We are planning a trip to Italy and Swiss Alps and want to travel by train. We are having difficulty understanding the best train passes we need and how to book them in us dollars. We are having trouble accessing the website. We will be traveling to 6 cities within Italy and to Rome twice (beginning and ending). The 1-800 number we are dialing has a 1 hour wait for information. Can you give us some helpful advice?
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17247 posts
Could you list your travel plans so people can help you better? What is your route through Italy, with stopping poaces, and your destination in Switzerland? With numerous short hops in Italy, a pass there may not be your best choice. In Switzerland, on the other hand, if you are planning on riding some of the expensive high mountain trains and lifts, you may want a Swiss pass to reduce the cost.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32327 posts
Eddie, WHICH website are you having trouble accessing??? You might have a look at the "Railpasses" section on this website, as there's a wealth of information there! You could also download the FREE PDF Rail Guide (look on the lower right side of the Railpass home page). When you need to purchase Railpasse(s), you can also do that from this website, in U.S. Dollars. RS is one of the largest vendors of European Railpasses in the U.S. If you have any further questions, post another note here on the HelpLine. Cheers!
Posted by
OP
Germantown, Tennessee, USA
6 posts
Ken, Thanks for the info. The website we were accessing is available now, but will check out the one you suggested. Lola - Here is our planned itenerary: (Fly into Rome) Rome 2 days Sorrento (Amalfi Coast) 2 days Venice 2 days Como (near Milan) 2 days Zurich Switzerland 3 days Florence 2 days (back to Rome) 1 day fly to Amsterdam 1 day
fly home We were told to check out DB Bahn website and get a Eurail Pass. It's cheaper than paying for each individual train transport. Also, a friend of mine said it's not really necessary to reserve train times, just look when they are leaving for where an hour or so before you want to leave. What do you suggest?
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33545 posts
Eddie, You really need to have a look around here at some of the recent posts about train tickets. Point to Point tickets (P2P) are almost always cheaper than passes. It has been shown frequently. In Switzerland, unless you are on a private tourist train, for travel within Switzerland, no reservations are needed. In Italy, if you use a pass and want to use a fast or fastish train you MUST buy reservations before you board or risk a big fine. If you buy P2P there is no separate reservation needed, its part of the actual P2P ticket. If you want the cheapest Italian P2P tickets use the trenitalia website and buy early to get the discounts. It doesn't matter much in Switzerland where the internal tickets don't really get more expensive on the day. Please, please, please, Eddie, don't use RailEurope for price comparison between passes and P2P. You will think that P2P is way worse and want to buy a pass. You can do better than those figures....
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17247 posts
Many of your trips in Italy, such as Rome to Venice, Venice to Milan, and Milan to Florence will be on fast ES trains. Even if you find an IC train covering the route, reservations are required. These require a reservation, which costs 10 euro each for railpass holders. IC trains are a bit less. If you buy tickets in advance, you can often get "mini" fares on these trains. The mini fare includes the cost of reserving a seat. The mini fare from Venice to Milan is 15 euro, or hardly more than the cost to reserve a seat with a reailpass. Milan to Florence mini fare is 42 euros, and Rome to Venice is 61 euros. You will hav some travel on regional trains as well. They don't offer mini fares but are much cheaper. From Milan (or Como) to Zurich, you may be able to get an advance-purchase discounted fare (26 to 30 CHF) as well. In the past this option didn't work well for trips originating outside Switzerland, as the tickets had to be picked up inside Switzerland. But they now seem to offer print-at-home tickets, at least for some routes, so check on rail.ch for those. There is no 2-country pass for Italy and Switzerland, so your only choices are a 3-country pass (way too expensive at $459 for a 6-day or $543 for an 8-day.) or an Italy onoly pass. The only realistic choice is an Italy pass, which I think is around $280 in second class for a pass covering 7 days of travel. Remember that you have to add to that the reservation fees. This is why people are suggesting you consider carefully before buying that railpass. Given the requirement for reservations, you are not even buying convenience, at least in Italy. do as Nigel suggests and read up here on train travel in italy, and be sure to check the ticket prices on Trenitalia, not RailEurope.