I have never travelled in Europe before, and have no experience whatsoever with the rail system. I have been trying to plan my trip and I everything is easy and smooth. EXCEPT THE TRAIN PART!! I am arriving in Brussels on September 28th and flying home on October 14th. The plan is to go from Brussels to Amsterdam, tour Paris, the South of France and Carcassonne and then head to Barcelona before flying back up to the Benelux. I have been planning and re-planning trying to figure out what works best. I finally figured out the way that seems best, correllated it with a site I found that had train schedules, that WAS NOT RailEurope, and then when I went to RailEurope to see about reserving, at least the night trains I want to take. I found that most of the times I was working off of, werent available. Either they were sold out or they werent even listed!! SO many things were sold out that I felt like I had to reserve as many of the "more important" trips as I could get. The reservation fees add up, and before I knew it, I am paying close to what my Eurail pass costs in reservations!! So, I am hoping to get answers to a few questions:
-If I dont reserve a train and just try to get the tickets when I get to Europe, will I be able to get ANYTHING???
-Also, I had read that it is cheap to get to Barcelona. Just use the Rail pass to get to the border and then a point to point ticket from the border to Barcelona is really cheap. When I checked, it was like $125-$175!!! From border towns?? Am I doing something wrong??? Can I get those tickets the day of??
Someone PLEASE HELP ME, I am watching all of my trip plans unravelling before my eyes because of this stupid, confusing rail system! Thanks alot!
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
Stay calm. First of all you are going in a shoulder season when the hoards of tourists are back home. There will be more spaces on the trains than in the high tourist season.
Yes, reservations are easy and cheaper to make from Europe. RailEurope overcharges for reservations and doesn't even list ALL of the trains that are available.
Just be calm, and make the reservations when you get there and be flexible if you can.
Posted by
Bellevue, WA, USA
811 posts
all the places you mentioned have cheap trains. i'd just buy ticket as you go or mix train with buses or even a rental car. the cost of renting a car is about the same as in the US and gas is not too expensive. you need to relax - the train system in Europe is so cool and you'll have no problem getting tickets or help, so why not focus on your planning instead?
Posted by
NC, United States
970 posts
Like they said, stay calm.
Steves recommends this site for plotting out RR travels: http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en.
Also, remember that the stations will have real live people who are paid to help you get where you want to go.
Can you buy tickets on the day? Very probably, unless it's a holiday or something unusual is going on. In any case, there's always going to be a later train.
Speaking of that, don't build your schedule so tightly that you don't have the slack to wait for the next train. You're on vacation, right, not on some kind of competition to score points by seeing the most things in the alloted time.?
Besides, you might work really hard to map out a precise schedule and then change your mind once you're there. It happens.
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
Yet another reason it's usually cheaper, in this day and age of the internet, to do point to point tickets than purchase a rail pass. If you use the national rail sites, they aren't confusing....unless you have a rail pass, since they aren't really equipped to do reservations alone. Just remember to make your first stop in each city the train station ticket office. Purchasing reservations over there is far cheaper than through RailEurope. Brussels-Amsterdam by train...don't take the Thalys (which requires a reservation), since the InterCity expresses are only a few minutes slower. Amsterdam-Paris...you will definitely need a reservation for the Brussels-Paris segment on Thalys, so make it the instant you arrive in Amsterdam....either Thalys all the way through, or Intercity Express to Brussels Midi station, then Thalys to Paris. The instant you arrive in Paris, make the reservations for all your French connections..espy the overnight train!
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Brian,
It would be helpful to know on which specific routes you would like to take night trains.
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
...If the Spanish leg worries you, you could always purchase a ticket from Carcassonne to Barcelona in Paris and just eat the extra cost. Second class are available for 31 Euro..first class on sale on their website for about 35 Euro...travel time, 6 1/2 hours. You can even order it on-line at http://www.sncf.fr/indexe.htm, then pick it up at the ticket office when you arrive in Paris. You could also book from Port Bou (the frontier crossing) to Barcelona from the Spanish rail operator, RENFE....anywhere from 9 Euro to 28 Euro for a 2 1/2 hour journey. http://www.renfe.es. It's a little tricky to register here, so e-mail me if you get stuck.
Posted by
OP
Keego Harbor, Michigan, USA
12 posts
Thank you all of you! You have definitely calmed me. It was just kind of shocking to look up a seemingly simple thing like a train from Orange to Avignon and finding that almost a whole Sunday is SOLD OUT! But, I trust you all that I will be able to have more options when I get there. I have tried to keep the trip open to alot of options, but, when I looked yesterday, I couldnt get any of my many options to work. Thats when I started to get nervous. Thanks for the boost to my confidence!
As for night trains, I got these times from
http://www.eurailnet.com/info-schedules.htm
and then going to the routeplanner.
They said there are night trains From Paris to Nice, which I have a Couchette on one, from Nice to Carcassonne, and from Arles to Barcelona. If that were the case it would ROCK! THANKS FOR ALL THE ADVICE!! Any more would only be helpful!
Posted by
Troy, Oh, USA
2804 posts
When my daughter and I traveled around Europe by train we had no problems making reservations, and this was in June. As soon as you got off the train in on city, I went straight to the ticket booth to see abbout the train we wanted to take next, made reservations if necessary. So with the time of year you are going you will not have problems. Relax, stay calm and have a great time.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Brian,
If you're ready to commit to specific dates and times, you can get discount fares for some of your routes:
Amsterdam-Paris Smilys fare is €69. Must be booked online as a return (roundtrip), but it's cheaper than the single (one-way) fare which is €101. Throw away the return portion.
Paris-Nice night train: €35 for a bunk in a six-person couchette and €60 for a bunk in a four-person couchette.
Nice-Toulouse night train: €35 for a bunk in a six-person couchette. Then buy a regular ticket for Toulouse-Carcassonne.
Check to be sure the Marseille-Port Bou night train is running the night you wish to take it. According to the timetables at www.bahn.de, starting in October it will only run on weekends.
Posted by
Chicago, IL, USA
473 posts
Rail Europe has a limited supply of marked-up tickets. I would use them as a last resort. In addition to the French and Spanish rail web sites that Norm provided, here's a few more:
Belgium http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/index.php,
Netherlands local trains http://www.ns.nl/servlet/Satellite?cid=1075985690180&pagename=www.ns.nl%2FPage%2FSuperHomepageEnglish
Netherlands international trains: http://www.nsinternationaal.nl/
More than a few people have mentioned that night trains can fill up fast. Those would probably be worth reserving as far ahead of time as possible.