Reserving Seats For Trains

You can do it here but do it by using the national rail site for the countries you visit or bahn.de, the German rail site which sells practically anything. No extra "fees".

Hmm, I've looked through Bahn.de but can't seem to find anywhere that allows reservations. Also, do they reserve seats for trains not in Germany? Is it possible that certain trains don't have couchettes? I like the idea of a night train to save sightseeing time, but to be stuck in an seat for the entire night isn't very appealing at all!

Up until a few months ago a person could buy a reservation/accommodation supplement on bahn.de for night trains that either started or ended in Germany, but that is no longer possible.

While March isn't high season, there's a chance that popular night trains could sell out. If you don't want to pay RailEurope's high fees (which is the source your travel agent probably would use), you could call the national rail company in each country from which a night train you will be taking will depart and buy your reservations over the phone for the same price as buying them in Europe.

Or if you're going to make lots of reservations, check here: www.euraide.de/ricksteves. Euraide charges a one-time $50 fee, but all the reservations are at in-Europe prices.

Tim, thanks for that link! Have you used their services before? Maybe I'm just paranoid looking at a website that isn't all that professional. In any case, do you know if they provide the service for outside of North America?

Daryl,

My preference would be to arrange the reservations for couchette fees while in Europe. When you arrive in a particular city, arrange your outgoing journey at that time. While there are no guarantees, that should be quite adequate (especially in March).

I try to avoid night trains if possible. Choose your trains carefully! It's a real good idea to choose routes with no changes, otherwise you might not be getting much sleep.

Happy travels!

Daryl,

I haven't used Euraide myself. I got the link from the Railpasses section on this site. (Click on the tab at the top of the page you're reading now.)

Although, for German night trains, you can no longer get reservations online from DB, you can get SpanNight fares which are not much more than the cost of the reservation alone. Usually, the SparNight fare is less than a day of your rail pass plus reservation.

Other national rail lines have similar book ahead savings fares. If you haven't already purchased the rail pass, I suggest you should find all the low fares and reservation cost and compare the cost of the rail pass and reservation with full (savings) fares. Often the rail pass doesn't pay off.

Daryl,

I have used Euraide in the past, and they were very helpful. If you have several reservations you want to make, it is worth the 50 dollar fee. If you need to make only one reservation, it probably isn't worth it.

Hi guys!

Thanks for all the replies. Yes, I have looked at buying individual point to point tickets, and have even called up the train companies. Unfortunately, the cheap seats have all be sold, so I am now better off using a rail pass. I guess thats the price to pay for procrastination!