Train tickets - Prepurchase or Buy Online?

At best, they are misleading you. At worst, they are outright lying to you. Check the national rail website for the country(ies) you'll be travelling in, get the price for first and second class regular fare, convert them to dollars, then check against Rail Europe's price. Rail Europe only offers tickets on a small portion of the train runs in Europe, and also does not offer any of the advance purchase deals available on the web or (in some cases) when you walk up to the ticket window. If you give us your itinerary, we can help find some prices.

Rarely do I find the prices on Rail Europe to be less than the full fare tickets at the train station. It has happened, but it is rare. Usually they are more expensive. And that is vs. full fare tickets.

If you are willing to buy your tickets online in advance, there are usually a lot of promotional deals from the national rail companies that are a lot better than anything offered by Rail Europe. And there are some regional passes that are nothing short of phenomenal.

In what countries are you traveling?

Just for comparison, I looked up RailEurope's fares from Frankfurt to Munich and compared them to what is offered on the German Rail website.

RailEurope offers a selection of ICE connections in about 3 hours, all for $151.

The Bahn offers tickets for the same trains (this is the price at the ticket counter in Europe) for $127 (€85). However, there are also IC trains that make the trip in 4 hours for $99 (€67). Rail Europe does not offer these fares. In addition, if you are willing to book in advance, German Rail offers Dauer-Spezial fares, on the same 3 hr ICE connections, as low as $43 (€29).

So, $151, purchased in advance from RailEurope vs. $43 purchased in advance from German Rail vs $127 - $99 at the station in Europe.

My itinerary is as follows:

September 4 - Paris to Monaco
September 7 - Monaco to Cirque Terre (Monterosso or Vernazza)
September 8 - Cirque Terre to Florence
September 11 - Florence to Rome

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Your first two legs can be viewed/booked at voyages-sncf.com. To force the website into english, click on the "train" tab, then look in the internet address window for the part that says "LANG=FR". Change the FR to UK and hit enter. Keep France as your ticket pickup spot. You may find a special that allows you to print out the tickets yourself, or you can pick them up at the train station with your confirmation e-mail and the credit card used to purchase them. The cheaper the ticket, the more the restrictions on changes or refunds. For the last two legs, check www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html for schedules and prices. You'll have to pick up these tickets in Vernazza or Monterosso because the Trenitalia website does not accept American credit cards. You won't have any problems getting the standard fare, and if you book both as soon as you arrive in Italy, you may still get the Amica fare at 20% off. You're not going to have a lot of time in Vernazza/Monterosso though...the train takes 5 to 6 1/2 hours to either of those destinations from Monaco.

?Michael:
No, it is not true. Buying from an agent such as RailEurope will always cost more because he must charge a handling charge (or he doesnt make a profit).

When I was traveling by train in Switzerland several years ago I sat beside a resident of Zurich. He
asked what I paid for my railpass in the US. When I told him, he said I could have bought it cheaper
in Switzerland.

I have operated on that advice ever since and buy only point2point tickets at the window where I can
get a computer print of my itinerary showing train numbers, stations where I change trains, route
names and departure times. That has always been a great help for me.

The more I read about this subject the more confused I get.
I am looking at a P2P one way Madrid/Barcellona and half the answers I get (from blogs, this site, friends etc) point to buying online from RENFE (Spanish RR site 105-124 Euros Tourist class)the other half say "absolutely not.. buy at train station...much cheaper".
HELP ?

I'm not sure who would tell you tickets are cheaper at the station, because they are not. Buying on the RENFE site allows you to take advantage of early-booking specials that may be sold out when you arrive. You do save a bit over the walkup price on regular tickets by booking on the web (about 50 cents Euro), but the big bonus is in booking those advance fares....just make sure you're aware of the conditions for changes, refunds, and the like. Train systems in Europe are becoming more and more like discount airlines...the earlier you buy, the better deal they'll give you. If you walked up to the airline counter to take a flight today, I doubt you'd find prices cheaper than if you booked a few weeks or months in advance!

Please help! How do i really get train tickets online? the websites are really confusing. i'm from asia but i'll going to amsterdam on sept 16 going to paris? should i book online? where? whats the cheapest rate i can get, but safe?

Maria....the best website for your Amsterdam-Paris rail journey is probably thalys.com, the website for the train service that does that run. Select "France" and "English," since the Nederland's site, even though it has an English option, will eventually switch into Dutch for ordering. Several types of tickets can be printed at home (see the list on the website) but otherwise must be mailed to France or picked up in France. Unfortunately, you can't sign up for their "ticketless" service. Be aware of the cancellation and refund policies...generally, the cheaper the ticket, the stricter conditions, some are non-refundable or changeable. If your schedule permits, you may want to leave Amsterdam early in the morning and take an inter-city train to Brussels (just as fast, and cheaper...buy a ticket in Amsterdam) then spend a few hours touring Grand Place before heading to Paris. In that case, use the Thalys website to book only Brusels-Paris. Note that the Thalys trains only use Brussels Zuid-Midi station....not far from Grand Place, but not as close as Brussels-Centraal. You can easily reach Grand Place from Zuid-Midi by tram or metro.