferry--train from London to Paris because you particularly want the ferry ride?

If not, have you considered the train? It is fast, direct, and easy. The two of you can travel for $123 (for both, not each) on some days, especially in June. You can check the fares on the Eurostar website.

For travel from Paris into Germany, you should look for advance-purchase discount fares on the French train website (SNCF) or the TGV website. Just don't go to RailEurope, which is an agent that often marks up the fares.

Hi Lola~ Yes, I thought it would be fun to take the ferry! I checked out that French site and it appears to be very difficult to navigate, I got instructions on using the site and they were 10 pages long! You must have an Europe address to send the tickets to. I just found the TGV site -thanks to reading some other posts - and I was astonished how much cheaper they are then raileurope. I am wondering why they are so much cheaper and if they are ligit. For Cologne to Malmo with raileurope it was over $500 each for TGV $123. I am seriously considering buying my tickets in advanced through TGV. I guess I don't like being tied down to specific dates but that seems to be the only unless I bought an expensive pass.
Thanks for your help!
Jennifer

For Calais-Paris you can get a discount fare as low as 60 EUR for the two of you combined if you book ASAP (up to three months allowed) at www.tgv-europe.com. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site, choose Great Britain as your country of residence. Pick up your tickets at the station in Calais.

For Paris-Paderborn, book ASAP (up to 92 days allowed) on the German Rail site, www.bahn.de. The cheapest Savings fare is 39 EUR and your daughter rides free. Click on the drop-down flag menu for English. After you get summary timetables for Paris-Paderborn, look to see which departure times have a "Check availability" listing in the Savings fare column.

If you book ASAP on the German Rail site, you also can get a Savings fare as low as 39 EUR for Cologne-Malmo. And again, your daughter rides free.

For Paderborn-Cologne you can get a Savings fare as low as 19 EUR (your daughter is free).

What about tgv-europe.com would you vouch for them? Their prices seem very reasonable.
I just did the RickSteves time price/time table chart and it added up to over $500/per person for London to Stockholm. I was looking at the select saver pass and it would $753 for both of us. All this figuring out the piecemeal parts of the trip seem very daunting. I didn't think Paderborn would be on the main rail line and thought I'd have to change trains to a local one or perhaps a bus. Thanks, Tim, for the Bahn advice, I'll look into it. In Sweden I'll be going to Ekjö -south central- so once again am hoping I can find local public transit. I'm afraid the railpass really seems to be looking more and more convenient and maybe not so expensive.
Thanks again for the comments~

Jennifer,

tgv-europe.com is a multi-language SNCF (French national rail) site. It offers the same fares as voyages-sncf.com, the main site. However, if you say that you live in the USA, you will be bumped to the Rail Europe site (SNCF is a major owner) and you won't find discount fares. That's why in my previous post I said to select Great Britain as your country of residence.

Yes, a railpass is convenient and offers flexibility. But don't forgot that you will need to buy a seat reservation on each leg on some (but not all) ICE trains in Germany and on virtually all high-speed trains in the rest of Europe. If you can commit to specific dates and times, point-to-point discount fare tickets will be much cheaper than a pass. And why buy a railpass for your daughter when she can ride free on several of your routes because you have bought a ticket?

And if you book on the German rail site (bahn.de) as Tim suggested, you can just print out an "e-ticket" and bring that with you. You don't need to have tickets sent to you by mail or pick them up at the station. The printed confirmation, together with the credit card you used for booking, is your ticket.

This is good for booking tickets going into Germany, as well as tickets within Germany. We used this type of ticket on our last trip (going Zürich to Stuttgart) and saved a lot.

The German train website is very easy to use; you do need to register in order to buy tickets.

The ferry Dover to Calais sounds like fun----I've only done it at night and tried to sleep . . . not the best. I'm sure it's lovely during the day when you can enjoy the views.

Use directferries.co.uk to work the Dover-Calais segment. There'll be an option of two companies, use P&O since SeaFrance when out of the 'people only' business a short while ago. Sailings are frequent, cost about twenty-five euros, and the trip takes about an hour and a half. There is absolutely no need to buy tickets until you get to the ferry terminal.

Okay! You've convinced me! I will check out the sites suggested and let you know if I have any problems.

Thanks again, it sounds like I'll be saving quite a bit of money this way and it will be rather nice to have my travel plans in stone.

Jennifer, if you go to P&O Ferries website click on book journey, then after entering dates, etc there will be a pull down windown for vehicle pull it down and then select foot passenger. For you and your daughter will would be around £58.00.

More questions! I need departure times for the ferry from Dover to Calais. I got on the P&O ferries site to see departure times. I found the times but when I tried to see a quote it wouldn't let me select that I didn't have a vehicle. I suppose I can just show up at one of the times listed and hope all is well? I won't need to prepurchase a ticket? I would like to know the cost upfront though.
I also need to know where the train station is in relation to the ferry docking at Calais. How much time should I give my self to get to the train station and on board?
One more question: Which train station in Paris is closest to the Effel Tower?

What a great group! Thanks in advance for your help~
Jennifer

This time it let me choose 'no vehicle' so was able to get a quote of only 37 which I thought was a good price. Now will this price be better since I booked in advance? The time was 8:30am - 11:00 which surprised me, it's only supposed to be a 1 1/2 hr ferry ride, Is there a time change?

There is a time change. France is one hour ahead of England. It is one hour later in France.

After exhausted research on the rail sites I'm finding out, yes, I can get cheaper fares than using a railpass but then to get the cheap fare I'm having to choose trains that run at inconvenient times, take twice as long to get to a destination or won't connect with the other train in a timely manner. I figured for $100 more I can buy the saverpass and take whatever train is most convenient and not worrying about finding the train with the cheapest fare, but the train that is most convenient for me at the time. I read that reservations aren't necessary 95% of the time(and I'm not taking high speed trains) and in this way I won't have to buy in advance and can be more flexible! At least I feel like I've checked out all the options:)

Jennifer, since we're not aware of your exact routings and dates, its hard to comment, but Im not sure where you got the idea that 95% of trains don't require reservations. That might hold true if you counted every last commuter train in France, for example....but not the case for most trains that tourists take these days. You will certainly need reservations for the Eurostar, and a rail pass will only get you a discount off a regular priced ticket,,..which will end up being more expensive than one of the discount fares. You may also want reservations on some of the more popular trains, depending on when you plan to travel, so you can be assured of seats.
I'm also a little confused over your judgment that sale fares are only available on inconvenient trains. Many European countries, including France and Germany, offer discount fares on virtually all of their trains...like discount airlines, those tickets are limited in number and go quickly, so booking at the earliest possible date is important, especially at holiday times.
Consistently, many of us have found that, unless you are moving frequently (like every second day), a rail pass is not worth it, especially if you can commit to specific travel dates to take advantage of the deeper discounts. Perhaps you could post your itinerary, and let some of our 'rail experts' have a go at trying to save you some money! ;)

I'm not taking any fast, popular trains, no holiday times, the Rick Steve site is where I got the idea that 95% of trains will not need reservations.
I've gotten on the train web-sites to plan my trip and the fares that are lowest are the ones where the trip takes twice as long or as in the case of going from Paderborn, Germany to Copenhagen I will arrive at 11:00pm(only cheap fare available) and then the only train available on sj Swedish rail leaves Copenhagen at 4am for Alvesta, Sweden. I added it all up and even if I found the cheapest fares for my legs of my journey I'm only paying about $100 more and with the railpass I can choose more convenient times this way. I really don't want to hang around a train station in Copenhagen in the middle of the night for 5 hours. It's not worth the savings.
I AM thinking of booking the ferry from Dover to Calais in advance though, I got a quote on-line of 37eur which seems to be cheaper than the average price.
I would take regular trains from (Day 1)Calais to Paris, (Day 2)Paris to Paderborn(night train), (Day 3)Paderborn to Copenhagen(night train), Copenhagen to Alvesta, (Day 4)Alvesta to Falkenberg, $764 total price with the railpass for both of us. 4 days 4 countries during a two week trip. Thanks for your comments~