In May, my husband and I are staying in Paris a few nights, then Gimmelwald (via Interlaken) a few nights, and then on to Rome for a few nights. I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the train information on the websites and would like advice on how to book train passes. We are planning on purchasing the Eurail pass for 3 countries, but reserving the actual train tickets from place to place is confusing with so many country websites. Can we call a "call center" or is it best to book online? I understand there will be several connections from Interlaken to Rome and I'm unsure how to book online and still use the pass rate. Any tips on how to go about booking these International train trips is appreciated.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
If you won't be traveling anywhere in Italy by train after you arrive in Rome, three-country railpasses will be more expensive than buying point-to-point tickets NOW and getting discount fares. For example, the standard 2nd class fare for Paris-Interlaken Ost is €160.40. The best discount fare is €77.40. Book at voyages-sncf.com (in French) or at tgv-europe-com (in English). To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site, first choose Great Britain as your country of residence and as your ticket retrieval country. Then choose to stick with tgv-europe.com rather than being transferred to the UK Rail Europe site. Be sure to uncheck the "Direct routes only" box on the home page. You will be able to either print your own tickets or pick them up at any SNCF station in France even though you chose Great Britain. Use the German Rail site to get detailed timetables for Gimmelwald to Rome. Then make separate bookings for the following legs: You can make one booking for Lauterbrunnen-Interlaken-Spiez-Brig-Milan on the Swiss Rail site and get a discount fare of 40.00 CHF. (The standard fare is 89.00 CHF.) Book Milan-Rome on the Trenitalia site to get a Mini fare as low as €9.00. The standard 2nd class fare is €91.00.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32325 posts
Rachel, If you're only going to be making those three trips by rail, Tim's suggestion concerning the Railpass is a good one to consider. You'll need to do some "number crunching" to determine whether a Railpass plus reservations OR P-P tickets will be more cost effective. The trip from Paris to Interlaken is fairly straightforward. For example, there's a train departing Paris Lyon at 08:23, arriving Interlaken Ost at 13:28 (time 5H:05M, one change in Basel, reservations compulsory). From Interlaken, you'll transfer to the local Berner Oberland train for the trip to Lauterbrunnen, etc. For the trip to Rome, I'd use a train departing Interlaken Ost at 07:29, arriving Roma Termini at 13:59 (time 6H:30M, 2 changes at Spiez and Milano Centrale, reservations compulsory). These schedules are of course subject to change. Check bahn.de to verify these on the date you'll be travelling (they likely won't change much). If you decide to go with P-P tickets, you could visit an SNCF Boutique as soon as you arrive in Paris, and purchase your outgoing tickets there (there are lots of Boutiques throughout Paris - check their website). You could also purchase online as Tim suggested and pick up when you arrive. One other point to consider is that having a Railpass that includes Switzerland may offer some discounts on the mountain lifts, so you'll have to factor that into the "number crunching". You may find it helpful to download the PDF Rail Guide from this website (click the "Railpasses" tab at the top and then look in the lower right corner for the link). You could also make a call to the Rail Dept. at ETBD, and the experts there will help you get this sorted. Happy travels!