My wife and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary with a cruise out of Rome in Oct. We will be coming in to Amsterdam first for a couple of days, then a train to Paris for a couple of days, then a train to Reims to visit champagne houses for a day, then a train to Cognac to visit cognac distillers for a day then a train to Rome a couplke of days before the cruise. I was looking at rail passes between three countries for 5-6 days. Is this the best way to go, and do the trains connect all these cities with little or no problem? Thanks for your help. Jeff
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19242 posts
You'll probably want to travel from Amsterdam to Paris on Thalys. Rail passes do not cover Thalys tickets completely. There is still a passholder supplement to be paid, and it is substantial. People often get advance purchase fares on the Thalys website for not much more than the cost of the supplement.
Reims is not that far from Paris. I think a point-point ticket might be more cost effective.
Looks like the only trips that might justify a rail pass would be Paris-Cognac-Rome, and you might find good deals for that on the SNCF website. Much has been written here about purchasing tickets from French Rail. In short, you must say you are from somewhere other than the U.S., or they will automatically route you to the much more expensive RailEurope, which they own.
In the end, you have to do your homework. The railpass cost is pretty straight forward, but there are often extra fees for using a pass. There are a lot of discount prices for point-point tickets if you take the effort to look.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23585 posts
Years ago train passes were a no-brainer. Now you have to do your homework by comparing point to point tickets against the pass. Don't use RailEurope for price comparison since their prices included substantial markups. Use the local train sites.