I'm going to be moving about Europemostly eastern Europeusing a Eurail Global Pass all of April. I don't want to make specific resv for specific trains ahead of time if I can help it; I want to wing it as much as I can. But when I'm already in Europe (I haven't left yet) doing stuff online at hostels, how do I actually GET the reservations and supplements I may need to pay for, in addn to whatever my pass covers? I don't mean how do I order it and pay for it online; I'm assuming I can figure out how to do that; it's the confirmations I'm thinking about; the pieces of paper saying I have the resv or I've paid the suppl) When I've searched websites here in the US, such as bahn.de, I have NOT always found that I could print them out online at home! I am still waiting for a paper copy of a sleeper resv to arrive from DB by USPS! Hopefully before I board my flight to Europe next Tuesday! Because that's the only way DB would send it to me! So if I'm in, say, Ljubljana, and I find a trip starting there that I want to take, and I want a sleeper to Munich and then I want to switch in Munich to a TGV that requires a seat resv plus a supplement, how do I actually DO all that from a computer in a hostel in Slovenia!?
Posted by
Toledo
653 posts
Tom, I haven't done this outside of Italy, but if you have a smartphone, you might be able to show the reservation confirmation to the conductor without printing it out. Or, if you can get to your email account at a hotel or internet point, you can print out the reservation confirmation. As I said, this works in Italy, not sure about the rest of Europe.
Posted by
Stuttgart, Germany
3050 posts
you can always make reservations/pay for supplements at a train station, either at a ticket machine or at a customer service center. they will give you print outs there. for your situation, i would go to the train station at ljubljana and just make the reservations there. you can't always buy all the reservations/supplements for international train trips online, but you should be able to at any train station.
Posted by
OP
Easley, SC, USA
306 posts
Thanks folks. I didn't know it should be possible to do this at train stations other than where a train I needed a supplement or resv for started, such as in Ljubljana for a train that'll start from Munich or Strasbourg, for example.
Posted by
Bainbridge Island
3287 posts
When you arrive at a stay ion, make a reservation for your departure from that station. You might want to reserve your Munich night train and any TGVs farther ahead than that, however.
Posted by
Stuttgart, Germany
3050 posts
I am not 100% positive you can buy ALL reservations for all segments of your trip in Ljubljana - I think this varies from country to country. In Germany I can buy seat reservations in France at the DB Kunden Zentrum at the train station. In Ljubljana you can certainly buy reservations for the train departing from there, I would ask if you can purchase them for other segments. If not, just wait til you get to to the next leg of your trip, and so on. I would try to buy TGV reservations at least a few days in advance though. They sell out their alloted seats for RailPass holders and if that happens you may be stuck paying more.